Easter Sunday return to caching

It has been a long, extremely cold, very snowy winter! And we are really done with it! I know we will probably get a few more snow flurries before I can consider getting started on garden work but today it was warm enough to get out as a family and enjoy some suburban hiking.

We started with a cache that has been nagging at my mind for a while. The Hunger Games cache (GC35K4Z) is a puzzle cache that requires you to have read the first Hunger Games book in order to solve the puzzle. I had some issues with the idea behind the book and was resistant to reading it, but I thought I should at least read the first one so that I knew more about it. Well, that was the plan.

Turns out I really liked the books. Yes, books. Had to go to the library and find the other two because I wanted to read more!
 
You only need to read the first book to solve this puzzle cache though, and the solution is pretty easy.
The littlest goat was not keen on going caching today but I gave her a bit of a guilt trip and she came around. As it was, she was the leader walking through the woods and was the one to pull the cache out of hiding!

Then it was on to the next cache called Dig It! (GC4KEAC) that was placed for the Fall Cache and Release event of 2013. It has a Thanksgiving theme but Easter is also a time of being thankful so today was a good day to look for it! The littlest goat was at GZ before the old goat and I had even cleared the woods and she had the cache in hand before I even saw where she pulled it from. We loved the inner container. Some thought and creativity has gone into this one and it is worth a visit.

We took a short drive to our next target area. There is a new area called Nolan Hill in the Northwest of Calgary that is just starting to be built up. There are still lots of fields and undeveloped but cleared land with a couple of ponds and a creek running through it. Perfect when someone has seen fit to hide a few caches in the area!

Our first target was Nolan Hill Scramble (GC52D8G) and scramble we did! We went down into the creek area and then had to go back up to the trees when we realized where the compass was pointing. Saw out first crocus of the season and felt a rush of relief that spring may actually be here!

Took a bit of searching as the container is well-camouflaged, but we were successful in the end. Littlest goat went for a walk around the pond while we searched and she came back excited about seeing a Bufflehead and a Goldeneye diving for their lunch.

We headed over to the walking path to look for Nolan Hill Stroll (GC52D8X) next. Couldn't get Little Goat out of the creek so the Old goat and I had to search on our own. The container was a bit trickier than the last one as it is smaller but the coordinates were better, and after some pricks and pokes in the hands, we found the cache.

At this point we called it a day. I still had a turkey to roast and the others were planning on heading to the pool for a swim. A very pleasant day out in the fresh air with the family now that spring is peeking through!

Better late than never

At the end of my last post, I mentioned that we went geocaching on the Bearspaw Lasso Trail but I never did write the follow up post to that day. So here it is...better late than never.

From July 26, 2013
We were greeted at the trail head by a beautiful doe, casually grazing on the lush greenery abundant in the area. She was not too worried about our approach, just moved slightly off the path and watched us get out of the car and start our first search. Our first target was Gnome Alone CCARS09 (GC1YAA4) which was an easy find to get us started. Sadly the gnome who was supposed to guard the cache was gone but the cache was in good shape. And the hike up to it got us warmed up for what turned out to be quite an afternoon of hiking.

The next cache on the trail was Living in a Yellow Submarine (GC4B02Y) which was another quick find and a cute cache container. It is always nice when a cache is hidden in an unusual container or hidden in some way that takes imagination and creativity.

Our entire hike was made more enjoyable by the scenery, the wildflowers, grasses and ponds we passed.

 After all the rain and flooding Calgary went through in June, July was green and lush and feeling very much NOT like winter.

As we hiked to GCPF5C (Blueridge Micro), the trail dropped quite a bit in elevation and we came to a small creek to be crossed. However, the GPS was quite sure that the cache we were looking for was not across the creek. We searched in all the obvious spots and just could not see what needed to be seen. Then, I saw something that just didn't look right...and there was the cache. Again, just a unique way to hide a cache in plain sight, but something that made this better than a bison tube in a tree!

