Any of you guys seen a Traveling Cache?

[harper_finding_stuff]

There was only like 100 when they got archived but some of them were changed into trackables later on. I've never seen one, but I haven't really gone to any events... Or met any geocachers in the wild period. I assume most of the people on this forum have been around longer than I have, so I must ask, what is it like to actually see one of these things in person??

[+dprovan]

First, traveling caches have been outlawed, so they no longer exist. About a year, maybe two, ago. So you won't see them.

 

The one I found back before they were eliminated was just another cache in person, and each person that found it took it and then hid it somewhere else. The hard part was realizing where it was and getting it before anyone else did. Other than that, it was just like a traditional cache. Some traveling caches were taken from event to event, and anyone at the event could then sign the log, but I never saw one of those. But I don't think they were significantly different than any other cache, either, except that you found it by interacting with the person carrying it.

[+Rikitan]

Well, it felt like meeting travelling logbook, usually from event to event with someone. I can imagine there existed more thrilling concepts, when travelling cache was really hidden somewhere, then found and hidden somewhere else. But this kind of fun was more and more gone and caches travelled like trackables really, messing the stats for everyone.

 

Funny story:

One example ended up near Prešov, Slovakia, when time was up and HQ archived all of them. Suddenly it became the top of several rankings in our country. First (oldest) cache in the country. Top logged cache in the country. Top FP in the country. Etc. Bizarre!

Reviewer was forced to unlock it, unarchive it, quickly move coords back to US (original place), archive and lock it again. But that's not over, as this cache is helping many local players to meet couple of distance-based challenges, while they never had to leave the country.

 

Result - more mess than fun with these caches. Glad they are gone.

If you'll come to argue that stats are not everything - yes, you are right

[harper_finding_stuff]

2 hours ago, dprovan said:

traveling caches have been outlawed

Yeah, I know. According to this, though, travel cache owners were allowed to turn them into TBs. So they might still exist in a way.

[+cerberus1]

8 hours ago, harper_finding_stuff said:

 I assume most of the people on this forum have been around longer than I have, so I must ask, what is it like to actually see one of these things in person??

 

You've seen caches.  What is it like to actually see one ?    

Most were just your standard (at that time) medium  lock n lock or other plastic container.

As per their mission/guidelines, the ones we found we took with us, and found another place (that conformed to guidelines...) to "re-hide" them.

After a while issues started with some saying "they were taken before they got there", whatever that was supposed to mean.

 - They were meant to be grabbed, not sit, awaiting someone who might want to log them . 

 Eventually the whining got bad enough that many just carried them around with them to be signed by others at events.   Some, the CO intended them to only be carried to events.

But since most no longer were being used as intended, the site archived 'em.  

Cachers ruined the cache type by pushing the limits.  Go figure...

 

[+Goldenwattle]

I logged one. That one travelled between roundabouts. I left it in a great roundabout: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.307836,149.1257123,1922m/data=!3m1!1e3

The cache was one of a series of three travelling separately, but the rules were changed before I got a change to find the others. There was also a fourth one travelling around in Australia. I have also logged a retired travelling cache, which was a painted red magnetic keyholder and stuck under a red mailbox, so I imagine in its travelling days it went between mailboxes. When a travelling cache hit town, there was always a RUSH to log it and move it on, rather as though it were a FTF. You needed to be very, very quick...at least in Canberra .

I just read about caches being taken from event to event. NOT the four in Australia. They were picked up, logged and rehidden somewhere else.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Goldenwattle

[+colleda]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:08 AM, Goldenwattle said:

I logged one. That one travelled between roundabouts. I left it in a great roundabout: https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-35.307836,149.1257123,1922m/data=!3m1!1e3

The cache was one of a series of three travelling separately, but the rules were changed before I got a change to find the others. There was also a fourth one travelling around in Australia. I have also logged a retired travelling cache, which was a painted red magnetic keyholder and stuck under a red mailbox, so I imagine in its travelling days it went between mailboxes. When a travelling cache hit town, there was always a RUSH to log it and move it on, rather as though it were a FTF. You needed to be very, very quick...at least in Canberra .

I just read about caches being taken from event to event. NOT the four in Australia. They were picked up, logged and rehidden somewhere else.

I think I've logged three of those four. They were traveling just fine here but, to the best of my knowledge, the CO did not take up the trackable conversion offer.

[+speakers-corner]

Yes I have logged one. It was at the first Giga-Event in München.

[+hzoi]

Two, both of them had static coordinates but the actual location varied.  One was tied to a TB and could surface in any given cache.  The other was a locket worn by the CO and one had to arrange a meeting with her to sign.

 

I missed out on getting one of the MARS Rover caches when I lived in Alabama.

