MARCH 12, 2012 — MA & PA
- EARLY SPRING CACHING
We are coming upon our least favourite time of year for caching around here. From late March to early May the conditions in the woods are not ideal. The snow conditions are no longer good for snowshoeing and the snowmobile trails and ATV trails will no longer support us when walking to get a cache or a series. As the snow leaves we are left with mud and water and bogs, and I would not attempt to drive many of the back roads which are passable in winter and summer.
As a result, we are thinking again of taking a little caching trip. We have no idea where but we are definitely thinking of it. Not necessarily far but somewhere with better conditions.
- TODAY
We started our latest streak on January 8 so today will be day 65. Today is Monday so our plans for today start at the Casino for early breakfast. We then head into the woods for an archived cache that has not been removed and that we have not yet found. It is in a boggy area and we hope we havent waited to long to make an attempt for it. We also hope that it is above the snow.
We then head down the TCH to the Scoudouc area to try for the Eye of the Dog cache. All indications are that we are in for a long hike and/or snowshoe of more than 5 kms. Again we are hoping that we have not waited too long to get this one. It seems there is a snowmobile trail that will get us within 300 meters before we need to bushwack. Hopefully the conditions out there will be good.
If we get neither of thesee caches, we will likely be trying for one of the many cableguy caches. he seems to have new ones coming out on nearly a daily basis. Depending on our condition at the end of the day we may finish off at Casino for another meal.
- OUR RECENT STUFF AND NEW CACHES
Snow has started to leave so our skiing season may be over. We will wait a little before taking action to disable our two new caches on the ski trails a the Beaver Club. However, Kouchi’s website indicates that their trails are still open and being groomed but conditions are not the best. We may try to head up there later this week. If the skiing is not greaat, I will at least get one of the great blueberry fritters at Timmys in Richibuctou. They have the best ones.
Our grandsons Jake & Ben flew in from Ottawa last week and spent the week with us. We all had a great time. Jake was pleased to have found cableguy’s microsecond cache. I managed to log he find for them even though it is a premium member cache. They were happy with their week, not because of the cachig but more because of the donairs at greco and the super donairs at Pizza Delight.
We have been getting quite a bit of geocaching email lately, mostly from people logging our our new puzzle caches or writing with questions on the caches. We are pleased with the reactions to our Girls Girls Girls cache.
There is trouble with our new Micro Logic caches. I placed 17 of them in an area that is scheduled for future development. Well the future happened quickly and it seems five of them have disappeared as a result of clear cutting. I will be going back there later this week to see what I can do. I do not want to archive them because many people have been working on them, including cachers from out of town. I am hoping to move them but if so I will likely need help and approval from a reviewer because of the distance being moved. In the eventuality that any need archiving, I am thinking of maybe putting out new ones elsewhere and linking them to the archived ones. As you can see, I am not ssure what will be best. In any event, I have to prepare some new containers, and spend quite a bit of time out there, getting new coords, making sure the distance between them is OK, etc.
- CHANGES TO CACHEUPNB AND ACGA
I frequent geocaching forums and community sites to see what is going on in the geocaching world, to read people’s stories and opinions and share some of mine. I check out a few forums in other areas, and sometimes contribute to the Ottawa site, since we do spend time there every year and have some Micro Logic caches there.
My bookmarks for forums (geocaching ones as well as others) are set up so that I immediately get to the page showing an index of new comments and items since my last visit. That way I get a quick overview to see if anything interests me. The index usually only shows the titles of the items as well as the person who created the items and the person who made the latest comment. When I go to the index and list of topics in various categories, I like a list of titles to again give me an overview of what is going on in each area. I see it like going to a file cabinet, checking the titles on the drawers, opening a appropriate drawers and looking at the titles of the various folders and picking the ones that are of interest to me.
Recent changes at ACGA affect how I use that site. Each item in the list of topics takes a lot of room on the page, and i have to scroll down a lot to see all the items. Also there seem to be a lot less categories, with some being merged and some eliminated. I am definitely a creature of habit and am comfortable with my way of doing things, so I am having a tough time getting used to the new look and the revised content. It is likely just me as many people seem to like the changes.
As you know there have been many changes here at CACHEPNB. I have always tried to use this site as I would a forum and stick to the new items and comments. That is not always easy to do because unlike a forum, items being discussed do not come to the top of the list, in fact there is no list. Zor has accomodated me and others by having a recent comment section down the right hand side of the page. Recent changes to that area have been a great improvement. The most recent items come to the top, and we see a little portion of the comment to let us know if it is of interest to us. I really like that feature.
All the other CACHEUPNB changes regarding features, apps, social sites, etc are of no interest to me so I will not comment except to say that many seem really excited and appreciative of the enhancements.
Like I said I come here for the news and check in many times a day. The top of the page is of no use to me, so I scroll down past the changing pictures at the top and past the old random items and I check to see if there are new articles. I then scroll down the right hand side to glance at the chat and to look for new comments.
Many people come here often and we all have different needs and interests. I am sure everyone is as appreciative as I am of the efforts of Zor and his cohorts in trying to accomodate us all.