Across a little bridge (watching out for trolls) we went, and up into a treed area. It was a welcome way to cool off a bit as the day was warm, but soon we were out onto the grassy hillside again and looking for a multicache called When You Feel Miserable (GC1AZJK). The first part of the cache was supposed to be near a fenceline but this area was covered in anthills and millions of large ANTS! We did our best searching but gave up as the prickles, ants and sun were taking their toll. We moved on.

Following the path led us down to a quiet road we had to cross to an area we had been before. There is a large pond here with lots of ducks and reeds and mosquitoes!

 

Orange You Glad It's Not a Micro (GC1YA97) has a nice view of this pond which was quiet and peaceful this hot summer day. We signed the log as quickly as we could as the bugs were thick and relentless beside the water, then we made our way back to the trail. We almost turned back here because the next cache was one we had found back in 2007 when we first started caching and there was quite a distance to the cache past that one. But turning back would be almost the same distance and not as interesting since we had already covered it, so on we went. Friday the Thirteenth (GC1YZZJ) was the cache we had previously found, and is well worth a visit, especially if you are a night cacher with enough courage to search a dark wooded area. For us though, the destination was another Beatles cache appropriately named The Beatles - A Tribute (GC4AEBM). The littlest goat pulled this one from the hiding spot with a giggle. A fine tribute to the Beatles indeed!

The next cache itself was unremarkable but easily found in a grove of trees. (GC4AEAD) We had to reapply the bugspray and head to the next one before we were sucked dry by the mosquitoes. GC32JGR (Goodbye Calgary) was a unique hide placed in a clever way. We looked around for a bit before finding it and after closing it up and walking away, realized we had to go back because the littlest goat was still holding the log book.

Our last cache of the day, after a long hot hike, turned out to be our 500th cache!  We were excited to reach this milestone and a bit relieved to find the cache as we were hot and thirsty and tired of the bugs. The cache was hidden near a beautiful little pasture that was noted in the title of The Ponies Crystal Pasture (GC4AE98).

 Our return to the car turned out to be an adventure in itself as we made a wrong turn on one of the trails and had to do a lot of scrambling through trees, down a steep hillside and across a little gully. We made it through to the right area and soon found our ride waiting where we left it. A great day of caching that ended well.

After my Pine Lake Adventure, my husband and daughter wanted to do a series of caches as well but didn't have the stamina to do 100. So we headed just North of the city to a series placed by a veteran cacher who goes by the handle KinderKen. He placed 13 separate caches along a quiet country road where there are often moose, deer, coyotes, muskrats, ducks, hawks and other birds. We started at the West end of the road because it was closer access for us but it didn't make a difference to your searches which one you started with.

The area is certainly quiet with very little traffic, lots of birdsong, some cows warning us off their pastures, and lots of buzzing mosquitoes. We had the first cache, (GC3F4QM) A Snaky Road Cache, in hand very quickly as I had seen one just like it on the Pine Lake Trail. Each cache had an original container and was hidden in a different manner than the previous one. Some required a bit of a climb, others just needed a good pair of eyes or three. We added in one cache along the same road (GC2VYB8) Just Off the Trail which was placed by Sleepy_hollow. The littlest goat found it with no problem after a boost up the bank by Mama goat. We enjoyed the little meadow this one brought us to, with a variety of wildflowers in bloom.

The final cache in the Road series is called Ziggy Zaggy Road cache (GC3F4YG) and is rated higher on the difficulty scale. Unfortunately, this one proved to be too elusive for us and we had to go home with one DNF. We did stop at another cache just down the road (GC23G73) Mountain View Trackable Bed and Breakfast to drop a geocoin to move along its way. We enjoy picking up these travelers whenever we can and checking out the maps that show how far they have come. We have several travel bugs and coins circulating in the geocaching world right now and hope that people will keep them moving.

Doing these road caches inspired us to do more series and our next adventure took us along the Bearspaw Lasso Trail for a string of hiking caches. 

