Gold Country.....Finally!!!

 Jehovah's wetness

I was contacted by Bob of GBandBob, and he was setting up a group hike to get a cache called "Jehovah's Wetness"

It is a difficulty 3 cache, because you need 2 things...A TOTT(Ladder) and a Low Tide. As you can see in the pictures it is only reachable during a low tide, as it is in the top of a large pipe, that is normally half underwater.

                                                                                This is the location of the cache

We need someone to climb the TOTT (Ladder)

 Yup that's me up there taking a selfie of the group!!!

We found it!!!

We were fortunate to also have the CO (Cache Owner) at the cache site also,

and he(MrGigabyte) was celebrating his 20th year geocaching to the day!!!.

How awesome is that! Especially since Geocaching is only 21 years old.

 The group after the find. Almost like an unofficial event. A lot of people wanted to be there, as most would not have a way to get it without the Ladder and someone brave to climb it. It was a fun find!!!

GOLD Country Caching

So as you may have noticed, the last few blogs I have been talking about a trip up to Gold Country area with Susan (Sansue). The first time we planned this trip several months ago, the weather turned and we decided to postpone the trip. Then about 10 days before we were planning to go the second time, the Province ended up getting travel restrictions. So we set a new date for the 3rd time. And now we have gone....YAY!!!

I have been this way several times before and have gotten quite a few of the caches up here, but this was Susan's first trip up this way.

Day 1:

Historic Yale:

 After a quick Multi cache in Hope, we made our way north. First few caches led up to and thru Yale. We were able to get an Earthcache and a couple other local caches before moving on further North. Just before Alexandra Provincial Park, we grabbed a cache called "Her Majesty's Royal Engineer's" which was a Large Rock Cairn with a plaque. 

The plaque reads:

1859-1927
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE WORK OF
HER MAJESTY'S ROYAL ENGINERS
AND IN RESPECTFUL ADMIRATION OF THE
SKILL AND ENERGY DISPLAYED BY THEM
FROM 1859 TO 1863 IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE ORIGINAL CARIOO HIGHWAY
THROUGH THE FRASER CANYON

Alexandra Bridge (The Bridge to Nowhere) Virtual Cache

When arriving at Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park in the Fraser Canyon, take a short walk to the Alexandra Bridge perched over the spectacular Fraser River. Originally, constructed in 1863, the bridge was part of the Cariboo Wagon Road that connected Fort Yale and the south to the Cariboo Gold Fields. I had already got the 4 caches in this Park, but wanted Susan to see the Historic Bridge and river.

As we walked down the trail to the Bridge we noticed Wooden Orange Hearts had been placed thru the trail on the trees. They were placed here to remember the 215 unmarked graves found in Kamloops. So sad to think about it.

Most of them had something written on by other children.

One of the caches we stopped at in the Park was a BCGA Project Bluesky cache. I love the fact that this cache was placed in 2009 and is still the same container. Good quality caches were made by the BCGA. I am proud to have been the VP of the BCGA from 2011 to 2014

We then arrived at the bridge and headed across to grab the cache on the other side, as well as get the necessary picture of Susan on the Bridge to log the virtual. (I had already logged it in 2018)

The 8th Tunnel

Just before Hell's Gate Canyon a cache has been placed at a cool abandoned tunnel, called the 8th Tunnel. This is one of the reasons I love caching. Most people will never see this, but because someone placed a cache there, cachers will experience things like this!!

I did this one already also back in 2018!!

The Fraser Canyon Highway Tunnels were constructed in the late 1950s to about the mid 1960's as part of a Trans-Canada Highway project. There are 7 tunnels in total, the shortest being about 57 metres (190 ft); the longest, is about 610 metres (2,000 ft) and is one of North America's longest. They are situated between Yale and Boston Bar.
In order from south to north, they are:
Yale Tunnel,
Saddle Rock Tunnel,
Sailor Bar Tunnel,
Alexandra Tunnel,
Hell's Gate Tunnel,
Ferrabee Tunnel and,
China Bar Tunnel.
The 8th Tunnel was part of the old Trans-Canada highway that included the Alexandra bridge used in the 1950's before the new highway and tunnels were built.

