Magicman65 Adventures around the World!!

These Blogs will mostly be about my geocaching adventures and where it takes me(Although I have not traveled around the world as of yet, I have been to several other countries such as Panama, Mexico, New Zealand, and all over the USA and Canada) I will also fill in the blanks with stories of my Magical adventures as well. You see, for those that may not know me, I am a Comedy Magician(http://cymagic.ca/) and I get to travel to quite a few cool places. I welcome any comment on these pages.

Friday, 28 August 2020

Road Trip!!!

Geochallenge of the month

I talked about Adventure Labs in last months blog, and then found out that the geochallenge of the month for August, was to find an AL. Of course, I easily went and found one with my little boy. Plus I am planning on getting 2 of them in Banff near the end of the month.

This Adventure Lab had a few cool places to visit. My little boy enjoyed the train and other stuff at the museum

These locations were nice and close to each other (3 in the same location) making it easy to complete.

Plus since being awarded one last month, I have set mine up and it is already seeing some action.

It is about Port Moody, which is also known as "The City of the Arts" And it takes you to a few different types of art commissions in Port Moody. If you are in the area, please check it out!!

Adventure in White rock

Went out one Saturday to White Rock, BC for some caching, on the way there it was a steady rain, even when we got there it was still lightly raining but we decided to venture out. Before long we were carrying our jackets and umbrella, as the sun came out and it became a beautiful day for caching and checking out the town.

Susan and her new friend!!

The Pier in White Rock is Canada's Longest Pier. Parts of it were recently rebuilt, as it was damaged during a storm in December of 2018. The cost to rebuild it was $16.2 Million.

Record winds caused the collapse of the middle section of the White Rock Pier in 2018. One man had to be rescued from the far end of the pier by Helicopter.

Is this boulder the reason the town got it's name or did they paint it to reflect the name of the town?? Hmmm, not quite sure, but it is an Earthcache!!

It was a busy day on the pier and in White Rock once the sun came out, but we were still able to do some caching and stay safe while social distancing.

Hollywood North

Went out caching on the following day after our White Rock adventure, to Langley area to get the Hollywood North Adventure Lab, and the Bonus Adventure Lab cache, but of course got some other caches as well while in the area.

The ammo can looked like a movie marker. The AL(Adventure Lab) had us go to several movie locations including places for scenes from "Riverdale", "Bates Motel", "Smallville", "Van Helsing", and a Hallmark Movie called "The Perfect Catch"

This was a fun cache and it scared Sansue when she went to open it, so that made it funner......for me!! LOL

Trip to Lake Louise, Banff, Jasper, and Edmonton

Day 1 (Aug 19): Home to Revelstoke
Headed out on the road, and our first stop was Merritt to let Sansue grab a couple of cool gadget caches that I have already got but thought she would enjoy them. After that is was down the road to Kamloops, and then towards Revelstoke. We only found 6 more on the way there, but one was an FTF!!! Yay, Susan's first FTF and my 401st!!! lol

The Last Spike Monument

Day 2 (Aug 20): Revelstoke to Banff
After a good rest, we woke up early and headed out for the day, we got several caches during the drive as well as in and around Banff and Canmore. A total of 12 caches for me and 13 for Susan as 1 of them was an earthcache that I own in Glacier National Park, called "The Rock Garden Trail"

Rock Garden Trail

Can you guess where we are??

The Great Divide, depending what side of this concrete monument you are, you are either in BC, or Alberta.

Lake Louise

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!!!

Onward to Edmonton

Day 3 (Aug 21): Banff to Edmonton

We headed off to Edmonton after a night in Banff, and along the way we got several caches, including doing a drive-by Earthcache.

We got only 5 in total today but one of them we got was this cool TB Barn cache.

We also stopped to check out the worlds largest fishing hook.

"I once caught a fish this BIG!!"

Day 4 (Aug 22): Edmonton
7 caches today in and around the city, including a tricky one at West Edmonton Mall

Day 5 (Aug 23): Edmonton to Fort Saskatchewan
Found 9 caches, and Susan found 10 as I took her to Alberta's First ever cache which was also Canada's 2nd ever cache called "Strathcona Wilderness 1".

I had already found it in 2011. One of the caches we grabbed today was a Multi cache and we were the First to find!!!
We also were just heading into the woods on a dead end road to do a cool cache called Keys, keys, keys, when a patrol car rolled up on us and checked my license and registration. Not the first time I have been questioned by the police while caching.

After he left we proceeded to the cache and as you can guess by the name there was a lock and about 50 keys and only 1 would open up the lock.

We ended up going thru them about 2 and a half times before getting lucky. lol

On the same dead end road we found one that needed a 9 volt battery to get the code to the lock. An $8.77 investment to grab a cache!!

