More Adventure than we Planned

The nice weather (Calgary nice, not Vancouver nice!) had me chomping at the bit to get out and do a little caching. We wanted to go somewhere that the dog could come along to, so we chose one that was supposed to be a walk along a power line right-of-way.

We stopped for two quick road-side caches on the way. GC3VZH7 (Stix) was a quick find for my husband and then he made a second quick find by being the first to spot GC3VT9A (Home made tubing).

We parked at the recommended coordinates to look for GC25D6G (Road Allowance West #1) but then found ourselves on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence. As we walked up and down the fence line trying to see where the opening was, we quickly realized our only option (besides leaving) was to go over. Except for Scooby who had been running back and forth underneath while we were making our decision. So a bit of careful climbing and a lift over for the littlest goat and we were all on the same side as the cache. Allen got his hat trick by being the first to spot this cache in its hiding spot. The littlest goat was pleased to see an item she wanted in the container so we did a quick trade from her swag bag and signed the log book.

The dog was enjoying the outing and our daughter was happy with her trade so we pushed on toward the next closest cache. This proved to be more of a challenge than we were prepared for. There was quite a steep slope down to the next cache and still lots of ice and snow on the ground in that area so we had to detour into the woods a bit to avoid slipping down the hill. Unfortunately when we got to the bottom and were parallel to the cache, we proved to be on the wrong side of the same fence. After some deliberation I suggested that the other two take a break while I climb back over the fence and scale the other hill to take a look for the cache. I climbed and scrambled, sank into snow, slipped on ice and ducked under trees all the way to ground zero. Scooby ran back and forth frantically trying to stay with both groups or get us back together. But between the tree cover messing up my GPS and the ice making it hard to cover ground, I could not locate GC35K25 (On the trail with Lucy). So I made my way back down to the other goats and we headed back to the car. A quicker walk back but three cold and tired cachers were ready to go home.

Geocaching in the Valley Ridge area of Calgary

I know I promised stories of the rest of our summer trip but I am interrupting the summer stories for a more current geocache adventure we recently went on.
As newish Calgarians, transplanted here 5 years ago from Vancouver, we are still getting to know Calgary and the surrounding area. We are always surprised and delighted to find a new hiking or walking park and finding the Valley Ridge trails was just that sort of place. Only about a 10 minute drive from our house, there is a small gravel parking lot with walking trails leading first to a play park and then to the woods.

 We skipped the play park on the way in as our dog was too excited and wanted to get on the trails. So we headed first for Creepy Ol' Tree cache (GCY1PG) in a southerly direction on a narrow trail with a steep slope down to a creek on our right and an uphill rise to our left. Scooby Doo was thrilled to be along on this adventure and was barreling up and down the hills and into the creek and back to us again. We were enjoying the walk, the trees, the birds and the lure of a new cache.



The littlest goat was holding the Garmin GPS and kept her eye on the compass, letting us know when it was time to veer off the trail and up the hill. It was a quick find to grab the cache and sign the log. Then we left a travel coin to continue its journey.

 

The next cache in this direction was going to be across the creek so we decided to head back toward the beginning of the trail and take the other trail paralleling the river to look for another cache. (GC1XYK1) For Brinleigh, kiddie cache #3 the cache hiding spot was marked quite well for kids to spot it and our little goat did just that. She was happy to make the find on her own and hide it well after. Since she was still in a good caching mood we decided to go for one more. (GC103TB) Howler was next down this trail and we were enjoying the fall colours and the river views so much that we were at it before we knew it. A little scrambling around just off the trail and we had this one in hand too.

There are several more caches in this area and we are definitely planning to return for more. But for today this was just the right amount of caching. Now it was time to stop at the park and let the littlest goat check out the playground equipment.

Never JUST a rock!

My sister flew out from Vancouver for a visit last week while her kids were away on other travel adventures. Since she was curious about geocaching and had never been, we decided to take her out one day to Nosehill Park with our dog, Scooby Doo, and my daughter and just try one or two caches.

Our first destination was the infamous Your Mother was a Hamster (GC2TQZX) which makes me giggle every time I read it. Monty Python is everywhere! It was a very buggy day but the dog was very excited to get out and the littlest goat was happy to show her Aunty Otter our family hobby so off we went. As a fellow Vancouver expat, I wasn't surprised that my sister found the park very different from parks back home with so few trees and so much long grass. We laughed at the dog leaping up to see through the grass as she chased her ball. And before we knew it we were at the cache. It was really an easy find and a very cute container, well worth the walk. Just after we rehid the container we turned to see two beautiful stags watching us from the other side of the gulley. They kept their eyes on us as we back-tracked to the off-leash area and our next cache.

We were curious to see what the next cache would look like as it was a puzzle cache with an odd description. The Lockbox (GC3GMD0) was actually a two-part cache. You had to find the container first and then find a separate cache with the combination to the lock which was on the container. Took a bit of looking and lots of slapping at mosquitoes but eventually we found both parts and signed the log. I think maybe this one should be listed as a multi instead of a puzzle.

That was enough buggy adventures to give my sister a taste for geocaching but not wear her out on her first day. But the next night I was telling Otter about some caches I had been unable to find and she got excited and wanted to go take a look. It was already evening so we took flashlights and headed off to the first location. I won't tell you the name of this cache as I am going to spoil the container type by saying it was a micro hidden in a small rock which was blended into the actual rock base of a structure. We were feeling around the area looking for anything that might be hiding a tiny cache when my sister pulled a rock out of the wall, said "Its just a rock" and replaced it. I turned to her and said "What? Wait a minute..." and sure enough the bison tube was stuck inside the back of that very rock. For the rest of the night I kept saying "It's never JUST a rock!"

We went on to find two more caches that had been eluding me, including a creative micro in a tree called Nutz (GC2TROG).

Two days later we made a trip to the south for an appointment and took a few minutes to find the cache hidden in the Signal Hill branch of the Calgary Public Library. This was also creative and fun and we even had some help from the librarians who caught on what we were up to. We made two more finds that day and had my sister well and truly hooked on caching by the time we sent her home.