June caching and Events

 Events and Caching

Went to a few Caching events this month and when I was at the one in Port Coquitlam, I asked if anyone had done the nearby multi called "Poco Persnicketty Peripatetic Puzzler"

I had all the info already and looked for it in the past, but couldn't find it. One of the cachers at the event gave me all the info and when I compared it to mine, I had one date wrong.

With the new info, after the event, I now had the cache in hand. It was a very cool cache and nicely made. 

The Co-ords and hint brought me to this Gas meter, but the cache was underneath. I was expecting a magnetic key holder but found a much larger cache as you see in the next pic.

Nice to see some larger magnetic caches in urban areas, instead of little micro's that we seem to have too many in the area.

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 had a show booked in White Rock one morning, so I headed there so I would be early. When I got to the venue at 9am I was told the show was set up for 1:30pm??? I wrote it down wrong in my calendar. Well, what do you do when you are super early for an event and have to fill some time?? Go caching!!!

I went and had some breakfast and then I headed down towards the pier in White Rock, grabbing a few easy caches on the way. I ended up finding a total of seven caches, and then I went back to the Venue.

It's nice to be able to have something to do to fill in time. White Rock Pier is claimed to be the Longest Pier in Canada.

White Rock Pier is a 470-metre-long (1,540 ft) pier in White Rock, British Columbia. Originally built in 1914, it was a dock for steamships that arrived when the Great Northern Railway began operation. On December 20, 2018, the pier was severely damaged during a wind storm. It is estimated that the cost to rebuild the pier is $16.2 million. The pier was repaired and reopened in 2019.

Cross Border Caching and Magic Shows

I started working on some Blaine, Washington area puzzles. Susan and I have got most of the regular caches in that area, so needed to get some puzzles solved since we pop down there from time to time. I also booked a gig in Renton, Wash. So I wanted to grab several caches on the way down.

 I only got 3 as the weather was not being cooperative. I got 2 virtuals and 1 earthcache.

This was a 2 stage Virtual. It took me to a cemetary and to this large Memorial for the founders of the town of Everett, Washington.

Another cool virtual I found was a Dragon on top of a building in downtown Everett.

Its hard to see the full dragon from the street. Apparently, the eyes and mouth light up at night.

Grabbed a few local caches this past weekend while at my little boy's swim meet. Several in the park we were at, so I got 6 over the 2 days in between his events.

Squamish Day Trip

Headed to Squamish as I had 2 shows there. Of course I went early to grab some caches.

Went into Porteau Cove on the way as there was a Traditional cache and 2 Earthcaches there. Beautiful views from here.

This was one of the cool Earthcaches I was able to do while there.

It is called "Joints" Here is a small excerpt from the cache page:

The most prominent joints occur in the most well-consolidated, lithified, and highly competent rock such as the quartz diorite in this area. Joints may be open fractures or filled by various materials. Joints infilled by precipitated minerals are called veins and joints filled by solidified magma are called dikes.

Joints which dip towards a road, such as in this location, can lead great loss of life as the rock can slide down the  joints.  More than 18% of the total number of Canada’s landslide related deaths (>600) occur in the Sea to Sky Corridor.  The slides along the sea to sky corridor were caused by debris flows and rocks slipping down joint planes onto cars.

In the town of Squamish they had a cool climbing rock in the middle of a park where the Virtual cache was. Its for kids to climb.

From here you can also see the "Chief" which is a mountain Cliff that rock climbers go up.

The Stawamus Chiefis one of the most popular hiking trails around Vancouver and is also a popular rock climbing site. Often referred to as the ‘The Chief’ or ‘Squamish Chief’, this hike is located in Stawamus Chief Provincial Park in the District of Squamish.

Ended up getting a total of 11 caches, and 3 stages of 2 different AL's

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!!!

