BIG NEWS!!!

BIG NEWS!!!

The news of where Geowoodstock XVIII will take place on August 22, 2020 is in!!!
It will be in Canada for the first time ever right here in BC, out in the Fraser Valley at the Abbotsford Trade-X centre. You can log your "will attend" on the cache page "Geowoodstock XVIII"
I went to Geowoodstock VIII back in 2010 and I am looking forward to going to next years Geowoodstock, right here in our backyard!! More exciting news will be added in the following months as the event gets nearer.

"Treasure"

So just recently a movie was released online and DVD about Geocaching. I purchased it immediately and you can check it out at: "Treasure"
Its a story about a girl who loses her way in life, but a new friendship based on the mutual love for Geo-caching and helping out at the local soup kitchen helps her find the meaning of life.
It also has several (at least 10) TB codes placed throughout the movie, for cachers to discover.

Gold Hunt Canada

Some company set up a modern day pirate treasure hunt in 3 cities, including Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver called "Gold Hunt Canada" where you had the chance to find $100,000 in gold and silver coins.
They were selling "Treasure Maps" (Actually a long riddle as you can see below in the first pic)
Plus you could also purchase extra clues (Second pic)

It sounds as if they will be doing the Treasure hunt again, and you can be sure I will be involved next time also. I mean who wouldn't want to take home $100,000!!!



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!!!

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!!!

In Magic News:

A couple of weekends ago I went over to Victoria and I competed in the Victoria Magic circle's competition for the Wansborough Award for Comedy Magic. (I still maintain my membership in the Victoria Magic Circle)
As you can see by the picture of the newest award on my wall, I did win!!!

YouTube channel

So recently Oliver and I have been doing videos while caching and I have loaded a few up onto our NEW YouTube channel so far. He wanted to start a YouTube channel of his own for caching videos, so I have set one up for us. If you want to check out our progress so far and give us some feedback that would greatly be appreciated.

Please check these out and our new YouTube channel at "Caching with Oliver and Chris", and comment on the videos, and subscribe to our channel. As I get better with editing, they will look a little nicer. lol

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Weekend geocaching road trips

Day Trip to Whidbey Island

So as you can see from my last "blog", I have been planning to head to the States to do a day of caching. I headed down on a Friday morning and thought I might stay over night and cache my way home on Saturday. I had a list of about 50 caches for the trip, but several of them were just to fill in empty spots if I had the time to grab them. My plan was to get some very specific caches for challenges, or with lots of fave points as well as several Earthcaches.

Whidbey Island Bluffs

I did about 400 km round trip by car, but, I also did a 6.5 km round trip hike, plus another 2 km hike in hard terrain area, and in total, I logged a total of 8 Earthcaches, 1 Multi-Cache, 18 Traditional's, 2 of which where needed for a challenge cache. A total of only 27 caches, but with a total of 920 Favorite points on them. I was also able to sign a Challenge cache but need 2 more caches to be able to log it, and I was also able to log a Challenge cache I got while I was down in Las Vegas in February because the 8 Earthcaches I found have now put me over 100 Earthcache finds.

Very cool Erratic Art

Fort Casey State Park

That is an Erratic under those bushes

The Boulder under those bushes is about 30 feet tall by about 40 feet wide.

An Erratic is a rock or boulder that differs from the surrounding rock and is believed to have been brought from a distance by glacial action.

I also found a cache that was hidden in March 2001, which helps fill in a blank on my Jasmer chart.

Jasmer Challenge: One of the oldest and most popular geocaching challenges is the Jasmer Challenge. To complete the challenge, you must fill your Jasmer grid by finding caches placed in every month since geocaching began in May 2000. Popular in the United States, the Jasmer requires geocachers find one cache hidden each month since geocaching began in May 2000. To give you a sense of the breadth of this challenge, there are less than 120 caches hidden in 2000 that are still active. I still have 9 in 2000 and 2001 that I need to find....Geocaching road trip, anyone?

