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How long can I hold on to a travel bug?


geojinx1

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My son is reading the book, Hide and Seek, so we decided to try some geocaching. On our very first adventure, we found a travel bug. Luckily, the cache owner was walking her dog and explained what it was. We are traveling to Banff, Canada in late June (We live in Miami, Fl). We did not take the travel bug even though we were excited to find it because our trip is 6 weeks away. Can we go back and take it? Should we wait until late June before we go back in case somebody takes it who is travelling sooner? What is the protocol?

And finally, what if after we take the travel bug and log it, we find out the owner wants it to go to Europe, for example, not to the Canadian Rockies. Do you put it back since we are going west?

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The decision should be up to the Owner. Most of the time, owners just like to see the TBs travel, placed into a cache then retrieved by another cacher. Sometimes the owner may have a particular mission in mind. You should write to the owner and ask. If you get no specifics from the owner, you may retrieve the TB just before your trip and place it in a safe cache if you find one on the trip. But you could "Discover" it now, and then read its mission.

 

If you take a TB from a cache, you should be planning ahead for where you will place it, and do so, promptly. Log your intentions, and if your plans change, keep the owner informed. Some of my TBs were taken "to go on a trip" somewhere, and we all waited a long time, but the takers and the TBs fell out of this dimension and were never heard from again. That stinks. :huh:

Edited by kunarion
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Similar to kunarion , we've seen cachers with good intentions take a trackable (to be held a while before dropping), and in the interim, they either quit the hobby entirely, or ended up forgetting it when leaving.

 

If it (or another's) still there when you leave, and you ask the Owner what they'd like done with it, or it jives with the mission on the trackable's page, go for it. :)

 

Answers to basic Trackable questions might be found HERE, in the Help Center..

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Go to the cache page. On the right side will be a listing of the TBs reported as being in that cache. Click on the one you're interested in and read its goal.

 

It looks like the 3 TBs in the two caches you found 2 days ago all have goals that preclude them going to Banff (two want to travel the US; one wants to stay in warm climates). :)

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Go to the cache page. On the right side will be a listing of the TBs reported as being in that cache. Click on the one you're interested in and read its goal.

 

It looks like the 3 TBs in the two caches you found 2 days ago all have goals that preclude them going to Banff (two want to travel the US; one wants to stay in warm climates). :)

 

I picked up a TB many years ago that had "want to travel the US" as it's mission. I contacted the CO and told her that I'd be traveling to Italy in about an month and she was all for having me hold it for a month if it could go to Europe. It was a TB of a Lion that now has a photo of the colosseum in it's gallery. I've taken another one that wanted to make it to some waterfall in Asia. I wasn't able to do that but I took it to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Contact the CO. Some of them underestimate how far a TB can travel

 

 

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Go to the cache page. On the right side will be a listing of the TBs reported as being in that cache. Click on the one you're interested in and read its goal.

 

It looks like the 3 TBs in the two caches you found 2 days ago all have goals that preclude them going to Banff (two want to travel the US; one wants to stay in warm climates). :)

 

Thank you. This was very helpful. Oddly enough, the TB in the geocache is neither of these listed on the page. But now I know what to do!

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Go to the cache page. On the right side will be a listing of the TBs reported as being in that cache. Click on the one you're interested in and read its goal.

 

It looks like the 3 TBs in the two caches you found 2 days ago all have goals that preclude them going to Banff (two want to travel the US; one wants to stay in warm climates). :)

 

Thank you. This was very helpful. Oddly enough, the TB in the geocache is neither of these listed on the page. But now I know what to do!

Sometimes you'll find the inventory on a cache isn't accurate -- a TB might be listed there that's actually missing, or a TB you find in the cache isn't listed.

 

For the first scenario, I usually leave a note on the TB page that I didn't see the TB and it might be missing. I do the same in my found it log for the cache.

 

For the second scenario, I use the tracking number of the TB to "grab it from somewhere else" and then visit the TB to the cache so it has the correct mileage.

