INTRODUCTION AND METHODS
People get into geocaching for a variety of reasons. For the writer it is most about the making of travel bugs (TBs), tracking their movements and documenting their longevity. I find that maintaining all of my records is increasingly difficult, given the number of TBs released from January 2010 through 2016. Thus, prioritizing my efforts, I will cease actively scanning logs for new locations visited; this will be my final report on my TB travels.
The most recent version of this report was uploaded in June of 2013. It and the first one were far were more limited in terms of elapsed time and numbers of travel bugs included. Furthermore, they became outdated almost as soon as they were published. During that period, new locations were captured almost weekly, then it became monthly and now it might be quarterly at best. This report will become outdated, but not so quickly as earlier versions and I am no longer going to fuss over it. The definitions and caveats employed in the tables follow.
For the United States (US), Groundspeak permits designation of cache localities to what we know as the state level. However, Washington DC (the District of Columbia) is included in the cache-listing menu. It is a federal district. Canada has no federal district and no states, but has both provinces and territories, all of which are in the cache-listing menu. Since many shellbadger TBs have traveled beyond the borders of the US and Canada, an effort was made to apply the same standard everywhere.
A new location is a visit to a new statoid. Abroad, Groundspeak has increasingly enabled new cache locations to be reported at some political/administrative level below that of the nation. These levels have varying names depending on the country; examples are departments, provinces, prefectures, cantons, regions and more. To avoid confusion, hereafter a neutral word “statoid” is utilized as the single term for all these regions. Confounding the issue are island assemblages, some of which may be independent nations whereas others may be political protectorates. Even relying on recent internet resources, the distinction between sovereign nation and protectorate is not always clear, but they were sorted to the prevailing opinion. This is not a perfect system, particularly given the sometimes huge disparities in land area and population among some of the statoids, but it is the system with which I will work.
There are circumstances where a location for cache in a country, France for example, is simply given as “France” while a another cache description will give the location as “Aquataine, France.” This is probably an artifact of a change in the cache-listing menu, but the reason why really doesn’t matter. Again, to apply equal precision throughout as much of the data as possible, missing statoid data were retroactively determined and tabulated. This information was chiefly gleaned from Wikipedia and other web resources.
These same resources were used to identify and add statoid locations for large countries where the statoid option was not part of the cache-listing process, but the statoids are well-known and stable. Examples are a few countries in in Europe (Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland), China and most countries of South America. When no suitably detailed map for a country could be found, or the country was seemingly without official statoids, TB visits were assigned to the country only.
People get into geocaching for a variety of reasons. For the writer it is most about the making of travel bugs (TBs), tracking their movements and documenting their longevity. I find that maintaining all of my records is increasingly difficult, given the number of TBs released from January 2010 through 2016. Thus, prioritizing my efforts, I will cease actively scanning logs for new locations visited; this will be my final report on my TB travels.
The most recent version of this report was uploaded in June of 2013. It and the first one were far were more limited in terms of elapsed time and numbers of travel bugs included. Furthermore, they became outdated almost as soon as they were published. During that period, new locations were captured almost weekly, then it became monthly and now it might be quarterly at best. This report will become outdated, but not so quickly as earlier versions and I am no longer going to fuss over it. The definitions and caveats employed in the tables follow.
For the United States (US), Groundspeak permits designation of cache localities to what we know as the state level. However, Washington DC (the District of Columbia) is included in the cache-listing menu. It is a federal district. Canada has no federal district and no states, but has both provinces and territories, all of which are in the cache-listing menu. Since many shellbadger TBs have traveled beyond the borders of the US and Canada, an effort was made to apply the same standard everywhere.
A new location is a visit to a new statoid. Abroad, Groundspeak has increasingly enabled new cache locations to be reported at some political/administrative level below that of the nation. These levels have varying names depending on the country; examples are departments, provinces, prefectures, cantons, regions and more. To avoid confusion, hereafter a neutral word “statoid” is utilized as the single term for all these regions. Confounding the issue are island assemblages, some of which may be independent nations whereas others may be political protectorates. Even relying on recent internet resources, the distinction between sovereign nation and protectorate is not always clear, but they were sorted to the prevailing opinion. This is not a perfect system, particularly given the sometimes huge disparities in land area and population among some of the statoids, but it is the system with which I will work.
There are circumstances where a location for cache in a country, France for example, is simply given as “France” while a another cache description will give the location as “Aquataine, France.” This is probably an artifact of a change in the cache-listing menu, but the reason why really doesn’t matter. Again, to apply equal precision throughout as much of the data as possible, missing statoid data were retroactively determined and tabulated. This information was chiefly gleaned from Wikipedia and other web resources.
These same resources were used to identify and add statoid locations for large countries where the statoid option was not part of the cache-listing process, but the statoids are well-known and stable. Examples are a few countries in in Europe (Denmark, Luxembourg, Finland), China and most countries of South America. When no suitably detailed map for a country could be found, or the country was seemingly without official statoids, TB visits were assigned to the country only.