An Amazing Adventure at Pine Lake

This has been an absolutely amazing month for geocaching for us! We have had a slow start to our year but recently had an opportunity to make up for that in a way I had never imagined. After volunteering to help the GeoWyrms, a couple who are heavily involved in the geocaching community here, with a Geocaching 101 presentation, they invited me to go along on a Power Trail geocaching expedition to Pine Lake, Alberta. Since the old goat and littlest goat had things to keep them busy at home, I eagerly said yes to the invitation!

 I have never done a power trail, the most caches I have previously done in one day was 23 during a CCARS event with friends. The GeoWyrms thought we would be getting about 83 caches that Saturday! Unbelievable!

Since we would be away from the city, I packed carefully. I brought along bug spray, sunscreen, a hat, a rain jacket, extra socks in case my feet got wet, a water bottle, my cache bag with trade items, a couple extra pens, extra batteries for my GPS, some cash for food, antihistamines  for any allergy problems, and my cell phone. I made sure to load all the caches in the area into my GPS just in case we went for some that weren't on the Pine Lake Power Trail.
  

I was so excited that I hardly got any sleep the night before. A quick shower, breakfast, and a short drive to meet up with the GeoWyrms, the Uh-ohs and Mr. Ge0Patr0l and then we were off to Pine Lake. The drive was fun and seemed to take no time at all. Our first warm-up cache was actually at a strip mall in Innisfail after a quick stop for snacks and a bathroom break.  Then it was off to the trail.

The Pine Lake Micro Trail was created by a cacher called CharlieRona who has found more than 8000 caches. He placed the first 37 caches in the summer of 2012 and the remaining 83 earlier this summer. The GeoWyrms had already done the first 37 so we started at the other end with (GC4EHR4) Pine Lake Micro #120. Most of the caches were bison tubes or medicine bottles but there were a few regular caches and some surprises.

In the afternoon when we were all getting hungry, we stopped and ate out of the back of the pick-up. Mr. GeoWyrm had shopped for some MREs that we were all curious to try. Meals Ready To Eat is not quite true. They require heating with a special heat pack activated by a small amount of water. We all had different varieties and had some fun swapping tastes and checking out what was in each pack. They were definitely filling and flavorful but I'm not sure I'd want to eat them everyday!

This area was so beautiful and quiet. We had great weather until the afternoon when a brief thundershower forced us all into the cab of the Uh-ohs truck. At the end of the downpour we discovered the truck had a fast tire leak and a quick change was needed before continuing on.

As we cached the GeoWyrms reached their 4000th find and we reached our 400th find. Very exciting. But even more amazing was that instead of getting 83 caches, we finished the day with 104! I am still stunned by that number. We added on some caches that were near the Pine Lake Trail to make sure that the GeoWyrms made it to 4000 since they were so close. I phoned my family on the way home and told them how many we had done and they were equally incredulous.

Our day wrapped up with dinner and drinks back in Calgary and a tired but happy drive home.

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.

Day trippin' to Banff and a little caching

We have lived in Calgary for almost 6 years and haven't taken the time for a proper visit to Banff National Park. We have driven through it many times on the way to and from Vancouver, but we have never spent the day just walking or hiking in the park.

But this park is so beautiful and offers so many places to spend a day close to nature, that we decided to take the plunge this year and buy a one year pass to the National Parks which will enable us to make many trips there without worrying about the daily park fee.

In order to buy the pass and spend our first day enjoying the park, we headed off for a day in Banff. On the way there we stopped for a quick bathroom break at Dead Man's Flats and just happened to be near a cache named for the Flats. GC1MHB4 was a quick find after visiting with a 19 year-old cat at the local service station.

After buying the pass at the gates to the park, we drove on to Cascade Ponds for a walk around the frozen water.

The view was amazing!

 There were lots of signs of hoofed mammals in the area although we couldn't agree on which ones. We had beautiful weather for our walk and the littlest goat enjoyed leading the way.

  This will definitely be on our list of places to return with a picnic lunch! And maybe a cache of our own to hide if we can get permission.

