I suppose it’s time for me to start updating my blog regularly.  In keeping with our Geopoll question, I wanted to share what my favorite part about Geocaching is.  We all have an aspect we love about the game.  For some of us its about the numbers, or collecting the most icons.  I have to agree, the icons are cute.  I love seeing the different ones.  Some people are so creative.  I suppose for some it may be about the difficulty or the challenge, the harder the better.  I guess some of you may like the challenge of a micro.  (Micros are my least favorite.)  Well for me its the trackable, the dog tag trackable more than the coin.  I like looking at the coins because they are pretty but many times I will leave them behind. 

I love the uniqueness and creativity of trackables.  A trackable opens a window into its owner.  Did they spend some time and do something unusual?  Did they come up with a creative goal?  Did they send it out with no goal and no comments at all?  When I look for caches, its usually the ones that say they have a trackable that catch my attention.  I feel like a kid in a candy store searching through the cache contents to find that dog tag.  My caching friends know to stand back and that they are going to really have to fight me if they think they are going to log that trackable.  Once I have found it and brought it home I love to look at the pictures of where it has been.  I add most of them to my watch list, especially if they have a specific goal so that I can continue to see how they do and where they go.  It’s like the travel channel in my Inbox.  My favorite Bug I have found so far is The National Parks Passport.  It is a passport book published by the National Parks and it lists all the Parks in the US with information and a place to get the book stamped at each park you visit.  A very creative cacher attached a dog tag and a Forest Service SUV hot wheel to it and sent it out into the world with the hopes of making it to as many National Parks as possible.

What does this really have to do with the Poll question?  Well before we posted this poll question I was very much against the whole idea of discovering.  I could see no good purpose.  But many of you cachers have voted and shared your thoughts and in doing so have enlightened me.  I can appreciate the fact that if someone is unable to move my trackable along and help it reach its goal, if they at least discover it I know it is still alive and has not disappeared.  Also, while writing this I realized my caching friends might like to discover because that is as close as they will probably get to any bug they find while out with me.  Lastly, a subscriber of Geocacher Magazine recently signed up for a second subscription because he is sending the magazine out attached to a dog tag so that it can visit events and cachers along the way.  It has the goal over never being left in a cache.  In this instance I hope to see all the posts of everyone who discovers it.

So in closing I want to thank all of you for enlightening me.  Geocacher Magazine began as a good idea and it has grown into so much more for me in this short time already.  I am learning new things, meeting lots of great people, and discovering a whole new world.  Thanks again and please keep sharing!

I’m excited to have our new web presence up!  Please take a look around and tell me what you think.