[+IceColdUK]

I found this one a few years ago:

https://coord.info/GCA87C

 

It had been on my watchlist for a few months, so I knew it was trundling around the local area.  Although the two previous finders were (and still are) both good friends, there was no special treatment - the watchlist notification was the first I knew of it.  And when I moved it on, only my update on the cache page told people the hunt was back on.

 

However, from reading the logs, it seems this wasn’t always the case - or perhaps was not perceived to be the case - and this did cause some bad feeling.

 

On an FTF hunt you can be consoled that if you’re slow off the mark, then at least you will (or might!) still find the cache.  With a moving cache, you have added jeopardy - no prize for second place!

 

I was pleased to grab the one I did, partly for that thrill of the chase, but also for the rarity value.  I had no great desire to find any others though, and I think the decision to archive them was sensible.

[+cerberus1]

3 hours ago, IceColdUK said:

I was pleased to grab the one I did, partly for that thrill of the chase, but also for the rarity value.  I had no great desire to find any others though, and I think the decision to archive them was sensible.

 

We were new and thought the "idea" cool, but when we realized they could be "found" multiple times, that did it for us. 

No unique cache type, their "rarity value" didn't mean much to us.  Still have to know them by name to find them from others...

The other 2/3rds was the one interested in stats, and those things (like lab caches at the time) messed things up. 

[+papu66]

I think there were two in my country, going from cache to cache as they should. One of them was converted to TB and is now in the hands of the original owner as TB8DWQX.

The other was also converted but in an interesting way: A cacher had glued a geocoin to the traveling cache, so it would go where ever the cache goes, When the traveling cache got archived and locked while it was hibernating in a remote host cache, the owner changed the name of the GC. As a result, the traveling cache is forced to move with the GC, that has assumed it's former "identity".

Unfortunately, the combo now appears to be lost...

 

I had the travelling cache on watch but never got a chance to log it. The image of it can be found at the GC page TB58PQH

As you can see, it's just a normal looking cache container with a log book inside.

[+Goldenwattle]

1 hour ago, papu66 said:

I think there were two in my country, going from cache to cache as they should.

They shouldn't have been going from cache to cache. That's NOT how they should have travelled. They were not TBs; they were caches. Being a cache they should have been re-hid in a new place each time by itself. That's how the four in Australia used to operate.

[+cerberus1]

1 minute ago, Goldenwattle said:

They shouldn't have been going from cache to cache. That's NOT how they should have travelled. They were not TBs; they were caches. Being a cache they should have been re-hid in a new place each time by itself. That's how the four in Australia used to operate.

Yeah...

Wasn't sure if it was just worded incorrectly, or "xxxxx  is also a breeder cache, you can make new host cache for it" might give someone who never did one that impression too.  

Possible (probable?) that many were "edited" after placement,  but one heck of a lot were written differently than we thought as well. 

At the time, we had every one left on watch, and we did see a few that traveled cache-to-cache like trackables, way-before they were turned into them (final option)  by Groundspeak.

 

[+Tuena]

26 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

They shouldn't have been going from cache to cache. That's NOT how they should have travelled. They were not TBs; they were caches. Being a cache they should have been re-hid in a new place each time by itself. That's how the four in Australia used to operate.

The four I found in Australia were as you state - caches in their own right. Three were the Traffic Control series, the other originated overseas. They generated a lot of interest. 

[+papu66]

7 hours ago, Goldenwattle said:

They shouldn't have been going from cache to cache. That's NOT how they should have travelled. They were not TBs; they were caches. Being a cache they should have been re-hid in a new place each time by itself. That's how the four in Australia used to operate.

 

You are right. What I meant that they were not traveling on someone's pocket, but were actually searchable by anyone who was fast enough -- Competition was fierce, these were much coveted caches with hundreds of FPs.

 

I read the logs and the first one was indeed hidden to new place (not a cache) and coordinates posted in the logs. However, second one was a special case.

It was designed to be a parasite so it would only go from cache to cache ("Hirvikärpänen" is a parasitic fly that is slowly spreading across this country).

That's why it got the GC attached to it, as a joke, so it would have a parasite of it's own.

So it was in fact bending the rules a little if there was any rules back in 2003.

 

Also, I don't know what the rule book say about permanently attaching your trackable on someone else's cache or TB. You'd surely have to ask the owner's permission.

 

I have seen mystery caches were the coordinates are either written on a trackable or are to be found in an unlisted wandering cache, whose coordinates are published in the logs. These work like the traveling caches we had, but of course the actual (final) cache is at a fixed position.

 

BTW does anyone have idea how many traveling caches were released originally? I would think they get lost more often than trackables because mistakes made when posting new coordinates. I'm surprised 100 survived for 15 years. However, judging from the fate of Hirvikärpänen they are not going to last long out there as trackables. Soneone will want them in their collection, a piece of caching history. Also, a chance of grabbing a loose geocoin at the same time does not help.

Edited February 19, 2019 by papu66
added stuff

[+Shop99er]

I've only seen (and logged) two over the last 15 years.