Caching Life Continues
Caching has sure kept us busy lately. Here is a list of our recent caching. Of course it wont necessarily be in chronolocgical order, because I am not a very organized person.
*The weather turned nice for a a few days a couple of weeks ago so we headed to PEI and had a great time as usual and picked up about 170 caches. Did some hiking on the Confederation trail and on some heritage roads that my Camry did not like. We spent an afternoon (nearly 5 hours) hiking 13 kms of trails at Brookvale Provincial Park picking up 40 caches in the park and on an adjacent dirt road. No DNF’s there. The only slight negative on PEI is that some cachers have started placing nanos on playground equipment, which certainly makes a lone male cacher feel uncomfortable (I sent MA).
*We are working on a streak and now have cached 81 consecutive days. It has kept us busy as will be noted in the next few items.
*We solved all of Belladan’s 60 Dog Puzzles and went out twice to get them. They are all on a couple of roads, so we parked in strategic spots and walked to a large number of them and then moved the vehicle. It was a fun series to solve and fun to go and get them. It filled a couple of days. While doing the Scoudouc section, we met up with a carload of PEI cachers also doing the series. (5 well known cachers that we have met before). A few days later we did the sackvile/memramcook section and we met up with our friends TheRetiredHiker and SpruceGum and had a wonderful chat. That day we ended up with 40 caches and placed one of our own nearby. A big ThankYou to Dan for all the work preparing the puzzles, the cache pages, and hiding the caches.
*Last Saturday we went to Fundy Park to pick up the new caches and also pick up a couple of AJLong’s caches on Shepody road that we somehow could not find last year. ( That is a great series BTW). As we stopped at an intersection of Shepody Road we met our old friend KDCacher (who I still think of as Shepody) and chatted quite a while. He was heading along the coast to get some remote caches including Edwins Peak which had not been found yet. We enjoyed our day in Fundy and got in a bit of hiking, although this year’s caches involved a lot less effort than past years.
*Sunday we got the Moncton Scavenger Hunt cache (OMG I shouldnt have showered, it attracted thousands of skeeters)
and we started picking up the information around town for our coins. We got the beautiful coins the next day.
*Monday we were visited by TeamBikeFast and kfdCanada who were on their way to cache in Caraquet area. We had a really nice time and Ma served them some of her great Rhubarb Cake.
*Yesterday we were in Moncton to pick up a few caches and we went to Magnetic Hill McD to read the newspapers and we met up with our good friend Jim52 who oftens spends time there reading the papers and solving geocache puzzles. ( He had one of our new ML puzzles with him).
* I still have a number of Micro Logic puzzles ready so I have made an effort to hide some. A few weeks ago I hid 4 ML caches west of Moncton. Some of them have two puzzles to solve. I was trying to make a little more difficult and also trying to use up some of the puzzles. Last week we went out and hid a series of 11 ML caches in the Shediac/Barachois area. Only one of them is double. We enjoyed our day hiding the caches and investigating the area. However the biggest part is preparing the cache pages and double checking all the calculations and the geochecker. We then pray that everything is OK and that the solution to each puzzle is unique.
* Today we head towards Rexton and Kouchibouguac for some caches and to do some maintenance
*In July we are going hiking on the Appalachian Trail in PA for 10 days with our grandkids. MA has been preparing pocket queries for the trip down and also for the hiking area in PA in the hope that we can keep our streak going. We also have two days on the calendar to fill during that period, as we are attempting to fill every day of the year that we havent cached.
*In September we will be hiking for 3 weeks along the southern coast of England. We have been looking at GC.com maps to get an idea of the caching possibilities. It is neat to see the happy faces on the map from our last trip there.
