goinggone

Of Lakes, Tunnels and Bluffs

2009-09-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

While caching in the Okanagon, we kept coming across the Kettle Valley Railway or what is left of it, which is not much. At one time this railway ran from the Kettle Valley to Hope. It became famous for the obstacles it had to overcome before it was in place. Numerous tressles were built and ever so many tunnels were bored.

We have been in the tunnels near Hope, and we walked on a tressle near Okanagon Falls a few days ago. It was basically just a bridge, but maybe some of you are familiar with the spectacular tressles this area was famous for. Unfortunately, a number of those, all wooden, structures have been destroyed by fires so that few remain.

Little, if anything, remains of the rails. They have been taken out and today the railway beds have been turned into trails, much to the delight of those that like to bike, hike and/or cache.

What is true for the KVR is to a degree also the case with the Dewdney Trail. Dewdney was the engineer in charge of building a wagon road from Rock Creek to Hope to enable miners to ship their wares, often gold or other prescious metals, by wagon train through Canada instead of having to go down into the States. The road was to be 4 feet wide and had to find the easiest way through the hills and the mountains. We walked a bit of that trail near Manning Park and near Princeton. My, it is hardly wide enough for a trail, never mind a team of oxen pulling a cart...and never mind the men who had to pick-axe it out of the sides of mountain and hill. One wonders how many lives were lost while that went on.

The hills in this area are of a peculiar nature. I know little of rock formations or types of rock, but it is obvious that at one time volcanoes were active in this region. One can see the slabs of lava piled on top of each other as well as the different materials in that lava. Today I drove out to one such dormant volcano in the Marron Valley near Penticton. I was unable to get very close as it is on private land, but I was able to take a good picture. If I had not known it is a volcano I would probably have missed it. But thanks to caching our attention was drawn to it and we are happy with this bit of local knowledge.

Similar to this volcano is the McIntire Bluff, also an Earthcache. I will not go into specifics about it but if you want to know more about it you can do a google on it and it will tell you more than you want to know.

Another interesting Earthcache we were drawn to was Mahoney Lake, also way out there in them thar hills. When you drive along Highway 97, the major north-south artery through this area, you have no idea what lives and happens beyond the hills that you can see. When you follow some of the roads into them, you find for instance beautiful vineyards way up there, ranches, irrigated fields, and a whole lot of nature.

Mahoney Lake is unique in the world probably. Again, I will not go into great detail, partly because I do not understand it all. The lake's major feature is probably the 20 cm thick layer of purple sulphur bacteria that stays in place because the lake only partly circulates...whatever that means exactly.

We did not see much of the sulphur because it is at a depth of about 7 or 8 m. usually. But because the water is lower than usual, we could see a purple ring at the shore in places. It looks more brown than purple in the picture, but believe me, it is purple...even I could see that.

We love discovering interesting places like I have talked about in this blog. It makes one stand in awe of our God who created it all. I have more questions than answers in a lot of cases, but that does not take away that I am moved by what I am allowed to see and witness.

A Little Manning

2009-09-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

As I write this, it is Sunday, and we are in Penticton. I hope to spend some part of this day on writing a little about our experiences in the past week.

We left on Monday direction Manning Park.

Normally that is just a two hour drive, but we stopped a few times along the road once we were past Hope. I am sure you can all guess why.
One stop, of course, was the Hope Landslide where there is an Earth Cache as well as two others. We were kind of enveloped by low cloud so we did not have much of a view of the mountain that lost part of its face. But we both had seen that before.

I don't know how often we have driven through Manning Park seeing all the signs like Beaver Pond and others and thinking, 'We should really take the time to find out what this is all about.' But always we were trying to get places and didn't want to loose any time, or we were on the way home and wanted to get there as fast as possible.

Well, this time we stopped, setting up in Lightning Lake Provincial Campground, a nice park with good sites and all the amenities.

So we walked the trails and walked the trails. I read somewhere how many kilometers of trails there are in this park, but I forget the number. All I know is that it is quite amazing.

There aren't really all that many caches in the park, so it was not hard to 'clean up' in a day except the ones that required long, steep hikes which mom did not feel like doing.

One interesting(?) one we did is driving up to the Cascade Lookout.
You know of my fondness of heights and steep roads and heartstopping cliffsides and all that. But there was a cache up there...so did I really have a choice?
Now I am glad to say that my fears are not nearly as panicky as they used to be, but before you run up the stairs to proclaim that off the rooftops, know that I am still a whimpering baby compared to 'the one that has no fear'. In spite of that, I drove part of the way up. I believe that I believe that if I drive we are safer because I am in control. It does not matter that my hands are a sweaty mess, that my face is a stony mask, that my mouth twitches, that my eyes are at least a quarter inch more forward than normal, that the person beside me is praying even harder than I am, for safety and for me coming to my senses and hand over the wheel...as I said, it does not matter because I am in control and that makes us safe(r). When I give up control, I need to let go and trust and pray...and only the praying part is easy when the engine roars up the steep road hillside where the government ran out of money to put concrete barriers along the edge, when we are heading for a turn where you have two choices: make the turn safely or go down a couple thousand feet...