  

Just before Kanaka Bar we stopped for a cache called "Welcome to Gold Country! South Side" 

There was a huge boulder balanced on another boulder at the cache site. Very Cool. I kept telling Susan to not touch it, as I thought it could fall over. lol

Lytton

Coming into Lytton, Susan got a taste of her first of several Gold Country Caches called :Gold Country-Lytton Chinese History Museum" which was just before town.

Susan finding her first Gold Country Cache. We ended up visiting 44 Gold Country caches during our 3 day trip. There is a total of 148 GC caches.

 We grabbed several Gold Country Caches in Lytton and also a puzzle cache called "Nlaka'pamux, which I had no Idea how to solve it, but had it on the list. Once we got to Town I was still unsure, until something caught my eye!! We then headed up the highway towards Lillooet, grabbing some caches along the road, and even replaced a cache for another cacher. I contacted him before we left for the trip.

 

Note: (5 days after passing through Lytton, they recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada at 49.5 C. and a day later the town burnt to the ground due to a wildfire that ripped thru the town because of the high winds. Very Sad to hear that!!!)

Lillooet 

In Lillooet, we grabbed a couple of GC caches, including the "Old Bridge"

Known today as The Old Bridge, this span was built circa 1911. It is a suspension bridge of steel cables and wood with “dead-men” (cable ends) embedded in the rocky banks of the Fraser. The middle section of the bridge is held up by cables. The bridge replaced a truss bridge, which in turn replaced a winch ferry that was powered by the river’s current and was in use from the 1860s to 1888.

 

This was a very cool cache container. It looked like something you should definitely NOT Touch!! It had cables coming out of it, and it looked as if it was part of the antenna on the other side of the fence. I guess that's why it had 62 fave points.

We then headed up towards Clinton where we grabbed a few more GC caches before stopping for the night, and we got the last hotel room in town...Whew!!! 14 hours of caching and driving and only 41 caches found. But still lots of fun and adventure.

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!!!

Day 2:

Clinton

After a good rest in Clinton, we awoke and headed back southbound. We grabbed a few GC caches that we didn't get the night before on the way into town, and then we headed towards Cache Creek.

Not quite sure how it happened but there was another GC cache in town that was NOT on my list. DOHH! Guess we will have to plan on going there again.

Cache Creek

Grabbed several caches in town and even went to a small nearby community called Walhachin
to grab one. It was a nice drive and some awesome scenery.

Susan caching at the Cache Creek sign!! Yes there is one there!!!

"Howdy cachers, there's a cache behind me!!!"

Ashcroft

After lunch we made our way over to Ashcroft, where besides several caches, we also did 2 Adventure Labs and a bonus cache for each, before heading to Logan Lake.

Logan Lake

In Logan lake we grabbed 4 more GC caches and several cool gadget caches.

Critter Catcher

That Screwy cache

The series of the Logan Lake Gadget Caches (LLGC) were very nicely done, and you really had to think to get into them. One of them called "The Key to Success", the logbook was already in open, but we didn't notice and it wasn't until we had it open and realized it. LOL. We made sure to put it back together correctly for the next finder.

Susan in the Logan Lake Shovel

We then made our way to Merritt, and grabbed another GC cache and then headed out to the old Merritt-Princeton highway which is now called Hamilton Hill road, but should be called Gadget cache alley. There are 7 gadget caches along this road.

Heart of the Lion

The Labyrinth

We only did 4 of them, as we had already done the others on different trips. Some very cool gadget caches out there. One of them was also Susan's 900th cache.

Susan getting her 900th cache while "walking the dog"!!

After that, as it was getting darker, we went back into town, and we went to 9 different hotels until we found one with Vacancy. Yikes. Normally I book hotels in advance from home, but we were not sure how far we would end up each day. 

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!!!

Day 3:

Merritt

We awoke and got out into the early morning heat. It was in the mid 40's while we were there. Yikes. We got several more caches including 6 GC caches and a cool Multi puzzle type cache called "Unlock the Fox" and another puzzle cache before heading down the highway towards Hope. 

