Travel Bugs Are Not Regular Trade Items

[+Highpointer]

Whenever I put a travel bug in a cache, I put that cache on my watch list until the travel bug has been claimed by a geocacher. On Dec. 25, 2004 I put the travel bug WYLIE COYOTE in the multi-cache K9 Conclusion, which is not a difficult cache. The coordinates to the cache container are in plain view on a sign outside a public building in Tempe, and the cache container is less than 1000 feet off State Route 88 in flat desert terrain north of Apache Junction, Arizona.

 

Since I visited the cache more than three months ago, at least four geocachers have visited the cache container, and one of them added another travel bug. No one has taken a travel bug, so WYLIE COYOTE has been in the cache for more than three months, and it is now sharing the cache container with a second travel bug.

 

I got this log entry from a visiting geocacher today. A geocaching team visited the cache but did not take either of two travel bugs because they claimed that they did not have anything to trade for the travel bugs. Here is their log entry:

 

We have had the final coordinates for quite awhile, but this is the first chance to get out this way and find it. Had to pass on the bugs as we didn't have anything to trade for them (left our stash in the car). TNLN SL TFTH

 

I sent them an e-mail explaining that they should have taken the travel bugs because travel bugs are not regular trade items, and thus they did not need to add additional items to the cache. They are regular geocachers so they could have moved the travel bugs to other caches relatively soon.

 

Travel bugs are continually being passed up. Perhaps there are too many travel bugs out in the geocaching world. They don't seem to interest many geocachers anymore.

 

Ken Akerman (a.k.a. Highpointer)

[Aushiker]

Perhaps there are too many travel bugs out in the geocaching world. They don't seem to interest many geocachers anymore.

G'day

 

All I can say, not in my neighbourhood. There are at least three teams (myself included) who are always on the hunt for bugs. That said two things frustrate me ... (a) if the bug does not have clear objectives included with it .... I don't always check the bug's page out before I go to a cache or I may come across a cache with a bug. If the bug's objectives are not known, I may leave it.

 

My other gripe and it is a bit off topic, is when a team picks-up a bug and then drops in and out of upteen caches on their travels without consideration for other cachers who may want to find the bug themselves and it can mean less caches to drop the bug in if one wants to avoid the bug revisiting a cache.

 

And one more gripe, finders not actually following the stated objectives ... ugh.

 

Good luck with your bug, but.

 

Regards

Andrew

[+Eartha]

No two situations are alike. If someone doesn't feel they can move it along soon enough, they'll pass it up. If they don't think they can move it towards its goal, they'll pass it up. If they don't know its goal, they'll pass it up. If they don't feel like it that day, they'll pass it up. But no, you don't have to trade for a travel bug. That is correct. Despite what some people put on their bug hotel/motel pages. They can ask, but it's not required. That is up to the bug owner.

[+CharlieP]

I stopped picking up travel bugs over a year ago, when trading for the bugs became an issue. Some folks were saying they should be considered a trade item, others said they were not. Couple this with the obligation to move the bug along, and the fact that some owners don't put the bug's goals clearly on the bug itself, it just became too much of a hassle. If you want bugs to move:

 

1. Make it clear to ALL that they are NOT trade items, except in bug hotels where bug for bug trades are a stated conditional requirement.

 

2. If the bug has specific goals, put it on the bug, keep it simple and clearly visible. If I am kneeling on wet ground getting eaten alive by mosquitos, or in an area with a lot of muggles about, I am not going to take the time to do a lot of reading to see if I should pick this thing up.

 

3. Don't be too eager to jump on a cacher if they hold the bug a while ... sometimes folks' best laid plans don't work out. Happens to mice too, I hear.

 

FWIW,

CharlieP

[+ShadowAce]

Some people got tired of the emails about how they:

 

1) need to learn to read.

2) Should never have put a TB in that cache

3) Took a TB the wrong direction

4) Picked up a TB that did not want to be moved yet

5) add whatever comment local TB Cops use

 

I know a good number of cachers that have received email from a few people who did not own the TB, had no say in the TB's goal and really were doing nothing then make a pain out of themselves. So these people quit touching TBs.

 

I personally just delete the emails from said people and laugh as I do it. Many cachers are actually nice people and they take offense at being told how stupid they are by some unknown individual in the darkness of a cache name.

 

So if you want people to keep moving TBs around, maybe there should be a few less TB Cops??

