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 through Sunday September 18 (U.S. costumers only).
Here’s Friday’s installment for Trackable Week:
TRACKABLE STORIES OF THE WEEK
A Trackable Sidekick for 14,000 kilometers
By: Binrat
Okay, a quick background. When I do a major trip or head to a big event I try to find a “plush” Travel Bug to act as the trip mascot and it logs all or most of the caches to track my mileage for the event.
[Binrat’s log reads] Now, with Summer 2009 approaching I retrieved “Beaglescout” (TB211TD) with his jaunty Scout hat and backpack and the fun began!
Trip #1 – 8359.9 kilometers or 5194.6 miles (16 June 09 – 25 June 09)
This was an epic train, plane and automobile trip from Brockville Ontario all the way British Columbia and down to Oregon visiting such famous caches as Groundspeak Headquarters, Mission 9: Tunnel of Light and the Original Stash Tribute Plaque before returning home for a rest.
Trip #2 – 2,175 kilometers or 1,351 miles (01 July 09 – 04 July 09)
A fantastic trip From Brockville to Perce Quebec in the Gaspe Region by train.
Trip #3 – 1,591 kilometers or 988 miles (22 July 09 – 26 July 09)
A fun trip from Brockville to Windsor and on down to Midwest GeoBash in Ohio. My first time down to “The Bash” and together we met some amazing cachers and some very cool Travel Bugs.
Trip #4 – 1,873 kilometers or 1,164 miles (31 July 09 – 05 Aug 09)
This was a major league epic trip that saw all of us drive from Brockville to North Bay Ontario then continue on to Cochrane to board the Polar Bear Express to Moosonee Ontario just for an Event. Beaglescout even took a trip down the Moose River to James Bay.
So, after four major trips, what has Beaglescout accomplished?
14,000 kilometers or 8.699 miles and visited Ontario, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Quebec, New York and Nunavut.
The Travel Bug tasted salt water on three different coasts(Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic), met many great cachers and had one fantastic summer of excitement.
P.S. Sadly, shortly after I handed him off he was picked up by a newbie/muggle and vanished never to be seen again, but I still remember all the fun including meeting [Lackey] Miss Jenn.
Who Wins a Father and Son Travel Bug Race? (Both)
By vante
My dad (who caches as The Frito Bandito) and I (caching as vante) are in the middle of a good ole fashioned horse race. As my dad started becoming more and more interested in geocaching, I used to explain the different aspects of the game to him. When we got on the subject of Trackables, I told him how people held Travel Bug races and competitions. He liked the idea so we found a couple of plastic horses and hitched them up to a couple of Travel Bug tags.
He named his horse The Dark Horse (TBPTYQ), a race horse that is not known to gamblers and thus is difficult to place betting
odds on. I named my horse Lucky (TBQ93P), and claimed he can shoot lightning bolts out of his eyes.
My dad and I hid a cache as a finish line near a racetrack here in Michigan and called it the Winner’s Circle (GC276PV). It
was my dad’s first cache hiding experience and he has gone on to hide several caches of his own. My dad then took the horses to Texas with him and dropped them in a cache on April 28, 2010.
We’ve had a lot of fun watching our horses race across the country. Each move prompts a phone call and race analysis. There have been a few stretches of time without any action, but it seems that just when one of us really start to worry that the race is lost, a fellow cacher will move our horse along with an encouraging word. Lucky has lived up to his name, once being pulled out of the back roads of Utah before winter hit and most recently being retrieved from a cache that was destroyed by Hurricane Irene four days later. So far he has traveled 3862.9 miles and was last in New York.
The Dark Horse appears to be on a more direct course. He has only traveled 1332.4 miles, but as I write this he’s stabled in a cache in Michigan less than 60 miles away from my home coordinates (dark horse, indeed!). My dad told me that it’s taking everything in his power not to drive down there and get it himself. Me? I’m hoping for just a little bit more luck.
Geocaching has been a blast for my dad and me. It’s a great excuse to spend time and to explore the world together.
Travel bugs and horse racing is just part of the fun!
Editor’s note: Both Binrat and vante will receive a set of Trackables for submitting their Trackable stories. Thank you to all those who submitted stories. Look for Trackable Week again on the Latitude 47 blog in coming months.
ADDITIONAL TRACKABLE STORIES:
Go on a mission to take the first geocoin in the world to another country and back
Check out a Travel Bug race with do-it-yourself tips
Read about a Travel Bug Rescue program.
Review and forward Trackable Etiquette
Watch a soldier receive a Travel Bug tattoo.
