Christmas Caching

Vancouver Island Caches

Had a corporate Gig in Nanaimo, so I went over early so I could grab a few caches. Ended up just getting 2 in Parksville area, plus 1 Adventure Lab at an outside Museum.

NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become BIGGER!!!

Skagit Valley Trip

Booked a corporate show down in the States at the Skagit Valley Casino.

I took Susan (Sansue) with me, and we grabbed several caches on the way there. A couple of the caches we got, I had already got from other trips across the border.

We did a total of 2 Adventure Labs, and 3 caches, but I only could log one of them, since I found the other two already.

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Mount Currie Trip

Booked a corporate show in Mount Currie and thought I would try and find a few caches on the way. 

Grabbed 1 cache that was a 5 Gallon Bucket hanging in a tree. It was on a rope and pulley, so you could lower it down to sign the log inside.

I also stopped in Pemberton, as I did a walkaround gig there in the summertime and I was checking out a sign board at that time, about a slide that has happened several years past which closed a roadway. I thought this would make a perfect earth cache so this time I decided to grab some more information, and pictures of the sign boards and do a little research and build a new earth cache for people coming through the area. Look for it to be published soon hopefully.

The 2010 Mount Meager landslide was a large catastrophic debris Avalanche that occurred in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, on August 6 at 3:27 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

 More than 45,000,000 m³ (1.6×10⁹ ft³) of debris slid down Mount Meager, temporarily blocking Meager Creek and destroying local bridges, roads and equipment. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and one of over 20 landslides to have occurred from the Mount Meager Massif in the last 10,000 years.

Last month when I was in Squamish for a gig, I noticed there was only one adventure lab here, so I decided maybe I should try and put an adventure lab in town.
I noticed there was a lot of murals in town so I thought that would be perfect so I started looking at some of the murals, but then when I went near to where I was doing my gig at it was a cool new park that it just opened with lots of artwork and interesting things so I decided to do the adventure lab there all five and one little area nice little walking tour of the park I got all the information. I built an adventure lab when I got home and then a few days later I noticed another adventure lab got published there in town shortly after I was gone today going through there. I stopped to do the adventure lab that is in mine and it is of the murals in town. Very funny coincidence? 
And the cool part was, I was actually the first one to log this new adventure lab!!

Another Island trip

Booked a Corporate show in Victoria the week before Christmas. Went over to the island on the first sailing so I could also grab some caches. I ended up getting 16 stages of  9 different Adventure Labs, and 5 Virtual Caches. 

I like when you can go to one spot and there is a cache or virtual and also a stage of an AL. "Mile 0" was one of these spots.

One of the Virtuals was the "Terry Fox Marathon of Hope" Statue.

Below is an excerpt from the Caching page:

Terry began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980 to raise money for cancer research. The journey started near St. John's, Newfoundland with the intent of running the equivalent of one full marathon (42 kilometers) a day until he reached Victoria, British Columbia. The Marathon started off with little fanfare but Terry’s journey soon grabbed the public’s attention and soon events were scheduled to greet Terry along the way. Terry quite frequently provided speeches, media interviews, and attended sporting events – anything he could do to raise awareness of cancer research. On September 1, 1980 near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Terry fell ill and was admitted to hospital. The following day, after running for 143 days and 5,373 kilometers, Terry announced that his cancer had returned and had spread to his lungs. Terry underwent months of chemotherapy and other treatments before eventually passing away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.

Terry had raised $1.7 million during the Marathon of Hope and another $10 million was raised in the weeks after the run ended. The first annual Terry Fox Run was held on September 13, 1981 and has been organized in over 60 countries, and attracts more than three million people annually. The Terry Fox Run is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research, and has raised over $850 million dollars.

Next Month will be the start of a New Year...2026, with lots of cool things to come, lots of shows, and of course lots of caching trips....But, more about that Next Month. Until then stay safe, cache often, and have an awesome New Year!!!

Well that's it for this month!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Seasonal Traveling

 Squamish

Fishy Bike Rack

I booked a wedding gig for some walk around Magic in Squamish on a weekend, so I headed that way a bit early so I could grab some geocaches along the way as well as in Squamish
It’s nice if you can cache along the route to your

final destination as it helps break up the trip although, this trip isn’t that far maybe about an hour and a half from my place it’s still nice to stop and stretch your legs and grab a cache, enjoy some scenery and then head down the road further towards the next cache and the final destination

I got into town early and was doing a couple of caches near my event in a new park and I checked to see if there was any Adventure Labs in the area and realized there’s only one adventure lab in town.