*When out caching as much as we do, we often have to stop for snacks or meals. A great place for snacks is MacD where we get a coffee and Muffin for $1.39 and you get to read newspapers and you get a refill on the coffee. Lunch time is great at the local Big Stops where you get a gigantic bowl of soup and a roll for $4.99. It makes a full meal. Most mondays we have the breakfast buffet with Jim52 and friends at the Casino. Monday price for seniors is $2.99 for an incredible breakfast, including omelets, and beverages, and they give us each $5 voucher for the machines. Ma and I have won over $150 with those vouchers. Yesterday we went to the casino for the Wednesday night dinner special after our caching. The buffet is $12.99 and they give us each a $10 voucher for the machines. We won $40 with the voucher and then went home.
Yes, Caching is a great way of life.
Wow you guys are sure buzy with caching. I wish I could say the same, I haven’t cached much since April and I’m missing it a lot. Lack of caches nearby and mostly lack of time this year. Hopefully I will get to go spend a few weekends in Moncton. I now have over 160 puzzles caches solved that I’m waiting to grab. Most of them are your ML series. Only 3 more to solve and I’ll be done … until the new ones comes out 🙂
Seems like caching is a way of life for others also.
TheRetiredHiker&SpruceGum came to the shediac area on Thursday to pick up the new ML puzzles but they werent satisfied with that because they took their bikes and went after our Scoudouc trail caches.
But even more incredible, they also went after the Shediac/Malakoff series, picking up 23 of them. Those who have been down that series know what an accomplshment that is, because of the mud and water and bushwacking down the abandonned road in that wilderness.
Here is a log from them
Log Date: 6/16/2011
Well, after finding Past the Turn – SM 10, we parked the truck, got out the bikes and headed down the road… well, lets be honest about this whole thing – the road is in really bad shape, and after trying to manouever past huge and very deep puddles SpruceGum bailed out, went back to the truck and enjoyed some peace and quiet while she knitted. TheRetiredHiker bravely forged ahead and found some caches. This was one of them. Over a quick meal at a local Tim’s much later in the day the story of his cache finding was told, and SpruceGum is ever so happy she bailed out when she did… truth told – so is TheRetiredHiker!
The next day we got an email from them
YAWN…. mumble mumble,,, whaddya mean, it’s time to get up?
Jack had a really rough day – he said those final ones he did alone of the SM series were wicked – at one point he apparently ditched the bike and bushwhacked.
From the little I saw it was TERRIBLE!
Glad I stayed put, I would have whined and swore and been miserable for him!
Have a most excellent weekend.
Jennifer
Then we got another one from them
Bikes are all clean.
Ready to go again.
You just gotta love geocaching
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We have been watching our geochecker account to see how people have been doing on our latest ML puzzles.
ZeMartelo solved them all and came all the way to the Shediac area with his father in law to pick them up.
Log by ZeMartelo
Found on 15/06/2011 at 20:23.
Waited two days to give the folks a chance at a FTF but Ajlong got impatient and away we went.
And we were rewarded with an FTF.
Road is pretty good and the cache and an easy find.
Thanks for the mental exercise and the cache.
Log by Ajlong
Log Date: 6/15/2011
Thanks for the cache Ma & Pa
It is good to see some more of these Micro Logic caches for us to come up to get some FTF’s
I was along with ZeMartelo this evening to keep him from getting lost.
We had a great time caching this evening.
Chignecto Duo also came to get them
Log Date: 6/17/2011
Solved a few of these logics and since they are not far from our trailer, haad to grab some to-day. Thanks Pa for the headache. LOL
I have read bits and pieces of the caching trip that the group did to PEI. Sounds like they had a good time and it was a very successful endeavour. They must agree with our assessment that PEI is a great place to geocache. I hope they post a little summary here.
MA and I are continuing our streak and have now done 87 days. In addition to finding caches, we have archived 10 caches, done maintenance on a number, put out 11 ML puzzles and two traditionals. We also have two puzzle challenge caches waiting to be approved as well as two traditionals. So we have been busy away from home.
At home, we have been preparing pocket queries,etc for our Pa trip and MA has been solving puzzles in the area that we will be caching in Pa. We have also done the cache pages for the new caches and I have created a few new ML puzzles for caches I will likely hide in the fall.