[Skadar]

You guys are all too serious. I geocache for my own enjoyment. I think it's fun to pick up TBs and move them along. I never, ever pass on a TB.

 

Relax. I would find it MUCH more annoying if people passed on my bugs because of some sort of self-inflicted ettiquette that may or may not be shared by the rest of the community.

 

Stop with the rules already and just have fun.

[+cache_test_dummies]

Since I visited the cache more than three months ago, at least four geocachers have visited the cache container, and one of them added another travel bug. No one has taken a travel bug, so WYLIE COYOTE has been in the cache for more than three months, and it is now sharing the cache container with a second travel bug.

For what it's worth, three of those four visits have been in the last four days. And the other visit was back in January by a relatively new geocacher who had not picked up a travel bug before. So it's not like the bug has unfairly languished for those three months.

 

It's not the end of the world. And no geocacher is obligated to pick up any travel bug which they encounter, despite the personal philosophies of any other geocacher.

 

Around here, TBs generally get snapped up pretty quickly and moved around. I don't see the particular case you have pointed out as being indicative of a trend or a real problem.

[+Cow Spots]

It's not the end of the world. And no geocacher is obligated to pick up any travel bug which they encounter, despite the personal philosophies of any other geocacher.

 

I agree. I would feel a little annoyed if I got an unsolicited e-mail telling me the 'rules' of Travel Bugs ... especially if it came from someone who neither owned the Bugs or the cache itself.

[+tomtomgogo]

Fairly new to this(16) but dont want to get it wrong and move a TB the wrong way etc. I wish had attached goal to mine because if I happen to do a cache cos it appears on GPS without reading anything about it then I qwouldn`t know what the TB`s goals are so would leave them, I like moving them on, its fun and a part of caching,

Maybe too many bugs going around want to achieve the most miles or go a certain way. or end up, like many, reaching Oz etc.

 

Perhaps we should have TB tags that we can write on the goal or direction or anywhere etc???

 

Andy

 

Tomtomgogo

[+Eartha]

Fairly new to this(16) but dont want to get it wrong and move a TB the wrong way etc. I wish had attached goal to mine because if I happen to do a cache cos it appears on GPS without reading anything about it then I qwouldn`t know what the TB`s goals are so would leave them, I like moving them on, its fun and a part of caching,

Maybe too many bugs going around want to achieve the most miles or go a certain way. or end up, like many, reaching Oz etc.

 

Perhaps we should have TB tags that we can write on the goal or direction or anywhere etc???

 

Andy

 

Tomtomgogo

Some people write it up, laminate it, and attach it to the bug. Others simply print up the page and put the whole thing in a ziplock. If you want to attach a goal to your bug, wait until someone grabs it and then quick like a bunny, e-mail them and ask them to add the page and put the thing in a ziplock, or attach it somehow, but don't do that to someone else's bug unless they ask.

[+Colorado Cacher]

Too funny. TB's are my fix. I love picking them up and moving them. Ever since I cured my FTF-itis disease I love grabbing TB's.

[+ExpeditionExplorers]

Talk about letting TB's sit! Take a look at the Grand Theft Auto II TB. It sat for almost 2 YEARS in the Willard Basin Cache. 2 YEARS!!! Many teams had visited the cache, but never picked the darn thing up! Just hope our TB's don't end up like that.

[+Highpointer]

Talk about letting TB's sit! Take a look at the Grand Theft Auto II TB. It sat for almost 2 YEARS in the Willard Basin Cache.      2 YEARS!!! Many teams had visited the cache, but never picked the darn thing up! Just hope our TB's don't end up like that. 

I reviewed this cache and I counted at least seven geocaching teams that passed up this travel bug before Mr. Moose picked up and logged this travel bug on Aug. 8, 2004, more than 22 months after it had been placed in the cache. Thank you to Mr. Moose for grabbing and moving this travel bug.

 

Ken Akerman (a.k.a. Highpointer)

[+SeventhSon]

As a bug owner, I'm well aware of the difference between including a goal tag with the bug and not including one. My first two bugs did not have a tag, the second two did. One and two are still active and traveling, three and four are in la la land somewhere. The tag is no guarantee that the bug will move

 

As for no tags, grab em up and take em home with you. When you log the bug, you have to go to the bug page. Read the goal then and do what you can to help, or just place the next time you're out.

 

As the owner of a few missing bugs, I'd be tickled pink if one of them moved 100 miles out of the way, just so long as it was moving.