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From my experience it often becomes "quickly vs safely". The owner of a TB usually claims it to be put into some other geocache as soon as possible. However, in this part of the world it's often unsafe - a TB placed in a box in central Moscow may be just stolen. I know that such situation is common for some other cities. So, I usually prefer to keep a TB with me until I meet a geocacher who's happy to grab it and let it go further. This is one of the main reasons why I usually attend events in my own city and do meet-and-greet events when I'm outside of the country (not always, indeed).

 

If anyone suggests me a TB I always say that I obviously can increase its mileage by taking it to Russia but it could take time to release it after that. If the holder agrees, I take the TB. There have never been situations when a TB owner wrote to me that I was keeping his trackable for too long and must release it ASAP.

 

However, I respect trackable owners. This year (in the beginning of January) I had a meet-and-greet event in Vilnius (Lithuania). One local cacher passed me a nice geocoin which had its mission - to travel eastwards so it goes round the Earth and gets back to Lithuania. I honestly warned that this is not an easy job: Russia is very large and there are very few caches (and cachers) in its Eastern parts. The owner said he was fine with that. So I kept the coin hoping that once I would have a chance to meet someone from S.Korea or Japan and pass it to this cacher. However, I met no people from that part of the world within two months. Then I suddenly was suggested to travel to one of the most Eastern cities of Russia, Vladivostok (businness, not geocaching). I hoped that a meet-and-greet event there would make it easier to move the coin. However, no one attended. Most caches in Vladivostok were either too small to hold any trackables or muggled. There was only one box in the outskirts of the city, so I asked the owner if he was happy with me leaving the coin there. With that permission I took a cab and found the cache and put the coin into that box. (It's still there, as far as I know). The coin was in my hands for a bit more than 2 months.

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If you do hold on to the TB, and as you find other caches, your TB can "visit" each cache you find. That's something I learned while holding on to TBs. :)

Don't just blindly visit it to every cache you find, though. Not all trackable owners like that. It would be better if it only visited caches relevant to its mission.

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If you do hold on to the TB, and as you find other caches, your TB can "visit" each cache you find. That's something I learned while holding on to TBs. :)

Don't just blindly visit it to every cache you find, though. Not all trackable owners like that. It would be better if it only visited caches relevant to its mission.

^^^^^What A-Team said.

 

There are some TB Owners that don't appreciate pages and pages of Visit logs on their trackables. Other cachers looking at a TB's history also have to scroll through those pages to find retrieve/grab/drop logs of that TB. It's not as bad to visit a few caches here and there, especially if those caches bear some relation to the TB and/or its goal - but visiting multiple caches a day becomes annoying to many.

 

For example:

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It's always nice when somebody "discovers" a bug because you at least know it's still there. My daughter wanted to set some loose, so we did, with kind of odd results so far - just as an example I had one end up in a cache that apparently has poison oak spring up around it every year and it was out of commission for a long time before somebody was kind/brave/stupid enough to get it moving - I'm not sure why he then took it on a tour of local caches for the next month but poison oak guy gets a pass on that one. :) Nobody else has been to that cache since then anyway so it would still be sitting there until winter.

 

On the other side of that equation we grabbed this HUGE stuffed animal bug that we ended up with for months. We had our first super wet winter after years of drought and a lot of local caches were NOT waterproof. So rather than shove it into a wet cache we just kept it in my glove compartment for ages. I did leave a note of apology in the log, and when I saw somebody replaced a big cache with a new container I drove right out and got rid of the thing. What a relief!

Edited by eljay
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On 5/12/2017 at 0:57 AM, noncentric said:

^^^^^What A-Team said.

 

There are some TB Owners that don't appreciate pages and pages of Visit logs on their trackables. Other cachers looking at a TB's history also have to scroll through those pages to find retrieve/grab/drop logs of that TB. It's not as bad to visit a few caches here and there, especially if those caches bear some relation to the TB and/or its goal - but visiting multiple caches a day becomes annoying to many.