I thought this new park would make a great adventure lab so while I was there geocaching I also grabbed some coordinates and a bunch of pictures of some of the cool artwork 

at the park, and a week or so later after being home, I built a new Adventure Lab in Squamish. I am looking forward to seeing the reviews on it when cachers start finding it.

I also signed up for Happy Holidays mission 2025 again this year.

I've been doing it for the past few years. It was set up by Laval K-9, and how it works, is first you say you want to participate, and then she matches you with another cacher somewhere and you send out a Christmas Card and an unactivated Geocoin to them, and you get a card and a coin from some other cacher. It's a nice way to connect with other cachers during the holidays.

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Sunshine Coast

Booked a corporate gig over on the sunshine Coast in Sechelt.
Went over early in the morning with Sansue. 

The first cache we grabbed was called "Ferry Beach". Many trips I have taken to the Sunshine Coast, but didn't grab it for fear of missing my Ferry. 

It is right by the ferry terminal in Langdale and it has been on my list for a long time, but I’ve never had the time to get it this time, so as soon as we got off the ferry we parked went over onto the beach and grabbed it as our first cache of the day, no rush!! Good view of the Ferry we were just on from the Cache site.

Did several more on our way to Sechelt, including an earthcache, which was at one of the pitstops for amazing race Canada, which was very cool to go there to see it. 

When I watched the amazing race in Canada and they said they were over by Sechelt at this location. I quickly searched for it on Google maps. This was last year and I found the place and of course searched to see if there was any geocache there and behold there was an earthcache which was very cool so we got it on this trip. 

Did a quick google search to get the info, as you can see in the picture.

The Mandala is in Robert Creek, BC

NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become BIGGER!!!

Prince George

Headed to Prince George for a corporate gig. I was just thru here a couple months ago back in August when I flew into PG, rented a car and headed 2 hours north to McLeod Lake community for a festive family friendly show for the town. 
Grabbed only one cache this trip but it was a cool one called “The Maze”

it was a 3D printed container but you had to twist and turn it as you pulled it apart in order to follow the track to do so. Very fun gadget container. Took me about 5 minutes to get it open. It was the closest cache to my hotel. 

Usually when I go to Prince George I go over to see Mr. PG and get a picture with him. 

This trip I didn’t have time but I did pass him several times while Ubering (Is that a word? Actually in PG they don't have Uber, they have "Uride) ) from airport to hotel and hotel to Venue for my show. 

Next month I am headed to Vancouver Island twice, once to Nanaimo, and once to Victoria for Corporate gigs, also to Lake Errock, Skagit Valley Casino, and Mount Currie for shows........BUT More about that in Next Months Blog........

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Cruising for caches

Trip to Kamloops and Salmon Arm

I booked a Walkaround gig in Salmon Arm, BC so Sansue and I headed to Kamloops the evening before to spend the night and then headed to Salmon arm the next day.

I took Susan to a few caches in Kamloops and Salmon Arm that I had already found as I thought she would enjoy them as they had lots of Favorite points on them. One was called "Locks of Hope"

As you can see it was a very cleverly made lock that opened up and there was a small bison tube inside of it.

I got a total of 14 Traditional Caches, 1 puzzle cache and 11 stages from 4 different Adventure Lab's

NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become BIGGER!!!

Magical Cruise Trip (PCAM)

Went on a short 5 day cruise as part of the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians Convention. This was my second time enjoying the convention on a Cruise Ship

The Cruise was from Vancouver to San Diego, with a stop over in Santa Barbera

The ship we got to go on was Holland America's Eurodam. A beautiful ship, that is 936 feet in length, 106 feet wide, and takes 2104 Guests

Santa Barbara

On the 3rd day of the cruise, I was able to get off the ship for a few hours while in port.

I only wanted to go on shore, so I could grab a few caches, and grab a couple of souvenirs to take home. 

When we came into Santa Barbera, we had to get off the ship in these little boats called tenders.

