Vegas Baby!!!

 Vegas Trip

Drove down to Bellingham, Washington with a Magician friend to spend the night before flying out to Las Vegas for a 4 day Magic Convention and several days extra to see some shows, cruise the strip, hang out on Fremont Street, and of course do some geocaching. Tried to get a cool Multi in Ferndale called "Stamp Panorama"

It brought us to the Ferndale Post Office. 

It had a bunch of large stamps painted by 45 local artists ranging from ages 11 to 80.

You had to find certain stamps to get the 

co-ords to the cache nearby. We found all the info but just couldn't find the cache. Oh well, still got to see this cool place. Sometimes that's good enough!!

We got into Bellingham, checked into the hotel and then went to grab some supper. Afterwards I grabbed a nearby cache.

Next Stop Vegas!!!

Had a nice short flight to Las Vegas from Bellingham, and then got an Uber to where we would stay for the next 9 days!! 

The Orleans Hotel and Casino is an awesome hotel with everything you need such as several restaurant's, food court, a convenience store, Liquor store, bars, 2 coffee shops, swimming pool, a 52 Lane bowling alley, 18 movie theatres, plus for the convention, there is the Main theatre where all the magic shows would be, and banquet rooms for all the lectures and special events. Once the convention starts there is no need to even leave the hotel.

The first night there, we went and saw Carrot Top the comedian. Very funny show and I would recommend it to anyone!! We also saw a few other shows while in town, such as Illuminate, Farrell Dillon, Tape Face, and Potted Potter. All great shows!!

MAGIC LIVE!!!

The convention was awesome as always and was 4 days filled with magic, fun, excitement and surprises. I can't even explain all of it to you as that would be a full blog in itself and this blog is more about caching!!!

The day after the convention, a bunch of us headed down to the strip for some sightseeing and shopping. 

I have gotten most of the caches on the strip, but was able to do an Adventure Lab while on the strip. Also while there, we visited the Siegfried and Roy statue. The other magicians I was with, had never seen this important statue before. I might not have ever seen it as well, but because of Geocaching taking me there, that's why I knew it was there.

There used to be a Virtual cache at this location, which I found while here for Magic Live in 2015. Sadly it was archived in 2017 as the CO closed their account. I am hoping some day I will receive one of the Virtual rewards, and I may place one at this location. Sadly both performers have passed away in the last couple of years.

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 7 in Vegas: Caching!!!

Rented a car, and spent the day caching and drove a total 205.2 KM to grab 17 caches and an Adventure Lab. It's not about quantity, but about Quality. The day started out by going to Seven Magic Mountains to see some very brightly colored rocks, and then heading to Red Rock Canyon, where the mountains and rocks looked like they were painted but they are all naturally colored. 

Seven Magic Mountains

The Seven Magic Mountains is an Art installation that opened in May 2016.

Renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’s colorful large-scale, public artwork Seven Magic Mountains is an exhibition located in the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring seven, 30 to 35-feet high dayglow totems comprised of painted, locally-sourced boulders.
Visible across the desert landscape along Interstate 15, Seven Magic Mountains offers a creative critique of the simulacra of destinations like Las Vegas. According to Rondinone, the location is physically and symbolically mid-way between the natural and the artificial: the natural is expressed by the mountain ranges, desert, and Jean Dry Lake backdrop, and the artificial is expressed by the highway and the constant flow of traffic between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

This was the second time I came here. Last time I got a virtual nearby, and since then someone placed a cache here called "Stonehenge in the Desert".

The cache is far enough away from the public, as this can be a fairly busy spot.

These awesome structures are very cool to see from a distance, but even cooler to see up close!!

Goodsprings, Nevada

Next stop on my list was a little town called

Goodsprings. It is an old mining town located 41 km south of Las Vegas. 

Goodsprings is the home of the Pioneer Saloon, considered to be one of the oldest saloons in Nevada (over 100 years old). The saloon features a bullet hole on the side of the building and a coroner's letter describing how it was created. The saloon is said by many to be haunted by the victim's ghost. This was the first stop in town, as it is part of a Virtual cache, and there is also a cache located inside the building that you have to ask the bartender for. 

 

Always cool, to learn some interesting history and grab a cache or two.

In this pic I am holding the Ammo can, that is normally behind the bar until it is asked for.

Pioneer Saloon

Lots of history in this little town!!

Red Rock Canyon

I headed back into Vegas and right back out west towards Red Rock Canyon.

The last time I was in Vegas in February of 2019, I went out to the Red Rock Canyon to do some caching, but that was the year it snowed in Vegas for the first time in 20 years. 