We love our Mondays
Today we found Eye of the Dog http://coord.info/GC39G04
The log
We parked at the recommended spot and had a 3 hour , 7 km roundtrip hike to get the two partss of this cache. We hiked about 2.4 kms along the ATV snowmobile trail and then bushwacked 420 meters in a straight line (actual walking distance over 600 meters) to the first part. The first part was easy to spot but it was tough getting to it through the 200 plus meters of alders. We had carried snowshoes with us, but we didnt use them as the snow supported us, except when Pa stepped in the wrong spot and went kneee deep into water under the snow.
The second part took quite a while to find, and we cannot explain the reason since the colour should have made it extremely visible.
TFTC and the adventure.
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We found and removed the archived Between the Lines
http://coord.info/GC2X1TA
The log
We came from the road to the north of the cache next to the TCH. This time of year the going was good and the crisp surface of the snow supported us without snow shoes. The area with the cache was frozen over so there was no problem in this swampy area, and luckily for us a lot of the snow has melted, thereby exposing the cache.
We found and removed this cache. Thanks to Misha for placing high enough to keep it available.
*************
Oh and of course we won at the Casino again so we are at $ 890. profit
Just about ready to give up on ACGA.
I have a bookmark for the forum, but somehow it brings me to their home page, not the forum.
Here is the forum link that I have
http://forum.atlanticgeocaching.com/index.php?action=unread
and here is whhere it brings me
http://atlanticgeocaching.com/
The home page has an area for comments but it wants me to register for something called LiveFyre to make comments. It appeasrs that this may link my comments to twitter or facebook. Not being involved with those sites, I am not interested.
Bottom line to me is the ACGA home page should have a link to their forum.
Not sure why you are having such as issue with forum PA,as I’ve been able to find the link on home page without a problem. But sadly, I’m of the same opinion as you in that I think the ACGA site has almost take a step backwards in terms of its ease of use an accessibility.
Thanks
I checked today and I now see links at the top of the home page. There was none before, unless it was my browser that was having problems. Anyhow, I now see a link to the forums.
But I still have a problem with the look and the ease of use. Must be cause I am old.
The executive had a meeting last week to come up with some ideas to get more user input and keep the ACGA relevant. One of things was to try to update the Site in an attempt to get people looking in the right places and get more involved in the conversation. If you noticed the stories and articles are now on top to encourage reading and a new chat was added to front Page. The forum was updated and moved to a new more modern setup with better features. If you look through it, it is fairly easy to see what is new,there are less groups and categories to keep it simple. Thecyr is still working on it and making changes so please feel free to make comments and suggestions. We avoided this here by getting it all ready before the switch over. The main objective of the ACGA is still to promote responsible caching in Atlantic Canada and to help localized groups and individuals to work with the communities and groups like cities and parks. That is why CacheupNB is taking over some operations in NB, other groups are welcome to work with them as well.
The partnership of the ACGA with CUNB I find a bit odd. The ACGA has had a bit of reputation in the past of being focused primarily on NS caching issues; I am worried this partnership will further that divide. I guess my point is, shouldn’t the ACGA be responsible for their own initiatives instead of giving that responsibility to other groups? After all, they are the registered non-profit group representing cachers in Atlantic Canada.
Which, I guess, leads into this topic: when did CUNB become a group? Are there plans to create an executive, terms of reference, etc. to guide the direction of the group and allow members to have a say its direction?
What is CUNB if it isn’t a group, unofficially? A group of cachers that come here to discuss geocaching in NB. Zor and I have been discussing that for a while now and Zor will be addressing that issue soon. We have done some things that create the appearance of a formal type group almost unintentionally which was never the goal of CUNB so that will be discussed. The original plan was to be a website only and we intended to stay that way but when approached by the ACGA to help them with things going on in NB we decided it would be in the best interest of the cachers in NB to keep what they started going. I don’t want to say any more on this right now but your question will be answered by everyone. The only thing that is creating the appearance of a group is the ownership of the caches which can be changed and things will go back to normal, otherwise this is just a website.
You’ve addressed my point perfectly Rev. The original intent was a website for discussions and ideas; it looks like it is moving beyond that, so I was curious if I was the only one seeing it or not. Thanks.
The ACGA is being responsible for it’s own initiatives, Zor and I are both members and looking after projects that are in our area, they have been working that way since day one. The Fundy Park thing was the first in Canada and the president of the association was very hands on at first to make sure it was the best it could been now it has been going well and he is stepping down to let others do it. The other thing is that the area is slowly being split up by other groups be it CUNB or the Facebook groups and the ACGA sees this as a good way to extend their reach by using members that are in these other groups to handle work in their areas. The ACGA is not fighting with these groups but trying to partner with them to the betterment of caching in all of Atlantic Canada. The ownership of the caches just makes it easier for the people doing it to maintain and control the listing. If you would like to get involved make it known the the executive of the ACGA and you are in, you are a voting member even if no one ever votes…lol. No one has offered to run for any position in years.
Clarification is always appreciated. Thanks. I’ve got a much better understanding now.