 Our next stop was the town of Banff which, due to the holiday weekend, was crawling with visitors. Finding parking took quite some time and left us a bit of a walk to the cache for which we were aiming. GCMB99 is a micro cache right on the main street which made it challenging to search with so many muggles around. But the location proved to be a good one for actually pulling it out and signing discreetly. 

  Next stop, the candy shop! And the rock and gem store. So much to see! But littlest goat reminded us she needed to get back home to get ready for a sleepover and our one hour parking was running out so we made our way through the crowds back to the car and headed for home.

We had time for one quick cache on the road home and made a quick stop for Silver Tip (GC48268). We are getting better at micros (very small caches) and this one took a minute but we came up with the goods, signed the log and ran back to our vehicle.

It felt great to get out in the sunshine with the family, enjoying the views, the walk, the geocaching and I'm sure it will not be long before we head back that way for more.

Virtual Caching Down Under

A very exciting trip last month took the oldest goat to Australia for the first time. Since I was very upset not to go along, I made him promise to find at least one cache on my behalf while there. His hotel was near downtown Melbourne so there were several caches in walking distance, however there was also a festival on at the time (Moomba) and the muggles were abundant so caching was difficult. Two of the closest caches were muggled that week and two others were right in the heart of the action along the boardwalk so Allen did not feel comfortable searching for them. The only one he was able to do in plain sight was GCJ8HR (Yes, but is it art? II) which is a virtual cache. It is based on a public sculpture so the old goat just had to walk to it, take a photo of himself there and answer some questions in an e-mail to the cache owner.

So now we have a cache found in Victoria, Australia which gave us a new badge for our geocaching.com souvenir page. I do hope I eventually get a chance to see Australia myself (and do some geocaching of course!) but it was cool to see Allen's photos and hear about the wombats and koalas and other truly Australian things.

Missing in Action

I have been MIA from here for too long! This is partly because we find it harder to cache in the late winter and partly because I have been busy with work and other parts of my family life. But I do have a few things to write about today so here goes.

My husband, whom I often refer to as the old goat, managed an out-of-province cache find and an out-of-country cache find in February. I found it very exciting to add the province of Quebec to our stats page when Allen went there for a conference and was able to find a cache just outside his hotel. Micro-Parc Shaughnessy (GC1MMVZ) was placed quite high up and he is vertically challenged so it almost eluded him but he managed to reach it and we received a new province badge for our souvenir page on geocaching.com.

This was the kick in the pants I needed to get more organized to find caches when we are out and about. So that weekend while our daughter was taking some ski lessons at the Calgary Olympic Park, Allen and I hunted down GC23K61 (Down by the C.O.P.) across from the ski hill and GC53C2 (Calgary History Tour- Olympics) which was placed to commemorate the 1988 Olympics which were held at the aptly named COP.

A couple of weeks later we decided to do a day of geocaching at a park we had never been to. In the 1920's Imperial Oil had a refinery on the site which is now the Ogden Refinery Park. The land was reclaimed as a wilderness park in the 1990's and there are walking paths and a frisbee golf course now available there. 

We bundled ourselves up for a cold winter walk and set out to find GC2CK86 - Ogden Refinery Park - Parks 100 cache. The littlest goat spotted this one before her Dad and I even got near. We continued on to find GCNRC4 - Fishin', Landin', or Strollin' which was quite a ways off the coordinates posted. Then on to one hidden in a place we had never seen a cache in before and in spite of its name, Pretty in Pink, turned out to be green! Our last find was GCing by Candlelight (GCMX3E) which had an easy path to it ...which we took on the way back down! On the way there we scaled some steep terrain that caused the littlest goat to decide to stay put and wait for us. It took a bit of hunting at the coordinates before we turned up the actual cache but we got lucky. We called it a day after that due to the cold.

Scooby's Cache GC43KNV

Our cache has been published and the first finders have logged their visits! Whoo hoo! Our coordinates were good and the cache has not been too easy nor too hard to find. We are very happy with the results!

Happy Geocaching in 2013!