 

Scrolling through pages and pages and pages of travel logs. What a chore. 

 

 

 

 

 

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21 minutes ago, SeattleWayne said:

Scrolling through pages and pages of logs. What a chore. 

Yep - particularly when those logs (too many tb visits) provide no added value to the tb owner and are basically a mirror of the tb holder's caching activity (they visit the tb to every cache they find).  If I wanted to see every cache a cacher found, then I could just go to THEIR.  There's no need for them to clutter a TB's page with incessant visit logs.

 

There are plenty of cachers that do no appreciate the incessant visit logs, as evidenced by all the threads.  I don't think there are many cachers that miss such visit logs.

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6 minutes ago, noncentric said:

There are plenty of cachers that do no appreciate the incessant visit logs, as evidenced by all the threads.  I don't think there are many cachers that miss such visit logs.

I wouldn't mind hiding all the content-free visit logs. But I would like to see any visit logs that have content (whether that is text content or uploaded images). If they implement a system for hiding visit logs, then I hope they include a middle-ground setting that hides only content-free visit logs.

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11 minutes ago, noncentric said:

Yep - particularly when those logs (too many tb visits) provide no added value to the tb owner and are basically a mirror of the tb holder's caching activity (they visit the tb to every cache they find).  If I wanted to see every cache a cacher found, then I could just go to THEIR.  There's no need for them to clutter a TB's page with incessant visit logs.

 

There are plenty of cachers that do no appreciate the incessant visit logs, as evidenced by all the threads.  I don't think there are many cachers that miss such visit logs.

 

2 minutes ago, niraD said:

I wouldn't mind hiding all the content-free visit logs. But I would like to see any visit logs that have content (whether that is text content or uploaded images). If they implement a system for hiding visit logs, then I hope they include a middle-ground setting that hides only content-free visit logs.

 

True.  Visit logs that have some meaning are not what I would consider "incessant".  As mentioned earlier in the thread, it's not so bad to visit tb's to caches that are related to the tb's goal or if the cacher visits the tb's "here and there".  But when the visits are basically every cache the tb holder found, then I'd consider that "incessant".

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7 minutes ago, noncentric said:

Yep - particularly when those logs (too many tb visits) provide no added value to the tb owner and are basically a mirror of the tb holder's caching activity (they visit the tb to every cache they find).  If I wanted to see every cache a cacher found, then I could just go to THEIR.  There's no need for them to clutter a TB's page with incessant visit logs.

 

There are plenty of cachers that do no appreciate the incessant visit logs, as evidenced by all the threads.  I don't think there are many cachers that miss such visit logs.

I agree.

Many we see visiting everywhere seem (to us) to just be some silly "all about me" thing, with little regard for the TO's property. 

Some are holding  trackables not theirs  for maybe months at a time.

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35 minutes ago, noncentric said:

True.  Visit logs that have some meaning are not what I would consider "incessant".  As mentioned earlier in the thread, it's not so bad to visit tb's to caches that are related to the tb's goal or if the cacher visits the tb's "here and there".  But when the visits are basically every cache the tb holder found, then I'd consider that "incessant".

I agree with this.  I have a few trackables that I am carrying with me - some want to visit or be placed in higher difficulty or terrain caches.  If I find a cache that meets the 3+ rating on either of those, but for whatever reason isn't suitable to leave the trackable, I'll log a visit to that cache.  Some have a goal to be placed or visit puzzle caches ... I follow the same "rules" there.

I also have a few whose goal is simply to travel.  I don't dip them in every cache I visit, but if I find a cache away from my "home area" I'll dip them.  And when I find something suitable to drop them that's a substantial distance, I'll do so.  I am planning on some travel to a few states later this summer, so I am hanging onto them for that trip, and in the meantime visiting them to caches selectively.  And I write info in the log about the visit in most cases.  

I pay attention to the "mission" or goal and try to move it and visit it accordingly.

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9 hours ago, cerberus1 said:

I agree.

Many we see visiting everywhere seem (to us) to just be some silly "all about me" thing, with little regard for the TO's property. 

