Christmas Caching

Vancouver Island Caches

Had a corporate Gig in Nanaimo, so I went over early so I could grab a few caches. Ended up just getting 2 in Parksville area, plus 1 Adventure Lab at an outside Museum.

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!!!

Skagit Valley Trip

Booked a corporate show down in the States at the Skagit Valley Casino.

I took Susan (Sansue) with me, and we grabbed several caches on the way there. A couple of the caches we got, I had already got from other trips across the border.

We did a total of 2 Adventure Labs, and 3 caches, but I only could log one of them, since I found the other two already.

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!!!

Mount Currie Trip

Booked a corporate show in Mount Currie and thought I would try and find a few caches on the way. 

Grabbed 1 cache that was a 5 Gallon Bucket hanging in a tree. It was on a rope and pulley, so you could lower it down to sign the log inside.

I also stopped in Pemberton, as I did a walkaround gig there in the summertime and I was checking out a sign board at that time, about a slide that has happened several years past which closed a roadway. I thought this would make a perfect earth cache so this time I decided to grab some more information, and pictures of the sign boards and do a little research and build a new earth cache for people coming through the area. Look for it to be published soon hopefully.

The 2010 Mount Meager landslide was a large catastrophic debris Avalanche that occurred in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, on August 6 at 3:27 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

 More than 45,000,000 m³ (1.6×10⁹ ft³) of debris slid down Mount Meager, temporarily blocking Meager Creek and destroying local bridges, roads and equipment. It was one of the largest landslides in Canadian history and one of over 20 landslides to have occurred from the Mount Meager Massif in the last 10,000 years.

Last month when I was in Squamish for a gig, I noticed there was only one adventure lab here, so I decided maybe I should try and put an adventure lab in town.
I noticed there was a lot of murals in town so I thought that would be perfect so I started looking at some of the murals, but then when I went near to where I was doing my gig at it was a cool new park that it just opened with lots of artwork and interesting things so I decided to do the adventure lab there all five and one little area nice little walking tour of the park I got all the information. I built an adventure lab when I got home and then a few days later I noticed another adventure lab got published there in town shortly after I was gone today going through there. I stopped to do the adventure lab that is in mine and it is of the murals in town. Very funny coincidence? 
And the cool part was, I was actually the first one to log this new adventure lab!!

Another Island trip

Booked a Corporate show in Victoria the week before Christmas. Went over to the island on the first sailing so I could also grab some caches. I ended up getting 16 stages of  9 different Adventure Labs, and 5 Virtual Caches. 

I like when you can go to one spot and there is a cache or virtual and also a stage of an AL. "Mile 0" was one of these spots.

One of the Virtuals was the "Terry Fox Marathon of Hope" Statue.

Below is an excerpt from the Caching page:

Terry began his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980 to raise money for cancer research. The journey started near St. John's, Newfoundland with the intent of running the equivalent of one full marathon (42 kilometers) a day until he reached Victoria, British Columbia. The Marathon started off with little fanfare but Terry’s journey soon grabbed the public’s attention and soon events were scheduled to greet Terry along the way. Terry quite frequently provided speeches, media interviews, and attended sporting events – anything he could do to raise awareness of cancer research. On September 1, 1980 near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Terry fell ill and was admitted to hospital. The following day, after running for 143 days and 5,373 kilometers, Terry announced that his cancer had returned and had spread to his lungs. Terry underwent months of chemotherapy and other treatments before eventually passing away on June 28, 1981 at the age of 22.

Terry had raised $1.7 million during the Marathon of Hope and another $10 million was raised in the weeks after the run ended. The first annual Terry Fox Run was held on September 13, 1981 and has been organized in over 60 countries, and attracts more than three million people annually. The Terry Fox Run is the world's largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research, and has raised over $850 million dollars.

Next Month will be the start of a New Year...2026, with lots of cool things to come, lots of shows, and of course lots of caching trips....But, more about that Next Month. Until then stay safe, cache often, and have an awesome New Year!!!

Well that's it for this month!!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Vancouver Island trip

 Vancouver Island tour

I went to Vancouver Island for a couple of theatre shows on the weekend.

Headed over on an early ferry, so I could grab some caches, before heading to the Port theatre in Nanaimo.

Was able to grab a Puzzle cache, a Multi, 2 Virtuals and 2 Traditional caches.

In Nanaimo I also completed 2 Adventure labs and started 2 others

Had a great show that evening in front of about 450 people.

The next morning I got up early and headed down island caching along the way.

Grabbed a cool one that had me looking for a bit in Duncan area that was taped to a stick and hung in the tree as you can see in the picture. (Click on the pic to enlarge)

Ended up getting 2 puzzles, 1 Letterbox cache and 3 traditional's on the way to Victoria.

In Victoria I got 1 Virtual and completed 2 Adventure labs BUT, I also got to walk down memory lane as I was going to be performing this evening at the "McPherson Playhouse". 

Way back in 2006 a Magician named Tony Eng from Victoria who owned Tony's Trick and Joke shop contacted me and said I should compete in the upcoming competition called the "Pro Challenge" at the P.C.A.M. Convention being held in Victoria. 

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 got my start in Magic back in 1993, and I had never competed in Magic competitions before, even though many magician friends said I should, as I never felt the need to prove anything.

I took up Tony's offer and decided to put together a 10 minute routine to compete with. I submitted video of my routine to the PCAM Committee and was chosen to compete. They only allow 6 acts in the PRO-Challenge.

