May/June 2014 PEI Trip

Today was day 6 of our latest PEI caching trip. PEI is definitely a caching paradise. This time we have done some long hikes and bike rides on trails, including the CT and CTU. We got immersed in nature as we explored woodlots on foot. We traveled many dirt roads, and heritage roads and logging roads, picking up hundreds of caches. We were brought to incredible secluded beaches known only to the locals. Rather than go into details of our trip, I thought it would be easier to just paste the basic log that we wrote for each day.

But first I want to mention the highlight of today’s caching: http://coord.info/GCWMQZ . To get to this cache you must drive down a narrow dirt road leading to a light house at the shore. It is an incredible place with a beautiful secluded beach on the other side of a high sand dune. Check out the photo gallery on the cache page. That is only part of the reason that this was the highlight of our day. The cache is a really great original hide and we are not surprised because it was created by the great Mingan Patch. We first discovered and fell in love with his caches on visits to PEi around 2006. The caches were interesting, the hides were original, the containers were often hand made, the locations were great and it was always a great experience. Checking his profile will not show all his caches since many of his caches, like this one, are still active and were adopted out when Mingan Patch left PEI about 5 years ago.

OK now for the basic logs of the first 6 days on PEI.

Day 1 of our latest geocaching trip to PEI. We hope to be here about a week This time we are over with MaitreJack from Rimouski who has never visited PEI. Today we cached from Borden to Cornwall. We did some P&G’s, and Peters rd, and two long hikes. This included some major bushwacking and some ditch hopping.We had a great day with nearly 70 finds

Day 2 Today is a first for us, Finding over 100 caches on PEI without using a bicycle. Was a tiring but satisfying day. Total for the day was 112. About 90 of them were found on foot on the Augustus CTU, the Piggot trail in Mount Stewart and in the Auburn woodlot. The rest were combination driving and walking. We replaced or added logs where needed but we didnt keep track of all the times that we did that.

Day 3 Today we decided to do a little biking so we headed to the Woods Island Spur of the CT. The CT caches were all double containers and close to the trail so we did not have much problems. The non CT caches on this trail were a lot more difficult so we had to look a long time and had a few DNF’s. The containers for the latter caches were sometimes of poor quality. But all in all, it was a good bike ride. We started the day with park and grabs, mostly near route 22 and finished with park and grabs above Mount Stewart.

Day 4 We decided to start with some biking in the area of the Klondike spur of the CT. We wanted to include the C.T.U Lake Verde-Klondike Spur but were unsure of the conditions. We were pleasantly surprised with the CTU; a bulldozer has been through here levelling the trail making it passable by bike. A brushcutter has also been in this section which unfortunately has caused problems with some of the caches, although we were able to find most of those on the ground.We finished the day with some dirt road caching and a bit more biking. Total for the day is 101 caches and total for the 4 days is 369.

Day 5 We started the day with the C.T.U. from #002 near Iona Road (route 206) to #035 on Route 24. We did not access the trail from Iona road for #002 as someone has put NO TRESPASSING signs at the entrance. This entire section is under construction and will be great when finished; however at this time there are many missing caches because of the trail widening with a bulldozer and because of the brush cutting and tree cutting which got a lot of the caches close to the trail. We managed to find a number of caches on the ground and did other maintenance where possible, but we had limited supplies with us. It was a tough ride with the remnants of the brushcutter and tree cutters work on the trail in spots and with some other rough spots. We worked hard at the cache locations going up and down the steep slopes trying to find fallen caches amongst the pieces of wood remaining. It is clear that much of the cut wood was removed and the caches with them. Was a tough 2.5 hours We then did a lot of caching on dirt roads in the area.

Day 6 Total find count so far is 562 caches.Today we decided to do some of the many series on dirt roads and in woodlots off Highway 16 far east of Saint Peters. But on the way we decided to grab some of the series that lead down to the coast. What a lucky decision that was. These series brought us to beautful secluded beaches and ocean overlooks. Only locals and geocachers would get to see those places and sit and have lunch on a grassy cliff overlooking the water. Incredible experience. We then hit the dirt roads to grab the many series but we had an urge to get everything which meant a lot of hiking to caches on side trails. All in all it was a great way to spend a sunny Sunday.