Land of the midnight sun!!!

Caching in Inuvik

This month I went to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, the land of the Midnight Sun, to do a couple of Magic shows for the Inuvik Firefighters Ball.  While there I was able to grab several caches including a virtual cache. I also received a new geocaching souvenir.

Newest souvenir

 On the trip up there we flew across the Great Slave Lake. Several years back when I was touring with Attila the Hypnotist, we actually drove across this lake on the Ice roads on a trip up to perform in Yellowknife and Fort Smith. Very scary heading out onto the lake with a vehicle.

Great Slave Lake

Great Slave Lake

 The cache under the plane is now my most Northern cache. This is the Western Arctic Visitors Centre.

If you have never visited the area before, then a quick stop at the Western Arctic Visitor Centre will provide you with all the information you need.
Located on Mackenzie Road as soon as you enter town, the Visitor Centre contains many interesting exhibits on art, flora and fauna, neighbouring communities and wildlife.
You can also pick up your official Arctic Circle Adventurer Certificate here.
The Centre is open from June to September and hosts weekly events based around Northern culture. It was not open while I was there, but I was still presented with an official Arctic Circle Adventurer Certificate from the Inuvik Fire Chief. I even got picked up from the airport in his command car.

Town of Inuvik

Virtual cache

Made sure to grab this virtual cache called The End of the Road while there. I believe this is the oldest cache in the Inuvik area, placed back in 2002. They actually nailed a Travel Bug Tag to the bottom of the sign and you need to get the number off it.

This was a cool bolt cache placed on the anchor of the GSI Mariner. A ship that is now on ground and out of commission.

The GSI Mariner is a Canadian research/survey ship. It was built and used originally by Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) to record seismic data on the Mackenzie River delta and Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Later it was owned by other companies, including Halliburton Canada. It is currently beached on the banks of the Mackenzie south of Inuvik, near the beginning of the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road.
It was built in 1971 in Edmonton, and taken up in sections to Great Slave Lake later that year to be launched onto the Mackenzie. GSI ran surveys and did seismic research with it during the summers and beached it over winters, voyages that continued as Halliburton took over GSI and then after the company was reincorporated. Whether it will sail again is not known.

Inukshuk in Downtown Inuvik

I shot a quick video while I was in Inuvik called "Land of the Midnight Sun"

Cool city caches

I have been working in the Downtown area of Vancouver lately and have been grabbing a few caches on the way to the workplace. There are some cool caches around this city. Found one the other day at a monument that I had driven by for several days and thought this was a cool thing. (But I also kept saying to myself, "There must be a cache at that spot!!")

Ring Gear cache

 The ring gear monument was installed on Oct. 16 1987.This monument commemorates the swing span bridge that once crossed False Creek, and the industries that once thrived on its shores. Up until the 1970's False Creek was ringed by major industrial activity including Sawmills, Shipyards, and Rail yards.

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Geocaching is Sweet 16

On May 2nd 2000, at approximately midnight, the “big blue switch” was pressed and selective availability on civilian GPS receivers was removed. Twenty-four satellites around the globe processed new orders, and the accuracy of GPS technology improved tenfold. Prior to this date, only the military had the ability to receive accurate GPS readings. Now, the world and all its wonderful people could pinpoint their precise location.

Sixteen Years Later
Sixteen years and over 2.8 million geocaches later, the game is larger and more diverse than it’s ever been. Happy birthday geocaching! It’s been a pleasure watching you grow.

Well that's it for this month

Keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Yukon to BC to Alberta to BC and back to the Yukon.

For those that have been following my blog, you would know that I have been up in the Yukon for the past few months. This week I got to head home for a week, but I would not stay home, as we decided to go visit my family in Alberta.

So I left Watson lake and got to the airport in Whitehorse to fly home. My plane was delayed so I had time to go grab the cache nearby that I did not get last time I was here. Nearby the cache is a plane on a pole, and as I looked at it I was sure that it moved. Upon further inspection I realized that it does move.

