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

Caching in the States

Bike trip postponed

We have been planning a bike trip in Myra Canyon just east of Kelowna for over two months now, and as we got to a few days before the trip, we noticed the weather wasn't being very nice. Lots of rain, and even talk about flooding in the Kelowna area. We ended up postponing the bike trip, and decided to do something different. We will plan to go in July we hope. 

Bellingham caching

So since we didn't get to go to Myra Canyon, we had a plan to cache locally but then we decided to shift to plan "C" and go to Bellingham and spend the night and do some caching.

We left Saturday morning and headed thru Ferndale area

We got a cool Letterbox cache called "I Love Henry" where you had to go

look at this cool mural which covered the whole back wall of this business. It was a cool scenery of animals doing various things. 

The whole back of this building was one big Mural

We also went to grab a Webcam Cache for Susan as I have already been there before and logged it years ago. 

Its at the University in Bellingham

Here you can see us using the webcam pics

And again at the fountain.

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 Trip to the States

Seems we have been caching more in the States, than home in BC. lol

We went thru the Ferndale area and then made our way back towards Blaine along the water and thru Birch Bay State Park.

A cool display on a fence near the ocean.

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!!!

We had to reflect on this cache location as to where it was. But don't worry, we found it!!

Also grabbed a couple of FTF's this month, but not much caching otherwise.

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65

Adventure Labs and Uncommon Cache types

 My Newest Adventure Lab

As I said in last month's blog, I was gonna build an Adventure Lab in the Las Vegas Dessert!! I have been there enough times and have enough pictures and info, that I was able to set it up without having to go there to build it. It is now live and I am looking forward to the reviews, and doing a test run when we go there in June. If you are in the Vegas area, go check it out!!

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!!!

This picture shows the most Uncommon and Rare types of caches.

Some of these above Icons are not available anymore. Webcam caches are no longer allowed to be made, but the ones that are out there are still active.

Virtuals are still being made from time to time as Groundspeak gives them to cachers to place on a limited amount. (I am hoping to receive one someday)

Locationless caches come up once and awhile when Groundspeak publishes them.

(Groundspeak is the Geocaching head company, who runs Geocaching.com and all the rules for caching)

 GPS Mazes comes around once and awhile still, but usually only at Mega or Giga Events.

A.P.E. Caches where hidden back in 2001, and only 2 of the 14 are still active to this day. (1 in the Snoqualmie pass, WASH., and 1 in Brazil)

 -I have found all of these types of caches:

 -I have been to the APE cache called "Mission 9: Tunnel of Light" in Snoqualmie pass 2 times for the original and also visited there when they had the replacement tribute cache, when the Cache got stolen.

(the original cache was found years later and replaced back in its original spot)  I have been there during the "Going Ape" events. Will probably go again this year. (To get to it, you have to walk thru a 3.625Km long tunnel)

-I did a GPS adventure maze 3 times, although, 1 of them I was not able to log as the date had past for the event. Of the 2 I was able to log, one was in Edmonton at the Space sciences building, and once just recently at the Geowoodstock XVIII Mega event.

-I have done 5 webcam caches. (2 in BC, and 3 in Washington)

-Got 3 locationless caches, and 160 virtual caches.

I hunt after these type of caches (Virtual and Webcam) whenever I travel somewhere.

I am interested in seeing who has also found all of these Rare Icons. Please feel free to comment on here, would like to know who also goes for these rare and uncommon cache icons.

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!!!

Bike trip to Kettle Valley Rail trail and Myra Canyon

As I noted in last months blog, I have been planning a bike trip to Myra Canyon just East of Kelowna, for Susan and I. As of right now I have 37 caches on the Trail that we will go to. (I have already found 3 of them)
The section we will do is about 30-40km round trip depending on how far we decide to go. We will cache along the way, but then on the return trip there will be no caches to get unless we miss some.

First to Find

Was able to grab a couple of FTF's this month. 

