Become Trackable on Geocaching.com – Tattoos to Travel Bugs

Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from location to location. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the “Find the Gecko,” Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)

See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs this week only (US costumers only). Check out Tuesday’s installment for Trackable Week:

BECOME TRACKABLE ON GEOCACHING.COM – TATTOOS TO TRAVEL BUGS

Whether your decision is permanent or a passing phase, becoming trackable on Geocaching.com offers you a new way to interact with the world around you.  Some geocachers choose a Travel Bug tattoo. There’s even a special icon available on Geocaching.com for those with a trackable tattoo.

Click the image to see the story behind this Travel Bug tattoo

Others decide to add a Travel Bug decal to their car, put a Travel Bug on their dog’s collar, or even make themselves trackable. Every Lackey at Groundspeak is trackable. It’s easy. Other geocachers must discover you in person. They enter your unique tracking code on the Geocaching.com Trackables page. They then log their discovery and often leave fun and entertaining log entries.

CSavvy recently made himself trackable. He discovered geocaching about two years ago. He’s an Australian sound technician and frequently travels to record natural sounds. He enjoys geocaching because he says, “I love being in the outdoors. I am very outgoing and love an adventure. Geocaching is the perfect sport for me as it’s exactly that – an adventure!!”

CSavvy spoke with Geocaching.com about becoming trackable and sent in the video below. You can get clues about where CSavvy might be next on his Savvy The Trackable Sound Guy Travel Bug page.

Geocaching.com: What inspired you to become a Travel Bug?

SAVVY: ” I Thought it would be a great way to track my adventures while also meeting fellow geocachers and making new friends along the way. And because I work in television and always out recording sound at various locations for TV shows, it’s also a chance for my fellow geocachers to get a look “Behind the scenes” of TV production as not many people get to see that side of things.”

Geocaching.com: Will there be any clues as to your next location?

SAVVY: ” I can mainly be found around Adelaide in South Australia and also Mount Barker which is in the Adelaide Hills…..But I do travel around the country (Australia) sometimes, so I could pop up anywhere! To make it a bit more easy for people to locate me while I am out and about, I will be posting clues of my location on the TB page on Geocaching.com and I have also set up a Facebook Page where fellow Geocachers can follow me.”

Geocaching.com: What advice do you have for those considering becoming a Travel Bug?

SAVVY: “My advice would be…..get out into the great outdoors…..travel, see places and meet people, and make yourself easy to find. I am easy to spot, as I carry around a big fluffy microphone and also have a big audio bag strapped to my waist! I am also never too far away from a broadcast camera!!!”

See CSavvy’s video here:

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Additional Trackable Stories:

Click on the image for a 30% savings on orders of Travel Bugs (U.S. customers only)

Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips

Watch a soldier receive a Travel Bug tattoo.

Read about a Travel Bug Rescue program.

Share your Trackable stories for a chance to win Trackables.

 

Nottingham to Nottingham Travel Bug Race

Trackable Week presents a new story Monday through Friday this week about creative ways to experience Trackables. Geocaching.com Trackables allow people to tag and track an item from geocache to geocache. Trackables typically come in three varieties, Geocoins, Travel Bugs® or Promotional Trackables like the Find the Gecko, Geico campaign. (Watch a video on Travel Bugs)

See the bottom of this article for a place a share your Trackable stories, links to other Trackable stories and a limited time special offer for 30% of individual orders of Travel Bugs this week only (US costumers only). Check out Monday’s installment for Trackable Week:

Nottingham to Nottingham Travel Bug Race

 

By Kelly Ranck

The geocaching community is becoming larger every day, but the global community is using geocaching to make our world increasingly smaller.

EyeD1OT 4th2, U.S. Travel Bug competitor

Take the Travel Bug, for example. Grab a small item, attach it to a Trackable keychain, assign it a destination and watch it travel across the globe as it is passed from geocacher to geocacher, most of whom are strangers to one another.

