Infamous Travel Bug Prison Controversy

[rock_hound]

Take a look at the disscussion going on at the Infamous Travel Bug Prison (I.T.B.P.) (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=77aab2f6-538d-4b45-ba3c-01a238f24773).

Basically, the owner restocked the cache with travel bugs, then someone came and removed all travel bugs without replacing them.

Obviously the cache logs are not the place for this disscussion. Personally, I feel it would be an honor for my bug to be in the "prison". This cache is at the top of my list of to do caches. I hope the owner can place more bugs and maintain the cache.

Thought this was interesting.

[Geezer_Veazey]

I have been following that discussion and I have two observations/opinions:

First, It is a great cache. From the owners description: "Be very careful as there are pitfalls in the correct cave. This rating was based on geocaching.com's rating system and is to be taken into account. It is dangerous and risky." From some of the logs, you not only have to avoid pitfalls inside the cave, you must also make your way through some extremely tight places. I only wish I were able to hunt it but a 270 lb carcass and arthritic knees and shoulder would probably make me unable to hunt it.

Second, It is not a good place to put Travel Bugs, in my opinion. When you put a Travel Bug in a so-so cache, the TB becomes an attraction and draws cachers. However, the draw for this cache is the 4/5 rating and the nature of the cache itself. Only a small percentage of cachers would want to attempt this, but those that do would be drawn by the cache itself. With only a few hunting it, it would be expected that a Travel Bug placed there would likely stay a much longer time than in an easier cache. This defeats the purpose of a Travel Bug --- to travel --- and deprives the less hardy cachers and the TB owners the joy of moving it and seeing it moved.

The cache owner has stated that he never intended to keep Travel Bugs a long period of time. My only question is, what does he consider a long period of time. If it is his intention to go in and rescue a TB that has been there, say a couple of months, then I have no problem with that. If that is not the case, then I think I will put a restriction on my future Travel Bugs, preventing them from being placed in any cache with a difficulty rating of more than 3/3. Of course, I would have to trust the cachers to honor this which I have no reason to believe he would not.

Perhaps there is another solution to this. I notice that the cache owner does not own any Travel Bugs. If he wants a large number of TBs in his cache then he could purchase some and place his own TBs in the cache. That would resolve the concerns I have mention above.

Guy