On this first day of 2013 we are excited because we are preparing our own cache to be hidden. We finally decided we were ready to venture into another aspect of geocaching and have taken some time to agree on a location for our first hide. We are keeping it in our neighbourhood so it will be easy to maintain. This first one is not elaborate, just a small cache hidden in a park, but we wanted to keep the first one simple. (The littlest goat has plans for a much more amazing cache that needs a particular location and lots of time to set up.)

As for finding caches, Little Goat and I took a trip to Vancouver for Christmas and I managed to drag my Mom out for a few quick searches. My Mom lives in Surrey and we started with a short walk in a park in Clover Valley to find GC23MZ3 Clover Valley Prairie. As it had been raining all week and this was the first sunny day, everything was wet and mucky and that is also the condition the cache was found in. Although the cache was a plastic box and the contents were in a plastic bag, the log book was soaked and everything was damp.
Next we took a little jaunt over to The Fernery GC23H2H. This one was nicely camouflaged and required a bit of a search but we came up with the goods. Nice waterproof container kept the contents dry and tradeable. We signed the log and replaced it quickly with muggles coming our way.
We then stopped briefly at Ball Park Tour #4 but it was too close to a private home and we were uncomfortable rooting around in the trees. We decided to skip it and move on to Pace On By GC24JA5 which is at the Cloverdale race track. We had just started looking around when another cacher joined us. She had only 8 finds so far and was pleased when I made the find as it was in a place she hadn't thought to look. We pulled out a very wet piece of paper and made our best attempts to sign it before hiding everything again.
Mom decided it was time to head home as she was getting chilled so that was the last cache of a very good year of caching. We managed to get 136 caches this year, our best yet. I know many cachers who say it is not about the numbers but about the experiences and the places you go, but it is still nice to see the numbers go up and to check your stats page and see how you are doing.
Once we get our cache published and ready for finding, come take a look and tell us what you think. It is called Scooby's Cache GC43KNV and we are looking forward to your feedback.

Need to Geocache - Suffering withdrawal!

Well, this fall has not been kind to our geocaching stats. First we all got terrible colds just when the weather turned cold so we were not feeling up to venturing outside. Then, the coughing caused back spasms for me and I was unable to walk, let alone drive. And finally, a few weeks ago I had surgery on my mouth which sapped the remaining energy I had in reserve. This all happened just as I took on a new position at school with more hours and responsibilities. So, geocaching had to take a backseat until I could get all our family routines back in order.

I started tonight with a bedtime walk for our dog Scooby. She was beside herself with excitement when she realized my intentions. We kept it short due to the temperature (-18 C) but it was exciting enough when we kept losing the ball in the snow. Scooby came home happy and tired.

Now I need to get our Christmas decorations up and some cards sent out. The littlest goat and I are heading to Vancouver for Christmas and I am hoping to do at least one cache while we are there just to get us going again.

Stay tuned!

International Earth Cache Day

Today was International Earth Cache Day so, despite feeling lousy with a cold, I organized a quick single-stop geocaching trip for my family. There was an easy Earth cache located in a neighbourhood near us, so easy that we could see it as we drove up. Erratic Behaviour in Edgemont (GC1Q1KY) is one of several Glacial erratics that can be found in Calgary.

An erratic is a large rock that was deposited on top of a glacier as it moved past mountains. As the glacier melted or receded the rock was left behind, often miles from the mountain from which it originated. In Alberta we have a strip about 640 kilometres wide that runs from the Athabasca River Valley to the southern end of the province which contains thousands of rocks from tiny pebbles to large boulders left behind by a receding glacier. These rocks are thought to have originated from near Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park.

 Another famous erratic that is the largest known glacial erratic in the world is found in Okotoks, just south of Calgary. Big Rock is a 15,000 ton quartzite boulder and is also an earthcache known as Where the Beer Got It's Name (GC2388). (The Big Rock Brewery in Alberta took its name from this rock.) 