Bellingham Trip

Went to an event in Bellingham on Monday the 19th. It was an special event called "Maker Magic: Beyond the Green Box"

This event is part of a special series highlighting high quality caches. Geocachers who log “Attended” on Maker Magic: Beyond the Green Box will receive the official Maker Magic souvenir. 

We started the trip off by going across the border on Sunday evening, and headed to Silver Reef Casino where I had a comped room. We got up the next morning and headed off caching nearby. After grabbing several puzzle caches in the "X-Men" series, we headed towards Bellingham. 

Bellingham has an abundance of Little Free Library's and it seems as if there is a cache at each one of them.

All of them are nicely made, well stocked and maintained.

Some are downtown, while others are more rural

Here is Susan looking for the cache in the Library

So many cool little Free Library's

 

Last time thru here we grabbed several as well. In total we have found at least 9 and I am sure there is some more there to get.

We ended the day grabbing some supper and headed to the event. It was very well attended and several cachers from BC came down for this special event.

At the Event, there was this Travel Bug that you see here in the picture. It was called "The Football." You had to Figure out the code before the timer ran out in order to see the TB number.

On the way home we stopped for one more puzzle cache that was on my list called "Who Let The Frogs Out, Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit" The cache page says:

* Retrieval of this cache requires a 20+ foot reaching pole TOTT. Please do not attempt to remove the cache without the use of an appropriate TOTT.  Do not attempt unless you are confident that you can return the cache to the same location.

I have a 16 foot extendable pole, but I also have a 10 foot extending pole, so I duct taped the two together and was able to reach it. We then put it back and headed back across the border. A fun trip!!

VEGAS Here we Come!!!

So I am heading to Vegas at the end of June in a few days with Susan(sansue) and 2 Muggles. We will be there for 5 days only and seeing 4 shows, going out to the desert to "Seven Magic Mountain's", "Red Rock Canyon", and the "Hoover Dam", and I have a list made of 54 caches. I am not sure if we will be able to get them all. lol 

We will also check out my Adventure Lab that I created right from my place in Port Moody, BC.

I was able to set it up as I have been there enough times and had taken lots of pictures as usual. I will let Susan do it to make sure its working properly. I have had 16 people do it so far, and no one has mentioned any issues, and it has a 4.9 star rating.

This sign was at "Seven Magic Mountain's" When

I was there a few years ago.

Lets hope the Snakes can read and stay off the Path. Lol

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Weekend Caching

Kanaka Creek Caching

Went to Kanaka creek for a bike ride and to grab a few caches while there of course.

Kanaka Creek is named for the Hawaiians who were employed by the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Langley across the river.

A very active waterway, with lots of animals utilizing the slower flow of water.

A nice walkaround to learn about the area and the river and how it has been used in years past.

It was a nice partly walking and some biking trails. Nicely well maintained and lots of info.

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!!!

 RichmondC150 caches

Working on finishing the last of the Geo Tour of the Richmond caches called Richmond “Canada 150”

These caches were placed to celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday. There is 20 caches in this series, and the last geotour they did was 30 caches. I have completed that one a couple years back. I had 8 left to do, and we got 5 easily but 2 of them were disabled the day we went for them so could not get them. Also 1 of them we could not get to as the parking lot was full, so we decided to go do some other caches.

Terra Nova park

We went to Terra Nova Rural Park and found several caches including several of the Richmond geotours, a multi cache, several traditionals and two puzzles that were Bonus caches for the 2 Adventure Labs that were also in the Park.

Owl house for the Barn Owls

Some cool caches we found....(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

Now you See it!!!

Now you Don't!!

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!!!

Family Day Weekend Caching

We went out caching every day this weekend, and even on Family Day as the sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day. We got 2 cache's only on Saturday as it was raining, but I needed a Multi for a challenge I am working on. On Sunday we got 11 caches, of which 3 were puzzles, 1 was a Multi, and the rest were traditional's. On Monday(Family Day) we grabbed 6 traditional's and 3 Multi's and one was even an FTF!!!

