More Gold Country caches and Events!!!

 To Hope and Beyond!!!

Susan and I headed back towards Merritt, in search of a few more Gold Country caches at the beginning of July, after our 3 day adventure in the Gold Country a couple of weeks ago. We just did a quick day trip on a Sunday.

We only got 9 caches, 5 of which were Gold Country caches, plus 1 and 80% adventure labs(Will talk more about this next month in my blog)

Some fun in Hope. 

A cool structure in Brookmere. The tracks are long gone, but this coal chute, or water chute for the trains still remains.

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!!!

These are my lists from our last trip up to the Gold Country that I wrote about in last months Blog. (click the link to read)

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!!!

I am curious if anyone else does this. I make the lists so I know the order of the caches we will go to and I check them off as we get them, so I don't forget to log any. Also I highlight roads or exits that need to be turned at and other directions.

Event caches are Back!!!

So this month on July 15th, I went to my first of two event caches since over a year of no Events. It was a great event called "A geo-gathering of Friends Old and New"

It was hosted by KevMCD on behalf of the B.C.G.A. 

There was over 50 people at the event. I guess being the first Event cache to be published in the area after 16 plus months of no events being allowed because of restrictions in BC, lots of cachers wanted to be there. I arrived early and grabbed some nearby caches, with some other cachers who were doing the same thing. 

There was a cool TB at the event, It was a 1973 Ontario License Plate. Big Travel Bugs like this always end up at events as its hard to find large enough caches to put them into. 

Community Celebration Event

Went to my second Event of the month with Oliver, called "Community Celebration Event-Sunday Sundaes"

It was a well attended event with about 70 people and Ice cream for all. Thanx to Buggirl1975 for hosting such an awesome "Community Celebration"

Island caching

We got the second ferry(Tried for the first) to Vancouver Island on Friday July 23rd, and started caching as soon as we got of the ship. lol. We mainly went for high favorited and cool caches. We started in Nanaimo with a couple of cool pipe caches called "Pipeworks #1- Pinball Wizard" and "Pipeworks #3-Stay Positive"

In case you are unsure what these caches did by their names, you should go and find them. lol

We then started making our way upisland and grabbed a couple on a trail. One was called "10 Feet Up"

Yup, you guessed it, it was 10 feet up in the top of a sign. It gave a few options as to how to grab it:

-Bring a 7 ft. tall team mate
-Bring an agile, pole climber
-Bring a short ladder but have an explanation ready for the muggles’ queries
-Assess the problem then go home and get the solution
-Bring your own weapons
-Bring 2 rods or bolts 3/8 in. by 6 in. long.
-Find the above hidden behind a tree within 8 meters of the GZ

I brought an extendable pole with a hook on it, and we made quick work of the retrieval. 

As you can see in these pics, we had a list to follow so we did not miss any caches we wanted to get. 

We then headed towards Coombs, but grabbed a cache in Rathtrevor Provincial Park first, as I am working on a challenge cache(When am I not working on a challenge cache. lol) We stopped in Coombs to check out "Canadas Largest Ammo Can Cache"

This cache is owned by some caching friends of mine called "Coombs wooden shoe"

I was able to log this cache, even though I have in the past. Their store moved, and they were not allowed to move their cache that far, so they archived it, and made it a New Cache.

We then headed over to Qualicum Beach to a Magician friend of mine, for a visit. While there we chatted about caching and he signed up, thinking it would be something cool to do, and they went out and got 2 caches after we left. Lol. We then went into the woods to do a series of caches called "TOTT-HAG XIV"

There was 9 in the series, and then a final puzzle using clues from some of the nine caches. Some of them, you needed different types of "Tools Of The Trade"(TOTT) to find info to move along. One of the caches, we found needed a mirror to read the co-ords for the next stage. I had 2 mirrors with me, but both were 2 big and would not fit inside the cache. I modified one of them and made it work. We got the info needed and moved on. We DNF'd 2 of them, but luckily had enough info to find the Final, which also had a twist to it. 

On the way out we grabbed a cache with a hint that said Magnetic. Now being right near a large metal gate, you would think that it was somewhere on the gate. Nope........there was a steel plate screwed to the underside of an old dead log and the cache was magnetic. (I've seen one like this before, so knew to look elsewhere, than only the Gate)lol

We then headed to another trail to grab 2 last caches for the day. One was called "The Clever Cache" and upon arriving to the trail, I saw a hiking sign. 

I looked closer and saw the hiker on the sign was carrying something interesting. 

I also looked closer at the bottom of the sign and there was the GC number 

Spoiler Alert!!

Hmmmmm, could it be....YUP!!!

We then headed down the trail to find a cache called "Da Vinci's Cryptex" 

It was a cool Cryptex cache. (I have done cryptex caches before but this one was extremely well made)

It took us a bit to get into it, as I had the right answer, but it had to be lined up just perfectly. Susan had more patience than I did and she was able to open it. We then headed for Nanaimo, where we spent the night.

The next morning we headed out and grabbed an adventure lab, and a bonus cache for the AL also. We then made our way towards Ladysmith, where we grabbed a cache at N49 00.000, right on the 49th parallel.

We grabbed a couple other caches in Ladysmith including a Train cache called "T&W Locomotive 11 Replacement" that cachers said was real hard to find, and I spotted it within 30 seconds of looking. lol. We did a virtual nearby, and then headed down island to go on the Skywalk. Its a new structure that was built to walk up and look out onto the ocean. 

  

It even had a slide in the middle to get down. The wait was about an hour and a half for it, so we decided to walk back down. lol

We grabbed the nearby cache and then headed towards the ferry, where we got one more cache and then got the ferry back home. A fun quick trip with Sansue!!

So I have been awarded a 10 stage Adventure Lab to build in part with about 20 other cachers in B.C. and many more across Canada as we put together a series of AL's that travel across the Trans Canada Highway. Should be a fun project!!

I will write more about this in my next blog. Until then, Stay Safe, Get Vaccinated, Wear your Mask, and Wash your Hands!!

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65