To log an earth cache as found, instead of finding a hidden container,  you need to e-mail the cache owner the answers to questions they have posted in the description of the cache. Usually these questions help confirm that you were present at the cache site. For instance, the owner of an erratic cache might ask you to estimate the size of the rock or identify what minerals are in the rock.

Did you take part in International Earth cache Day? What interesting earth cache did you discover?

     

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.

Watery caches and Rats

This is part two of our return trip from Vancouver to Calgary and when we left off we were in Merritt for the night.
After a quick complimentary breakfast at the motel, we checked the GPS and determined that there were two nearby caches that we wanted to try to find before leaving Merritt. The second one hinted that water would be required to obtain the log book so we made sure to fill a bottle for that purpose before setting out.

But first a simple drive up cache that proved to be literally a drive-up for us! The name of the cache was Refuel and the GPS was taking us to the parking lot of a grocery chain store so I drove my truck in and parked without watching the GPS. It was quite surprising then when the littlest goat turned on the GPS and discovered we had parked directly beside the cache. She hopped out of the truck, lifted up the object she thought was covering the cache and pulled out a RAT! Thank goodness it was a rubber rat container for the cache!

We always enjoy caches that are a little out of the ordinary, ones that the cache owner has taken some time to plan either a cool container or an interesting place to visit. The next cache we looked for was just that sort of cache. The container itself was fairly easy to find. But to get the log book out you needed to pour around 500 mL of water into the outer container to make the log container float to the top so you could grab it. Nice work! And a physics lesson built in!

After two successful cache discoveries, it was time to start driving again, heading North toward Kamloops. Allen kept checking the GPS for caches near the highway and eventually we came across a cluster of three that were off a small side logging road and located near a lake.

Aptly named Helmer Lake cache, Helmer Lake 2 and Helmer Lake 3, the first one took us to the remains of an old log cabin. And when we got out of the truck we saw the lake. A beautiful calm lake surrounded by trees with a handful of people camping around this hidden gem.   

 The other two caches were not far from the first and were quick pick-ups for us. We sat here and ate some sandwiches and enjoyed the view before getting back on the highway.


More cache stories tomorrow. Some rock scrambling, a coffin, and a rare bird sighting. Stay tuned!!

The Vancouver trip Part 2 - The Return

For our return trip to Calgary we allotted 4 days although many people do it in one long day and I usually do it in two. My husband flew out just for the road trip home and we wanted to take our time, visit points of interest and geocache along the way.

Our first stop was at Bridal Falls Golf Course for lunch with our friend who owns the course. The restaurant in the clubhouse serves amazing food. We started with a mango butternut squash soup that was just spicy enough to be flavourful but not enough to burn your tongue. Then we had salads accompanied by garlic toast drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. I chose the green salad which had morsels of figs and feta cheese tossed in and was delicious. Alana and I shared a slice of lemon tart afterwards which was just the right finish for the meal. I highly recommend this restaurant as a lunch stop even if you don't golf but since this is a geocaching blog let me get back on track.

There were two caches within a short distance of the golf course. The nearest was Welcome to Bridal Falls (GC1H34K) which was at the end of a field just past the driving range and a quick, easy find. The second cache we went after was a BC Parks 100 cache called Bridal Veil Provincial Park (GC2Y1GD). This one took us into the woods of the Provincial Park where we did some stream hopping before finding the cache. We made it a lot harder than it was partly because the trees made it difficult for the GPS to pick up satellites. Eventually the old goat realized we were off track and doubled back to make the find.

 

The next destination on our "Stop and See One Day" list was the Othello Tunnels along the Coquihalla river. This is a series of no longer used railway tunnels that have become a pathway into history.

 The Kettle Valley Railway ran through these 5 tunnels built by Andrew McCullough in 1914. The tunnels are connected by trestles which have been converted to walkways. The views of the river from the path were beautiful and the tunnels were very cool to walk through.

 At the end of the tunnels and quite a good walk past the gate we located the hint that let us know we were nearing the cache. After some scrambling up and down rocks we finally found the cache.

