Happy New Year

 Christmas caching

Went and grabbed a couple of caches on Christmas day. One was a puzzle cache called Choo! Choo! All Aboard!! and the other was a traditional with the word Christmas in the title. (Why Not, seemed appropriate!!) We got our last souvenir of the year also.

On Boxing day we also got out for a couple along the river near the River Rock casino. The weather was cool but nice.

We also got out caching the day after boxing day. I took Susan to a few cool caches I have already found as well as a few I had not found.

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!!!

Looking for 10,000 finds

Actually my amount of finds is only 5448 but today (Jan 2/21) We went to find a "Team Challenge" which was a Challenge puzzle cache called "10,000 finds: Team Challenge"

The idea of this challenge is to team up with other cachers so the total of all your finds is over 10,000 finds. In total there was 8 teams totaling 10 cachers with a cumulative total of caches adding up to 22,163. There was myself, Sansue, Magicboy2012(my son), Greenest, GBandBob, BadBunnyBiteYou, Berlin96, and Jimw67.

 We all got to GZ and looked for the cache. After 30 minutes in the wind and rain, someone came up with the find. YAY!! I also got a new souvenir for finding a cache in the new year.

Sansue gets her 500th cache

Today (Jan 9th) we went caching in Mundy park. Susan needed 5 more to reach 500 and she wanted to find a cool cache as her 500th cache. I made her a sign and we headed out to the trails.

This cache I was the FTF on March 20, 2016.  It is an awesome huge replica of a bison tube, that's about 3 feet tall.

We stopped by the pond to see if we could see some of the turtles that live here, but they must have been hiding on the other side of the pond

We did see a shark though....painted on this rock. lol

Later on we stopped by this cache location that I drive by often and have wanted to stop to get it and have not...until today!! The cache name is "Night Caching: Floralume"

Floralume is an interactive sculpture, which responds to touch with changing colors and melodious music. The sculpture, which is meant to transform an infamous and expensive emergency staircase into a lively and organic structure with intertwining vines and floral light blooms. Simply place your fingers on the sensors within the pedals to transform the area.

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!!!

Lab Caches

So, I am still uncertain why lab caches are set up the way they are. You go to typically 5 locations and gather info and answer questions, just like a wherigo or a multi cache. But, unlike a Multi or a Wherigo when you are done and get 1 find added to your find count, you actually get 5 finds or a find for every right answer at each location. To date I have gone to only 13 different Lab Caches, but have gotten 62 finds for doing them. My number is a bit weird because when we(Sansue and I) were in Banff we started to do a lab cache but only ended up going to 2 locations out of the 5, so we really did not finish the cache, but we got rewarded 2 finds anyway. I just don't quite understand why they are set up like that. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing them, just like I love Virtual caches. 

It has never been about finding a box in the woods, it has always been about the location, the people you meet, or the adventure along the way. And I have met many interesting people thru geocaching at events and on the trail, I have been to many awesome locations that I may have not gone to had it not been for a geocache, and I have had many awesome adventures along the way!!! Thank you Geocaching!!!

H.A.G. Caching

The HAG is an event that happens every year on the first weekend of February and stands for "Hide and Go." Caches are placed starting in early November, but are not published until the first Saturday in February. This year is the 17th annual HAG. One year (2013) I was able to find 12 FTF's on that day. That's not a lot considering that year there was about 100 to 200 caches published that day. As you can see each year different amounts of caches are placed and published for the H.A.G.

Not sure if they have the stats from past years before 2015 written somewhere, but would like to know.

Below are the stats from 2015 to date:

2015 = 642 caches hidden 2016 = 149 caches hidden 2017 = 112 caches hidden 2018 = 288 caches hidden 2019 = 405 caches hidden 2020 = 192 caches hidden

This year I am hoping that Sansue and I can participate in finding lots of the new ones, and hoping to beat my FTF record of 13 which was set doing a series in Bowser, BC in Feb/2012. I will write more about this in next months blog. Until then, Stay Safe, Wear your Mask, and Wash your Hands!!

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65