I love to Travel

Bella Bella Trip

This Christmas Season I got to do a fair bit of travelling to shows. I flew up to Bella Bella for a show. It is 145km North of the top of Vancouver Island, which is about 480km away from me.

 If you recall from last months blog I was sad as I looked on geocaching and there was no caches in Bella Bella. 

After a quick flight, I got picked up at the airport, and got a quick tour of the town.

This was the actual plane I flew up in, not the one above. lol

Water Taxi

Well as it turns out, after flying there, and after my tour of Bella Bella, I hopped on this boat and it took me on a 9 minute ride over to the community of Shear Water, which is on a different Island.

This was were I would spend the night and do my show.

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!!!

And since my show was over on the Shear water side of the community, there was 4 caches in the area close to where I was staying. I went and grabbed one that was nearby. Yay!!!

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!!!

Silver Reef Casino Magic Trip 

Had a show at the Silver Reef Casino in the Ferndale, Washington area and Susan came with me. We grabbed several caches including an earthcache about Tsunami's at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration Building.

I used to have an earthcache in Victoria about Tsunami's but had to archive it when the sign got taken down after being vandalized.

Bellevue, Washington Magic trip

Had a Corporate show in Bellevue at "Mox" in a speak easy inside the restaurant. 

Was able to get this awesome cache before the show called "Lesson for Urban Geocaching"

As you can see it was a Newspaper box but on the front window there was a FTF Magazine cover. This was no ordinary Newspaper box.

It needed a 9 Volt battery to open the electronic lock. Luckily for me there was one in a small box magnetized to the side of the Newspaper box.

Redmond and Woodinville Trip

I got to do a show one morning for Microsoft and my second show in the evening was for Google employees.

I grabbed 2 caches in between shows.

Prince George Trip

Just like this statue at the Vancouver airport, I have been rushing from show to show, and although this month has been a hectic month and very busy with lots of shows and lots of travelling, I enjoy it when it is busy and can only hope to be busier in the future!!

I only got one cache while in Prince George. It was a virtual cache called "Mr. P,G."

Mr. PG is a mascot for and monument in Prince George, British Columbia. He was first constructed in 1960 as a symbol of the importance of the forestry industry to the city. He currently stands at the junction of Highway 97 and Highway 16. He is 8.138 m (26.70 ft) tall and his head is 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in diameter. The original was constructed out of wood but the current replacement is made mostly of painted metal. For both versions his head was, and is currently, fabricated from a spherical plastic septic tank.

Mr. PG's first appearance occurred on May 8, 1960, at a Rotary International conference taking place at the Simon Fraser Inn. Later that year, he took part in the Prince George May Day parade and could speak and bow. In 1961, he was entered in the Kelowna Regatta and the Vancouver PNE Parade, and also travelled to Smithers. Two years later, he appeared in the 1963 Grey Cup parade. In 1970, he was installed at his current location, the intersection of Highways 16 and 97.

Mr. PG was trademarked by the City in 1985. In 1997, children's performer Al Simmons, wrote a song about him titled Mr. PG. In 2009, Canada Post featured him on a stamp.

Despite his forest industry roots, Mr. PG echoes a resounding commitment to supporting a brighter tomorrow through various initiatives, proudly showcased through his distinctive clothing and fluttering flags.

At the end of this month on New Year's Eve, I will be doing a show in Tulalip at the Casino there. Susan is gonna come with me and we will head down early to grab some cool caches as well as on the way home on New Years day, but more about that and more in next month's blog..........

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Hiding and finding, and a Magic trip!!

  Cache Hiding

I hid a cache this past week. I have been hauling this cache around for weeks looking for a spot to hide it. Every time I look and see some spot on the map, another small or micro cache appears. This is one of the reasons for my cache called "Too Many Micro's!?

It seems that a lot of micro's are being hidden, and it would be nice to see some regular or large caches being placed. I also got this cool souvenir for placing a hide this year. I haven't been placing as many as I did when I was over on the island, but I would like to change that, and get some more out there. 

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!!!

I love FTF's

Got 3 FTF's today, one of which was not even published yet. A cache got published nearby, but I did not have time to head for it as we were getting ready to go to Soccer. As I was taking Oliver to soccer and as  we were driving I noticed a bike laying on the grass at the side of the road. I pointed it out to him, and then he said isn't that "Bobthegoalie?"