Although we were deep in bear country we managed to complete this adventure without running into any grizzlies and that was a relief to me!

By the time we got back to my truck it was getting quite late so we had to make time to get to the town of Merritt for the night. I'll fill in the rest of our trip soon! If you get a chance to go to the Othello tunnels or if you are heading down the Coquihalla, this is a nice place to take a walk, stretch your legs and enjoy the views!

Summer trip to Vancouver and a little caching

I had hoped to reach 300 cache finds by the end of the summer (I know, its not about the numbers!!) but our recent trip to Vancouver and back  has blown that goal out of the water! We may be heading for 400 before the end of the year!!

My Mom came to Calgary for a visit at the beginning of August, flying out here on the 8th and spending a week joining in on our activities. Then my daughter and I packed up the truck and drove her back to Vancouver and stayed for our own visit. While we were in Vancouver we went to White Rock beach for an afternoon of playing in the sand, collecting pretty rocks (not to keep) and visiting with friends.

Imagine our surprise to find out that there was an earth cache just metres away from where we sat?! So we walked over to the White Rock (GCP6M8) and took photos of it and logged our find!

Like many Earthcaches, this is a glacial erratic that was left behind when the glaciers receded from this area. It has been painted white to aid in navigation as it can be seen for a long way out to sea and from satellite photos. Finding an Earthcaches always brings a geology/ecology/earth science lesson with it and makes geocaching that much more interesting. Usually to log an earth cache you need to answer some questions about what you see and take a photo of the cache to prove you were there since there isn't a log book.

The next day we went with some friends to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) for the day. We had two 8 year old girls along and spent most of our time following them from ride to ride as they tested their mettle on swinging, sliding, twisting, turning contraptions! By the smiles and shrieks, fun was the order of the day! After a quick bite for dinner, I explained geocaching to everyone and then we set off to find the one cache that is hidden on the PNE grounds. (GC3APCA) Hastings Park Cache is located in a nice treed area with several walkways surrounding a pond. The reeds of the pond hid a few ducks and a heron the day we were there and we could hear a frog as well. It is a welcome respite from the noise of the fair grounds and offers time for digestion before heading back to the rides.

Our next adventure was more laid back as we went to visit my sister in North Vancouver for lunch and a few caches. She is a new cacher and had dropped off a travel coin in a cache and then had decided she'd like me to pick it up and take it on our trip back to Calgary. However when we visited the cache, the coin had been taken but not logged. We are hoping the previous cachers were just inexperienced with geocoins and will log it soon, but there is always the chance that they have decided the coin is something they want to keep. Unfortunately, this happens frequently to geocoins and travel bugs and is one of the drawbacks in letting go of these objects. They may be taken by collectors or muggled by non-geocachers.


In my next post I'll tell you all about the caches we found on our drive home from Vancouver including cache #300!! Keep reading!

Scouting for a campground near Bragg Creek

On Sunday our little family took a drive to look for some potential campgrounds for future camping trips. We have lived in Calgary for five years but have not gone camping in the area, so we wanted to see what sort of sites are available. Our target area was south of Bragg Creek off of Highway 66, following the Elbow River. And since we were going for a drive, I thought we might as well pick up a few caches just for fun!

Our first stop was in the Redwood Meadows neighbourhood on Highway 22 before Bragg Creek.  To protect the townsite from the Elbow River floods a berm was built which makes a great walking path and happens to lead to two caches. The first one we sought out was On the way to Grandma's House (GC189XA). For a regular sized cache it was hidden in an unusual place but we made the find and headed off to Sherpa's Cache (GC17CF5). As we approached the trail head for this one, I glanced into the forest on our left and saw a beautiful buck laying beneath a tree enjoying the cool cover of the trees on this hot day. He was undisturbed by our presence and continued to rest as we passed by. The search for this cache was trickier and involved scrambling over rocks until the old Goat spotted the container. Inside the ammo can we discovered a travel geocoin ( SW#3's Shamrock) that we picked up to move along. When I entered the coin tracking number to log our find, I discovered that it had travelled to Europe, Eastern Canada, Hawaii and the southern USA and had ended up back at a cache just hundreds of meters from its origin!


