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.

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.

How to Hide a Cache

Just a reminder that if you want to learn how to hide a cache that is a bit different (non-traditional) there is a class this Saturday afternoon at the CNIB building in Calgary. This will help you learn how to make puzzle caches, multi-caches, and hides that are not your everyday lock'n'lock under a tree! And these skills will help with the upcoming CCARS event in May.
For more information on the Saturday class click here.

Geocaching at Nose Hill Park

I had a day to myself while my daughter is at Brownie camp and I decided to combine a dog walk and some geocaching this afternoon. Took Scoobydoo and her frisbee to Nose Hill Park where the air was cold but didn't stop lots of people from being out enjoying the spring day. Unfortunately we only found two caches before my free Geocaching app for iPhone lost its satellite feed and wouldn't come back. I did get a photo of one cache container which is a large plastic tube (about 16") containing lots of good swag for trading. Since our grass and plants still don't realize spring is here, the cache was covered very neatly with sticks which actually made it stand out quite well. In a couple months this will be well hidden by longer grasses and undergrowth.

Tomorrow I am still hoping to attend the workshop on how to hide a cache as my family is anxious to do a good job on our first hide. I'll post anything interesting I learn!

Geocaching 201 this weekend

There will be a special workshop this Sunday afternoon in Calgary where you can learn everything from how to choose a good container to where is the best place to hide that container. The workshop will be held at the CNIB building in the Northeast from 2pm until 4pm and there will be an indoor presentation and then an outdoor demonstration. Everyone is welcome including children. For more information or to confirm your attendance please click here.
I am hoping to look for a few caches tomorrow so I can post about them on my blog. Please keep checking back! And if you decide to go to the workshop please say hello if you see me there!

Quick cache find

Yesterday my daughter and I went out to find a geocache in our own neighbourhood. I had seen the listing on geocaching.com but, knowing it wasn't a difficult one, I wanted to wait for a day when we could do it together. Alana took the lead with the GPS receiver with a reminder to let it orient itself after she was out of the truck. Then she led us to the right tree and I spotted the container. It was a winter friendly hide (not buried under snow) and a good size container holding lots of swag for trading. We signed the log book, replaced the treasure with swag of our own and replaced the container where we found it. Then I remembered I had planned to photograph the container for my blog so we took it back out, moved to a spot that would not offer spoilers and took the photographs. You must remember when caching, that you don't want to give away the location of the cache to the next cacher or anyone checking the logs on-line, so don't put the actual hiding place in your photographs and be careful what you say when you enter your comments on-line. These unwanted hints are called 'spoilers' for a reason! If you want to make a comment that may give away hints there is a feature on the website that will encript your log so that only someone who wants hints can read it.