"I am Groot"

Hope

 We got into Hope on our way back home, and the first caches we wanted to do was the 4 other multi's to complete the "Bearly Hidden" series of caches. I needed a Multi cache on our first day as I am working on a challenge cache, that is why we only grabbed one on the way thru. We also got all the information at the first stages of them when we came thru town on Day 1 of our trip.

We figured out all the finals while we were in Clinton. The city of Hope has several wood carvings including the Bear carvings that were used for info on this series.      

Rambo and I hanging out!!! The Movie "Rambo-First Blood" was filmed in and around Hope and the Othello Tunnels.

Hard to believe this is all wood!!

Othello Tunnels

The tunnels are on an old rail line and part of the Kettle valley trail.

We only did 2 caches here, 1 traditional, and 1 Earthcache, but we went thru all 5 tunnels.

Our 3 day total was 97 caches, 44 which were Gold Country caches, 7 Multi's, 3 Earthcaches, 4 Puzzles, and 2 Adventure Labs. We traveled a total of 1180km. We didn't get all 150ish that were on the list, but we had lots of fun and adventure.

We are planning another trip to grab a few more GC caches, but it will just be a day trip just past Hope toward Merritt.

I will write more about this in my next 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

Getting ready for the Gold Country

Geochallenge of the Month (May)

Finished the Geochallenge of the month the first day of the month by getting a cache called "Tunnel of Love--NOT"

The challenge was to find a cache older than the day you started caching. I started caching Sept. 8th, 2008 so had to look for an older cache than that.  Luckily there are still several around older than the day I started. This one worked out nicely as we were heading that way for a caching day already. 

Sneaking past Smallville

Caching a couple of weekends ago, and grabbed some cool caches, in cool places.

 

  You may recognize these pics as one of the locations if you are a fan of the TV series "Smallville" which is based on the DC Comics superhero Superman!! This location is in the Aldergrove area. It is the "Kent Farm."

We did an Adventure Lab called "Hollywood North" awhile back that also took us to this location, as well as others in the area.

.

From Wikipedia: The series was produced at BB Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia. Although production was initially planned for Australia, Vancouver had more of a "Middle America landscape". The city provided a site for the Kent farm, doubled for Metropolis, provided a cheaper shooting location and was in the Los Angeles time zone. Smallville's Main Street is a combination of two locations in the town of Merritt and Cloverdale.

Cloverdale welcome sign

Vancouver Technical School doubled as the exterior for Smallville High, since the school had the "mid-American largess" wanted by the filmmakers and was in keeping with Millar's idea that Smallville should be the epitome of "Smalltown, USA". Templeton Secondary School was used for Smallville High's interior. During season one, the production team repainted most of Templeton in Smallville High's red and yellow and distributed large Smallville High Crows logos; so much of the school was painted that it adopted red and yellow as its school colors. The students became accustomed to the film crew (which had to shoot when school was in session), and when a class was dismissed the crew stepped aside so the students could move the equipment to get to their lockers for the next class.

The Kent farm is a working farm in Aldergrove. Owned by the Anderlinis, the crew painted their home yellow for the show. Exterior shots of Luthor Mansion were filmed at Hatley Castle in Victoria. The interiors were filmed at Shannon Mews in Vancouver, also the set for the Dark Angel pilot and the film Along Came a Spider. Clova Cinema, in Cloverdale was used for exteriors of the Talon, Smallville's coffeehouse.

June Geochallenge

The June Geochallenge was another easy one. You need to find a terrain 1 cache. With that being said, there is actually not a lot of those around. A true Terrain 1 means you should be able to grab the cache from a wheelchair in the seated position. Most T1 caches I have found are either on the ground, or in a tree up higher. While true you could ride up to them in a wheelchair, they are a bit harder to reach. I have even found some T1 caches that you had to leave the trail?? Hmmmm....I assume the cache owner is not quite familiar with the Terrain and Difficulty levels. Speaking of Terrain and Difficulty levels, as you can see by the pic below, I only have one more D/T to fill in on my Fizzy Grid!!