Check out these two photos, and my blog at: "2019 Vegas Trip"

The top pic was taken by me in 2019, and the other one I took while here this time. Not a lot of snow back then, but enough for them to close the scenic circular drive in the Canyon, and I was unable to do the caches in the loop at that time.

The Red Rock canyon is very picturesque and had many different earthcaches.

The pictures don't show the Vibrant colors of the hills and rocks, as good as they do when you are there. If you are ever in Vegas, I would recommend coming out to see these very cool mountains!!

Nice to see geocachers giving back!!

Virtual challenge cache

So a few years back when I was here in February of 2019, I got several challenge caches and one of the ones I wanted to get was a challenge cache to have had found 100 virtual caches. It was a simple Lamp post cache. I went to get the cache and sign it as I only had 3 more virtuals to find at the time, but did not want to enter the parking lot as there was something there and I decided to wait for another trip to Vegas. Check out the pic and let me know if you would have gone to get it. 

Today there was nothing in the parking lot, so I made the find. And because I have now found 137 Virtual caches, I can log it. Challenge complete!!

Of the 17 caches, I found 1 Virtual, 5 Earthcaches, 5 Puzzles, and 6 Traditional caches. Not a record of any sort, but some awesome caches, and a day well spent.

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!!!

Pathtags

I was running out of the first batch of Pathtags I had, so I ordered a couple hundred more pathtags awhile back, to be able to give them away at Geowoodstock, and they arrived while I was away 

 By the way make sure you log your will attend for "Geowoodstock XVIII" and the "Geowoodstock Registration Event", and I will see you there!! Come find me doing magic and ask me for a pathtag!! 

#geowoodstockxviii #geowoodstock2022 #pathtags

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Easter Long weekend caching

Geowoodstock XVIII

Where will you be on August 11th to the 13th??  All the cool cachers will be at Canada's First Geowoodstock!!!

Check out the website for details at: "Geowoodstock XVIII" and make sure you mark your "Will Attend" at "GC86VDF"

Also be on the lookout for these two very cool people!!  I will be hanging out at the Registration Event doing some close up magic on Friday, and will also be doing a stage show during the main event!!

Signal and his Favorite Magician!!

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!!!

TCHALS Planning trip (Easter Long Weekend)

We finally made the trip we had been planning, to gather some more info to get my 10 stage Adventure Lab (AL) up and running.

We headed 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. On the way home, we went back a slightly different way thru Salmon Arm and into Kamloops and back south towards Hope and Vancouver.

Day 1:

We started caching just past Merritt, where we got this cool Gadget cache, on Hamilton Hill road, where there is also several other very cool gadget caches, that we have got in the past.

We then headed down the road where we got a FTF!!! YAY for checking for those before heading out on the road!!!

We then continued up the 97C where we encountered snow....BRRRRRR

But 15 minutes later down the road, we made it to Kelowna where it was nice and warm. 

In Kelowna and area we got a couple of Challenge caches as well as a couple of cool gadget caches.

On the way to Revelstoke, we saw some Mountain Goats hanging out on the side of the highway. I scared them off into the woods, as they were very close to the road and vehicles coming out of the nearby tunnel could have hit them. 

 You usually don't see them down this low. They are normally higher up in the mountains.

We continued down the highway and grabbed a few other caches and an Earthcache on the way into Golden. 

We made it to Golden where we would spend the night, but we managed to grab several more caches and supper before we called it a day. I was also able to get some more info and pictures for my Adventure Lab, that I am building. 

We went for a walk on this cool bridge across the Kicking Horse river.

 

This is one of the locations on my Trans-Canada Highway Adventure Lab Series (TCHALS) as well as 4 other locations in Golden.

Day 2:

The next morning we headed up the highway towards the Alberta Border. I had 5 more spots to stop and get some info for my Adventure Lab that I had researched. One of the cool locations we stopped at to gather info also has an Earthcache there. It is a very cool Natural Bridge that was formed over time.

Natural Bridge

It was once a waterfall, and water found its way thru cracks in the rock. It gradually enlarged the cracks and cut a new channel. Today(Except at extreme high water) the river flows beneath the top of the former waterfall  leaving it suspended as a bridge. Over time the passage will deepen, and eventually the bridge will collapse, creating a gorge. 

The Next stop was just down the road at a small community called Field.

Field is an unincorporated community of approximately 169 people located in the Kicking Horse River valley of southeastern British Columbia, Canada, within the confines of Yoho National Park.

There is a large visitor centre there, with many exhibits inside. It was closed when we were there unfortunately. 

It is such a beautiful area, we even saw 3 Elk nearby. 

I am very surprised there are no caches in this area or town. Well at least now there is 1 stage of an Adventure Lab!!

 

This cool statue of a rider on a horse drinking from a stream will be the spot for one of my virtual lab spots. 

