Just how far should a trackable travel from one cache to another?

[+hudsonfam]

If you're going to pick up a TB from a cache in order to "move it along" how far should you actually move it? Do you only pick up a TB if you're going to be making a trip or at least going into a neighboring town? What's the minimum amount of traveling a trackable should go if it's going to be moved from its present location?

[+BlueDeuce]

.10 of a mile - or the distance to the next closest cache.

 

Unless the mission specifically states to move it a minimum distance you can likely meet or assist a bug towards its goal 99.9% of the time simply by picking it up and moving it to another cache.

 

Yes it's true that not all bugs have directional goal requirements but it's difficult to take the bug on an adventure, post photos, and tell great stories if you leave the bug sitting in a cache and only Discovering it.

 

There are very few bugs that couldn't benefit by being moved to another cache to be found by another person. Some movement is always better than none. I would rather see my bug picked up 9 times and only moved a mile than only picked up once.

Edited August 24, 2009 by BlueDeuce

[+Eartha]

How far? How far are you going? Where are you headed?

The Travel Bug probably wants to go with you, and add some stories along the way. It's more enjoyable for the people who read the bug page, and the cache owner, and the bug owner, if there are stories and photos of what happened on the move, than for them all to read "TB dropped" or "grabbed it". And any distance is a good distance, as long as the bug is moving towards its goal (if there is one). And that is not always in a straight line, sometimes a TB has to detour in order to head it the right way.

Think of each Travel Bug as someone's way of traveling vicariously through others, and how you would want your own travel bug treated, and that's usually the best way to handle one. If a goal sheet is attached, and you can't help it go far, you can still take it, just try not to head it the wrong way. If you can't help it at all, don't take it. If there is no goal sheet attached, chances are it just wants to move around cache to cache, but don't assume that is always the case, read the page before dropping it somewhere else. If you pick one up, and drop it the same day, take the tracking number down, in case of error. (Don't post that number in your logs, or in photos.)

There is a link in my signature to the Groundspeak Knowledge Base, there's lots of information there.

[+hudsonfam]

How far? How far are you going? Where are you headed?

The Travel Bug probably wants to go with you, and add some stories along the way. It's more enjoyable for the people who read the bug page, and the cache owner, and the bug owner, if there are stories and photos of what happened on the move, than for them all to read "TB dropped" or "grabbed it". And any distance is a good distance, as long as the bug is moving towards its goal (if there is one). And that is not always in a straight line, sometimes a TB has to detour in order to head it the right way.

Think of each Travel Bug as someone's way of traveling vicariously through others, and how you would want your own travel bug treated, and that's usually the best way to handle one. If a goal sheet is attached, and you can't help it go far, you can still take it, just try not to head it the wrong way. If you can't help it at all, don't take it. If there is no goal sheet attached, chances are it just wants to move around cache to cache, but don't assume that is always the case, read the page before dropping it somewhere else. If you pick one up, and drop it the same day, take the tracking number down, in case of error. (Don't post that number in your logs, or in photos.)

There is a link in my signature to the Groundspeak Knowledge Base, there's lots of information there.

 

Well, we have 4 trackables going to Phoenix with us next week and I think that's very exciting! But what I'm not sure about is how to handle them when we don't have a trip planned. If all I can do is take it 2 miles down the road, is it worth it? How many times can a TB be bounced around a bunch of local caches without making any significant mileage? And does that matter? I guess if it were MY travel bug, I would be disappointed if it spent 2 years just being bounced from one local cache to another. But it's also disappointing if it just sits in the same cache for those 2 years, so I'm trying to decide which is the lesser evil I guess.

[+WRASTRO]

As BD and Eartha said just move the trackables. The distance really doesn't matter and I think it would be unusual for a trackable owner to complain about a move that wasn't far enough. If a trackable is moving it will eventually leave an area.

[+EscapeFromFlatland]

The first TB I placed out went 5000+ miles its first move, from Portland, OR to the Northern Marianas Islands. A few moves later it went from Guam to Florida.

Gotta love geocachers on vacation!