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geocaching treasures!


sunshin3

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What do you guys like to leave as your treasure? I took my boyfriend last night because he'd never been, and the one time I went we didn't find anything. We want to do it more often since it's getting warmer, and we were wondering what kinds of fun treasures are interesting to leave behind!

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Sorry there wasn't any swag for him to see in the cache! It often happens that a cache starts out with a good assortment of "treasure" but cachers who find the cache don't always leave something in place of what they take. Responsible cachers just sign the log book and take nothing if they have nothing to leave; that's what the log "SL,TN,LN" means.

 

I think the most fun things to find in caches are travel items, such as TB's and geocoins. These usually have a goal of some sort (which you can see when you log into the page online for the TB). When you find a TB, it's important to log it correctly and move it along as soon as you can. Unfortunately, many TB's and geocoins are taken from caches and never heard from again.

 

Most of us have learned to leave inexpensive treasure in caches, such as little trinkets from a dollar store or a craft store. I like to find small animal figurines, so sometimes I buy the little rubber animals at a Michael's store and leave them in caches where children may enjoy finding them. Our team leaves small rubber duckies as our signature item. I order little geocaching pins, and magnetic bookmarks, from online stores to leave in small caches where our duckies won't fit!

 

Many cachers make their own "swag" to leave behind; I'm sure you can find some examples of this in the Forums here. If you have access to foreign coins, those make a good treasure to leave in caches and will fit in most of them.

 

You may increase your sightings of "treasure" by looking for larger caches, such as ammo cans, which are more likely to contain an assortment of swag. You can also see on the cache description page whether there are any TB's or geocoins in a cache, although they may not still be in the cache if they were not logged out correctly.

 

Good luck! Have fun!

Edited by The VanDucks
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Whoops! I wrote that really badly. I meant to say I went my first time a year ago and didn't find anything, and I took my boyfriend for his first time last night and he found all 3 that we went to! So I still haven't found anything myself haha!

 

Thanks for the log code names, I'm still trying to figure some things out on here :) We left old keys on my key ring that I don't use anymore since we forgot to bring something! We didn't take anything out though. I guess I am not sure what a TB is either. I think from reading other posts it's a Treasure Bug, but I'm not sure what it is or how it is used.

 

That's a good idea for signature items, I am a student at Boise State and our campus doesn't have a geocaching club so it would be fun to find a signature item for us if someone were to start a club! The animal figurines are cute too!

 

Thanks for the advice and input! It's a good reason to explore outside, and it's even more fun for me because I'm an earth science education & geography major! Plus this semester I'm in a geology class, so Idaho is pretty fun to explore!

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I guess I am not sure what a TB is either. I think from reading other posts it's a Treasure Bug, but I'm not sure what it is or how it is used.

 

 

A TB is a Travel Bug. You can buy them from Groundspeak. You get a "dogtag" with a number on it that is used by the software to keep track of the location and calculate the miles that it has travelled as cachers retrieve it from one cache and drop it in another.

 

You can read about it here: http://www.geocaching.com/track/travelbugs.aspx

Edited by kh54s10
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What do you guys like to leave as your treasure? I took my boyfriend last night because he'd never been, and the one time I went we didn't find anything. We want to do it more often since it's getting warmer, and we were wondering what kinds of fun treasures are interesting to leave behind!

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I like finding things around the house that are cool---an extra compass, a deck of "round" playing cards, figurines, matchbox cars. But I also really like signature items. If you haven't come up with your own ideas, there are sites like pathtags, where you can have a very nice one made. Message buttons are fun to trade and inexpensive to personalize. In one cache I found a p-38, (a miniature can-opener made for the military and popular with backpackers). I looked online and found those in bulk 100 for 20 bucks. I thought that was a great cache item at only 20 cents each. Little toys are popular, I've seen beaded bracelets, string bracelets, pewter charms, stickers, sticky pads, personalized poker chips, wooden nickles, good luck charms, crystals, erasers. One couple made a signature item by stringing a glass mushroom bead around the neck of a small rubber mouse. I saw a number of those in caches. Finding swag items to put in the caches I place has become part of the fun even though I'm not a big trader. :anitongue: I've also seen lots of little flashlights, dice, and sets of double A batteries, a very useful swag item. have fun!

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I don't trade except for trackables. However, when I place a cache I usually pack it full of good swag. Stuff like: emergency raincoats, matchstick containers, carabiners, tire pressure guage, deck of cards, cds, dvds, pc games, mini maglite, compass, emergency whistle, new (in package) hot wheels, quickfix bike tire patches, and on and on.

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When decided what to put into a cache, just remember this bit of the Guidelines:

 

"Cache Contents

 

Use your common sense in most cases. Explosives, fireworks, ammo, lighters, knives (including pocket knives and multi-tools), drugs, alcohol or other illicit material shouldn't be placed in a cache. As always respect the local laws. Geocaching is a family activity and cache contents should be suitable for all ages.

 

Food items are always a bad idea. Animals have better noses than humans, and in some cases caches have been chewed through and destroyed because food items (or items that smell like food) are in the cache. Even the presence of mint flavored dental floss has led to destruction of one cache."

 

Apparently small, scented candles will also attract animals so they are best avoided too.

 

MrsB :D

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