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

End of 2020 is near!!!

 Geochallenge of the Month

So the challenge this month (December) was to leave something like a small gift in a cache for the next finder. Just a token of appreciation for them. Oliver and I went out on Dec. 5th, just 1 day after the Geocaching Vlogger announced the Challenge, and we found a large enough cache to put in a bag of swag for the next finder. It was a nearby cache called, "Coquitlam River TB Hotel"

Here is my log on the cache:

Nice Quick find with magicboy12
Needed to complete the Geochallenge of the Month. Left a cool bag of swag including some pins, an unactivated geocoin, my pathtag, my FTF Trading card that is also trackable and some other stuff for the next cacher that comes along.

Chris
Magicman65

Check out our video at "Dec. Geochallenge", and while you are there, please subscribe to our geocaching YouTube channel.

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!!!

Caching Aldergrove Regional Park

Aldergrove Regional Park is located on the border of Aldergrove and Langley and just a short distance from the US Border. The park is very popular with families for its easy trails, scenic landscape, and multiple picnic areas. The area also has a number of horse trails and the wide open section of Aldergrove Bowl is popular with horseback riders.We even saw a few horses on the trail, that we had to move off to let them by.

The "historic" lake in the park was formerly located on the west side but had to be removed due to needing major repairs. The lake was actually a man-made cement pool but was filled in and is now a grassy picnic area.

Susan on one of the well maintained boardwalks in the park.

Can you see it? This one took a little bit of looking as it wasn't were the hint suggested.

The hint on one of the caches was "X marks the spot" This was near the cache, but was not the "X" we needed to find. We finally figured it out after searching here for about 15 minutes. Lol. Hint, look at pics on the logs!!

Cool social distancing signs on the trails

Some cool fungus we saw in our travels

Up in a tree grabbing the cache.

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 remember to get the two newest geocaching souvenirs.

How do you earn both souvenirs?

1. Earn the Last 2020 souvenir by finding any geocache from December 24-31.
2. Earn the First 2021 souvenir by finding another geocache from January 1-8.

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching and have a very Merry Christmas and an awesome New Year!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Christmas Shows and caching

Christmas shows and Caching

Dec 9th
Today I headed to Campbell River over on Vancouver Island for a show, and I grabbed several caches including two that I talked about getting in my last blog. The Virtual in Royston, and "Steely D(M)an"

Dec 14th-16th
I headed out today to do 4 shows in the next three days. There will be about 24-26 hours of driving between shows, so I figured, may as well cache!!! On my way to my 2nd show in Castlegar, I stopped at a place that I stop almost every time I am coming into Osoyoos. Spotted Lake!!!
I have already got the cache that is here as well as the earthcache. I did a cache just up the road from the lake called "STUCK Climbing to the Kobau Lookout"
The funny thing is this is where the sign with the info (pic below) for the Lake is located, which is about 2 km away from the lake. I'm certain there used to be a sign right at the lake years ago when I got the Earthcache.

Spotted Lake

Got into Osoyoos and stopped for another cache near Osoyoos lake and noticed this impromptu Ice Sculpture!!

Up the highway I stopped to grab another cache called The Colors of our Valley "Osoyoos"
Here you could overlook the Lake and the town below.

NOTE: The highlighted 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!!!
PS: On the right hand side of this webpage is where you can find my YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Plus links. Please feel free to check them out and follow or subscribe!!!

A short distance further, I stopped to find a cache called "Cougar Cache"
As you can see by the pic it is named appropriately. lol

Cougar Cache

Out of country FTF's

Before heading out on any trip I always look to see if there are any newly published caches that have not been found yet on the route I am taking. I noticed 2 in the direction I was going but they were just below the border in Danville, Washington. On my way to Castlegar I swung down below the border around Grand Forks to grab a couple of FTF's called "Danville Trailhead" and "Overlooking Danville"

These 2 First to Find's bring my yearly total of FTF's to 9, bringing my total to 363 FTF's. I may get another before the end of the year but I am heading to Alberta in a couple of days on Christmas so its unlikely. A far away number from the 112 FTF's found in 2010 (that's like 1 every 3 days, wow)

Anyway as the year comes to an end, I just would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday!!!

Well, that's it for this month, and this year......

Keep on caching, and see you in the New Year

Chris Yuill

Magicman65