SUMMARY ICE WALK 2013
This is an attempt at a summary of this year’s Ice Walk which was attended by nearly 100 individuals. Sorry for my verbose attempt.
If you attended, please add any info that we have forgotten and add your stories.
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THANK YOU
Our name is on the top of the cache page but this year more than ever, the event was a group effort. A couple of months before the event, chatelaine and herrminnz contacted us with an offer to help and with the ideas of door prizes and a 50/50 to help pay for the hall rental. They also offered to run both for us. Those present at the event know what a great job they did. We are so indebted to them. A BIG THANK YOU.
But they did a lot more than that. They both accompanied Pa on a maintenance run on Cocagne Island a month ago and chatelaine also went on one of the maintenance runs on Shediac island last week. Chatelaine also contributed the giant pot of Jambalaya that many of us enjoyed. What many may also have noticed is that herrminnz’s main job was hanging around with Pa and keeping him calm, and going out with him to get a cache.
Thank you also to Belladan for planning two maintenance runs to Shediac Island and accompanying PA last week. Dan comes out every year to check on the caches before the event. Dan was also there with words of encouragement during the entire planning process. He also picked us up at the airport last week and brought us to our cache of the day and he also put out 5 caches in the Shediac area to help us continue our streak during the week prior to the event. If you read the logs for the event, you will see that many people came to the event with one goal only: Get a bowl of Belladan’s Chicken Fricot soup. Dan has supplied a large pan of the fricot for a few years now and it always gets rave reviews. We also want to thank Dan’s wife, Rose Marie who shows up to help run the food aspect, serve food, help with many tasks and clean up after the event.
A large number of people brought food. Thank you to all of them for making the event memorable. I hope they forgive us for not trying to list them all here. We would however like to mention that milosheart brought the meatballs and rice, and that pettycache506 brought chili.
We also wish to thank those who contributed items for the Door Prize Draw: forestfauna for the beautiful hiking stick and milosheart for the fully stocked ammo can. Thank you also to all who bought the 50/50 tickets. We got nearly $500. A portion was used to pay the rental and the rest was given out to 5 lucky winners.
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PRIZE WINNERS
50/50 prizes: frajan, Tracker 230, mkleggs, Misha, milosheart
Door prizes: kc.butt, KentCountyKitty, Coopsquared,Michelen, KD cachers, 4CeasonS, jim52, RevSlippery, Ma of Ma & Pa.
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NOTRE CENTRE HALL
We paid for rental of the small room and the kitchen, but after the early morning greetings, Neil of the center,suggested we move to the large hall. This was really appreciated. Everyone that we asked, thought that the hall was an ideal place to have the event. It was convenient for everyone to have access to the kitchen to get food. We paid the Center to have a large pot of coffee made twice during the evnt. they supplied the cups, the cream and sugar, and another pot of hot water for tea and hot chocolate. They also supplied table covers for the tables. We are thinking of renting the large hall next year. They want to speak to us about supplying food for us but most people seem to prefer our present pot luck format.
Having a larger venue gave more room for everyone to sit and chat and move about. It also allowed us to have the popular Cachemporium on site. Many enjoyed being able to actually see and touch items that you usually only see online.
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THE ICE WALK
Again this year the event drew cachers from all over the Maritimes who had to brave risky roads to join us. There were many familiar happy faces. This year again we had visitors from Quebec. They were from Nicolet, Trois Riviere, Baie Comeau and Rimouski. We will be seeing them this summer at the MEGA in Fredericton.
The weather was certainly a challenge this year with the rain and the cold winds in the open areas, but it seems that it made for more stories to tell. The wet cachers coming back in the afternoon all had smiles on their faces. The weather may have shortened some of the assaults on the islands but there were cachers who stayed out there for up to 6 hours to clean up one of the islands. We heard many a story from tired cachers who had donned snowshoes for the very first time and spent many hours out on the islands in the rain and wind. The most intensive caching seemed to be by the visitors from Quebec who first did all of Cocagne island before coming for food at the Center. At 4 pm they headed to Shediac island and picked up all the caches there, finishing by headlamp at 8 pm.