Bob is a local cacher that places out quite a few caches in this area. He had just placed one and was coming out of the spot when we saw him. I got Oliver to soccer and as I did another cache got published, another Bobthegoalie cache, so I headed for it. As I was walking up to the spot Bob pulled up. We chatted and he stayed to watch me get it to make sure the co-ords were correct. I mentioned to him that we saw him coming out of the bush along the road earlier, and asked if he had placed a cache. He said yes. After signing the log, I headed to that spot. I quickly found what I was looking for, signed it, and then headed to the one that had come out an hour earlier. To my surprise I found an empty logbook. 3 First to Finds with one being unpublished. When it gets published, I do not have to chase after it, I just need to log it online. lol

Edit Note: Cache was published 3 days after and I signed as FTF!!

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!!!

PCAM Magic trip

I went to Carlsbad, California for a Magic Convention this past week. During the trip we went thru LA, Carlsbad, and San Diego, I was able to get several Adventure Lab's at the airports I went thru. I got 2 caches in San Diego. One of the caches took a bit of looking as it was a difficult cache to find with lots of Favorite points, and DNF's. 

This is where the GPS brought me to the cache named "Got Gas?" My god, It could be anywhere!!!

Can you see the cache?

Looked for about 20 minutes, touching and feeling everything. Finally I spotted it!!

When a cache has lots of Favorite points, and lots of DNF's,

you know its not gonna be easy, and you can bet it's not going to be a magnetic nano or key box. It will most likely be hidden in plain site!!

It's gonna blend in!!

There was just so much stuff that it could have been.

Also grabbed a Virtual cache at San Diego airport, before our flight home. Love getting Virtuals when I travel.

Victoria Trip

I went to Victoria on Vancouver Island for a day as I had a show over there. Was able to grab a couple of Virtual caches, 3 Traditional caches and an Adventure Lab before the show.

I am heading off for a corporate event to a small town called Bella Bella which is on Campbell Island at

the end of the month to perform some Magic. As you can see from the screen shot from the caching app there is NO caches where I am going!!! Yikes!! But hopefully I can get some awesome photo's from up there. Anyway, More about that in Next Months blog!!

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

"X Men", Bicycles, and an Ammo Can!!

 South of the Border

Susan and I headed across the border to spend the night, and of course we were able to grab several caches. We got one Adventure Lab in Ferndale, as well as the bonus cache.  

We also found 14 more of the 25 X Men puzzle series. I only have 2 more to solve and go find. We ended up DNFing one of them, and we believe its not there. Once replaced we will be back. 

NOTE: The cache was checked by the owner and he found it was missing and it has since been replaced.

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!!!

Barnston Island Bicycle Trip

There is a route around Barnston Island that is flat and paved. You start at Surrey Bend Park and then bike onto the ferry and around Barnston Island. The route offers views of the river and farms, and it’s especially fun in the fall during cranberry harvest. 

To get to Barnston island, the Barnston Island ferry runs across Parsons Channel on the south side of the Fraser River between Barnston Island (north bank) and Port Kells (south bank). Port Kells is in the northeast corner of Surrey at the bottom of 104th avenue.

The views from the island are quite spectacular.

Here we are at the end of our ride, and ready to get back on the Ferry.

We biked a total of 11 1/2 km's on the island. 

When we got back across we put the bikes back in the car and did the trails in Surrey Band Regional Park by foot instead. We walked almost 5km thru the different trails. The plan today was to get 1 wherigo, 1 challenge cache, 7 Traditional's, and 2 multi's. We ended up not getting the right coordinates for the multi's, we couldn't find 2 of the traditional's, the Wherigo had new construction fences all around it, so all we did was a total of 5 caches out of 11 we had planned on. LOL

Not a great day of caches, but lots of exercise for sure!!

Fort Langley

The next day we headed down the road to Fort Langley for some caches and Adventure Lab's.

I was hoping it was gonna a better day than the day before. 

It was also International Earthcache day, so I needed to grab an Earthcache.

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!!!

We did an Adventure Lab which started at this building, the BC Farm Museum in Fort Langley and was actually the First AL we ever tried to do. When we tried to do it back in July of 2020, we didn't know how they worked and we thought it was like a wherigo and we were trying to get it to give us the answer instead of clicking the Blue button and answering the questions. lol

We figured it out shortly after that on the same day at Lafarge Lake. Since then I have done over 100 different Adventure Labs.