Some are holding  trackables not theirs  for maybe months at a time.

So visiting a TB to every cache found is an act of selfishness, and a cry for attention? And are these actual rules for TB's or is this just a bunch of people annoyed how others play the game...? 

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9 hours ago, CAVinoGal said:

I don't dip them in every cache I visit, but if I find a cache away from my "home area" I'll dip them.  And when I find something suitable to drop them that's a substantial distance, I'll do so.  I am planning on some travel to a few states later this summer, so I am hanging onto them for that trip, and in the meantime visiting them to caches selectively.  And I write info in the log about the visit in most cases.  

 

Interesting how YOU play the game regarding TBs. 

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10 hours ago, noncentric said:

Yep - particularly when those logs (too many tb visits) provide no added value to the tb owner and are basically a mirror of the tb holder's caching activity (they visit the tb to every cache they find).  If I wanted to see every cache a cacher found, then I could just go to THEIR.  There's no need for them to clutter a TB's page with incessant visit logs.

 

There are plenty of cachers that do no appreciate the incessant visit logs, as evidenced by all the threads.  I don't think there are many cachers that miss such visit logs.

There's one TB in particular that I am in possession of and the mission statement is "to visit as many caches as possible". Another TB that I am holding, it's mission statement is "This TB's goal is to log miles". What does that mean, providing no added value? Isn't the point of a TB to travel around and exchange hands? Providing the mission statement isn't specific to any goals. The cantankerous attitudes of some caches in this community over frivolous, petty things is baffling. Most TBs that I have ran across have a mission statement of "travel the world!" Or "Go east!" So what difference does it make for a TB to visit 25 caches in one day or 12? I could see where excessive visiting might take place on a power trail or something but a day of caching shouldn't annoy anyone. TBs are supposed to travel around. 

 

TBs are seemingly becoming more trouble than they're worth with all these unwritten rules people want to make up. God forbid some eight year old picks up a TB and begs his parents to visit every single cache they find that day, and then at the end of the day they receive an email from some TB owner stating "my TB you have has visited too many caches, and it was supposed to go North not South, and if I wanted to see your cache activity I'd just go to YOUR profile! This provides NO value whatsoever!" :mellow:

 

 

:D:lol:<_<

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1 hour ago, SeattleWayne said:

There's one TB in particular that I am in possession of and the mission statement is "to visit as many caches as possible". Another TB that I am holding, it's mission statement is "This TB's goal is to log miles". ...  If that's the goal, the I would expect the CO to WANT the extra logs in this case.  

 

TBs are seemingly becoming more trouble than they're worth with all these unwritten rules people want to make up. I'm simply trying to follow the "rules" the CO set up when they released the trackable.  If I had one that wanted to visit as many caches as possible or log a lot of miles, as you do, then I would likely dip it more often.  I try to follow the goal or mission, and if I don't think I can help it along, I'll leave it in the cache for someone else.

:D:lol:<_<

 

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6 hours ago, SeattleWayne said:

There's one TB in particular that I am in possession of and the mission statement is "to visit as many caches as possible". Another TB that I am holding, it's mission statement is "This TB's goal is to log miles". What does that mean, providing no added value? Isn't the point of a TB to travel around and exchange hands? Providing the mission statement isn't specific to any goals. The cantankerous attitudes of some caches in this community over frivolous, petty things is baffling. Most TBs that I have ran across have a mission statement of "travel the world!" Or "Go east!" So what difference does it make for a TB to visit 25 caches in one day or 12? I could see where excessive visiting might take place on a power trail or something but a day of caching shouldn't annoy anyone. TBs are supposed to travel around.

If the TB's mission is to visit as many caches as possible, then all those visit logs are not problematic.  I thought I already qualified my statement about that.  Yes - in a couple posts after the one you quoted.  This is when I miss the "post #" feature of the old forum format.  Anyway, if the TB owner wants the TB to visit a lot of caches, then by all means do that.