A few cool sights we saw this weekend while caching.  This was a different Barn Owl than the last one we saw.

Bee's at work!!

We didn't see any slugs!!

This guy was so close, I could have almost touched him.

This "Weeping Willow" reminded me of the Womping Willow on "Harry Potter"

Geochallenge Caching

Right now I am working on a geochallenge (Actually when am I Not working on a geochallenge? lol)

This one (Actually 2) are called "A Month of Multi's Challenge" and "Any Two Months of Multi's Challenge"

Both of them, you need to fill your monthly calendar with Multi Caches. You could use finds from previous years. I started working on this and planned on filling in February and March's Calendar with a Multi everyday.

 In February, I needed to get 10 Multi's on the days I did not previously have a multi, and for March I need to fill 8 spots. 

This is my yearly calendar of Multi Caches found on the specific days. This is my calendar before I started the 2 challenges. Looking to fill February and March to start....we will see from there. lol
EDIT NOTE: So after working on this challenge for February, I noticed the calendar did not change when I looked at the checker thru Project GC. Sent a message to the Challenge cache owner, and was told the RED squares are the dates I need to fill not the completed dates....Argggg....The white dates are the ones I need to do. Oh well start from scratch. Gotta decide which months I want to do now. lol

Easter Weekend Trip

In April on the Easter long weekend, Sansue and I plan on heading to Merritt, Kelowna, Vernon, Armstrong, Sicamous, Revelstoke, Golden and then the Alberta Border to finish up my Trans Canada Highway Adventure Lab, so I can post it and make it Live. Of course I have plenty of caches planned to grab also. But more about that next Month after the trip.

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

Adventure Labs, and Fizzy grids

 Adventure Labs

I wrote about Adventure Labs (AL's) in the past and I am still curious why they count for 5 finds if you finish all 5 locations when you just have to answer a question at each stage. I understand some have said its like 5 little virtuals all in one package, but then why is it with a virtual cache, you may have to fulfill multiple questions or put a photo online, and with a wherigo, you may have to go to 3, 4, 5, 6, or upwards of 10 or more spots to complete it but only get 1 (one) find?? 

So as I wrote last month, when we were in Hope, we found 1 and 80% Adventure labs, let me explain. When you do an AL you go to normally 5 locations, and answer questions based on where you are and what you see. After you complete all 5 it gives you a chance to rate the AL out of 5 stars, and post a comment on the AL, just like you post when you find a regular cache. So in Hope one of the stages of  the 5 locations, we could not find the info for the question. We went to the other 4 locations and found those no problem. So what happens is we got credited for 4 finds, but the AL owner did not get a rating from us or a nice comment on his AL. There is a couple other AL's that I only completed 2 locations of the 5 because I didn't have the time to complete them. Again same thing, I received 2 finds very easily, but the owner of the Lab, got nothing in return. It just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I also just found out from another cacher at the last event I went to, that if you go to the location for 1 stage of the AL, and it opens to a question, that it will stay open. So if I am at home in Vancouver area, I can still answer the question in Hope 200km away. Now I just have to find the answer...lol

Although I still don't understand why they are set up like that, I do enjoy doing them as they take you to some cool places, that normally you would not be able to place a cache box, just like a virtual cache. Here are some pics of one we recently did that took us to some cool art installations.

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!!!

A cool bronze statue, so life like!!

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!!!

Speaking of Virtual caches, got this cool one in Abbottsford called "International Friendship Garden and Golden Tree" when I was there to show some Magic close up to some people from a company that are having me do close up for their event in October. Even had a chance to show my new trackable keychain. One of the requirements to log the virtual.

Katzie Marsh Caching

Today(Aug. 2nd) Oliver and I hiked over to a Puzzle cache called "Katzie Marsh". It was an interesting Puzzle cache and the final was a container 8 meters up in a tree!! This was a must find for me as it is a 1.5 Difficulty and a 4.5 Terrain.

As you can see after almost 13 years of caching, this was the only space on my Fizzy grid that I needed to fill. 