Today we found 1 Earthcache, 2 Virtual's, 2 Traditional's, and 12 stages of 3 different AL's 

Definitely a much better day than yesterday. lol

I finally got to place my newest cache out in the woods today. I had it all set up and ready to go for a little while, but was looking for a spot. With so many small and micro caches in the woods, It was tough to find a spot. I was lucky enough to grab an early morning FTF, and noticed there was a big gap between this cache and the closest one up the trail. I made a quick trip back to my car and grabbed the container that I have been hauling around for some time, and back into the trail I went. I found a good spot, left it there, got home and submitted the cache, and only about 4 hrs later it was newly Published.

Next month I am heading to Los Angeles, Carlsbad, and San Diego for a Magic convention. I have already been planning what caches I will have time to get while there. 

But more about that in next months Blog!!!

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

VEGAS AGAIN BABY!!!

 VEEEEEEGGGGGAAAASSSSS!!!

WOW, It feels like I was just here.....oh, wait, I was just here. lol

Yup, just a month ago I was here with Susan, Glen, and Julie for a little 5 day getaway. Now I am here for a Magic Convention with 1600 Magicians!!! Well actually 1599 and Me!!

Our first night in town we went to a taping of Penn and Teller's "Fool Us" show. Very cool to see some of the behind the scenes of the show, and how it is structured and filmed.

Magic Live is a convention that I go to every year, as it has everything a magician needs, lots of Magic, at least 50 different dealer booths, stage shows, lectures, talks and workshops, friends from other parts of the world, and it's VEGAS!!!

One of my coolest purchases this year was not a trick but this limited edition deck of Houdini cards that was cut by hand to make it 3D. It's hard to see how it really looks in the picture. There are only 10 of these in the world and I own #3/10

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!!!

I also got to see lots of famous magicians such as Shin Lim, and Criss Angel

David Copperfield was also there, but I didn't get a picture with him this time, but have several times in the past.

We walked up the strip one day, and I took Scott and Glen to see the "Siegfried and Roy" statues in front of the Mirage. I have been here before a few times, but they had not seen it yet. Years ago when I first came to this spot there was a Virtual here called "LV Money Makers" sadly years later it was archived. Both men have since past away, but it was their legacy that made Magic big in Vegas. I got some info at the area as I would love to one day have another Virtual at this location. If I receive a Virtual reward, or another Adventure Lab Credit, I may make that happen.

Even after spending 8 days in Las Vegas, I ended up not even finding one cache. That's right, none!!!

 I went to one near the Giant Ferris Wheel called the "High Roller" but there was 2 security Guards right there, so I was not able to have a good look. The good thing is, I have found all the caches down the strip on previous trips, and last month Susan and I found 49 finds in total during our 5 day stay. And I will be back in Vegas soon enough!!!

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!!!

August Wheel of Challenges

Once back in BC, I started working on Grounspeaks Geochallenge of the Month which was called "Iconic Cacher" and it was to find several different Icons. You had to find a Traditional, attend an  Event, an Earthcache, A multi, an Adventure Lab location, A Virtual cache, a Letterbox cache, and a Mystery cache, within the month of August. The cool part is I also qualified for the Geocaching Vloggers Geochallenge of the month also by going to an event.

August 19th was International Geocaching day, and I was able to get my souvenir by finding a cache on the way to my show that day.

Sunshine Coast

I booked a show over in Halfmoon Bay on the Sunshine coast, so I headed over early to grab some caches before my show that evening.

These Signs were everywhere.

This was the only Bear I saw while over on the Sunshine Coast

 

I walked down this breakwater to the end to grab a cache, and was surprised when I saw what was in it. 

I found one of my own FTF Trackable card, and a deck of cards in this cache. How funny is that. I never placed one here, so it shows that my Trackable cards are traveling. 

This was the sign at the end of the breakwater.

But its not where the cache is at.

There was a cache hidden under this cool carved bush. It looked amazing.

One of the things I love about caching is most people would never see this as it was on a side road that isn't the main road of travel. But Caching brought me here!!

Next weekend, Susan and I are heading across the border to do some caching. I have been working on a series of Puzzle caches and have just completed solving 10 more of the 25 caches. We have found 8 of them so far. But more about that and more in next months Blog. Thanx for following!!

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

July Adventures while Caching!!

 Cruising along the Border for a cache

The day after getting back from our Vegas Trip, I ended up going to an Event on the Canada/USA Border. We also went as a group to do a Virtual cache on the Border.

