Geocaching & The Cold
Here in New Brunswick, we are no stranger to a good winter. As long as there have been people living here there have been people dealing with the snowy and cold winter months. But it seems over the course of the last few years, it’s been a little easier to deal with given we’ve seen more snow than cold temperatures. This year we weren’t so lucky.
Over the course of the last few weeks, perhaps even a month or so, New Brunswicker’s have been host to some of the coldest days we have had this time of year in a long time. -30 degrees doesn’t seem to be so strange these days and with temperatures beginning to warm up a bit, it couldn’t come fast enough. As someone who despises the cold, I can tell you that it’s definitely had an impact on my desire to go geocaching.
A few weeks ago I was in Montreal for the week. They too were hit with some of the very bitter cold but not quite as bad as it was here. Now normally when I travel, I try to pick up a few geocaches here and there as I always find it helps me to see the area and explore regions I might not know about. I found myself that week staying in my hotel and not going very far. In fact, there was a Wherigo geocache that started within walking distance of my hotel, but the cold seemed to keep me away from going to snag it. I did manage to find one cache that week as it was on my way to where I was working.
At a local event, I heard a few cachers talking about how they had ventured out in -25 and -30 degree weather to snag some caches on various trails, but it seemed that more so than ever, folks were taking a bit of a break hoping the weather might improve. These are among the most dedicated cachers as I cannot fathom myself doing much hiking at -30, but alas geocachers are dedicated to their hobby and in many cases are not going to let a little frostbite hold them back.
This year we’ve been fortunate in that there are two contest running to help promote geocaching in the winter. Both the COAP and Battlecache contests have kept people engaged and interested in snagging a cache here and there in an attempt to participate in these contests. I myself have done a few claims on COAP but have to admit, the cold weather has definitely been a factor. I am not a winter cacher and I don’t think I ever will be. I’ve done the Ice Walk several times, and done some winter hiking but for me, those cold bitter temperatures are just too much to deal with. Long before I ever started caching, I disliked the cold. I tolerate it because I love where I live but I’m not happy about it. I may complain about the bugs in the warmer months, but for me personally, I’ll take the bugs over -30 any day.
But I suspect that I am in the minority when it comes to this in our region. More and more I am hearing about others taking the plunge and going out caching in the cold. It does indeed get you out of the house and keep you active. Plus, it keeps you from being bored.
How about you? Are you a winter cacher or are you waiting for spring?
I don’t get as many caches in winter as I do in summer. In winter caches are limited to those that are winter friendly. And even the winter friendly are sometimes covered by snow. Timing is everything after a snowstorm. So the amount I find is down and the areas I cache are a little more limited due to snow and weather conditions. And available parking in winter is a problem at times.
But I do still get out. I just love to snowshoe and cache. It gives me something to look forward to during the winter months. I don’t mind the snow if I can get out in it. Although before I started caching 3 years ago I also didn’t have any use for winter or the cold.
And speaking of the cold, it did stop me from caching last week I will admit. -18C with a windchill of below -30 something was enough to keep me inside. I wanted to go caching but not that bad. But just the same I was out the week before in -18C with a windchill of -27C. So when it comes to the cold weather I will go out if I really want to go. It just depends on my mood.
I can understand anyone wanting to wait till it gets a little warmer in the spring to really start up again. You don’t have to wear as much clothes and containers are a little easier to find. Caching late winter/early spring is also fun in the woods as there isn’t as much snow and on cool mornings you can walk on top of the crust that forms on the snow.
So while I may not cache as much I still do cache in winter. A pair of snowshoes and a few caches make for an enjoyable day. Something to do and get out of the house.
Now I”m waiting for the annual icewalk.
My winter caching in the past has been hit and miss with February usually being the lowest month, but that has to do with some travel for work and the like as well where I might not get as many caches on the road. So far this winter, I have 150+ in December and over 80 so far in January.
Ma & Pa and I ventured onto the ice this past weekend to get Gilbert’s cove and despite the wind being up a little, it was a really nice day to grab a few caches.
I don’t love the cold, but with the COAP and Battlecache contests going on it makes things much more interesting and drives me to go out even on those VERY cold days !
Now, bring on the hides as the ones close by are getting fewer and far between !
MA and I have caching goals and plans so we couldnt let the cold weather stop us and we couldnt let the flu/cold that we got at New Years stop us.
We were on a streak so we had to find one cache a day. That meant going out every day and walking up to 3 kms to pick up one cache of cableguys Punchline series, and then going back the next day and repeating the process to get another one. During the same period we went out to Bouctouche to hide 5 caches at a time on the trails, usually with snowshoes.. We ended up hiding 45 caches during the cold spell.
We are also trying to have 5 caches found on every day of the calendar. Last week there was a day that we needed to find 3 caches but we were out of local caches so we planned a two day assault on the Fredericton area. Minus 25 wind chill on those two days and we walked 8 kms one day and 12 the next, on snowmobile trails and bushwacking on cachers’ snowshoe tracks..
When we got back we still needed to continue our streak so we aimed for two caches in the Hillsborough area that required a 6 km hike and a 3 km hike on a snowmobile track on a closed road. One of the caches hadnt been found in 15 months. On Sunday after the breakfast event, we met Geodimeter in Sackville and took a cold walk of 2.5 kms on Silver Lake to get a 5/5 cache (Gilbert Cove).
We did a lot of other caching adventures during that period including two wherigos.
When caching is your job, you cant take a day off.