I did this multi cache, which was near an airbase and while I was there collecting info for the second stage, several fighter jets were doing maneuvers in the sky above me. Very Cool!!!

At the beginning of April, Oliver and I did a cache in a Library (which you can see in this "Video")
It was for the April Geochallenge where you needed to find a cache in a front yard or at a business or inside a Library. During this day trip, I actually found 4 caches that would also qualify for that challenge. One was a front yard Free Library, one was at a roadside Market shop, one was at a roadside Ice cream shop, and the other one was inside a greenhouse at a plant and flower shop.

Free Library Cache

"Flower Power" cache in a Greenhouse

So after my day trip, I was looking at my stats for geocaching (Yes, I'm a bit of a nerd) on "My Geocaching Profile"
I noticed that during this trip, I did the "Most Well Rounded D/T Day" which means I found 16 different combinations of Difficulty and Terrain caches. Way cool as I wasn't even planning that.

Now I am looking forward to the next time I can do a day or weekend trip just for caching. Road Trip anyone??


Other Road Trips
Headed out to Tsawwassen for a show but got into town early, so I went and grabbed a puzzle and traditional cache on the way into town.

When I got there I went for a nice walk out on the flats of Boundary Bay, and grabbed a Multi cache and an earthcache called "Boundary Bay Earthcache"
I then headed into town and grabbed several other caches. It was such a beautiful day and the sun was shining, so I just had to get out there.




Upcoming trips
I have already started looking at caches I would like to get when I head to Edmonton, Alberta in July, for my Nephew's wedding, then in August not only will I be heading to Las Vegas as always for a 4 day magic convention, where I will be there for 10 days, but I will also be taking Oliver to California for a trip to LEGOLAND!! After Vegas and LEGOLAND, I have a show in Saskatchewan that I will be flying to but will be sure to grab some caches, near the hotel and venue. Also the Gold country events will be in September and I am looking forward to heading to the Merritt, Lytton, and Ashcroft areas for it.

Geochallenge

So the Geochallenge from the "Geocaching Vlogger" for May is to find a cache involving a Mural or a cache by a mural. I have found several mural caches in the past. Usually you have to get some info from them such as counting objects or using word within them and then change that info into letters and each letter is represented by a number which helps form the cache co-ordinates.

I found this one which was on the side of a legion about the history of Veterans Day called "Lest We Forget: Veteran's Memorial Mural" for the challenge!!


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!!!

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!!!

YouTube channel

So recently Oliver and I have been doing videos while caching and I have loaded a few up onto our NEW YouTube channel so far. He wanted to start a YouTube channel of his own for caching videos, so I have set one up for us. If you want to check out our progress so far and give us some feedback that would greatly be appreciated. Here are links to 2 of the videos:

"Library Cache Geochallenge"(I wrote about this challenge in last months blog)

"Travel Bug caching"

Please check these out and our new YouTube channel, and comment on the videos, and subscribe to our channel. As I get better with editing, they will look a little nicer. lol

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Earthcaches and Road trips

Earthcache Challenge

I have been going after Earthcaches recently as I am trying to complete the Challenge cache called "Earthcaches: Challenge of the Century" that I found in Las Vegas, so I can log it. You need to have found 100 Earthcaches to log it. I already signed the cache when I was there, and now I only need about 6 more so I can log it online!!!

This was a cool earthcache and it had to do with some different types of huge marble stones, brought over from Italy.

The holes in the marble made for some very cool pictures!!

Three kinds of Marble

This Cool looking statue, is also an earthcache.

Vesicular Basalt Earthcache

This statue is quarried from vesicular basalt. Basalt is a very common volcanic rock that emanates from volcanoes. If it cools quickly, basalt can become vesicular. Due to the vesicules, the rock is softer and easier to carve than regular basalt. The statue was a gift from the Port of Incheon Korea to the Port of Vancouver.  This statue was quarried and carved on the island of Jeju, Korea, where similar statues serve as guardian and boundary markers on Jeju. This island is volcanic and is known locally for its long lava tubes.



