A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

signature items

Getting back into the pathtag game with my 2014 edition

I haven’t had a pathtag made in a few years.

For those of you who aren’t geocachers, pathtags are affordable, coin-like tokens people use to trade or as signature items. I’ve had several made over the years and have many in my personal collection.

The original concept.

The original concept.

But it’s been a while — mainly as an affordability thing — since I had some made. So, I made it my quest to look to have one made.

The reality is, though, that despite being able to work with Photoshop quite well, and that I can envision things, I just can’t really design tags well. OK, I can do basic things… but I wanted something more.

At the recent ASP Geobash, I was talking with Chris Mackey, who I’ve known for a few years in the geocaching world. He is, in my eyes, one of the most amazing coin designers out there (I actually have a print of one of his designs, as well as the matching coin) and I would love for him to design me a coin. Alas, right now, my funds aren’t that deep. However, he also does pathtags, so I enlisted his help for my newest one.

The tag look, before a tweak or two.

The tag look, before a tweak or two.

His work is amazing.

He captured what I wanted for this one. I had bigger ideas, but he pointed out how hard it can be to do ones like I had wanted.

So he worked with me to come up with something more simple and, honestly, better.

I’d like to point out that Chris is extremely affordable when it comes to pathtag designs and he works with you to make sure you have exactly what you want. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Chris if you are looking for pathtag design and I know I’ll be using him again in the future for more designs.

There’s only a tweak or two remaining. Once done, I’ll get the final work from him and submit and then the process of creating my pathtag will be underway. I believe it takes about six weeks or so, at which time I’ll have them in hand and ready to trade or hand out or place in some caches.

And I can’t wait.

One note about me and pathtags, however. I won’t trade for anything and everything online. I like personal tags and I like to meet people. So I will do some trades online, but they will be slim as I am only going to get 100 tags made.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Collectible Closeup: Jan. 15

I’m not a big trader when it comes to geocaching.

For those who don’t know, one aspect of geocaching is “take something, leave something.” In larger caches, there is often swag, usually little trinkets, where people will take something and leave something.

I don’t like carrying things around too much, so I don’t usually trade.

There is one thing, however, I love trading for — signature items. These are things individual cachers make to show they’ve been at a cache. It can vary — heavily — what the item is.

I’ve gone through several different things, including custom wood coins, pencils and other things.

This week’s edition of this post shows one of the wooden coins I’ve used in the past. I have a large collection of sig items I’ve traded my own for, so I hope people have enjoyed them!

Front.

Front.

Back.

Back.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

Geocaching 101: Trackables

The Travel Bug is a popular traveler inside the geocaching game. (photo courtesy Martyn Wright via Flickr)

Not too long ago, I did a Geocaching 101 blog post for people who had asked for more information about the game.

I wanted to expand on that post with a few others about the game in hopes of giving new geocachers a place to see everything in the eyes of someone other than Groundspeak.

This edition of the 101 is about trackables, which is basically a game within the game of geocaching.

The basic definition of trackables is an item — either a travel bug, geocoin or other traveler — that has a unique number on it. That number is connected to the geocaching.com website. When a geocacher picks it up, he or she logs that they picked it up and will move it along soon. When that geocacher drops it off, they put it in a geocache and then when they log that cache as found, there’s an option to drop the traveler, too.

The traveler can be one of several things, so let’s go over each.

Travelers

The Travel Bug: The most popular is probably the official Groundspeak travel bug. The travel bug is a basic dog tag, attached to a small chain. That chain and dog tag can be sent out on its own, or it can be attached to something. It can be attached to anything — toy cars, key chains, sporting things, homemade crafts — whatever. Just remember that it needs to fit in a cache. Some items might be difficult to place, unless it’s a bigger cache. So keep all that in mind when sending a travel bug out or moving one along. The bonus about travel bugs is that they come with two tags — one to send out with your item and the other as a backup, just in case your traveler goes missing.

Geocoins are sought after, but come up missing more than most items.

Geocoins: Geocoins are more expensive, but more sought after. Geocoins are made by someone and resemble actual coins. They are metal and can differ in sizes. Most are designed and have a limited number made. Coins can range from $5 to more than $20, depending on the coin, its availability and if it’s even in production anymore. Because of their price, geocoins are often purchased new by collectors and never released into the wild. They are collected and the collector often lets other cachers check them out so they can be discovered instead of being moved.