One of them was a Puzzle cache where you had to complete 2 Jigsaw puzzles to get the Coordinates. The cache was up in a tree, so an extendable pole was needed to retrieve it. Can you see it? How about in the next pic?? 

I have a 16 foot extendable pole, which made easy work of it.

Once I had it hooked, I brought it down and was FTF!!!

San Juan Island Trip

I booked a corporate show in Roche Harbor, Wash. on San Juan Island, so I planned out some cool caches for my trip.
I went down and spent the night in Oak Harbor. I have cached there a couple times in the past, but still lots of others to get. I started caching in Burlington where I got a Geochallenge cache, a Multi, a traditional, as well as several puzzle caches, and an Adventure Lab. 

I then made my way to Oak Harbor and grabbed some cool caches. 

One of the caches I grabbed was inside the local Library. Susan and I tried to get this one back in July when we did a weekend trip down to the bottom of  Whidbey Island, but the clue was missing at the first stage. It was replaced so I was able to make the grab before the library closed.

The cache was inside a book. I then headed out for some more caching.

I grabbed a couple of cool caches near the water, one was near a cool Flintstone car. 

I went for a quick ride and made the find!! 

I then started searching for a cache called "Adrift". It was down on the beach and I was having trouble locating it, until someone from a nearby apartment building yelled and asked if I was a geocacher. She gave me a hint and then the cache was in hand. 

I grabbed 2 stages of an Adventure Lab that Susan and I started when we were here, so I could get the bonus cache. I also grabbed a total of 8 Traditional caches and 2 Multi caches before heading back to my hotel for the night. The next morning I was up at 4:30am to head to the Anacortes Ferry to get over to the island for some caching before my show. At the Terminal I was able to do an Earthcache. Always nice to have a cache handy when you happen to be somewhere that you have to wait.

Friday Harbor

After the hour and 20 minute ferry ride, I arrived in a cute little historic town called Friday Harbor. 

 

When I arrived I did 3 Virtual caches all in the same little park, and also started one of the 2 Adventure labs that I would eventually complete. 

There was a cache at the end of the pier that was under a bench but it was a regular size not a micro. I then cruised thru the town completing the AL's and grabbing several caches, before heading across the Island to my final destination for the night.

This Little Piggy was made of Bricks...wait, that's not how the story goes, I thought his house was made of bricks??

On the way to Roche Harbor I got a Letter box cache that was a TB hotel. Can you see the cache in the next picture?

How about now?

English Camp

Stopped on the way at "English Camp" to do a Adventure Lab. This is where in 1859 the killing of a pig on San Juan Island brought England and the United States to the brink of War over the issue of territorial rights here. The "Blockhouse" that you see in the picture above here at Garrison Bay is built with the upper part of the structure turned 45 degrees on the lower half of the building. This was so the soldiers could be protected from all angles as they aimed their rifles out of the loopholes, including down. 

Roche Harbor

I am Here!!!I arrived in Roche Harbor, and was able to do 3 more caches and 4 stages of an Adventure Lab.

I then went and looked at some of the sculptures in "San Juan Island Sculpture Park" Some very cool sculptures within this park.

These were among my favorites.

A whale made from auto parts.

There is no town here in Roche Harbor, It is just the Marine resort.

I did my show on the Dock for a private group of boaters, of 120 people from all over. Even some fellow Canadians. How cool is that!!

The show was in the tent down on the dock. After my show I headed back to Friday Harbor to get the last ferry back to Anacortes, and headed home back to Canada!! All in all an awesome quick trip where I got to perform my comedy and magic for some great people, and I found 4 complete AL's plus 6 stages of 2 different AL's, 44 caches made up of 1 Earthcache, 4 virtuals, 1 Letterbox, 8 puzzle caches, 3 multi's, and 27 Traditional's.

I look forward to coming this way again on another caching adventure!!

 

Well that's it for this month!!

Keep on caching!!

Chris Yuill

Magicman65