If I TB's mission is to gain mileage, then multiple visits aren't needed.  If you start up north and cache in a straight line south, then visiting it to 2 caches along that route will be almost the same mileage as visiting to all 20 caches along that route.  The 2 cache visit gives a bit less mileage because of the straight line distance.

 

 

6 hours ago, SeattleWayne said:

Most TBs that I have ran across have a mission statement of "travel the world!" Or "Go east!" So what difference does it make for a TB to visit 25 caches in one day or 12?

Regarding your examples, if a mission is to "go east" then wouldn't it be easier for the TB owner to see that eastward travel if there are only 2 visits in Seattle before the TB moves to Spokane, rather than seeing 25 visits in Seattle and then it's in Spokane?  If a mission is to "see the world", then what added value does 25 visits in Seattle give compared to 2 visits in Seattle?

 

 

6 hours ago, SeattleWayne said:

TBs are seemingly becoming more trouble than they're worth with all these unwritten rules people want to make up. God forbid some eight year old picks up a TB and begs his parents to visit every single cache they find that day, and then at the end of the day they receive an email from some TB owner stating "my TB you have has visited too many caches, and it was supposed to go North not South, and if I wanted to see your cache activity I'd just go to YOUR profile! This provides NO value whatsoever!" :mellow:

Frankly, the 8-year-old shoudn't be dictating how another cacher's TB is handled, unless the TB's goal is to visit as many caches as possible.  Perhaps the kid's parents should buy the kid her/his own TB so s/he can visit that TB to every cache s/he visits.

 

And yes - there are cachers that have come to consider TB's "more trouble than they're worth" and they don't want to buy/release anymore trackables because they end up having to deal with incessant visit logs that can't be hidden and can't be mass-deleted (only one-by-one).

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On 7/20/2017 at 5:34 PM, noncentric said:
On 7/20/2017 at 10:43 AM, SeattleWayne said:

There's one TB in particular that I am in possession of and the mission statement is "to visit as many caches as possible". Another TB that I am holding, it's mission statement is "This TB's goal is to log miles". What does that mean, providing no added value? Isn't the point of a TB to travel around and exchange hands? Providing the mission statement isn't specific to any goals. The cantankerous attitudes of some caches in this community over frivolous, petty things is baffling. Most TBs that I have ran across have a mission statement of "travel the world!" Or "Go east!" So what difference does it make for a TB to visit 25 caches in one day or 12? I could see where excessive visiting might take place on a power trail or something but a day of caching shouldn't annoy anyone. TBs are supposed to travel around.

If the TB's mission is to visit as many caches as possible, then all those visit logs are not problematic.  I thought I already qualified my statement about that.  Yes - in a couple posts after the one you quoted.  This is when I miss the "post #" feature of the old forum format.  Anyway, if the TB owner wants the TB to visit a lot of caches, then by all means do that.

If I TB's mission is to gain mileage, then multiple visits aren't needed.  If you start up north and cache in a straight line south, then visiting it to 2 caches along that route will be almost the same mileage as visiting to all 20 caches along that route.  The 2 cache visit gives a bit less mileage because of the straight line distance

I've also encountered quite a few TBs whose mission is based on a theme.  For example, "take this TB to geocaches near a waterfall".  I picked one up like that in a cache near one of the many waterfalls in my areas, but it had a mission to visit a specific waterfall in Thailand.  While I couldn't get it to Thailand I brought it to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, dipped it into a cache their and took a couple of pictures of it near the falls, then brought it back home so that it had a greater chance to travel rather than in a cache in Africa.  Hopefully, the TO appreciated adding about 15K miles and the photos of the waterfall added to it's history.  Even for a TB with a mission to go to a specific geocache or place, I suspect most TOs are more interested in the journey then just seeing it's arrival at a destination.

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I'd forgotten about this thread until it got bumped.  To answer the question in the title just by itself, it is of course possible to hold on to someone else's travel bug forever, like some folks have (at least in theory) held on to some of ours for 10 years -- but the context here is more "should" than "can."

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