Other travelers: In recent years, companies have come up with things that are basically in the middle of Travel Bugs and geocoins. They are usually the thinness of the Travel Bugs, but are more custom looking, such as in the shape of animals or something else. However, these come one to a package, so if they come up missing, you don’t have a backup. Some companies have, however, surfaced that offer a low-cost replacement for your missing trackable, should it happen.

How you can participate

First, let me give a little dose of reality when it comes to travelers — they don’t always survive. I placed one on my trip to Ireland last year and it disappeared before it ever left the cache I dropped it in. The reality is that people steal travelers (more likely coins than Travel Bugs) to add to their own personal collection. It’s sad, but true.

However, coins and travel bugs can still be found.

If you find them, don’t worry about what a cache description says (many will say to take a trackable, you need to leave one. Don’t believe it. A cache owner has no say over the travel bug. None whatsoever.) If you can help a traveler on it’s mission, take it and move it to another cache. If you can’t, feel free to discover it, which lets the owner know the trackable is still there and in the wild.

The rule of thumb is you should move it within two weeks. Alas, real life gets in the way. And with more and more micros being hidden, sometimes cache size makes it hard to move trackables. So just try and move it within a reasonable time and all should be OK.

When I grab a traveler, I love looking through the history to see where it’s been and see if anyone has added photos. A traveler can really have a history and can be fun to see what it’s done.

For example, I have one I placed in my father’s memory a few years back. It’s traveled more than 17,000 miles and has visited several states and has even been in Iraq.

A traveler page can really show a lot of things.

How to start one

My first time caching, I picked up a geocoin. I didn’t know much about it, but I did a search and learned about it. I realized I was supposed to move the coin within two weeks or so of picking it up. I found what I thought was the perfect cache and let it go back into the wild. For a while, I “watched” the coin as it moved all over. After a while, I didn’t want to watch it anymore. I wanted to set loose one of my own.

So I did.

And I’ve done it many times since.

It’s easy to set one out. Just buy a traveler (which you can do on the Geocaching.com website or buy from many, many geocaching online stores), attach it to something and place it in a cache. Then wait. Sometimes travelers will take a while before they move. Sometimes it will seem like it will never move.

Sometimes they disappear.

But don’t give up hope. There are stories of travelers that seemingly disappeared years ago and resurface.

My 2010 pathtag.

Other “Travelers”

Though not really travelers, Pathtags often get confused as travelers because of their number on the back. Pathtags, however, are signature items. People can register them on the Pathtags website. Pathtags look like small geocoins and are quite detailed. But in the end, they are normal swag one can trade for and keep. People do, however, place them back in caches for others to eventually find.

People also have signature items, which can range from wood coins, to pencils, to custom-made items to many other things. These, too, are swag items and are not travelers, unless of course they are attached to a travel bug or coin!

Final thoughts

Travelers are a great aspect to the game of geocaching. It gives people the chance to travel through something they have set out into the world. Many of these travelers have goals — to reach a different place, to see something, to get to another geocacher or something else. Others just have the goal of traveling.

When you pick them up, do your best to move them along as soon as you can. People love seeing their travelers move often! And when you send them out, have fun with them and realize these things can — and will — disappear. It’s an unfortunate part of the game. When you release them, you’ll likely never see them again, so try not to attach anything valuable. Have fun and see a different side of the game!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

 

Is collecting still a good hobby?

I’m curious.

In the age of the Internet and everything else, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people collect things anymore. When I was a kid, I collected a lot of different things. Of course, a lot of those things didn’t stick so I soon grew bored with the items.

But, as an adult, I have a few things I enjoy collecting.

That being said, it seems like a lot of people don’t collect much — well, at least people I know.

I once worked with someone who was still into collecting stamps (something I did when I was younger). I love stamps. It’s one reason I really like postcrossing as you get to see some wild stamps from around the world.

But the new U.S. stamps seem like they would be a bore to collect because they are the self-sticking kind.

Coins were neat. I did that before. But now, I only have one coin and I keep it in my wallet. When my dad died four years ago, one of my friends came to the calling hour and handed me a dime in a coin holder. The date of the coin was 1937 — the year my father was born. That is the one coin that really means something to me and I keep it with me as I walk through life.