I did surrender the wheel, not because I almost fainted (because I didn't) but because I knew it was the sensible thing to do. So she whom I referred to as 'the one who knows no fear', took over and drove us safely to the parking area where the lookout and the cache shared location.
The cache was on the safe side of the area so I went to retrieve it while the 'gone' part of us went to the edge and took the necessary pictures to prove that we were actually there. My proof-ibution was signing the log.

Then we discovered that another 8 or 9 km up, waaay up, was another cache. Guess what: we did not do that one! It was not even a tie vote ... if it had been, one of us would have put himself in charge of guarding the parking lot while the other could go waaaay up (that is actually what the cache was called). Instead, we coursed down the mountain to level ground where level-headed people belong and thrive.

One other interesting thing we did was a night cache. The cache was not hard, they never are, and we started it while it was still quite light ('she who has no fear' does not like to be in the forest in the dark...) but dark enough for the flashlight to pick up the little reflectors. For a picture of that go to mom's picture blog (http://sandyssnapshots.blogspot.com/?zx=8495e7f76b6b366a) As we were walking the trail, we saw another couple approaching. As we were about to pass each other, exchanging the customary friendly 'hello's', she says, 'Look, they are...' Anyway, we had run into kindred spirits. The remarkable thing was that we had come accross them before a number of times during the day when we signed logs and saw their names. They were a couple from Holland! Anyway, together we finished the cache and then agreed to spend the rest of our evening at our campfire. Of course, that was 'gezellig'...it was sad that we were not kindred spirits spiritually...

My last picture is of the sign we did during our first year as Fastamps...it's still there and we went to say hi.

Are we hot or what?

2009-08-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Day two of our cachouting into the Fraser Canyon was a hot one...it beat the previous day by a full degree...39C... but it felt much hotter, probably because it was hot earlier and therefore we had to deal with it for a longer period of time. But we managed, I better than mom because I seem to deal with heat better. So some of the caches were attended by just me while she stayed in AC'd comfort.

Our day started cool: 24C...how pleasant! Really! Ideal weather to have breakfast on the deck of the motel instead of inside.

Our first cache was a visit to the one we could not find the night before. It proved to be something I had touched but not examined closely enough to recognize it as a cache. It was part of a Gold Country series, and several were identical...we did about 7 or 8 of them...our total for the day was 30...not bad eh?

We were very happy that we were led to the Thompson River a few times. It gave mom a chance to take off her shoes and find refreshment for her feet and face. I was foolish enough to do that too, but only once...I hate wet feet in sandals...

We visited Ashcroft, a city neither of us had ever been. It is off HWY 1 into the hills. It is the town where most of the Fraser Valley ships its garbage...fortunately we saw or smelled no evidence of that. It is a pleasant little town, prosperous too by the looks of it, possibly because of the large (Bethlehem) copper mine nearby, and perhaps a bit because of our garbage...

For one cache we had to walk up a hill that had a flourishing population of cacti(usses...take your pick). It was a different feeling to discover how easily these little creatures change hosts...

At one of the caches we found the log before we saw the cache - in the hand of a fellow cacher who was busily signing it...they were from Prince George. It is always neat to meet a fellow cacher.

As we traveled south we continued to do the Gold Country series which brought us to a number of interesting old churches...for some reason all Anglican...with names like St. Alban's the Martyr, St. Aidan's of Pokeist, Church of St. Mary and St. Paul (I guess if one saint is good two must be better...). I admit shamefully that I have not done my research on how those names came to be so I had better not make fun of a name...sorry St. Mary and St. Paul...:(

During the two days we did a number of BC Spirit Quest caches. They are there to draw attention to old cemeteries and the pioneers that were buried there. Although the actual cache is never in the cemetery proper (unlike in the States where every, and I mean every cemetery has a cache on the grounds) but usually we go to have a look at some of the old tombstones anyway. Often they are hard to read because of their age, and neglect, but it is still interesting. This day we did not do any of that...too hot...get back to the car...cool off...

A very interesting experience was a trip on the Lytton Reaction Ferry which took us across the Fraser River. It is a vessel without an engine. It is attached to a cable strung across the river by four cables. The current moves the vessel, and I guess the operation of the cables brings it to the other side. Being on it, and sitting on a bench positioned on a grate (here we go again! but this time the openings were rather small! and we were only one foot above the water so no need to fear heights here except for perhaps the lack of same) we got a very good feeling for the speed and force of the current. Very good feeling! Very good speed! Very good current! Both ways! But not scary...

Did I mention that it was hot...we have the proof right here...The picture is not too clear...it says "Canada's Hot Spot - Lytton BC"...It does not mention a temperature. That way it stays current...?

