Caching Way of Life August 2013
I haven’t posted any new items here in a long time. Why? Well could be we have been too busy caching.
So here is a bunch of stuff that comes to mind. I have a bad memory so I may be adding more later.
- MEGA
What an incredible MEGA. Lots of incredible things going on at the event. But incredible ideas don’t work if the team does not think each one through and ensure that every detail is taken care of. Bravo to a great hard working team. In addition to the main event, a number of well run side events were put on and were a great success. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL INVOLVED.
We were really looking forward to the event and headed to Freddy for 4 days of caching. The caching was great as usual there. We managed to grab a couple of caches that had stumped us on past visits. We had the pleasure of bumping into Opus Terra at a cache along the river. We had met him a couple of times in the past including a celebration for him at an event in Sherbrooke a few years ago. We had a nice chat. WE finished our weekend with a caching hike with chatelaine and herrminz in the woodlot.
- AUGUST SOUVENIRS
I felt this idea was kind of silly but of course we have decided to get a cache everyday. I have read a lot of negative comments about this but I also read comments from cachers who have never tried for a streak and who have decided to use this as an incentive to try one. Our grandson Jake spent three weeks with us, leaving last week, and we had him coming with us to get caches this month. he decided to put a caching app on his phone and has been caching at home.
- PEI
We love caching on PEI and usually go a few times a year in spring and fall to avoid tourists and get good hotel rates. Because Jake was with us we decided to go there with him. We spent two days there, grabbing some tough caches in the Charlottetown area. We also went to a Dinner Theatre feast and went to see Evangeline at the Confederation Center. Jake had a great time and we treated him to Cow Ice cream twice. We bumped into mud in the face at a cache. Jake found a cache that they had missed and they tried to convince Jake to spend the weekend caching with them.
Jake went home last week, so this past weekend we decided to go back to PEI for 4 days of caching and a show at the Victoria Playhouse. We consider these caching trips to be mini vacations. So we like to get good numbers but we also like to stop before supper time and enjoy a nice meal, and relax in the evening. We really enjoyed our meals at PEDROS ISLAND EATERY in Cornwall, which was formerly Maggies restaurant. The meals we incredible, with lots of islands veggies and innovative ideas.
Here are the basic logs for each of the 4 days there. I may have added a little more information.
DAY1
Day 1 of our latest PEI caching trip. A few park and grabs. We spent most of the day on foot hiking to caches on trails and RDR’s, as we wish to be ready for a big hiking trip in late September. We had the pleasure of bumping into CoveSC at a cache.
We finished our day at the Victoria Playhouse where we were incredibly entertained at an amazing show called Top Hats and Tales. Highly recommended.
DAY2
Got up early this morning despite going to that great Top Hat & Tales show in Victoria last night. Decided to bike two of the sections of the CT that we still had remaining (near St Peters and near Souris). A total of 43 caches biking 4 hours on the CT and a handful of other caches to bring us over 50.
Was a great day for caching. Thanks to all the cache hiders
DAY3
Our plan today was to do a section of the CT in Brudenell/Montague area. But on our way we came to the CTU caches that cross Highway 3. We noticed that the trail to the north of the highway has been completed and we enjoyed biking the new trail from caches CTU 067 to CTU 096. Perhaps the cache names should be changed to CT. A few caches were missing likely because the trees were cut when the trail was completed.
We then biked the trail south of the highway. That section is not completed but is in great shape. We thoroughly enjoyed this section with the heavily wooded areas and lots of shade. We went from caches CTU 066 to CTU 041. Total of 5 hours biking today.
We finished our day with a few park and grabs for a total of 60
DAY4
We were heading home today. a little tired after long hours of bike caching over the last 2 days. We decided to do some hiking and get some of the NEW Brookvale Provincial Park series.
It was quite a workout. The area is covered with a winding system of many interconnecting main trails and mountain bike trails. We could have taken the long routes and followed the trails to the caches. But rather than follow the winding trails to the caches, we often bushwacked in a straight line through thick woods, getting scratched by dead branches and raspberry bushes, and then trudging through fields of long grasses. A wonderful and tiring 4 hour adventure to grab a few geocaches. Thanks for making our day. Total of about 35 caches for the day.