But what do kids collect? Anything?

Adults?

I still collect baseball cards. But it’s so much different than when I was a kid. When I was younger, we’d get an allowance and go to Maxwell’s Gas Station and buy a couple of packs for 25 cents each. We’d chew the gum, then see what cards we got. We’d play flip or trade or whatever. But the cards were so cheap and affordable.

Then it became a business.

Card shows. e-Bay. Online sellers. Many card companies. Individual rights. Exclusive contracts.

The card industry has taken off. Though packs can be found at an affordable $1.99 at places like Wal-Mart or Target, many packs go upwards of 5-10 bucks. There are boxes of cards that sell for hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

My collection is based on personal things — usually authentic autographs or game-used cards of players I’ve covered in my newspaper career or players from the Philadelphia Phillies.

I do still like to open packs sometimes, but it’s expensive. And if you don’t get a “hit” (game-used, autograph etc.), you’re almost disappointed.

The funny part is, I’m not sure I could even tell you my favorite card. It might be my Mike Schmidt autographed card. Or my Robin Roberts auto card. I have autos of most of the current Phillies, as well as many game-used cards. I love getting auto cards of the players I covered when they were in the minors. By the time they get the authentic cards, they are usually several years past Oneonta, so it’s always neat to get one when they’ve climbed the ladder.

I also have a Jenny Finch autographed card, which is really sweet!

The only other thing I really collect is geocaching signature items. I like to trade for mine when I find them in caches and I keep them stored in an ammo can. Eventually, I’m going to take photos of each one — as well as each of my personal geocoins and pathtags — and make them into a coffee table book for myself. I consider pathtags and geocoins that I collect part of this broad topic of “signature items.”

I do keep the postcards I receive from Postcrossing, but it’s not really collecting.

That’s it though.

How about you guys? Collect anything? How did you get into it? Any story behind it?

Or if you have kids, do they collect anything? Most kids I see don’t collect anymore. I know I’ve seen some at card shows with their parents, but are the kids really collecting or are their parents?

I know there are still things to collect, but is it something that is kind of slowly starting to disappear?

I’d like to hear what some of you have to say. I hope there are some cool collectors out there with some cool items. For those who do collect — what’s your favorite item?

Hopefully collecting isn’t a dying hobby. I look forward to seeing what you all might collect!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.

Whipped!

Whew!

I’ll likely  have more about this — with a few photos — sometime soon. But I just wanted to throw out a quick post about today.

Two of us took advantage of the decent weather today and headed down to Poughkeepsie for some geocaching. We hit up two rails-to-trails spots and they were great. Paved and beautiful for riding bikes. However, the first one had some work being done about halfway through, so we had to split it in two.

That trail had eight caches, but we DNFd two on there, so not too bad. The second trail had 12 and we found all of them.

All told, we biked 8.18 miles today! It felt really good to get out, ride and do some caching. The final 3/4 of a mile on the second trail, I really kicked it up a little and sprinted my way to the parking lot, which felt good.

Unfortunately, something was going on with Brent’s bike and his handlebars were wacky, so he couldn’t do the sprint as well.

In the end, we finished with 28 caches. That 28 is an important number, however, as Brent got his 1,000th find on the final cache of the night. A great milestone indeed!

Today’s adventure featured a breakdown as such:

  • 3 virtual caches
  • 3 letterbox hybrids
  • 2 multi-caches
  • 20 traditionals
  • Only two DNFs (both nanos, one on a train caboose).

I like that breakdown.

I also left several of my new signature items as well.

Can I tell you why it’s great to have golf pencils as signature items? If you have several in your pocket, you can sign the log for a good cache and leave your signature item as well!

Anyway, including some walking to caches, we did a shade under 9 miles today, which is nice. That being said, I’m whipped now. It was very windy at times, which is hard to pedal into. I’m going to try and log everything tonight and grab the travelers I picked up and then debate bed!

Overall, one heck of a day. I’ll look forward to setting up out own bike caching series (three of us are talking about doing one that will stretch about 12 miles on a rail-to-trail area) and finding other bike trails where we can land several caches — especially if they have more than micros!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.