The Yoho National Park Visitor Centre is located on the Trans-Canada Highway in the community of Field, British Columbia. The visitor centre shares a building with the Friends of Yoho and Travel Alberta.

We then headed up the highway towards the Alberta Border, as I had 2 other spots to check out for my AL. 

One of the spots was the Spiral Tunnels:

The Big Hill on the Canadian Pacific Railway main line in British Columbia, Canada, was the most difficult piece of railway track on the Canadian Pacific Railway's route. It was situated in the rugged Canadian Rockies west of the Continental Divide of the Americas and Kicking Horse Pass. Even though the Big Hill was replaced by the Spiral Tunnels in 1909, the area has long been a challenge to the operation of trains and remains so to this day.

The essential problem was that the railway had to ascend 1,070 feet (330 m) along a distance of 10 miles (16 km) from Field at 4,267 feet (1,301 m) climbing to the top of the Continental Divide at 5,340 feet (1,630 m). The narrow valleys and high mountains limited the space where the railway could stretch out and limit the grade (hence the later decisions to bore extra mileage under the mountains and lower the grades).

This is a cool spot where you can watch the trains coming down the hill and going into the spiral tunnels.

The Locomotives actually pass under the train they are pulling.

There are two viewpoints where you can safely watch trains and learn more about the Spiral Tunnels and Kicking Horse Pass National Historic Site of Canada. On average, 25 to 30 trains pass through the Spiral Tunnels daily, though not on a regular schedule.

• From the viewpoint 7.4 km east of Field on the Trans-Canada Highway, you can see the Lower Spiral Tunnel in Mt. Ogden.
• The Upper Spiral Tunnel in Cathedral Mountain can be seen from the pull-off 2.3 km up the Yoho Valley Road.

The next spot on the AL was an Animal Overpass. These are becoming more frequent thru areas where animals are crossing the highway, as they are designed to keep the safety of people and the animals.

One of the spots we stopped for a cache called "Totally Tubular Frustration" we were just above the top of one of the Animal Overpasses.

As you can see these Overpasses are covered in natural greenery and stuff that the animals feel comfortable walking on.

We did a few caches on the way back from the border and we stopped in Sicamouse to do a Letterbox cache in a mall that ended inside the library, but after completing about half of it, we realized the library was closed. Doh!!

We headed back west and got to Kamloops for the night. We grabbed 1 Virtual cache and 3 puzzles that were online Jigsaw puzzles that we did some time back, before calling it a night.

Day3:

Got up the next morning and after breakfast, we went and grabbed a few more caches including a Multi that I needed for a challenge as well as a Challenge cache for another challenge that I have already completed. Lol.  Time to head back towards Vancouver, but we didn't take the highway, we stayed on a backroad that ran along side the highway and did 11 caches on the way to Merrit, thru Lac Le Jeune.

We found a cool Cryptex cache called "Cryptex at Lac Le Jeune". You first had to find a brass Survey Marker to get info for the code on the Cryptex.

The survey marker can also be found on "waymarking.com"

Further down the road we stopped at a cache, that I have stopped at several times in the past when driving thru here. It is a cache that is up on a ledge about 50 to 60 feet up off the road. I have contemplated doing this cache many times, but have not gone up, either because I was by myself and thought what if something happens to me on my way up or coming back down. Well, today was the day!!!

Here I am heading up to the cache.

 

Here is a picture of Susan down below waiting for me.

Me with the ammo can!! Yay, finally complete!!

A total of 1,745 Km's round trip over three days, I only got 42 caches, one of which was an FTF, 30 were Traditionals, 7 puzzles, 2 Multi's, 2 Earthcaches, and 1 Virtual. We also completed a 10 stage AL that was one of the Trans-Canada Highway Lab Series. Not very many caches in total but most were very cool and memorable, and I got all the info I needed to get my Adventure Lab ready to publish.

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!!!

BLUE Switch Day

It’s no secret that GPS is a huge part of our lives. When we find the fastest way to work, check the weather at our location, tag our location on social media, or order a ride share or dinner from an app, GPS is responsible for it all. We can even add finding a geocache to this list! This is all thanks to a change made to GPS in the year 2000

When GPS was first developed, it was only available for use by the U.S. military. Eventually GPS was opened up to civilians but with Selective Availability. This meant that although everyone had access, the accuracy was lowered for civilians. On May 2, 2000 the U.S. government “flipped the switch” so high-accuracy GPS was available to everyone. For reasons unknown, geocachers know this as Blue Switch Day. However, there really wasn’t a blue switch!

VEGAS BABY!!!

Headed to Vegas on May 13th and I've already been planning which caches to grab while there. Since I have been several times, I have found quite a few of the really good ones with lots of Fave points. Hoping maybe in the last 2 years since I have not been there, I might have some new ones to get!! But more of that next month!! 