We then headed thru Elk Island Park and saw 1 Buffalo and grabbed a few caches.

OOOOPS, Wrong Bison!!!

Day 6 (Aug 24): Fort Saskatchewan to Edmonton

I only found 3 today on route to the city, but they had some high fave counts and were out in the country. I took Susan to one that I had already found out that way also.

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!!!

Heading for Jasper and Home!

Day 7 (Aug 25): Edmonton to Jasper
16 caches today on the trip from Edmonton, and in Jasper, including a Multi and 2 Virtuals, and one of the traditionals was a FTF!!!, plus we saw a fair bit of wildlife. We also completed an Adventure Lab that was pretty much the same locations as the Multi cache we did, just different questions to be answered.

Spotted this cool looking free library while caching in Jasper. No cache at it, but pretty cool!!

Day 8 (Aug 26): Jasper to Home
We found 11 caches today while traveling home from Jasper, as it was a nice day to travel.

Bear in the area, but we still went for the cache. lol

Mount Robson Park

An awesome trip with my sweetheart, and I found a total of 58 traditional's, 2 Multi's, 1 Earthcache, 1 Puzzle cache, 7 Virtual's, 3 FTF's, and one Adventure lab. Weather was great and had a few nice visit's with family. Not too bad!!!

In Jasper, Alberta with Jasper the Bear

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Sunday, 2 August 2020

Adventure Labs, Kayak caching and upcoming Road Trip!!

Adventure Lab Caching

Went out to Fort Langley with Sansue one sunny Sunday to grab some caches, a wherigo, and to try and do our first Adventure Lab cache. I have never done one and was unsure how they worked as you will see as this story unfolds. We were working on the wherigo cache called "Fort Langley History Walk" and also tried to start the Lab Cache. We got to the first location, which was at the Langley Centennial Museum. It was closed and the lab cache app showed it was about 5 metres inside the building. I did everything I could to try to get close enough for it to tell me I was there. Could not!! Left there and headed to the next location. It too was in a building. They were open but wanted money to go in. Frustrated, we left and finished off the Wherigo and some other caches.

Fort Langley

This one was the final to the wherigo we did while at Fort Langley. Can you see it?

How about now??

We were headed back to my place and then thought we would stop by Lafarge Lake and try the Adventure Lab that is there. Frustrated still from the last one we arrived and headed to the first location. When we got close, I realized that there was a button that I had not seen earlier. It was asking me to "answer" I clicked it and it unlocked, and it gave me a question, even though I was not at 0 meters yet. I then realized the adventure labs are not like a wherigo where the question pops up when you are close to the spot. Obviously we could have done the one in Fort Langley. lol. Oh well, now I have a reason to return there some other time, as there is other caches I have not gotten also.
After completing the Lafarge Lake Adventure lab we went off and did another one on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, and we were able to also get a bonus cache for completing the Lab cache, and collecting all the clues.

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!!!

Lab Caches

Speaking of Adventure Lab caches, shortly after doing a couple and learning how they play, I received an email from Groundspeak saying I have been chosen by Geocaching HQ to create an Adventure Lab. How cool is that. Now I need to find some cool spots to set it up.

The Vanishing River Earthcache

Back in Sept. of 2011, I put out an Earthcache up around the Port Alice area, on Vancouver Island while I was up there working. The Description read:

One of the longest stretches of Karst in the world runs from Zeballos to Quatsino, which houses the Artlish River Caves (accessible by trail), Devils Bath, Eternal Fountain and The Vanishing River (all accessible via logging roads).

What Is Karst Topography?
Definition: Karst topography is a landscape shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. Limestone caves are created through the dissolving of limestone bedrock in the phreatic zone. Sink holes, land bridges, caves, and reappearing rivers all make their home here due to a series of world class Karst systems caused by the erosion of limestone.

Some recent logs over the past while showed that the area that once was accessible by a nice wooden stairway leading down to a boardwalk with a signboard explaining the area was gone or destroyed from trees falling and aging.

The sign and boardwalk are no longer there.

I recently archived the Earthcache so no one gets hurt trying to find it. This is the second Earthcache of mine I have had to Archive. The other one was in Victoria at a trail leading to a beach, and was about Tsunami's but the signage was removed. The other 2, I have are still active. One is in the Yukon, which I set up, when I was up there working in Watson Lake, and the other is in Glacier National Park, and we will be stopping there on our way to Banff, so Sansue can check it out.

Burnaby Lake caches

Oliver and I went out to try out my inflatable Kayak and to also grab the caches in Burnaby Lake one Saturday afternoon.

It was a beautiful day out on the water. This was the first time to have my kayak in the water since buying it about a year ago.

All the caches are on wooden platforms out in the middle of the Lake. Easily accessible as long as you have a boat of some sort.