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First time trackable user.....help!


AngelFacedGal

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Dear experiences cachers.

 

I would like some help with my first trackables. I have just got myself a nice gingerbread man geocoin and a spider travel bug.

I intend to start them on their journey very soon and as it happens I am going on a short break to the other side of the Uk and thought I would drop them off there. My questions are:

 

When I activate them how quickly do I need to put them into their first cache?

 

If I activate them and take them straight to their first cache whilst on my trip to Kent, will I loose the mileage I could make travelling from home to kent?

 

If the mileage from home to Kent would be lost, is it acceptable to take them to a local cache and log a find, only to take them immediately home and then on to Kent?

 

Not sure what the etiquette is for these things and I would like to get things right if I can!

 

Many thanks :unsure:

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Hi there,

It depends on the goal for that particular travel bug. Some of them don't have mileage goals at all. I consider it good ettiquette to place the bug in the most appropriate cache for its goal as soon as possible. Sometimes that takes a couple of weeks depending on what, where, etc. Review the pages for each bug carefully so you can give it the best journey possible for its goal.

 

-Rozie

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Dear experiences cachers.

 

I would like some help with my first trackables. I have just got myself a nice gingerbread man geocoin and a spider travel bug. I intend to start them on their journey very soon and as it happens I am going on a short break to the other side of the Uk and thought I would drop them off there. My questions are:

 

When I activate them how quickly do I need to put them into their first cache? There's no time limit. Once activated and in your trackable inventory then they belong to you. What you do with them and when you do it is up to you.

 

If I activate them and take them straight to their first cache whilst on my trip to Kent, will I loose the mileage I could make travelling from home to kent? Yes.

 

If the mileage from home to Kent would be lost, is it acceptable to take them to a local cache and log a find, only to take them immediately home and then on to Kent? Yes, this is what many owners do. You can 'dip' your trackables (i.e. log them in and out) of a cache local to you. If this is a cache you have already logged a Find on then it's usually to 'dip' the trackables using a Note log. That way you keep your record of "finds" accurate.

 

Not sure what the etiquette is for these things and I would like to get things right if I can!

 

Many thanks :unsure:

 

I hope my purple points help. :D

 

MrsB

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Your "purple points" are great :-) . exactly what I was after!

 

So it is acceptable not use a previous local find to give my trackables a starting point local to me?

 

Thanks

 

I think most cachers would use a cache that they had actually found as a starting point, not one they had yet to find.

 

So you can either go and hunt a new (to you) local cache and log your trackable in and out of it using your "Found it" log

 

OR

 

"virtually" dip your trackables in and out of a local cache you've found previously by using a "Write note" log.*

 

MrsB

 

*If you choose this option, note that you don't need to go to the cache again! You just do the dipping on-line, using the trackable numbers on your items.

Edited by The Blorenges
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I have a cache (of my own) that is .4 mile from my house which I use to start all my trackables. So far I have actually put them in the cache for someone else to get them moving, but the next group I have will be just "virtually" dipped before I take them along on a trip.

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"virtually" dip your trackables in and out of a local cache you've found previously by using a "Write note" log.*

 

MrsB

 

*If you choose this option, note that you don't need to go to the cache again! You just do the dipping on-line, using the trackable numbers on your items.

 

Virtually logging bugs through caches they have never been to is against guidelines and against the spirit of the game. Don't give a bug credit for being someplace it never visited.

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"virtually" dip your trackables in and out of a local cache you've found previously by using a "Write note" log.*

 

MrsB

 

*If you choose this option, note that you don't need to go to the cache again! You just do the dipping on-line, using the trackable numbers on your items.

 

Virtually logging bugs through caches they have never been to is against guidelines and against the spirit of the game. Don't give a bug credit for being someplace it never visited.

 

:)

 

Well... OK... But what if you're a new geocacher and you don't have your own local "home cache" where you can start off your TBs? Are you saying that each time you want to start off a TB from "near your home location" you should walk out to wherever your nearest cache is (even when you already found it some time before), drop your TB into it, take it out again, then go home and do your dipping logs... then take it across the country to wherever... as the OP is hoping to do?

 

I've never considered that dipping a TB into "nearest cache to home" to get a starting point would be "against the spirit of the game".

 

Did you say somewhere that you were a card-carrying Puritan, Blue Deuce? :)

 

MrsB :D

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Well... OK... But what if you're a new geocacher and you don't have your own local "home cache" where you can start off your TBs? Are you saying that each time you want to start off a TB from "near your home location" you should walk out to wherever your nearest cache is (even when you already found it some time before), drop your TB into it, take it out again, then go home and do your dipping logs... then take it across the country to wherever... as the OP is hoping to do?

 

I've never considered that dipping a TB into "nearest cache to home" to get a starting point would be "against the spirit of the game".

 

Did you say somewhere that you were a card-carrying Puritan, Blue Deuce? :)

 

MrsB :)

 

Purist. Puritans are inflexible hard@#$s.

 

Logging a bug through a cache it has never visited is not something I am going to suggest to any cacher.

 

I have always encouraged people to go out and log a bug through a nearby cache before taking it to a more distant location. You should know I support that practice.

 

Are you saying that each time you want to start off a TB from "near your home location" you should walk out to wherever your nearest cache is (even when you already found it some time before), drop your TB into it, take it out again, then go home and do your dipping logs... then take it across the country to wherever...

 

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying and that is exactly what I do. The idea is cache to cache. And as I am someone who gives advice and instructions to new cachers I want them to understand exactly the point of travel bugs and it is not bouncing them around caches willy-nilly. I am not telling new cachers that virtual logging is against guidelines and then say 'not really'.

 

I see plenty of people logging new bugs through caches that is suspect that they ever visited the location. I understand that many people don't want the hassle of a true visit. That's their business and I'm not going to worry about it, but it will not get my stamp of approval.

 

You want to log your bug locally? Go caching.

 

That seems like fair advice to me.

 

Edited for clarification.

removed the word - now

Edited by BlueDeuce
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There you go, AngelFacedGal... Above you have a perfect example of a difference of opinion on how you could/should mark the home location 'start' for your new trackables. This is what makes geocaching, and these forums, so interesting.

 

Whatever you finally decide to do with them, whatever mission you give them (if any), let's hope they have a long and interesting journey.

 

MrsB :)

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seems to me that you wouldn't want to kill the "karma" of your new bug by being shady in your start up procedures.

 

Not to mention, the point of all of this is to be outside, looking for new caches. You gotta order the coins and bugs correct? So you sit patiently waiting for them to arrive, and once they arrive, start them off with a BANG! take em out in the field and actually let them marinate in a cache for a minute or two while you sign the log! Tell the log why you are there. maybe the cache owner wants to know about what has been dipped into his box. plus you get to activate your coin/bug with a smiley!

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