I have been caching for about 12 1/2 years now. I have never been worried about the numbers or filling this grid. But I usually go after cool caches in cool locations. Looking for the correct cache to get this last spot filled in!!

Challenge caches

I love working on Challenge caches, which are usually puzzle caches that you have to do certain things to be able to sign the cache and log it. 

Did a couple of challenge caches on the weekend of May 14-16th, a new one called "I'm An Islander! Challenge" got published, and it was out on Shady Island, which is where we were planning to go on the weekend already. You needed to have one cache in each of the 7 regional districts out on Vancouver Island. I qualified already as I had lived over there for at least 12 years, and started caching there for about 4 or 5 years before moving to the mainland. 

The other one was called "BIG Country Challenge" which you needed to have found at least 50 caches that are labeled on the website as Large from the time you started caching. A quick look at my stats and in 12 1/2 years of caching and finding over 5600 caches I only had 48. lol. I searched out some large caches and by the end of the weekend I found 2 other large caches, so I was able to find the challenge cache. Yay!!! 

I also finished working on the one I talked about last month called "MCW-10 mcwilli adds a Little Flair" which I needed to find a full month of Non-Traditional caches. At the beginning of May, I needed to find six caches on different dates, and the last date I needed a Non-Traditional cache was May 27th. The second last cache I went and got to help complete this was a puzzle cache called "Life is a Highway" and the puzzle was to figure out the highway that runs thru 7 different city's or towns. Because of the amount of traveling to do shows I have done, I only had to google one. I knew the others immediately, as I had either done shows there or had passed by several times, so I was able to make short work of the puzzle. 

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!!!

2021 Souvenir's 

So far in 2021 I have received 11 souvenir's. Since we are only into the 5th month of the year that just seems like a lot as in 2020 I only got 16 of them. Plus groundspeak is giving, in my opinion way too much time to earn them. One of the 2 souvenir's that I received a few Sundays ago was for "Blue Switch Day" which I talked about in last months "Blog" 

That one is a yearly souvenir, and usually you only have a day or 2 to earn it, as it's usually as simple as go find one cache and you will earn it. This year they are giving you from May 2nd(The day GPS was given to the public) until the end of the year. That's SEVEN months to claim one virtual souvenir.  Whaaaaat??? Seven months to get ONE cache???? I mean YES we are in the middle of a pandemic and people are being asked to stay home, but 7 months is way to easy to earn something like that.

I have been playing the game like it should be played by going for the virtual gift quickly and in a timely manner. Anyway, just thought I would share my thoughts on that with you. Let me know what you think in the comments. lol

AbbyPD Caches

Last year the Abbotsford Police department placed out several caches and there was prizes for finding them. This year they are doing the same. I had an unscheduled day off, so I took advantage of that and headed out there. I grabbed all six and headed to the Police dept. for my prize!!

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 to view better!!!

FVCB4 Wrap Up

So on Sunday June 6th was the wrap up event for the Fraser Valley Cache Bash. It was online as in person events are still not allowed. My puzzle cache "Unexplainable Magic Clock" won an award for best Puzzle!! How cool is that!!

Was out in Walnut Grove area for a show, and grabbed a cool cache with lots of Faves. Not going to say the name of it, so as not to spoil it. But it was just a film tube taped to the end of a stick (see pic)

The stick was leaning against a tree, no big deal!!

Oh did I mention the stick was 16 feet long. See picture below.

Gold Country Caching

So, I have been talking about this for the past several blog's and several months, but, we finally have a date to head to the Gold Country!!! YAY!!! We will be heading out on June 24th until the 26th. The plan started several months ago with a list of about 95 caches, but we had to postpone our trip as the weather became bad, and we would not have been able to get as far as we wanted to.

Then our trip list of caches grew to about 130 caches as we planned a different date in May. Then BC was hit with some travel restrictions, so it was postponed again. Arrrrgggg!! Now I have at least 150 caches in the lists(I have broken up the list into several smaller lists so they go on the map better)

Fingers crossed, that the trip does not get cancelled again!! How many caches will we get???

I will write more about this in my next 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