Post date: 06-Apr-2009 02:19:49
Colin and I embarked on our fourth geocaching trek today. It was a 5 hour journey and was a great workout. We went by the pyramids and around the area where the River Queen boat is parked. It was plus 6 outside and fairly sunny. It was a good day except for the rude lady in the snowboard shop that wouldn’t let us use her bathroom. It was the only place in the whole ravine area that was open and had a bathroom, since the picnic area bathrooms in the ravine are never open anymore. We decided to hold it for a few hours instead.
We found 5 out of 7 caches. We suspect that one of the caches is no longer available (the one in McKernan park by the side of a wall. It’s in a really busy area right beside the main path). The other one we didn’t find was a micro that was likely hidden under some trees in a high traffic homeless area in the ravine.
In less than half an hour, we found our first cache. It was in a long cylinder jar covered in camo tape and was hidden under a log. We didn’t take anything, but we left an ivory necklace because the cahce was rather sparse. It contained a few pencils and a pencil topper and not much else.
The second cache we found was rated a 2 for terrain and we hiked up a fairly steep hill. My hiking boots slid through quite a bit of mud to get to this one. The hint was that it was hidden in a depression by quite a few trees. Colin and I both looked in the large area and my geosenses and intuition proved me right again. I stuck my blue fleecy covered arm down a long narrow hole in between a few trees. My mittened hands kept pulling up handfuls and handfuls of leaves (which smelled really springy in the melting temperatures). I kept thinking the leaves were a plastic bag and then my fingers looped around the handle of a plastic camo bag. I found the cache! This cache contained many dinky toy cars, but we didn’t take anything or leave anything. We signed the log book, stowed it away and headed downhill for the next cache.
The third cache we found was a tricky one that required a lot of searching. It was a micro and was hidden in the front yard of some condos. The hint was about a boat, so we thought that the film canister was hidden in the metal sailboat. However, other peoples’ comments indicated that the cache was not in the boat. After turning over many rocks in the rock garden, we found the cache hidden under a huge rock that had a crack in it. There was another rock that covered the space from the crack and sure enough the canister was in the hole. The log was really wet, so we signed a fresh piece of paper and added it to the canister.
Next, we hid our own cache under a bridge in the ravine that is across from the pyramids. Our cache is called “Troll Booth.” There are no other caches in Canada that have this name, but there is a cache in Florida with this name that was hidden a few days before ours. Colin also placed a geocoin inside this cache.
The fourth cache we found was called “Spring Cleaning” and was a large ammo can that was found by Colin under a log. We traded a knot tying game for little green army man. I took pictures of Colin unpacking this cache. It contained many cute toys, but we’ve yet to find a rubber duck. I keep my fingers crossed each time we go hoping that I will one day find a rubber duck that I don’t have. We left the mini table hockey travel bug in this cache. We’ve had it for two weeks and this is the first cache we’ve found that was big enough to fit the travel bug.
The fifth and last cache that we found was probably the easiest cache we’ve ever found. Colin found it and it was buried under a log a few feet from a paved trail However, it was the most difficult cache to actually open. The small lock n’ lock container was iced into the spring thaw and refreezing slushy snow. Colin and I had to kick at it for a long time and use our keys to try and dig it out. After about 10 minutes we got it out. We traded a fish and heart belt for a green Canada sticker. We’re going to bring the Canada sticker with us on our trip and we’ll trade it for other items around the world.
We ended the day with a few drinks and some rich Italian food at the Olive Garden.