More than 2,550 TBs were released by the writer in the period January 2010 through December 2016. Examples of the kinds of TBs released are in the photos accompanying these pages. This study focuses on a subset of only the 195 TBs (7.6% of total) that visited 468 unique statoids before the closing date. It should be noted that other shellbadgerTBs released in the same period are still in circulation and may yet visit a new statoid. However, the majority of the unlisted TBs have either gone missing or have been the hands of a cacher for a year or more. The same is true of the subset of TBs discussed here. After reaching some new statoid, most of the older ones went missing or have been held for extended periods, particularly those in the US.
Relevant text and tables of data are shown under each of the tabs above. They generally have the same information, but the data are presented differently, depending on the focus. The reader should be made aware that the tables can be expanded to full-screen by clicking on the icon on the lower-right portion of the table frame. The table text may also be increased or decreased with the plus and minus icons.
Tab 1 is obviously this page. It provides background, methods and definitions employed throughout the report. Tab 2 is a list of travel bugs having made at least one visit to a new statoid. This is the only tab where the TB names, miles traveled and number of drops are displayed. There are two tables, the first has TB information arranged by ID number, the second has identical information, but it is arranged bu TB name. Tab 3 is a list of TB visits by statoid, but sorted to countries, as appropriate. Tab 4 is an accounting of the history of each travel bug, whether they visited one or multiple statoids. Tab 5 has the data arranged in the order in which any TB visited a new statoid, earliest date to latest date. If a travel bug has visited a new statoid more than once, it will appear on the list on every respective date. Tab 6 arranges the data by cacher, showing the dates and locations of their contributions.
Tab 1 is obviously this page. It provides background, methods and definitions employed throughout the report. Tab 2 is a list of travel bugs having made at least one visit to a new statoid. This is the only tab where the TB names, miles traveled and number of drops are displayed. There are two tables, the first has TB information arranged by ID number, the second has identical information, but it is arranged bu TB name. Tab 3 is a list of TB visits by statoid, but sorted to countries, as appropriate. Tab 4 is an accounting of the history of each travel bug, whether they visited one or multiple statoids. Tab 5 has the data arranged in the order in which any TB visited a new statoid, earliest date to latest date. If a travel bug has visited a new statoid more than once, it will appear on the list on every respective date. Tab 6 arranges the data by cacher, showing the dates and locations of their contributions.
The tables of data have a number of headings in common and many are abbreviated, but not all headings are shown in all tables. An explanation of all the headings follows, listed in alphabetical order.
Cacher--The name of the cacher either releasing a travel bug or taking it to a new statoid. Regrettably, there were instances when cachers apparently retrieved then dropped a TB without logging either event. The credit for the visit is given to the cachers who next log grabs or retrievals.
Cat--This is Catalog Number. It is a personal numbering system. It generally reflects the sequence in which all shellbadger travel bugs were released, but there are exceptions. To obtain these numbers the TBs are sorted first by their earliest to latest release dates. Those having the same release dates were then arranged by their ID numbers, lowest to highest.
Country--This is the country of which the new statoid is a component. The country names are written in US English.
Days--This is the number of days between the release date and the date of the first visit to a new statoid.
Drop--After the initial release of a TB, a drop is each subsequent release of a travel bug to a container and the fate of the TB is wholly in the hands of anonymous cachers. A grab at an event, or elsewhere, where an exchange occurs person-to-person does not fit the defintion. However, a grab of a TB from a cache other than where the TB was last logged is included because a drop obviously occurred. These data are garnered from tables maintained by the writer.
ID--The identification number is the number assigned by Groundspeak when a TB is activated. It is provided should a reader want to verify information reported upon, or simply see a photo or the history of the bug. It is also the only means to quickly obtain the name of a travel bug or or other information in Tab 2 above.
Miles--The miles are the distance travel by the TB, as shown on the TB home page. The information was obtained in the period 15-31 December 2016.
Name--The formal name of the travel bug, as it appear on the TB home page.
Release Date--The release is the date shellbadger, or an agent, first abandons a travel bug to a container and the fate of the TB is wholly in the hands of anonymous cachers. Is not the same as the activation date, which can occur weeks to months prior to the actual release. Some of the bugs were sent to Europe where they were dropped or traded at an event. A grab at an event does not fit the defintion because the exchange was hand-to-hand.
Release Location--The city or landmark nearest the cache where the travel bug was released.
Statoid--Defined above. However, the names of a statoid follow the examples in the cache registration menus. That is, the spellings are those of the native language, if the written language is based on the Latin alphabet. All others (including Greek, Cyrillic, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, others) were transliterated.
Status--The status of each travel bug was determined from the TB home page in the period 15-31 December 2016. The bugs were noted to be either in the hands of a cacher, in a cache, retired or unknown. The status is shown only in the list of travel bugs (Tab 2).