Climbing fun!!!

So when Oliver is not posing for the camera on top of large rocks as seen in my last blog, he also poses on top of large stumps or Logs. lol

Caching in Deer Lake Park

Such a beautiful Easter Weeekend, so Oliver and I headed to Deer Lake Park on Saturday, to grab an Earthcache, a Multicache and several Traditional Caches. The weather was awesome and there where lots of people out walking the trails, with their families.

We even got to see a family of Turtles sunning themselves on a log.

On Easter Sunday I had 3 shows at the Port Moody Museum by Rocky Point Park. As you can see by the picture below, they were very well attended, as the weather was awesome.

YouTube channel

So recently Oliver and I have been doing videos while caching and I have loaded a few up onto our NEW YouTube channel so far. He wanted to start a YouTube channel of his own for caching videos, so I have set one up for us. If you want to check out our progress so far and give us some feedback that would greatly be appreciated. Here are links to 2 of the videos:

"Library Cache Geochallenge"(I wrote about this challenge in last months blog)

"Travel Bug caching"

Please check these out and our new YouTube channel, and comment on the videos, and subscribe to our 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!!!

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!!!

Upcoming Caching Trips

Ok, while my upcoming trips I have planned are not actually just for geocaching, of course I will be doing some caches along the way. lol

I will be heading to Edmonton, Alberta in July, for my Nephew's wedding and will grab a few caches while there. (Already building the list) Then in August not only will I be heading to Las Vegas as always for a 4 day magic convention, where I will be there for 10 days, but I will also be taking Oliver to California for a trip to LEGOLAND!!

I am also planning a daytrip, or overnight getaway just to do these caches you see on the map below. Haven't set a date as of yet to do this, but hoping to do it soon. Maybe this coming weekend?? Anyone up for a road trip???

As you can see by the map above, I have selected about 54 caches for this trip. Whether I get them all or not will remain to be seen. You will find out, next blog. (You may notice one has been found by me already. I have that one saved to my list as I will use it as a marker to find a place.)

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Travel bug tags

AirTransat Travel Bugs

One night my sister, from Alberta sent me a link about something to do with Geocaching she said. It was a link to a webpage from AirTransat about some geotours including the one in Richmond. They had placed lots of TB tags in one of the caches and gave a hint as to which one, and were asking cachers to move them around.
Oliver and I headed out the next day and found the cache with all of them in it. There was still 35 of these tags still in the cache box. We took one and started it on its journey. Not sure if there are any prizes for doing so, but I thought it would be interesting to see how far it travels to. The webpage for the info can be found by clicking "HERE"

That's a lot of Travel Tags!!!

After we walked the trail at the place we found the tags, we went and did a couple more caches on the Geotour.

Can you see the cache??

Spoiler Pic!!

FTF

Oliver and I were lounging around one morning when all of a sudden a new cache got published less than a kilometre away from home, so we raced out the door and went and made the find. We even got a starbucks gift card for being the First to find!! YAY!!!

Oliver after the 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!!!

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!!!

One warm sunny Saturday we went over to North Vancouver to grab a few caches. The first one we got was an Earthcache (I need 9 more to complete a challenge I did in Las Vegas) It was a cool one called Nephrite Jade Earthcache

The next one was a puzzle cache that I solved online a couple days before, but I wont give you the name as I don't spoil it.

Oliver is up the creek without a paddle

 We then headed away from North Van and headed to Burnaby to grab a couple challenge caches that I have completed called "31 for 331Challenge" and "41 for 441 Challenge"
These were challenges for having certain amount of finds in certain Difficulty/Terrain categories.

 We then headed over to New West Quay to have a nice walk down the waterfront. As you can see from the pictures, Oliver likes to have his pic taken on top of rocks.