"Borderline Caching Disorder" is a Marker on the Canada/United States Border. 

The water is usually higher, and you need a boat or kayak to get to it, but on July 4th the tide was super low, so a lot of people decided to go for it and wade out to it.

Here I am on the East side of it, which is where you need to take the picture from for the Virtual.

Here are all the event goers at the Virtual cache.

It is on the Border of Canada and the United States.

It is actually listed as a Washington State Cache. Good thing I still had my passport with me. lol

I also grabbed one part of an Adventure Lab as I was headed back to my car.

It was at this cute Free Library.

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!!!

My Mid-Year Geocaching Stats: 2023 may be halfway gone, but we prefer to think of the glass as half full! You spent half a year geocaching and making memories out in the world alongside the geocaching community. Take a walk down memory lane with us as we review your geocaching stats for the first half of 2023. Geocaching Charted shows you where you’ve been, and helps you plan where you’re going next. What memories will you create before the year is up?

372 Total numbers of finds so far in 2023. 7 Icons Distinct cache types logged. How many different cache types can you log by the end of the year? Traditional Cache These are your favorite caches! This is the geocache type that you logged most this year. 1 DNF (Did Not Find) logs posted. Don’t forget to log your DNFs! They alert others that the cache may be more difficult to find than anticipated or may even be missing. DNF logs also inform the cache owner they may need to check on their container. 2 Countries you cached in this year. Way to go, world traveler! Cache: GC5FZDA Favorite Points: 518 This is the highest Favorited cache that you found in 2023. We love it! 7 Number of Events you attended this year. Social butterfly, much? Cache: GC7932 Date: 2002-07-02 The oldest placed cache you found this year. 16 The number of souvenirs you received so far. You have quite the collection going! Check out the complete list of available souvenirs. Date: 2023-04-22 Number of Finds: 45 Your busiest caching day of the year—look at how many caches you found! 59 Days you went geocaching. How many more can you get this year? 10 Favorite points you awarded to geocaches. You were a Favorite fan! You haven’t earned the 2023 hider souvenir yet. Don’t worry, there’s still time to find a spot to hide your cache! 5 Number of caches you hid this year. Thank you for contributing to your geocaching community with an amazing hide!

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!!! Vernon Ribfest Trip Susan and I went to Vernon as I was performing some shows at the "Vernon Ribfest" It was a 3 day event, and I was doing shows on the Saturday and Sunday, as well as some strolling Magic both days. We headed out late Friday night, and ended up napping in the car for a few hours at a rest area just past Merritt on highway 97C. We woke up early the next morning and were able to grab 2 caches before leaving the rest area. Grabbed a few more on the way thru Kelowna and coming into Vernon. The first evening after the Ribfest, we went back to the hotel room and after supper we decided to grab some local caches and we also completed 5 Adventure Labs around town that involved Murals and some of the buildings.     WARNING! Cache Alert!!! What's on the other side of this WARNING Label?? Oh, its a Log book for the cache!!! I love these sneaky hides that are in plain site. Thanx to Susan for her sleuthing skills as she found this one. The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the event grounds, and grabbed 3 caches before getting there. I did my show and a couple hours of Close up and we also had some of the best beef and pork ribs around during the 2 days. After the event, we headed down the highway towards home, grabbing as many caches as we could before it got dark. This was a cool one we got on the way into Kamloops called "Dallas TB Hotel" And NO its not under the skirt of the light post. Check the next picture and you will see it. It is also locked making it a very secure place for Trackables. In total on the quick trip to Vernon, we found 32 caches, and 5 full Adventure Labs and 2 stages of another Adventure Lab. Day trip to Bellingham Susan and I popped down across the border for a quick day trip, and we were able to find 7 traditional caches and 5 puzzle caches. Merritt Magic I got a gig in Merritt for the Chamber of Commerce, I stopped for a Cache on the way there and was able to grab a couple more once in town, before heading to "Spirit Square" to perform for the crowd of Night market goers. My stage all set up!! And FINALLY: So even though I was just in Vegas at the beginning of July, I am heading back there on August 4th for 8 days. This time it's for a Magic Convention I go to every year called "Magic Live." I am hoping to get a bit of caching in but will be quite busy with the convention and going to see a few shows. But more about that in next month's Blog!!! Well that's it for this month!! Keep on caching!! Chris Yuill Magicman65