Trackables – Yours to Discover

This article was originally published on Cache Up NB. It has been mirrored here for archive purposes only.

This past Sunday (14th), Cache Up NB hosted the very first Geo-Trackables Expo in Sussex. This event saw a pretty decent sized group of cachers come out and share their love of all things trackable. Some just stood around and chatted, while others brought out their collection to show others. Many folks have collected quite a few geocoins in our adventures in geocaching so it was nice to see what others have obtained and collected.

One of the things I saw some people doing at this event, and other events similar in nature, is the “discovering” of bugs and coins. For those unfamiliar with the practice, it goes something like this. A geocacher see a travel bug or other trackable item and makes note of the trackable code. They then log a “discover” on www.geocaching.com. This discover log is basically the same as saying “I saw this bug”. They aren’t retrieving it and have no plans to move it. They just want to log the fact that they saw the coin or bug. When they log it, the “Trackables” tab of their GC profile is updated  and the “Trackables Moved/Discovered” list now has an entry for each of the bugs they have discovered. In many cases, each coin/bug might have their own icon and so the cacher now has a new icon listed in their trackables list.

I have been to some fairly large coin events in the US and at many of these events, there are tables and tables of people with huge books of coins and many folks are going from person to person, writing down every single trackable code they can get their hands on. They then turn around and “discover” every one of those coins. It is this act of “discovery” that I have always found quite perplexing.

It seems that there is an entire genre of geocachers who are very enthusiastic about the idea of “discovering” new coins. Not moving them. Just discovering them. I have never been able to quite understand what the fascination is with trackable discoveries. I mean, I have logged the occasional one from time to time, but for those who go around and collect as many trackable codes as you can and then log them, what is the appeal?  I am actually genuinely interested in what those folks find fascinating about the art of discovery.

Are you one of those discoverers? If you are, tell us your story about what drives you to discover so many bugs and coins.