Jun 13 2009
A Disappointing Geocaching Experience
About three weeks ago, we logged our 13th find. It was a new cache (we were the second people to sign the log) and we decided that we would deploy one of the two Canada geocoins that we had recently purchased and registered. We placed it and then logged that we had dropped it in that location.
Three other people have logged finds for that cache since we’ve been there. The first one left a generic TFTC, the second TNLN, and the third was logged a week ago and says that there is no sign of the geocoin in the cache.
So, my question is this… Do I try and find out what happened to the coin? Do I just write it off as lost?
I know that this is bound to happen eventually. People either don’t know what to to with them and keep them, or just don’t care and take them. Since this is our first coin deployment and it seems to have disappeared from the very cache that we placed it in, it’s kind of soured me on placing anymore. We had set a goal of it making it to Oshawa, Ontario. That seems unlikely now…
It’s been two weeks since it’s been identified as missing. Since we are still new at geocaching, what do I do?
Just have to wait it out for a bit. Chances are someone picked it up but forgot to log it. They will probably drop it in another cache or an event somewhere and someone else will pick it up and properly log it.
Or you can send a message to the last 3 people to find that cache and ask if they picked it up. A gentle reminder to log it or drop it. Maybe they are new and don’t understand how geocoins work.
I released several Travel Bugs a year or so ago and two of them went AWOL….one after only a matter of weeks.
It’s disappointing when people can’t be bothered to log their TB/GC exchanges as it really ruins it for the people that pay for them to begin with.
Well, it seems that my problem has been solved..
There was another option that I had considered, but not put in the post.. It could have been that the third person merely missed the coin..
Which seems to be what has happened. Last night, I recieved an e-mail notification from geocaching.com, and someone picked it up and indicated that sometime this next weekend, they would start the coin on it’s journey.
Thanks for the advice!
In these situations, I usually wait it out for a bit, and then I’ll contact the people who found the cache around the time the TB or coin went missing.