Many of the cachers told their stories in their logs on the event page. Great reading.
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We noted that some cachers reached or approached milestones this weekend.
salty.ca 1000
flashjam 3000
olewaif 8400
chatelaine 3500
Maitre Jack 3900
mkleggs 2200
Paulie 2500
Pikpik 3300
Rev Slippery 4600
TheNinjaJedi 700
Treehugger21 4000
Perks19 3800
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NEXT YEAR
We are thinking of instituting a sign-in/sign-out procedure to ensure all cachers have succcessfully returned from the islands. We may also be taking cell phone numbers and giving a number out for emergencies
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VIDEOS
Three vids from cableguy from the Icewalk
A video from Misha
We had a great time at the ice walk. We braved the roads to come and we are glad we did. Like the sign in sign out idea. Safety first. The centre was very nice and the food was great. TFTE
I had a great time even though my other half had to work. I think potluck is the best option as everyone shows up sporadically through out the day, sit down meals are harder if everyone isn’t there when its fresh, plus it probably cost more. The check in and out is a really good idea! and numbers (cell), I also loved the mini first aid kits that were provided and logs, good idea. Plus I love cachemporium! There was also something said about the mega event and signing up, Is there a link on the mega site?
Army.of.two: go to the Mega website http://maritimemega.com/ and click on the registration/store tab. All the info for purchasing your registration(s), coins, t-shirts, meals, etc., is there. 🙂
Any questions, let us know via the forums on the website, on here or email/contact on the site. Or send me an email.
As “this is not an organized cache hunt” wouldn’t a sign in and sign out sheet make the ice walk event more than just an event? ( I know I’m confused to )
OK I’ll bite!!!
I think I know what you are getting at or trying to get at.
You cannot get a bunch of people together to go out together and get some caches and then try to call it an event. There has to be a meeting of cachers who get together and discuss caching. Obviously if you get a bunch of cachers together they are going to discuss caching, but GC rules want you to do more than just cache.
If cachers want to go out for the day together, they can sometimes get around the rules by having everyone meet at a restaurant for breakfast or coffee before the event. It depends on the reviewer.
There are other events that are specifically organized as events for an occasion, or a milestone perhaps, and caches are hidden nearby for cachers to find while at the event. I think the FUNDY PARK event and maybe this weekend’s Mactaquac event fall into that category.
I am not sure where the ICE WALK falls, but it seems to have a bit of both types mentioned above. Cachers show up to go caching but they dont go out as one group. They are free to go where they want, when they want and with whoever they want to go. It also qualifies as an event because the event location is available all day and cachers can and do show up to chat, without the requirement to go and get caches.
The Ice Walk is organized to have people meet up and go out to get caches that are on two islands or on local trails. Caches on the islands are put out so that the visitors will have caches to find, but the caches are not specifically Ice Walk Event caches. For example we put out over 40 caches on the Bouctouche trail. They were put out before the event and were mentioned in the announcements. However those caches were also put out to entertain local cachers during winter months and also to entertain summer tourists and locals who may want to bike on the trail.
The idea of a sign in/sign out sheet is simply an idea to ensure the safety of the cachers who go over to the islands, by checking to make sure all have returned. It would not be compulsory. We got the idea when we found out that two cachers from out of town, who had never snowshoed, spent 6.5 hours, mostly alone, looking for caches on half of Cocagne Island. It all turned out OK, but we want to make sure everyone is back safely.
A big thank you to cableguy for posting a slideshow of photos from the Ice Walk Event. He did a great job. All the great views and smiling faces certainly convinces us to continue this event (not that we were thinking of cancelling it – LOL).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMVdfmH6YEY&feature=youtu.be
WE have archived the event but one TB remains in it. Hopefully it will be logged soon.