As a way of bringing the geocaching community ever closer, Jacaru and Balrgn have created a Travel Bug race. The race challenges cachers to send Travel Bugs between Nottingham, United Kingdom and Nottingham, New Hampshire, United States. They organized a race which began over the weekend. It involves more than 90 Travel Bugs.

According to Jacaru, the originator of the race, “It came about as I had been thinking that it would be good to organize a race between Nottingham here in the UK and another one abroad. We could then become the geocaching equivalent of twin towns.”

Jacaru emailed a few geocachers in the Nottingham, U.S. area with his idea. Balrgn responded that he would gladly like to help out. Both geocachers worked with local reviewers to establish a Travel Bug hotel cache in each location.

Cameron Tiede2, UK Travel Bug competitor

These Travel Bug hotel caches are the starting and finishing points for the race. They then started contacting local geocachers and asking whether they would like to enter a TB into the race. According to Jacaru, “Word soon got round and I had quite a few locals wanting to participate. The same happened over in New Hampshire.” By race day, they expect about 30 entrants from both locations.

The organizers have created a Nottingham to Nottingham Travel Bug race blog where, once the launch promotional events finish and the two hotels go live, owners will be able to track their Travel Bugs as they race across the globe.

“Entrants can go and find the hotel as a normal cache and pick up a bug. However, they cannot pick up their own bug,” says Jacaru. “The first bug to arrive at the UK hotel, and vice versa will win its owner a new specially designed Geocoin, only two of these coins have been made.”

Nottingham, New Hampshire, U.S.
Notthingham, UK

For more information, Jacaru and Balrgn have also created a Facebook page, where geocachers will receive weekly updates on the race.

“This is turning into an exciting race that has really taken shape now and inspired people to join in,” says Jacaru.

This is just one of the many examples of the ways in which geocachers are working to creatively build the geocaching community and promote involvement, with a hint of friendly competition.

Quick tip alert: If you are racing several bugs at once, check out this helpful hint in our Knowledge Books. It gives you a code so that you can view the status of all of your TravelBugs on the same page.

Click on the image for a 30% savings on orders of Travel Bugs (U.S. customers only)
Additional Trackable Stories:

Watch a soldier receive a Travel Bug tattoo.

Read about a Travel Bug Rescue program.

Share your Trackable stories

 

 

“Geocaching has Kept Me Safer” Geocaching.com’s Lost & Found Video

Sgt. Kent "Doc" Byrd in Iraq
Sgt. Kent "Doc" Byrd in Iraq

Kent “Doc” Byrd is known as JrByrdMan162 in the geocaching world. In the United States Army he’s know as Sergeant Byrd.

He’s a member of an Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit. He defused bombs, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs) as part of the Army bomb squad.  He just returned from a one year tour of duty in Iraq.

Sgt. Byrd has been geocaching since 2005. He says the skills that geocaching instills — situational awareness, an eye for the unusual and quick detective work — help keep him safe when he’s finding and defusing bombs.  Sgt. Byrd believes that other  members of the bomb disposal community can learn to sharpen their awareness and stay safer through geocaching.

See his story above. Click  here to watch more Lost & Found videos highlighting unique geocachers and the worldwide adventure of geocaching.

Geocaching Caption Contest 8 – Win an Actual Coveted Prize

Winning Caption: “Trackable sounds an awful lot like snackable – close enough for me!” – Moozer

This is the eighth installment of our Geocaching Caption Contest.  Travel Bugs are one of the joys of the geocaching experience.  This Travel Bug may have ended up in a precarious predicament. What caption would you write for this photo?  “Travel Bug destination? My belly?”

You can do better.  The winner receives an actual Coveted Prize.

Coveted Prize

The prize for this contest is a trackable 10 years coin. Good luck!  Please include your geocaching username in all entries.

The winner will be chosen by an ad hoc committee of Lackeys.

13 Lackeys voted to crown the winner of the seventh Geocaching Caption Contest.  Take a look at the post to see who won.  Explore the wit and wisdom of geocachers by checking out all the Geocaching Caption Contests.