This was the same stage I Competed on for the very first time in my Magic career, back in 2006.

Tony Eng has since passed on, but his memory lives on in all the magicians he helped during his career. 

While I was in Victoria, I went down to "Fan Tan Alley" to look at the exhibit in the Chinese Canadian Museum about Tony. And as luck would have it there was an Adventure Lab in Chinatown.

Tony was well known in Victoria and was the Self-proclaimed "Ambassador of Victoria"

He was very well known by magicians everywhere.

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!!!

The display at the Museum was awesome with lots of memorabilia from Tony's personal magic. 

Thanks to Tony for persuading me to compete in the PRO-Challenge that year against 5 other acts, and it was judged by audience vote. They sold tickets to the evening show and the theatre was sold out. The six acts, myself included performed in the first half of the show, and at intermission the audience cast there vote for who they felt was the best act. I was honored to come in second and receive the silver medal. I found out the next day I missed the Gold by only 2 votes.

I have since competed several other times over the years as you can see in this picture of my Living room.

All in all this weekend's trip was amazing, the weather was great, and I had some awesome crowd's to perform for and got to see some awesome stuff and also got to do some caching.

Issaquah Trip

Headed down to the states to do a corporate show.

I did a cool Virtual Cache called "Northwest Trolls: Jakob Two Trees" 

Apparently there are 6 different Trolls in the Pacific North West. Check them all out "HERE"

What I didn't realize when I was there, that there was 2 stages of an adventure Lab at this location. I gotta remember to look at that more often.

I want to make a trip down there just to find all these trolls now. lol

Next month I am off to Quesnel for a corporate show and have already made a list of caches for the trip, but more about that next month....

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Back to the Island

Vancouver Island

I had a show in Sooke, over on Vancouver Island on New Years Eve, and a couple days later on January 2nd, I had a show in Nanaimo, so we were able to grab a few caches while over there. Just recently I took my girlfriend out to a couple of caches near my house, as she was interested to know more about it.
She enjoyed it and downloaded the app. I took her with me to Vancouver Island. There was a few caches that I have been meaning to get for some time such as "Magicman65 Tribute Cache" which is a puzzle cache made by my friend Brett Taylor (The GO! Team) where you had to do a magic trick online to get the final co-ordinates. Thanx again Brett for the Tribute, and the awesome cache!!!

Also on the trail to that cache was a challenge cache named T300 Challenge Cache", and to log it you needed to complete enough caches in one month to add up the Terrain ratings to 300. I was pretty sure I met the requirements to log it, as I did, 200 caches in 1 day years back, and all of them were a Terrain of 1.5 or more.

We also did a virtual cache called "Jan's Patchwork Fence"

I used to co-own a cache that was at this location years ago.

Made a short trip thru Chemainus (I lived there for 7 years) on our way up island on New Years Day. Grabbed a few caches while there, and I showed Sansue some of the cool Murals that has made this town Famous.

I was also able to grab a puzzle cache called "Sudoko Oh No!" while in Nanaoose Bay/Parksville area. I had finished the puzzle back when I lived on the island over 6 years ago, but never got around to finding it. lol
Also found a cool Virtual cache on the way thru Nanaimo, called Petroglyph Provincial Park
In total I found 13 caches consisting of 1 Event, 2 Virtual's, 3 puzzles, and 7 Traditionals

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 received my monthly edition of FTF(Geocaching Magazine) and was reading it online when I noticed an ad for FTF playing cards. This month, they had some cool Magic dude advertising the cards. They are great cards, and recommend them to anyone looking for some cool giveaway's or swag.

I might have to order more cards, I also have 100 pathtags ordered. Geowoodstock XVIII is coming up in August, here in the Fraser Valley, BC., you can register at "Geowoodstock XVIII". I will be performing 2 shows as well as some close up magic during registration to amuse the long line ups. I will probably pass out some cards and tags. Speaking of giving stuff away, just before Christmas someone on one of the FB geocaching pages posted his collection of geocoins. I asked for his address, and I sent him some pins, tags, and a cool looking geocoin that I had an extra one of, to add to his collection. No reason, just felt like giving!!

 Also I noticed this blog is my 95th blog, and at my 60th I  had a contest and I gave away some cool swag and geocoins. I will do that again at my 100th Blog. Keep watching for it!!!

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!!!


So I happened to look on the geocaching website, and noticed my stats on the fizzy chart, I only need 5 more to complete it. I haven't really focused on finishing it, I just figured it will fill in eventually. lol
Maybe I need to look for some specific caches to complete it. Road trip anyone??

Sansue and I just recently did some caches at Burnaby Lake, but I only found 5 and DNFed 6!! Someone needs to do some maintenance I think. lol

TB Security Breach

In January 2020, Facebook was littered with upset geocachers. There was a new bully on the internet and they were giving out Travel Bug codes for FREE Discovery on a Face Book group. I know what you're thinking, "How Terrible!". And it was terrible. The community was in an up roar. Groundspeak told cachers just to delete these bogus logs and lock their TB's so they can not be logged thru the FB group. Luckily none of my TB's were listed as I have not seen any bogus logs as of yet. Some people just don't know how to play the game. People have logged caches before also without actually going to the cache. We call those people Armchair cachers. Simple rule is: go find the cache, log the cache!! Same with TB's, find or see the TB and log it!!! Rules don't get much simpler than that. Not sure why someone would want to cheat as they are only cheating themselves.

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65