Geochallenge of the Month

The Geocaching Vlogger has a monthly Geochallenge that he puts out to the caching community, and when you complete it, you email him and then your name goes into a draw and you have the chance to win a cool geocoin. I was lucky enough to win one several months back for one of the monthly geochallanges he put out. For the month of April, the geochallenge was to find a cache either in a Front Yard or inside a building or business.
Oliver and I went out to Maple Ridge one day to do a Multi cache called "CHC150-Memorial Peace Park"

We had to find 3 different locations within the park and gather clues to reveal the Dewey* Decimal number of a book in the nearby Library.

It was a cool cache and we made a video of us doing the stages and finding it in the Library. We have actually been making several movies of our caching adventures which I will be putting online on YouTube as a GeoAdventures YouTube Page.

Note: As you can see, I like doing challenge caches which are defined below:
A challenge cache requires seekers to find an associated physical cache, and to find an additional set of geocaches as defined by the challenge owner. Challenge caches encourage geocachers to set and achieve fun goals. Examples of challenge caches: find a cache every day of the calendar year, or find one for every Difficulty/Terrain combination.

*The Dewey Decimal Classification System is the most widely used method for classifying books in the library. This system is a general knowledge organization tool that is continuously revised to keep pace with knowledge. It is named after Melvil Dewey, an American Librarian who developed it in 1876

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

VEGAS BABY!!!

February Vegas Trip

On Feb 19th I headed down to Bellingham and grabbed several caches including a Challenge cache, while there before heading to the airport for my flight to Las Vegas.

The following 2 pictures are the caches I was planning to do in Vegas and the caches after I was done. As you can see I did not get all of those I planned to get, but still did pretty good. Even found a couple extra ones I did not plan on including a second to find(STF)

 

Vegas Day 1: Arrived in Las Vegas, but did not do any caching as I got there in the evening and checked into hotel and then headed out to meet up with friends to go see my friend Marc Savard's, hypnosis show.



Vegas Day 2: Rented a car and headed out caching for the day. I headed after 3 challenge caches first, but 1 of them I didn't even search for as it was a lamppost cache(easy find) but if you look at the pic you will see why I decided not to look. lol

They are watching!!!

Got a cache called "Elevator Operator" next. Good thing I had my selfie stick with me to retrieve this cache and place it back. The sign in the pic was about 12 feet tall!! See it in the top??

I then headed out of the city to Red Rock Canyon, to do some cool caches, and the weird thing was there was snow in Vegas!! Check out the pics below. I only found 11 caches this day, but it was also a 7 icon day(7 different types)

Virtual Cache

Vegas Day 3: Today I headed across the border to Arizona to grab one cache over there. I then came back towards Vegas, and grabbed several really cool high favorited caches. I even went down a power trail just to grab one specific cache that had a D/T rating that I needed.

 Can you see the cache?

How about now??

 This doesn't look possible??

 Just a normal sign post!! Or is it??

Vegas Day 4: Found several cool puzzle caches today, that used smartphone technology. Each one was a different method of finding the cache final. They all started off with using a QR code, but then you either had to watch a video or call a phone number and listen to a recorded message to find the cache.

Vegas Day 5: This morning I took the rental car back and headed down the strip for a bit, but still grabbed 4 caches.

Vegas Day 6: Today I would leave Vegas and fly back to Bellingham, but I also grabbed a cache heading back over the border back into Canada.

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!!!

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!!!

All in all I found a total of 35 caches out of the 50 that I had planned on, but have only logged 34 as I need to complete a challenge before logging 1 of the challenge caches.(will complete soon) I also got 4 other challenge caches that I could log right away. I also completed another 7 Icon day (7 different Icons) Which included a Traditional, a Multi, a puzzle, an Earthcache, a Letterbox, a Virtual, and a Wherigo cache which was actually about caching for Icons. I got 3 more spots filled in on my Difficulty/Terrain chart, and I got 5 more of the most favorited caches in Vegas as I talked about in last months blog.

Las Vegas was a blast because besides geocaching, I also saw 8 shows while there for the 5 days.
I look forward to the next time I go there which will be in August when I head down for a Magic Convention called Magic Live. I wonder what caches I will find then??

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65