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Lots of fun adventures!!

Burns Bog

Sansue and I went to Burns Bog to grab some caches and an Adventure Lab. I had been thru the bog and did the caches way back in 2015. There are a few new ones in there though, so was able to look for them. We DNF'd 2 caches that were very difficult and had a lot of other DNF's on them. Not because they were missing, but because they were a difficulty 3, and a difficulty 4 1/2. They were meant to be hard to find. We will be back...lol

This trip thru I was able to see the Sunken Tractor that was in there. Well only the part of it that was not under the bog. 

As you can see, the only part above the bog is the front forks and bucket. This was part of the AL. There are no caches on this part of the trail, and probably the reason I did not see it back in 2015 when I was caching here with fellow geocacher, CloseUpMatt.

 This is the tractor stuck in the Bog. It got stuck there a long time ago sometime in the 1970's. The tractor was stolen from the construction site of what is now Scottsdale Mall on Scott Road. The person who stole the tractor decided to have a test drive around the Delta Nature Reserve. Not surprisingly, the tractor was too heavy to be supported by bog soil, and sunk into a sinkhole. The operator probably escaped unharmed.

Years after the incident, another tractor was sent to the site in an attempt to pull out the half-sunken vehicle. Unfortunately, the suction was too great. Not only was the attempt unsuccessful, the rescue tractor got stuck too. It had to be pulled out of the mud by a helicopter.

The tractor sinks a bit more each year. Soon it will be submerged completely. The fuel in the vehicle has been leaking very slowly, and there is evidence of fuel leak even today. On a wet day, you might smell traces of gas. Sometimes, you can see bubbles and liquid fuel emerging onto the surface.

We did a bunch of other caches after we left the Bog, including a TB hotel by the Airport called "WhyVeeAre TB's", which is a play on words as the Airport code is "YVR". This one you also needed to figure out the combination for the lock. I had to message a couple of caching friends as we for some reason couldn't figure it out. But once we got the answer it made sense. 

"WhyVeeAre"

It was a good day to be out and we found a total of 15 caches and 2 DNF's. The next day we only found 4 caches.

Harrison Hot Springs

I went and spent 2 days at Harrison Hot Springs Resort, as I was performing there. Did several caches in Harrison and Agassiz, and 2 of them that were actually inside buildings. The first one was called "Visit Harrison Hot Springs"

It was inside the Sasquatch Museum.

Nice to grab several caches while the weather was nice.

I also headed out to Sasquatch Provincial park to grab a cache as I need to have enough for a challenge cache I am working on and planning to get on our Easter Weekend trip to Golden and the Alberta Border.

Found this cool cache inside the Agassiz Library.This was called "Dewey Remember How to Use this?" Had to do some quiet sleuthing to find this one. Plus a wee bit of help from the staff!!

Always fun to get cool caches like this!!

I grabbed one more on the way home after my 2 day stay at the Resort. It was raining but I have passed this one on the side of the road too many times. Today was the Day!!! People use this for fresh water, 

It is called "Scenic 7-Spring Water".

Weekend puzzles

Went and cleaned up a few Puzzle caches that I have completed, on the weekend with Sansue. This one was interesting as we found this (a car engine and transmission) in the middle of the woods just off the trail. 

Not sure, who would drag something like this as heavy as it is into the woods. But the cache was easy to find as you can see in the next picture.

Been doing a lot of Multi caches lately. Found a cool one called "The Wizarding World of Hume Park"

It had some cool statues made from branches in the park, that you had to find and gather info about to get the final Coordinates.

This is the Map you had to use to find the 3 wizarding creatures.

Alvis the Advising Axolin

Willa the Wishing Walabeast

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!!

Gerald the Gifting Griffon

Very cool to see these in the park!!

Group Caching

Went out with a group of 10 other cachers, to do some caches that you needed a long pole to grab them. I have a 16' extendable pole, so when Bobthegoalie contacted me and asked if I wanted to go with some others to grab several caches that were up in trees, I gladly said Yes.

Me hooking the cache

Group photo

Oliver making the grab

Oliver having a quick break

The cool thing besides getting some High terrain 5 caches, is that the Geochallenge of the month is to help someone caching, so this will qualify me for that!!

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!!!

TCHALS Planning trip

Finally making the trip to gather some more info to get my AL up and running.

The plan is to head 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. On the way home, we will head back a slightly different way thru Salmon Arm and into Kamloops and back south towards Hope and Vancouver. Of course lots of caching will happen as well. But more about in next month's blog!!! Until then stay safe, be kind, and enjoy life!!

Well that's it for this month,

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65