Monday we started our day with Breakfast at the Casino again. Total cost was less than $10 including tip, and we again used the gaming vouchers that they gave us and walked away with $15. So another free breakfast. We plan on going for dinner on Wednesday and see what we can do with the $20 vouchers they give us.
Yesterday we went caching in the Springhill NS area. It was actually the first time we go there. It was interesting to be there. I recall clearly watching the news of the mine rescue on TV in 1958. The caches there were a little disappointing. We were surprised that all the caches, including micros, were on the ground or very low and there was nothing exceptional about most cache locations, although there are perhapas no interesting places there. We also found the coords to be a little off. On the other hand, the containers were of good quality. I found it interesting that one hider had used duct tape on the grooves of a tobacco container. Perhaps it will keep it more weather proof and make it close tighter. I think I will try that.
Speaking of tobacco containers, a smoker that i know provides us with tobacco containers. We use many more than she gives us, so that I have about 120 of them, in case someone would like some. I may bring some to the next moncton breakfast event. The last time I did that, all 45 containers were taken. I stopped at Walmart last week and they gave me 70 film canisters, so I guess I can hide a bunch of micro logics for Rev.
We hate caches on cannons and tanks. It took us at least 7 tries to get Sporties cache in Oromocto. So we were apprehensive about getting Zonker’s cache in Riverview. But Ma found it after about 10 minutes.
Tomorrow we are hoping to go to Petitcodiac with Belladan to get the remaining caches on the wood roads and then head to Havelock to get the caches from StCar. We then have to be back in town to get Jake & Ben at airport.
Here is more caching news.
Over the last while we have taken a few days to do some maintenance runs and also put out a number of caches.
Here are our recent hides:
15 ML puzzles at beginning of month
1 Traditional associated with Belladan’s dog series
2 Trad this week near Rexton on Highway 11.
2 Trad in Bouctouche area this week. Replacing a missing and a ruined cache nearby
1 Challenge cache in Irishtown area, requirement for puzzles.
1 Challenge cache in Barachois area, requiring 100 day streak. We are now on day 90 of our streak so we thought it would be great to have a cache for those who have had long streaks.
We are also waiting for approval of 4 other caches.
1 Challenge cache in Shediac area for 100 caches in a day.
1 puzzle cache. Requires the solving of a tough puzzle cache in Pennsylvania.
1 traditional cache in Moncton replacing someone’s archived cache.
1 traditional cache out near Portage Vale on a road in the woods.
Wedneday we went caching near Petitcodiac and near Havelock with Belladan. We started with the caches on the logging road between routes 895 and 905, in the area south of Highway 1. There is a lot of clear cutting here but some of the views from the heights are really nice. The road is in really good shape. One of the caches was actually more accessible from other roads and we should have read the cache page I guess. In any event we parked the truck and walked about 1 km on a trail before hitting woods. We were still 500 meters from the cache, so we decided to bushwack. It was a good workout but we finally got close only to discover we were on the wrong side of a stream which luckily was not too deep. Was a fun time
http://coord.info/GCWCMZ
We finished off with a number of easier caches including some from StCar in the Havelock area. We were glad that one was a multi since there are fewer of those these days.
I guess I should mention that we went to the Casino for dinner on Wednesday for their special. The buffets cost $13 each and they gave us $20 voucher to gamble which we used to win $20. A good deal.
Yesterday we went to Dieppe for the introduction to Geocaching session that Tiger Tracker was running. It was really well done and a number of local cachers showed up to lend a hand. Maybe more of these essions could be organized.
WJBalsor has been putting out some nice caches in the Shemogue area. he now has two new ones at Amos Point and Johnston’s Point. The Amos Point one is highly recommended as it brings you to a secluded beach and an abandonned deteriorating wharf. It is a beautifulspot that we discoverd years ago when Funky had a cache on the wharf.
We had to archive our TB Hostel in Shediac. Somebody stole the ammo can but left the contents on the ground. We will no longer indicate when we use an ammo can. There may perhaps be muggles who check GC.com and steal items.