The cache has been found. Your open it up and rummage through to find the logbook, but also take a second to look through the various swag/junk in the cache. Something shiny catches your eye. You think, “Ahh…a geocoin to move.” As you look at the colorful shiny piece of metal in your hands you realize this isn’t a normal trackable. Actually it is not a trackable at all. When you turn the tag over your realize you are holding a pathtag based in the inscription on the back.
Pathtags are a slightly smaller than a quarter personal trading item mostly used in geocaching. They are designed by geocachers all over the world and produced by pathtags.com. Each pathtag design is unique and represents the creator's caching name, caching event, or other interests. They are not trackable, but cachers can log them at the pathtag website to make comments and let others know where they found the tag.
Not only are they tradable but also collectable for many cachers. Several Twin Cities cachers have made their own tags as well as have a significant personal collection. Daphne Connolly (Catzilla) of Burnsville is one of those cachers. She became interested in pathtags after finding a few in caches. Pathtags differ from geocoins in that when you find them you can keep them rather than just move or discover them like a normal trackable. Daphne has found a few in caches, yet she has traded online for a lot more. Currently, she has 167 tags in her collection and reports that she receives two or three in the mail every week.
Daphne has created two tags and has plans for at least four more designs. She reports that pathtags.com was very helpful with the design process, but it can be difficult to be patient enough to wait the four to six weeks it takes to have them minted and sent.
In coming days we will follow up with how pathtags strengthen the geocaching community, and how pathtags can have special meaning to both owners and collectors alike. Stay tuned for part two and three next week!
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