Getting harder and harder to cache

It seems to be getting harder and harder to cache. Oh, not because I can't get out or am busy. You see I have been up in the Yukon since the end of May, and the town I am in only has two caches in town....eeek. The next nearest is about 5 mins away, then 2 about 10 mins away, and then another 2 in opposite directions about 25 minutes away. There was also one about 40 mins away, but I got that one on the way to Watson Lake as it was a FTF. So 7 caches to get within a 20km radius, what do I do on the second day!!!  LOL
Actually, I have been pacing myself, and not going for all them right away, in fact the 2 in town are both in the Sign Post Forest  and about 170 meters apart.




Sign Post Forest

 But I only did them on different days, so I would have a reason to get out and about. So after the first week, I was out of local caches.

If you read my last blog post, you would see that I have travelled some farther distances to get some BC caches for a challenge cache, as well as a cache for International Geocachers day(It was the 4th cache ever published in the Yukon, but the first one ever found) While up here I have also found BC's most northern cache, The Yukon's 4th and 5th ever caches(I plan to get Yukon's 1st cache on my next trip to Whitehorse)
Just so you know all of the Yukon has a grand total of 248 caches. In BC there is almost 28,000 active caches. A wee bit of a difference.

Today a bunch of us decided to take a trip to Liard River Hot springs 
We saw a herd of about 40-50 Buffalo along the highway. It was quite exciting as we were able to

 

stop right beside them and take a lot of photos.  There were some huge ones as well as some baby's and they just walked by the truck, and did not care that we were there.  Further up the road we stopped so I could grab a cache. It was the Yukon's most southerly cache. It was only 72km from Watson Lake but I can't use it for the VLH challenge cache(see last blog) as it is in the Yukon, not BC.                           



 

  We then stopped at a very beautful spot overlooking the river. The river was flowing quite fast, and there was lots of debri from when the floods and road closures happened a few months back. While there we saw what appeared to be a couple of duffle bags and a knapsack floating down the river. We saw no sign of people or a canoe, so we assumed they made it to shore.

 

We then continued down the road to our destination.

 

 The Liard River Hot Springs....what a awesome day it was to hang out and soak in the springs. It was almost too hot and you could only stay in so long.

 

On our way home we passed the same herd of buffalo plus a smaller herd and a few single buffalo walking along the highway. We also saw a bear, there is no shortage of them up here.

 

   

I find it funny that the bear silhouette on the  "Caution Bear in Area" sign and the bear we saw both look the same. (the pose)

 

 

 Back at Watson Lake, now trying to figure out which cache I need to travel to next week on Labour day. Do I go for the one that's SE and 140km away, or the one that's South and 138km away??

Oh well, till next blog, keep on Caching!!!

Magicman65

 

 

    

Holiday Caching

The title Holiday Caching, does not mean being on holidays and grabbing some caches(although I do that also), what I am talking about is a challenge cache that was published last year in 2011 on Rememberance day, 11th month, 11th day, 11th year. It is called VLH 11-11-11 Challenge
The way to be able to claim this cache and log it, is to find a cache on every BC stat holiday. There is 11 of them in total(Until 2013 when we will have one added)

For the last couple of months, I have been up in the Yukon working. This could make getting caches on a holiday a wee bit tricky. You see the challenge says they have to be BC caches. While I am only about 20km from the border of BC, some of the nearest caches are not so near. There is a couple just across the border(one east of here, and the other west of here) I got one of them when I first came up this way as it was a FTF. The other one I was able to use on Canada day. The next holiday rolled around on BC day. This was a bit tougher as the nearest BC cache now was 130km away from me.
Well after working a full 10hr day, I headed down the hwy.

About 30 minutes down the road, I spotted a family of black bears
along the side of the road. (Mom and 2 cubs)
They allowed me to get some great photos.

A little bit further up the road I spotted this!!! I think he wanted in the house as he was waiting patiently at the front door.