                                                           CF-CPY, "The World's Largest Weather Vane"
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Starting in 1977, the Yukon Flying Club restored this northern veteran to its Canadian Pacific Airlines colours for permanent display at the Whitehorse airport. The restoration took four years, but in 1981, she was raised onto the pedestal built by master welder Al Jacobs. Pivoting on its mount, CF-CPY always points into the wind, just as she would have while lined up on the runway for takeoff. Due to the fine balance point, it only takes a 5 knot wind to turn her.

 

Road trip to Alberta

Once home, I repacked and was ready for adventure with my sweetheart, my new baby, and the boys. The plan was to go from home to Victoria for one night as I had a show to do. The next morning we headed out to grab a ferry and we were off on an adventure.

The first stop(other than baby feeding stops, of which we had many) on the mainland was Hope. I have passed the cache at the entrance to Hope, at least a dozen times while on road trips and tours, but today was the day to finally get this one off my list.

The next stop after Hope was the Othello tunnels and some caches within. This area is where the movie Rambo First Blood was made.

“In November of 1981, Hollywood film crews began to transform Hope, BC into a rural American town for the filming of the blockbuster hit Rambo First Blood. Over the next several months Hope and the Fraser Canyon experienced gas station explosions, gun fire and stunt men. The Success of Rambo First Blood led into a series of 4 film made from 1981-2007

Rambo fanatics from around the world travel to the small town of Hope, BC to get a glimpse of what people now call Rambo town.”

 

Located in the most rugged section of the Coquihalla Canyon, the Othello Tunnels have a great history and scenery and make for a nice leisurely walk. Engineers forged through mountain cliffs and over raging rivers to construct a series of bridges and tunnels that blast through the rugged terrain.

If you get a chance to walk this trail, I would highly recommend it.

We stopped in Clearwater, BC for the night and would head on down the highway in the morning.
The next morning, Welcome to Alberta!!!

On the way thru Jasper we did not see as many animals as we have in the past, but we grabbed a few caches and even did a couple of cool Earthcaches.

Sand Dunes at Jasper Lake Earthcache

We made it to Fort Saskatchewan where we would stay for a couple of days. This is the town that I grew up in some several years ago. While staying here we took in a day at West Edmonton Mall. While living in Edmonton years ago, this is the mall where the Magic bug bit me. I even managed the Magic shop in the mall for awhile. We spent the day relaxing in the water park and enjoying some of the slides.(no line-ups midweek)

After our few days of visits, it was time to start making our way home. We started to head towards Calgary where we would make a brief stop. But as we were leaving Edmonton, I noticed that there was a new cache in Leduc. A quick stop and an FTF was in hand. (Yes.... I have notifications set for new caches where I am travelling. One of the many reasons to be a Premium Member)

On the highway further down the road, we came across what we thought was a transformer heading down the hwy.  But it was just some farm equipment being moved.

Going through Banff we did not see much again in the way of wildlife as we have in past years. They now have a lot of fences and some cool looking bridges for the animals to get across the highway safely.

 Banff National Park

Banff National Park is Canada's oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 km west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses 6,641 sq km of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north.

We stopped for a cache just coming into Golden, BC which was placed behind a huge painted Inukshuk.

We headed a bit further up the road to Revelstoke, where we would spend the night.

The next morning we headed down the road as our next stop was Kelowna.

Coming up towards Kelowna we stopped at Dave's goat walk

Dave's Goat Walk

A place we have stopped before, the kids love to feed the goats. Here I was able to complete a challenge cache. A quick stop in Kelowna for a visit and we were on our way back to the island.

We got home just in time for me to unpack, repack and head back to the Yukon for my last turnaround. Sitting here in Watson Lake on Thanksgiving day, writing this blog, and looking forward to my return trip home.

Till next time, keep on caching

Chris Yuill

Magicman65