Friday, September 07, 2012

My First Pathtag


I got my first pathtags in the mail today. This is also my first signature item.

For those not familiar, a signature item is a personalized item that geocachers leave in the caches they find - sort of an "I was here" mark.  These sig items become tradable just like any other swag in the cache.  Often geocachers will trade pathtags with each other when they meet in person, and some have built up impressively extensive collections.

Some popular sig items are wooden nickels, business cards, or a certain item that folks leave - for example a cacher I met called Bells Boys leaves a small bell in each cache they find.

Pathtags (made by pathtags.com) are small metallic tags (slightly larger than a Canadian or US 5 cent coin) that can be highly personalized.  You can design your own, or get a designer to make you one.  The possibilities are almost endless.  They are hand painted at the factory with coloured enamel.

As you can see, for my pathtag I went with a design that seemed to represent me. I self-describe myself as a Canadian Bear (combination of my home country, and pronunciation of my last name), so I put in a sketch of a bear over a Canadian maple leaf.  I am by no means an artist, but I think it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself.  What do you think of the design?

Pathtags are a bit expensive so I won't be dropping these into every cache I find, but I am happy to trade.  If we ever meet in person ask me and I'll be happy to drop a pathtag in your hands.

Do you have a sig item?  Tell me about it in the comments below.