Visit--This is the date any shellbadger TB reached a new statoid. For the purpose of this work, logs of TB drops and
visits to a cache in a new statoid have equal status. Included in the definition were instances when a bug last-logged in one statoid, but retrieved in another.
Cacher--The name of the cacher either releasing a travel bug or taking it to a new statoid. Regrettably, there were instances when cachers apparently retrieved then dropped a TB without logging either event. The credit for the visit is given to the cachers who next log grabs or retrievals.
Cat--This is Catalog Number. It is a personal numbering system. It generally reflects the sequence in which all shellbadger travel bugs were released, but there are exceptions. To obtain these numbers the TBs are sorted first by their earliest to latest release dates. Those having the same release dates were then arranged by their ID numbers, lowest to highest.
Country--This is the country of which the new statoid is a component. The country names are written in US English.
Days--This is the number of days between the release date and the date of the first visit to a new statoid.
Drop--After the initial release of a TB, a drop is each subsequent release of a travel bug to a container and the fate of the TB is wholly in the hands of anonymous cachers. A grab at an event, or elsewhere, where an exchange occurs person-to-person does not fit the defintion. However, a grab of a TB from a cache other than where the TB was last logged is included because a drop obviously occurred. These data are garnered from tables maintained by the writer.
ID--The identification number is the number assigned by Groundspeak when a TB is activated. It is provided should a reader want to verify information reported upon, or simply see a photo or the history of the bug. It is also the only means to quickly obtain the name of a travel bug or or other information in Tab 2 above.
Miles--The miles are the distance travel by the TB, as shown on the TB home page. The information was obtained in the period 15-31 December 2016.
Name--The formal name of the travel bug, as it appear on the TB home page.
Release Date--The release is the date shellbadger, or an agent, first abandons a travel bug to a container and the fate of the TB is wholly in the hands of anonymous cachers. Is not the same as the activation date, which can occur weeks to months prior to the actual release. Some of the bugs were sent to Europe where they were dropped or traded at an event. A grab at an event does not fit the defintion because the exchange was hand-to-hand.
Release Location--The city or landmark nearest the cache where the travel bug was released.
Statoid--Defined above. However, the names of a statoid follow the examples in the cache registration menus. That is, the spellings are those of the native language, if the written language is based on the Latin alphabet. All others (including Greek, Cyrillic, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, others) were transliterated.
Status--The status of each travel bug was determined from the TB home page in the period 15-31 December 2016. The bugs were noted to be either in the hands of a cacher, in a cache, retired or unknown. The status is shown only in the list of travel bugs (Tab 2).
Visit--This is the date any shellbadger TB reached a new statoid. For the purpose of this work, logs of TB drops and
visits to a cache in a new statoid have equal status. Included in the definition were instances when a bug last-logged in one statoid, but retrieved in another.
Two comments about error are appropriate. The dates in the tracking histories of TB are accepted at face value, but it is understood that an unknown percentage of the logging of finds and visits is done when convenient, particularly in the absence of smart phones or cell coverage. Thus, information with date components should not be regarded as finite.
The writer systematically tracks the status of his TBs. However, to identify first statoids, all of the logs had to be read completely to identify the earliest dates and responsible cachers. This was an extremely tedious task. And, while every effort was made to avoid errors, because of late nights and a sometimes short attention span, it is possible errors are present. Particularly troublesome is the potential for someone who deserves credit will not be recognized. That said, corrections will be made upon notification to the writer, but there is absolutely no chance that the complete logs of 2500+ shellbadger TBs will be examined again.
As in the past, I am certain to hear from anonymous readers who will take exception to the process, or who perceive some bias in the work or who otherwise will find some reason to be offended by my comments. So be it, they can write up their own study, with their own bugs and their own set of conditions.
shellbadger, February, 2017
I have produced and uploaded some other reports on my travel bug and geocaching activities. The general titles and links follow.
Travel Bug Losses Over Time here
Contributed Travel Bug Photos here
Cachers Holding Travel Bugs here
My Travel Bug Capable Caches here
The writer systematically tracks the status of his TBs. However, to identify first statoids, all of the logs had to be read completely to identify the earliest dates and responsible cachers. This was an extremely tedious task. And, while every effort was made to avoid errors, because of late nights and a sometimes short attention span, it is possible errors are present. Particularly troublesome is the potential for someone who deserves credit will not be recognized. That said, corrections will be made upon notification to the writer, but there is absolutely no chance that the complete logs of 2500+ shellbadger TBs will be examined again.
As in the past, I am certain to hear from anonymous readers who will take exception to the process, or who perceive some bias in the work or who otherwise will find some reason to be offended by my comments. So be it, they can write up their own study, with their own bugs and their own set of conditions.
shellbadger, February, 2017
I have produced and uploaded some other reports on my travel bug and geocaching activities. The general titles and links follow.
Travel Bug Losses Over Time here
Contributed Travel Bug Photos here
Cachers Holding Travel Bugs here
My Travel Bug Capable Caches here