Since we were so close to the Elbow River and it was a very hot day we went down to the edge of the river and dipped our hands and cooled off for a few minutes before continuing our journey.

We drove right past Bragg Creek as the line of traffic coming in and out was not inviting and continued on to Kananaskis Country on Highway 66. We stopped for a quick micro called Kananaskis Country Cache (GC12C97) right at the big sign for Kananaskis Country. The littlest goat jumped out of the car, walked over to GZ and plucked the cache from its hiding spot! She is getting to be an amazing cacher.

Just a few hundred metres away was the first campsite we wanted to check out and at the beginning of the path down to it, was another cache called Gooseberry (GCQM20). This one took a bit of walking around in the trees as the GPS couldn't get good satellite signals but eventually we found the spot and earned another smiley.

We checked out the campsites at McLean Creek and decided those would be the ones we try out when we get a chance to camp. Then there was just time for cooling off in the creek before heading back toward Calgary.

We made one final stop just before reaching the Trans-Canada highway and that was at a cache called Wolf Kubs Kache (GC3FK11) hidden by the Strathmore scouts. Parking near this cache was not allowed so the old goat and the littlest goat waited in the car while I made the trek to GZ to try my luck. This cache was easy to locate but hard to pick up. I had to use all my arm strength to retrieve it from its hiding spot and then repeat the process to replace it in the same spot! Should have sent in the old goat!

We are getting in more caching this summer by blending it in with other activities and taking opportunities to do quick ones when we can. They often bring us to places we never knew existed or ones that we have been meaning to get to but haven't taken the time. Where are you exploring this summer while you geocache?

Addicting More People to Geocaching

I received an e-mail request this week from a friend whose son is in school with my daughter. She and her family have been wondering about geocaching and asked if I would take them out for a beginner's lesson. So yesterday morning we piled our three kids into her vehicle with the two of us and set out for Baker Park on the Bow River in Calgary. I had my iPhone with the geocaching app and my Garmin Oregon 200 to show them both options when they start out.

We began with the Dollhouse cache (GC1RT7C) to get the kids excited because I knew it had recently been found and was supposed to have good swag in it. This one took a bit of looking and then was found where we didn't expect it. The kids found it easy to follow the compass on the Garmin so I let them carry that one and worked off the iPhone with my girlfriend. The three kids took turns holding the GPS and telling the others which way to go. We followed along making sure they didn't get too far off course but they did very well. And we had our first smiley for the day.

The next cache we aimed for was Baker's Bark (GC1EV27) which was a different kind of 'micro in a tree'. No trades here, just signed the log and off we went to search for I Do (GCXJTA). This is a very beautiful area right down by the river with bright beds of flowers surrounding a stone wall. We watched a few young men leaping into the chilly waters across the river and a Zodiak float by with two life-jacketed paddlers aboard.

 The search was briefly interrupted by the appearance of two snakes who may have been guarding the cache and who caused all the children to leap upon the stone wall and scream! Luckily my friend and I were not deterred and continued to peer under rocks and into nooks and crannies. Unfortunately, no cache was unearthed and we had to leave this one for another day.

We moved on to look for one of the Calgary Parks caches called, of course, Baker Park (GC299K3). This was when I saw the change in my friend from 'interested observer' to 'addicted cacher' as she made her first unassisted find. Her face lit up and she got excited and declared herself hooked! I always love that moment!

Our last cache of the day, Baker's Hedge (GC1EV1Z) was also exciting for her young daughter when she made her own first find. We told ourselves it was because she was closest to the ground but really we all had our backs turned when she said ' Oh I found one." And honestly I didn't really think she had found one, but there it was! So much for me showing her how its done!!

After such a good day of caching I am sure we will be going out as a group again before too long. And we have another girlfriend with kids who we'll have to take out and addict!