This picture was taken from the pier. I hung out in Santa Barbera, with another magician friend of mine that was at the convention at sea, who lived in the states.

We had a nice chat over coffee, and he went for a walk with me so I could grab some caches!! He even helped look for them.

 

This was a cool Virtual Cache in Santa Barbera, at a massive Fig Tree.

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Besides the Virtual, I was also able to grab 4 traditional caches and 2 stages of 2 different Adventure Lab's

On our way back to the ship in the tender, we got to see a bunch of pelicans.

The last night on the ship, I wandered around a bit, and it was so quiet. Not a lot of people out enjoying the evening. This is the pool on the ship and the retractable roof was open as it was so calm out.

San Diego Airport Adventure Labs

We got to the airport early, for our flight back into Canada, which was good, as I was able to complete 26 different Adventure Labs for a total of 130 Adventure Lab stages(AKA Finds) 

As you can see by the picture, these Adventure Labs were placed to celebrate geocaching being 25 years old and they were placed to look like the number 25. But if you count how many AL's are in the number 25, there is actually 26 AL's. lol

The one lower in the picture, I already did on a previous trip from San Diego a few years back when PCAM was in Carlsbad, California.

On October 18th it is Adventure Lab day and I will grab an Adventure Lab to get the souvenir 

Next month, I have shows in Squamish, Sunshine Coast, and Prince George, so I will be doing some caches and Adventure labs while traveling. Also Next month I am going to an event where they will be showing the GIFF winners:

(Unfamiliar with GIFF?  Each year geocachers from all over the world are invited to submit their own short films about geocaching.  HQ selects the winners and creates a film reel of 45 - 60 min in length that can be shown at Official GIFF Events. Last GIFF season, over 16,000 geocachers attended 425 Events hosted across 40 countries!)

But more about that in Next Month's Blog......

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Travel is fun!!

McLeod Lake

 Booked a show in McLeod Lake which is about 2 hours north of Prince George. Flew into PG and rented a car, and then headed up the highway towards McLeod Lake. 

My show was in a small community by the lake. I only found 4 caches while here.

I felt there should have been a cache at this location.

But there was not!!

On the way back to the airport the next day, I stopped for a visit with Mr. PG

I visited him on one of my last trips up here but it was in December and minus 20. BRRRRRRRRRR

PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

Edmonton Trip

Went to Edmonton, Alberta the day after I got home from Prince George, for a visit with family, and was able to grab several caches while in town. 

Also did a Free show for the Senior Centre that my Mom lives at.

Got a total of 9 Traditional caches, 5 Wherigo caches, and 1 puzzle cache.

Got 25 stages of AL's also,

got 13 of those stages while the plane was coming into the gate still. lol

 

This was a cool cache hide I found in Edmonton

NOTE: The highlighted or underlined words in my blog can be clicked on as they are links to other cool stuff!! Also if you click on any of the pictures they become BIGGER!!!

Penticton Trip

Booked a show in Penticton, and went there the night before and stayed in Summerland, so we could do some caching on the way there as well as during the day before my show

Did a bunch of caches in and around Summerland

Then we also went to Peachland for just one cache that had 128 favorite points on it.

This was the cache box on the back of the Peachland sign, but to open it, you needed a special tool that was nearby.

Here it was open, very cool. We added 2 more Favorite points to this cache!!

Found a total of 18 Traditional's, 1 multi, 1 wherigo, and 1 Puzzle that was really cool and more like a multi, and at every stage there was a different method to figure out, to get you to the next stage. 

This was at the first stage of "NOT Just Another Pile of Geo-Sticks"

You had to count the knots in the strings to get the co-ord's to the next stage.

The second Stage was just info but if you don't know how to project a waypoint or have the appropriate app to do so, you would be very confused. 

To get to the Last Stage you needed to convert the coordinates from UTM format to GPS also known as WGS84 format

We also did 5 Adventure labs with a total of 24 stages.

At the end of September I am going to Salmon Arm again for a corporate gig. I was thru there back in May and Susan and I were thru there a few years back. Gonna get several caches on the way there and in town, also in the beginning of October, I will be boarding the Holland America's Eurodam and heading south to Santa Barbera and San Diego of but more about that in Next Month's Blog.........

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65