I was a bit worried as the caches last log that I was heading to had a DNF on it, and they said they thought it may have been muggled, plus this was a cache that was 11 years old. When I got to the cache area, I got to look out on a most beautiful lake and mountain view. The drive was most definitely worth it. But wait I still had to find the cache. I got to ground zero, and nothing was to be found. Looked in the area for about 20 minutes and was about to give up. Then I looked again at the hint and read it more carefully this time. Looked at the area and found an area that sounded like it could be there. Viola, there it was!!!

I quickly signed the log book, put everything back the way it was, and stared at the view for a few minutes knowing that I was one more holiday closer to the challenge cache.

I then headed back towards Watson Lake. The trip back was much easier knowing I had aclomplished what I had set out to do.

On the way back to I spotted a grizzly bear along the side of the road. He actually let me get about 5 feet away and was able to snap off a few quick pics before heading back down the road.

                                                                         

Back in Watson Lake, 260km round trip for 1 cache. Was it worth it....YES!!! Next months holiday, I will still be up here and the next closest BC cache is even farther away, oh well, looks like another road trip. Till next blog...keep on caching!!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

FTF on a 5/5

So, we are sitting at home one day and a new cache gets published...normally I head out the door like a chicken with it's head cut off without thinking. For those that don't know FTF stands for "First To Find." It is a term used in geocaching for being the first to get to a newly published cache. Sometimes there is a prize for the first finder, but mostly it's just a cudo's for the first cacher to find it.

Lately though I have had to think a bit before flying out of the house, to chase the elusive FTF. (At the time of writing this I have 277 FTF's)
You see my wife(Angelcheeks) is 9 months pregnant and even still within this past month in the final stages of her pregnancy, she has found several FTF's with me, including one on her due date, as she is a real trooper!!!

One night though with just days to go before her due date, a new cache gets published!! After looking at it, we notice it is listed as a 5/5 (What this means is a level 5 Difficulty rating, and a level 5 terrain rating) For a difficulty 5 rating, it means it will be hard to find or you may need some form of instrument to access information. (We have found caches that we needed a black light, mirror, QR reader, bar code reader, and other weird items) For the terrain rating this normally means, that you will need some form of special equipment of some sort to access the cache. (Scuba gear, boat, climbing gear,etc.) As much as I wanted to get this cache as I did not have a 5/5 cache as of yet, I knew we would not be able to at this time. Maybe down the road!!

The following day we received a text from a very good friend of ours(also a cacher) asking if we went to get the new 5/5 cache yet? He was interested in going to get it, but was missing the piece of equipment(boat) needed to get to the cache location. I offered ours to him. Just then my wife said why don't we all go?  She did not want to miss out on the 5/5 or the FTF, cool!! So we devised a plan of how to get us all to the island safely as my boat only holds 3 people. We set a time to go, loaded the boat onto the car and started getting ready.

Magicmobile and canoe

Our friends(C2C2C and Toby and me) came over and we were off to the lake. We had everything we needed and even some things we may have needed to retrieve the cache. We arrived at the first coordinates, and my hunch was right as to what we needed to get the second set of Coordinates. When we plugged in the co-ords the map showed it to not be on an island but actually on the other side of the lake. Why is it a 5 terrain, if you don't need the boat, hmmmm.

We proceeded with the original plan and loaded the boat into the water. We made our first trip out with 3 in the canoe and realized the water levels had risen and the map was not current, it was an island. We left Angelcheeks on the island and headed back for Toby and me.

Maple Lake

Once we were all on the island we proceeded to head for GZ. There was no trail of any kind, just lots of salal to bushwack through.
Our legs were getting scratched up, but we came to find the cache, so we persisted. All of a sudden Angelcheeks said "Found it" We rushed over to the spot and it was nice to see a blank log book!!!

We all signed it and were excited to have been able to make the trip as a team!!!

Angelcheeks and the blank log book

The trip back was easy as we knew we had accomplished something cool. Crossing a 5/5 off our list of caches was complete. Although that does not mean we will not go after another difficult cache, just next time we will do it with a baby in tow. lol

Until my next blog, keep on caching!!!

A great big thanx to "Let's go Caching" for placing this awesome cache!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65