Travel bugs and total newbies

[+ridgerim]

Hi there,

 

I am just barely getting started. I have been reading up on travel bugs, but I still don't understand several things:

 

- Since I'm not yet confident about finding caches, should I try to move one or leave it behind?

 

- If you don't move it, are you supposed to write down the number and log it? Is this what grabbing" means?

 

- Are you supposed to research the goals before you go looking for a cache so you know whether or not you can help move it forward?

 

Thanks in advance!

[+NanCycle]

Hi and welcome to the fun of geocaching.

 

I'll give you my opinions, others will have their own--

 

Since I'm not yet confident about finding caches, should I try to move one or leave it behind?

Go ahead and take one if you're really going to try to move it. The thing that is most frustrating to Travel Bug owners is the newbie who takes TBs and then never goes out geocaching again and the TBs are never seen again.

 

If you don't move it, are you supposed to write down the number and log it? Is this what grabbing" means?

This is "discovering" You can do that if you want to.

Retrieving it from a cache or "Grabbing" it from somewhere else (e.g from another cacher) puts it into your inventory.

 

Are you supposed to research the goals before you go looking for a cache so you know whether or not you can help move it forward?

This is nice, but not very practical, because--as you will find out very soon--you can't be sure that the trackable that is listed as being in the cache is actually there. And you will find trackables in a cache that are not listed, so you would not have had the opportunity to research them. Ideally, all trackables that have a specific mission will have the information attached to them so that you can read it on the spot. Otherwise, I just take them and then do the best I can to help them reach their goals.

 

Nancy

[+BlueDeuce]

- Since I'm not yet confident about finding caches, should I try to move one or leave it behind?

 

Being able to move a bug in a timely manner is part of assisting a bug. If you don't think you can move it along within a couple weeks then no, you probably shouldn't pick it up.

 

- If you don't move it, are you supposed to write down the number and log it? Is this what grabbing" means?

 

Retrieve it when you take it from a cache.

Grab it when you get it from somewhere other than the cache (ie: from another cacher).

Discover it when you are just logging that you saw it but not taking it with you.

 

Always write down and save the number. You'll need it if you accidentally drop it in the wrong cache, it does happen!

 

- Are you supposed to research the goals before you go looking for a cache so you know whether or not you can help move it forward?

 

It helps to know the mission before you get there. Hopefully the owner included a mission sheet or tag with the bug. Otherwise do your best. Check the mission when you get home and move it accordingly.

[+coleminers]

 

-Are you supposed to research the goals before you go looking for a cache so you know whether or not you can help move it forward?

 

Thanks in advance!

I always try to remember, even if I don't discover the travellers goal before I retrieve it, if I at least keep it moving and in circulation, some future cacher may be exactly the one to move it in the right direction.

[+ridgerim]

Thanks coleminers, BlueDeuce, and DoubleBent for your thoughtful responses.

 

This helps a lot! I think that for now, discovery mode makes the most sense for me.

 

I'm still a little unclear about grabbing. So if I met one of you in person, and you had a travel bug that wanted to go to Arizona, and you knew I was headed there, that's when I could grab it?

 

There is just so much to learn!!

[+BlueDeuce]

I'm still a little unclear about grabbing. So if I met one of you in person, and you had a travel bug that wanted to go to Arizona, and you knew I was headed there, that's when I could grab it?

 

If you took hand-off of a bug, in-person you would need to Grab it from the cacher as it would show as being held by them.

 

Sometimes when I want to do a hand-ff I'll meet someone at a cache site. Then I'll drop it in the cache listing and they do a Retrieve. If I wasn't at a cache then they would need to Grab it from me.

[+coleminers]

Thanks coleminers, BlueDeuce, and DoubleBent for your thoughtful responses.

 

This helps a lot! I think that for now, discovery mode makes the most sense for me.

 

I'm still a little unclear about grabbing. So if I met one of you in person, and you had a travel bug that wanted to go to Arizona, and you knew I was headed there, that's when I could grab it?

 

There is just so much to learn!!

The other issue in which "grabbing" comes to play is those times in which a trackable is found in a cache to which it is not registered...happens quite often in my experience. Either it was dropped off and not logged, or incorrectly logged into a cache that a cacher mistook for another (on a particularly long caching day?).

Either way, when you retrieve it from a cache to which it is not registered, you can "grab" it into your inventory (I usually indicate in my note where I actually found it), then carry on your way.

[+ridgerim]

Thanks so much for your help!

It's nice to be a little less clueless.

[+Bear and Ragged]

The other issue in which "grabbing" comes to play is those times in which a trackable is found in a cache to which it is not registered...happens quite often in my experience. Either it was dropped off and not logged, or incorrectly logged into a cache that a cacher mistook for another (on a particularly long caching day?).

Either way, when you retrieve it from a cache to which it is not registered, you can "grab" it into your inventory (I usually indicate in my note where I actually found it), then carry on your way.

 

Handy, if you find it in a cache it's not logged in, to Grab it, Place it in the cache, then Retrieve it, then the TB gets recognition for the cache, and the correct miles recorded.

 

*Always better to give the previous cacher a chance to Drop the TB, they may be away from the internet for a couple of days, so can't log things immediately.