It has never been about the numbers for me, it has been about the fun, the adventure, and the people. On the way to this cache besides some nesting stations with young birds, we saw a boat carrying 1 car across the lake(small private ferry??)

Once we found the tree which was easier than I thought it was gonna be. I thought there was gonna be a whole bunch of trees, and I would have to figure out which one. The co-ords I got were within 30 meters of the cache site, and not specific.

Then we spotted the cache container, both Oliver and I headed up the tree. It was a fairly easy climb.

Oliver and I in the tree

Up in the tree, we made quick work of signing the log and headed back down.

S.W.A.G. (Stuff We All Get)

I recently received some geocoins and pins in the mail.

I traded pathtags with a cacher in Texas, and because my logo on my caching account is Mickey Mouse as the sorcerers apprentice, she mentioned she had  worked at Disneyland.  She ended up sending me her pathtag along with some cool Disney pins from her collection. Thanx again Cewhite43!!

These 2 Gold Country coins were a gift from "Explore Gold Country". For every 24 Gold Country caches you find and send in the stickers, you receive a geocoin that looks like a gold bar. I had enough stickers from our recent trip to get 2 coins, so now I have 4 of them. The Mars Rover coin, I bought from Geocacing.com store, and the 20th anniversary of the A.P.E. cache coin, I purchased from Cache Advance. (shipping was more than the coin, so will not be purchasing from there again)

Trans Canada Highway Adventure Lab Series

So as I had mentioned in last months blog, I will be taking part in placing 1 of the Adventure labs on the Trans Canada Highway that will be stitched together with many others to make a series that spans across Canada. This is a very exciting project and I am super happy to be a part of it. I have already started working on my AL as I have traveled the part of the highway I chose several times, and know the cool places on it. A lot of the people in this area were picking locations close to home, but I chose a section of the Trans Canada that is the last section in BC, before it crosses the border to Alberta. Right now it is from Golden to the border, but may get expanded to Revelstoke. This AL can be up to 10 locations close to the highway. I already have 7 spots of interest picked out, and have written about them. Looking forward to visiting the area to add a few more locations. Plus I will grab a few caches while there of course. 

Look for that story in a future blog.

Weekend Caching

We went out caching on the weekend as Susan was only 15 finds away from her 1000th cache. I planned out the day with a few neat caches and just some simple ones as well to add up to 999, and then I had a gadget cache picked out for her 1000th find.

Susan felt what it was like to "Ride the Lightning"

This cache was in a spot that we have been before but it was not there at that time. I did one like this a few years back in Agassiz, which you can watch the video "Here".

We were driving down 0 ave at the very bottom of BC, right at the border of Canada and U.S.

I noticed they have markers at the border, so I got a quick pic at one. You can decide if I am in Canada or the U.S. in this pic. lol

This is a cache called "Project Ape: Tribute" I recently bought a geocoin for the 20th anniversary of one of the Original Project A.P.E. caches called "Mission 9: Tunnel of Light" which is one of the 2 Project A.P.E. caches left. There was a total of 14 of these caches place 20 years ago as a publicity stunt for the movie "Planet of the Apes." I had already found this cache but wanted to have my new coin visit here before moving around with me, or putting it into my collection at home. You can read more about the project "HERE"

R2-D2

This was the cache I picked out to be Susan's 1000th cache. It won the Fraser Valley Cache Bash this year as "Best Gadget Cache." It is called "R2-D2 Gadget Cache FVCB4"

A very cool cache that you need to bring a 9Volt with you to get it to work.

I also had bought a 1000 finds pin for her when she hit this Milestone and presented it to her at the cache!!

The following day we went out and grabbed a few nearby caches. This one had us climbing up a tree. Well, I climbed while she watched. lol

 

Found the little guy, now how do I get down??

Oliver and I are headed to Edmonton In September to visit family, and of course I have already started making a list of some cool caches to grab.

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