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FUTURE CACHING PLANS
We try to incorporate geocaching into everything that we do. Our son will be visiting family in Ottawa at the end of the month, so we want to be there. Our grandson Ben and family will be meeting up with his girlfriend and family in Florida in mid September, so we want to be there. We also have a 10 day hiking trip on the Appalachian trail in GA at the end of September.
So we will leave soon for a few days of biking and caching through QC on our way to Ottawa. In early September we leave Ottawa, taking 10 days to cache on our way to FL, adding a couple of US States to our souvenirs. We then plan on ding some caching while hiking in GA. We will then pick up our bikes in Ottawa and do more caching on the way home.
The caching way of life is great.
It really can be
Two kinda funny stories.
A few months ago we went to our son’s wedding in Bali. There were very few caches but we wanted one so we would have a cache in another country (Indonesia).
There was a TB Hotel situated at a restaurant so we decided to get it. We climbed steps to a patio and found a replica of a temple with a cache inside. We signed and took out the TB that we found. We thought the TB would like to travel so we brought it home to NB. However the TB had travelled half way around the world to Bali and was nearly at its destination in INDIA.
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Before going to Bali we went on a cruise out of LA to Hawaii. Every morning I would head down to the 7th deck, the only deck that you could use to walk around the entire ship. One morning I was curious about how much distance I was walking every day. I was told that it was one-third of a mile around the ship but I figured my gps would be more accurate. I brought down my gps and set the odometer at ZERO before I started my walk. As I glanced at the gps, the odometer read 100 meters then 200 and kept increasing. The gps would be useless because the ship was moving. Felt really stupid, but I shared my story with others on the ship.
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It is a caching way of life. Much of what we do is related to caching and to caching people. So let me ramble on about people and what we have done lately.
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There was an incredible Battlecaching competition and event last winter that captured the interest of many people. It was well set up and a great website made it even more fun an interesting. The event to close it off was held in Truro and drew tons of cachers from all over the Maritimes. After the event, a dozen or so NB cachers got together for wine and cheese, and then headed out for a meal together. The next day the NB cachers headed out to a nearby dirt road and hiked all afternoon picking up a large series of caches. You gotta love the caching life and the caching people.
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This spring we headed to St Stephen with chatelaine and Herrminzz, caching all the way. Early Saturday morning we crossed the border into Maine, headed west and then turned North and crossed the border into QC where we had lunch at a sugar camp in Lac Megantic (yep lac Megantic). We got back to our room in Saint Stephen in the early evening. We geocached on the way home of course. It was a wonderful weekend.
And to top it off, these two great caching friends, volunteered to help out with the Ice Walk. The event would not have worked without them.
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MA and I cannot count the times that we have been out with Belladan. It included a number of caching/hiking excursions in swampy terrain in the Moncton/Riverview area and caching trips down back roads, including the Fundy Wilderness and the Sussex area.
And we cannot thank Belladan enough for helping us get to and from the airport at odd hours of the morning and night, and for taking a day to get us to Fredericton to pick up our new cachemobile. Dan also placed caches in the Shediac area so we would have caches to continue our streak last winter.
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And when we talk about caching people, we cannot forget the group at CacheUpNb who spend hours working on this site, and who devote themselves for cachers in NB in so many ways, including all their work on the MEGA and the FUNDY events.
I don’t think we thank them enough for all their work.
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It is summer and we often get more than 100 caching emails everyday. We have hundreds of geocaches hidden in this tourist area and the caches seem to attract tourists. The high number of finds is partly explained by the fact that in addition to our scattered caches in Shediac, we have a number of long series in the area: Over 40 in the SM series in Shediac, 45 on the Bouctouche trails, 20 on the Cocagne trails, 15 on Scoudouc trails and 12 on the Shediac trails.
As you may know, we have a large number of Micro Logic Caches in the area, and they seem to attract many out of town cachers who solve them during the winter months and come and get the caches during summer. We also have a large number of those puzzles in the Ottawa/Gatineau area and they get many more hits than the ones in NB.
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Our upcoming trip should add Tn and Sc to our American states, and this winter, we hope to add Tx, Al, Ms, La.