Geocaching “EVENTS” and Travel Bugs/Coins

I like my “travelers”.  Sometimes I like them so much that I won’t share them with others by sending them out into the world to move from cache to cache to cache.   Rather I will add them to my personal collection to enjoy. 

For those of you new to the sport/hobby or you simply don’t know travelers – travel bugs, geocoins, pathtags, etc.  are serialized (numbered) items that are placed into a geocache with the intent of having them move around.   Each has a “mission” that they are trying to accomplish.  They may want to see the world, accumulate mileage, or visit as many caches as possible in the next 18 months.  Whatever the mission, the geocaching community helps by moving these “travelers” one step closer.

There is also another concept in geocaching of an event.  I like to think of them as mini conventions for geocachers.  A group of people get together and share their common interest.  They range from small, seemingly unorganized things to absolutely massive with sponsorships, etc.

So now that you have the background on these two things I’m going to put them together.  I personally DO NOT LIKE IT when my Travel Bugs and Geocoins head into a geocaching event.  My past, admittedly limited, experience tells me that these events are a great place for them to get “lost”.  I use the term LOST rather loosely because I’ve had geocoins go missing to turn up months later when someone discovered it in the bottom of their backpack, or have them show up at an event to never be heard from again… assumed to be added to someone else’s collection.  I’ve even had them head to an event, go missing for months to have them “discovered” in a cache hundreds of miles from where the event occurred.

To be fair I will say that this doesn’t always happen.  I’ve had many coins move through events totally unscathed.  I still can’t help but wonder what has happened to all of the travelers that you find as INVENTORY on an event cache page that had ended months prior.

So a couple of things…

If you attend events please remember that they are a great place for “travelers” to get lost and it might be better to find a “REAL” cache to place them into… and well if you happen across the little micro coin above…please place him in a cache so he can continue his journey – he and his not found friend were recently seen at an event together.

Finally, remember that geocoins and travel bugs are NOT swag to be “traded”.  They belong to another geocacher just like you.  If you don’t want to move them along to another cache then simply don’t take them.