Travel Bug Nuts and Bolts

Goal: To help people log trackables as I go about my journey here, there, and everywhere!

The travel bug is an item unique to geocaching. Each trackable has its own web page, its own unique journey, history, quirks, personality, and goals.

It is fun because you get a glimpse into the lives and psyche of complete strangers from down the street or  around the world that you will likely never meet face to face. Many feel that the travel bug experience is almost as fun as the geocaching hobby itself.   The tracakables system relies on a person's willingness to expend a little bit of effort in order to contribute to the fun and enjoyment of that unseen and unkown trackable owner. It also adds fun for all those who place their favorite (but not the ones we own)  trackables on their watchlist!

This travel bug is using the copy tag, as the original was lost from its second cache! It has several nust and washers on it because those who do not log trackables drive us all nuts!!

In order to record accurate mileage, the travel bug or geocoin must be logged in to each cache where it is dropped, and then logged out of the cache (and into your trackables inventory until you drop it again)  when you retrieve it.  I have seen travel bugs that have traveled in excess of 30, 000 miles, and I am sure there are many who have logged more miles than that! What a fascinating history these bugs have! 

To log a trackable, go to the cache page wher you retrieved it, and click on the trackables name in the right hand column where it is listed in the cache's trackables inventory. This opens the unique cache page that each trackable, just like each geocahe, has. On the upper right, click on "log it" and then click on the type of log, which in this case would be "retrieved from...".

If you are using an Iphone at the cache location, look for the word "inventory" on the cache home page on your phone. Click on it, and it will give you a list of all the trackables in the cache. Click on the name of the one you are retrieving, and then choose the type of log.  Then click on "send and save the log". So easy!

You can also log the trackable drop or grab separately from your cache "found it" log.  Go to the cache page, click on "log visit", and for the log type click on "write note". Type your note, and scroll down to the trackables list below, to select the one you are dropping or "dipping".

You can "dip" a trackable if you have it on hand att he cache location of several caches. This addes mileage, but be sure it was really there at the cache if you do this!

The log type "discovered it" just means you saw it somehwere, like in a cache (and you did not grab it), or your geofriend had it, or you saw it on a table at an event cache, but you did not grab it.

If you are a geocaching " newbie" you might want to wait to move trackables until you have done several caches, and you are sure you will continue to do the hobby, and get a better feel for what it is all about.  At first the idea of a travel bug can seem rather strange and foreign.

The first cache we ever found had a trackable in it. It was a dog tag attached to a plastic dog. My daughter tried vainly to remove the dog to keep it, and then we noticed the dog tag that said not to keep it.  We had no idea what to do so we took it and placed it in our second cache to find ever. We had no idea there was such a thing as logging a trackable! Thankfully it didn't get lost. So maybe get used to geocaching first, then add on the trackables experience a little later.

If you find a "hitch hiker" that is damaged, try and repair it before you send it along on its journey.

And please if you lose a travel bug, or even more costly, a geocoin, consider contacting the owner of the trackable and at least offer to send them the replacement cost.  (Send it to their post office,  general delivery, so you don't need their address or even their first name.)

Large metalic washer on a chain- proxy for original dogtag tb