TB Separated From Its Hitchhiker

[+countrymouse]

This past weekend we went camping at a state park about 1.5 hours from our house. I had brought along printouts for the 5 caches located within the park, but in the hectic chaos of preparing for the three-day trip, I didn't look real close at them. I knew that there was supposed to be a TB in one of the caches, but didn't check to see its details.

 

So...Sunday we went caching with our two kids and three more we were camping with; the other three had never been caching before (and I really hope they bug their parents to do it again). There were two caches along this one trail. We found the first, and the TB was in there. It wasn't supposed to be in that cache, it was supposed to be in the other cache farther back on the trail. I took it, noting that it was odd that a TB was all alone, nothing attached to it, but figured maybe that's all it was and went on.

 

Found the second cache about 3/4 mile down the trail. The kids went through all the goodies inside, we made some trades. We noticed this one weird looking, rather bizarre toy in there (I found out it was a Kinderegg prize, those are always a little strange) -- if you're interested, look HERE. But we left it, not knowing it was supposed to be with the TB. I originally thought one of the kids took it, but my son says the other boy left it behind after all. I'm going to call tomorrow to make sure, though.

 

Now...I know this is kind of my fault for not looking up the TB in advance...but during a big camping weekend I honestly doubted the TB would still be in there, anyway and was really surprised to find it. And like I said, the TB was already separated from its hitchhiker when we picked it up, in a different cache. And neither the cache nor the TB have been logged as found since then. Except by me.

 

What to do next? Assuming the hitchhiker is still in the cache, I could conceivably drive back over to the park (as I said, 1.5 hours away), hike over to the cache box (about an hour's walk down the trail) and grab the hitchhiker in order to reunite them. That's obviously the right thing to do...but geez, it's so far away! I don't think anybody else in my party is going to feel nearly as conscientious about it as I am, probably won't go with me, and I'm not thrilled about hiking alone.

 

OTOH, I could use the opportunity to find the other 3 caches in the park I didn't have time for this past weekend.

 

OR I could e-mail the TB owner and, after apologizing profusely, ask if he minds letting me substitute the original hitchhiker with a reasonable replacement.

 

If I do go back it'd better be ASAP...what if I get there and someone's taken the hitchhiker? Yikes! But I have such an incredibly busy week, I don't know how soon I will honestly be able to make the trip.

 

What would you do?

[Luckless]

You could try emailing the cache owner. If he lives closer maybe he'd pick it up and hold it for you.

[+countrymouse]

You could try emailing the cache owner. If he lives closer maybe he'd pick it up and hold it for you.

 

That's a really good idea, and I just tried it, but unfortunately there's some glitch that isn't allowing my message to go through. Oh well, I'll try again later or tomorrow.

[+Rainbow's Connections]

You could read this log: http://www.geocaching.com/track/log.aspx?L...02-6be4ca156535 and have a bit of a laugh (at our expense) while you wait for your message to go through. (I can't send messages either.)

 

Don't worry, your situation is not unique (and not as bad as you think it is).

 

[+gorillagal]

I would probably e-mail both the cache owner and the TB owner. Unless the item has significant sentimental value to them, they probably wouldn't mind something else attached. One of my TBs lost its tag a few months ago. I had attached a goal tag to the item and the next finder was able to contact me and get the TB number which they wrote on the goal tag for me. It's still traveling without its metal tag. Today I got an e-mail from a cacher who found the metal tag in his backpack when cleaning it out. He's going to mail it to me. Maybe someday I'll be able to reunite the two. []

[Dj Storm]

Something similar happened to me. In GCNPGT I found a TB tag, and none of the items in the cache seemed to be the TB hitchhiker. Only one logged visit between the TB drop and my log. So I contacted the TB owner, and he told me the TB is just the tag, without a hitchhiker. I'd go with "ask the owner", but its possible that the tag travels alone.

[+countrymouse]

Something similar happened to me. In GCNPGT I found a TB tag, and none of the items in the cache seemed to be the TB hitchhiker. Only one logged visit between the TB drop and my log. So I contacted the TB owner, and he told me the TB is just the tag, without a hitchhiker. I'd go with "ask the owner", but its possible that the tag travels alone.

 

Well I know now that the tag isn't supposed to travel alone, the hitchhiker was in the cache where it was listed, and the bug had been moved - possibly that day - to one further down the trail minus the hitchhiker. And that person didn't log it, either, either the cache or TB. I can see not logging it right away if they'd been camping as I was, but I'd think by now they could have done so. Oh well.

 

I did finally get a message through to the cache owner, so we'll see what happens now.