EXMAN gives back to the geocaching community by reactivating missing Travel Bugs!!!

I recently listened to Sonny, Sandy and Sean on the Podcacher podcast share about fellow geocacher EXMAN and his contribution back to the geocaching community. He's come up with an idea to help keep travel bugs active. As most of you well know travel bugs have less than a 50-50 chance of survival out in the wild. It may even be worse. It just seems that there are folks unwilling to play the game as it is intended. Too many travel bugs go missing to be simple mishap. I guess that is a pet peeve of mine so enough of my soap boxing.

Anyway, EXMAN has a plan that he's putting into action. Over the last few months he has released into the wild over 600 previously missing Travel Bugs. That's right, EXMAN, at the request of the TB owners, has created a tag with the original tracking number for the missing TB and then released it from wherever he was currently located. What a thoughtful way to help encourage geocachers around the world.

I have only one Travel Bug out. It was named in honor of my grandson when he was born almost 2.5 years ago. Soon after his birth I released it near Raleigh, N.C. with the goal of it traveling to Quito, Ecuador. The TB, Ryan's Arrival, made it to California and then, after being retrieved by a geocacher, went missing. I've written to the cacher who took last retrieved it but have not received any reply. Could it have gotten lost? Could they have dropped out of geocaching and simply forgotten it? Who knows but I suspect the latter as their statistics show that they cached with furvor right up until July 2011 and then seemed to have dropped out of the sport. This happen. Several weeks ago I wrote to EXMAN asking for his help and sending him the necessary information. I've not heard back but am confident that soon Ryan's Arrival will be re-activated. EXMAN will only release the tag. I've changed the goal of Ryan's Arrival so that it will come back to North Carolina where we have settled down. Maybe it will get close enough for me to grab it and add the photo of Ryan.

Here's a big thanks to EXMAN for what he's doing. You can learn more about EXMAN and this project by clicking here. Thanks to mrsdkrebs for the TB photo.