Trackables occupy a special place in the hearts of geocachers. Travel bugs are carefully crafted and sent out on special missions. Geocoins are designed, minted, collected, traded and horded. Whether it's a matter of moving a bug around the world or getting that newest hottest geocoin icon we each participate in these little community projects and we all share in the fun. Of course, part of the reality of dealing with trackables is that they sometimes go missing. Caches they're in get muggled, travel bugs get lost in the wild (and in backpacks) and coins sometimes just mysteriously disappear. While there's no way to insure that all of these items make it to their destinations we all take steps to help them get on their way. The resources you'll find here are designed to help identify trackables and get them where they're supposed to be. Hopefully with a little extra care we'll have these bugs and coins racking up miles for years to come.
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Written by Bret Hammond
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GeoCoins have become an amazing phenomenon in the geocaching community! We create them, collect them, trade them and show them off. Just take a look at the coin table at the next event you attend. You'll find geocachers from all walks of life showing off their collections and writing down tracking numbers to get that latest greatest icon. The  GeoCoin Buddy sheet provides you with several forms for coins you release into the wild as well as coins you give away. The form at the top is for recording logging and goal information, similar to a Travel Bug's info sheet. It also provides room to record the tracking number, which is especially helpful to those with older eyes. The two forms below are for coins you give away either as gifts or FTF prizes. They simply make those gifts a little nicer and easier to keep track of. These small sheets are designed to fit inside the pocket found on many transparent coin sleeves (or simply in the sleeve itsefl). Enter the information in the spaces provided, print and cut and fold them along the guides. Download the GeoCoin Buddy Form |
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Written by Bret Hammond
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Travel bugs have a bad habit of disappearing. We take a lot of steps to make sure they get where they're going. We put them in ziplock baggies, we print out info sheets and laminate them, we carefully record their numbers and keep the copy tags "just in case" something goes wrong.  One of the problems I've noticed with Travel Bug info sheets is they're just too big for a lot of caches. And while they identify the travel bug and its goal, they don't fully cover the problem of new cachers who just don't know how to log and take care of a trackable.
The Travel Bug Travel Guide addresses both those issues. It fold into a neat 8 page "zine" format and provides the space you need to add important information about the bug, its mission and its owner. There's also plenty of information about how to log and care for a travel bug in your possession. It can be a little tough to fold a zine for the first time, so plan on making a couple mistakes. Basically you want to fold on every line so you have eight individual panels. After that, cut on the dotted line in the middle two panels and fold it so the cover and back are on the outside. If you're still having trouble check out the video in the "read more" link. Travel Bug Travel Guide
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