Creating an Earthcache and going to Mars!!!

 Creating an Erratic Earthcache

An Erratic is a rock or boulder that differs from the surrounding rock and is believed to have been brought from a distance by glacial action.

A glacial erratic, as defined by Wikipedia, is a piece of rock that deviates from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests; the name "erratic" is based on the errant location of these boulders. These rocks were carried to their current locations by glacial ice, often over hundreds of kilometer's. Erratic's can range in size from pebbles to large boulders.

"Whale of a Tail"

Recently, I did another Earthcache that was an Erratic, which as the meaning above says, "Is a Rock or Boulder that has been moved to a location by a Glacier flow." I have done several Earthcaches in the past that have been Erratic's. I have always found them fascinating and have seen several in my travels.

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Part of Big Rock

Visible from considerable distance across the relatively flat terrain of the prairie landscape, ‘Big Rock’ is an enormous glacial erratic. The 16,500-tonne (18,200-ton) boulder transported far from its mountainous place of origin by a rockslide then by a glacial sheet of ice between 10,000 to 30,000 years ago to its present-day location just west of the Town of Okotoks.

Big Rock

  

Info from the Earthcache page: Ten kilometers west of Okotoks on Highway 7 is the Big Rock, the largest glacial erratic in the world. These boulders are believed to have traveled from Jasper during the Ice Age when a landslide deposited them on an advancing glacier. It is the largest of the Foothills Erratics Train, a series of boulders stretching over 700 kilometers along the eastern Foothills of the Rocky Mountains from Jasper to Montana. This enormous quartzite block weighs about 16, 500 tonnes.

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!!!

White Rock Erratic

Coupeville Erratic

This little boulder that is about 25-30 feet tall and 35-40 feet wide(At least the part that is seen) is located in someone's backyard in Coupeville, Washington.

This greenstone erratic was “excavated” from Mt. Erie 40 km to the north and is one of the more famous glacial field boulders on Whidbey Island. This big rock is known to geologists as the Coupeville Erratic.

Campbell River Erratic

Aldergrove Park Erratic

Lake Samish, Wash. Erratic

This location was not an Earthcache, but there was a traditional cache there.

Salt Spring Island caching

So Susan and I planned a quick trip to Salt Spring as I noticed there was 14 HAG caches that were published on Feb. 6th but had still not been found yet, almost 2 weeks later. Up until the point we left, the 14 possible FTF's were still up for grabs. We got to the island and, BAM....they were logged....Arrrrgg!!! But wait, the cacher who had come over to grab them could not find one. The following log after his DNF log was a Coordinate update log by the Cache Owner. It seems he had posted the wrong Co-ords. So we headed out and we got 1 FTF instead of the 14 we were anticipating...LOL!!

Chris Hatfield Trail

This cache behind this painted rock was called "Ribbit!!"

Lots of cool sights on the island.

We still did a total of 25 caches during our quick trip, so we still had fun. I always love the trails where the natural beauty is used to make the accessibility easier. Instead of wooden steps, use the rocks that already exist there.

Caching on MARS!!!

Geocaching and NASA head to Mars with the Perseverance Rover

Mars 2020 is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. This specific mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key questions about the potential for life there. 

Perseverance has four main science goals:

• Determine whether life ever arose on Mars
• Characterize the climate of Mars
• Characterize the geology of Mars
• Prepare for human exploration

Timeline:

• Launch: July 30, 2020 with an Atlas V-541 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida

• Landing: February 18, 2021 in the Jezero Crater, Mars

About This Item

Thanks to the Mars 2020 SHERLOC instrument team at Johnson Space Center, the newest mission to Mars contains a tracking code, truly taking geocaching out of this world!

Check out the trackable at: "Mars Perseverance Rover"

Geocaching is not new to Space, after all, we have been using satellite's to play this game since May 2nd, 2000 when GPS technology became available to all when the "Big Blue Switch" was flipped, turning off Selective availability. On October 12th, 2008, the first Travel Bug® in space launches aboard Soyuz TMA 13 with Richard Garriott and spends 10 days aboard the International Space Station. I was fortunate enough to log this cool Space traveling, Travel Bug at Groundspeak's Block Party on Aug. 17, 2013. (PS Not in space but back here on Planet Earth)

This is a pic I took of the Trackable at the Block Party.

I have a better pic but it shows the tracking number and I don't want to give it away.

On Feb 3rd, 2010, Astronaut, Richard Garriott, placed a new geocache on the International Space Station. 

3 years and 9 months later On Nov. 17, 2013 Astronaut Rick Mastraccio logs the cache on the Space station as an FTF!!! (What a cool FTF!!!)

And, on July 30th, 2020 the Perseverance Rover Launches from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on an almost 7 month journey to Planet Mars.

 It has landed on Feb. 18th, 2021 and we cachers eagerly await being able to log the trackable code found on the calibration lens inside the camera.

Here is a photo I took, while getting the Mars Rover Geocoin code. You can tell it's real cause you can see my shadow!!! Lol

Hopefully they Calibrate the camera soon, so we can log this cool part of Geocaching History.

Now I'm working on publishing an Earthcache with an Erratic, 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