I think that wave means, 'Bye for now'.

Oh, Alexandra...

2009-08-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

This week we had a chance to break out of it for a couple of days. Gerry and Alice VandeBurgt had offered to be here to feed the dogs and attend to whatever might need attention.
A couple of weeks ago we had dreams of going to Oregon for two weeks but that never happened...not a good time, too many things to do...

Seeing that G. & A. were planning to come here anyway so Gerry could do some carpentry stuff, we asked them to stay for a couple of nights.

On Wednesday we took off for the Fraser Canyon. A lot of new caches had been placed there so it looked like we could easily spend two or three days there.

The Fraser Canyon never stops to fill me with awe and wonder for all its beauty...not necessarily 'nice' beauty but often brute forces, unstoppable currents, mountains shaken by the hand of God and dropped down again so that all the seams run any which way...

It is hard to catch depth in pictures...this lady, below, is a few feet away from a 100 meter drop into the river...it makes me uneasy in my stomach just to look at the picture...but she has no fear...

On our way along the river near Yale, we came across this interesting structure...

We have had a lot of very large and destructive forest fires this summer but fortunately that did not affect this area. We did see smoke, probably from the fires that are still burning near Lilloet.

A pretty picture of a sand castle?

One spot that always intrigued me as we drove through the canyon was the reference to the Alexandra bridge, the first bridge across the Fraser in that area to accommodate the Cariboo Wagon Road which was built during and after the gold rush(es). I had seen glimpses of the bridge but never been close to it. This time we had no choice for there was a cache across the bridge so down the very good trail we went, across the railroad, of course, because they are just everywhere, and suddenly, there was the bridge. Not a ramshackle, ready to drop-into-the-river structure of rotting wood but a solid steel bridge with a solid deck.

But alas...the deck is of the kind that is in my bad books...it is a metal grate so that when you walk on it you are at all times aware of how high you are above the rushing current...no escaping that...
Look ahead and up as you go, you say? Don't work, I am afraid...my eyes are inexorably drawn to where I need to walk, and the spot I am about to set my foot is on see-through grate...step after step after step...

I have to give myself credit that I ventured out out onto the bridge...just like the little doggie that just could not stay behind but had to follow its owners...but its poor feet were too small for the sizeable openings of the grate so it had to place its feet on the edges...you get the picture...it made it back safely...and so did I after turning around after about 30 or 40 feet. It just was no go...

It helped to know that I did not really have to make it to the other side because I was not there just by myself but accompanied by my faithful caching partner who is either going or gone depending on the situation. This time she had no problem being the going one so there she went.

It is unfortunate that we did not take any pictures there, choosing instead to do a bit of a running commetary on the video camera. However, since I do not know whether you can attach that to a blog or how to get you to look at it in one way or another, you may never see it...too bad because I found myself to be quite capable of keeping the chatter going, much better than my feet a little earlier. Instead of the bridge, here is the Alexandra Lodge along the TC...

Mrs. Going made it safely to the other side which put her out of view because the bridge has a bit of a hump like most of their ilk...so now it was waiting and watching other people cross the bridge. Quite a variety of nationalities...I heard French, German, Dutch and what not all...

I was mightily comforted in my soul when one member of a party decided that he was not the graty type either. I endeavoured to draw him into a conversation about being kindred spirits and all that, but he declined because he did not understand me. Briefly I entertained the idea of conveying my thoughts to him by means of mime but it was beyond me...well, if you think it is so easy you try it...

Make the graty shapes with your two hands...yes you need two hands, that's how big the holes were...than try to step on your hands and walk at the same time...and while doing that show well camouflaged fear...note that little touch...show something that is camouflaged? try it sometimes...all the while being in extreme agony, of course, because my hands are not made to walk on...So, in spite of the fact that I had it all figured out, I had to give it a pass. I let him go to pick blackberries...

In the meantime, time was a-moving right along. The estimated time of return by Mrs. G. passed and passed some more...quite some more actually...it became somewhat uncomfortable to be honest...I knew she had to go downslope toward the river somewhat and I was beginning to worry whether she had slipped and hurt herself or what...mind you, I was not too greatly worried...there were enough people at the other side to be there to help her should she need it, saving me from having to cross after all...

All is well that ends well...she did return, rejoicing at having found the cache at the fourth maple she visited...maple was the hint, you see...
However, when she had arrived safely on the safe side, the exertion combined with the heat got to her (I have not had time so far to mention the heat...38C!)...she became very uncomfortable, red, and nauseous...perhaps a light case of heat stroke...
It did not last too long, and our way back up to the car was mostly in the shade (shadow for those who get the wink...:)) so by the time we got to the jeep she was okay again.

At one of our caches we were forced to search for gold...mom's necklace broke spilling the two pendants into the gravel...fortunately, her sharp eyes quickly located them among the rocks...

We had booked a room in Cache Creek because we could not really find anything that appealed to us in the closer-by towns so when we had enough of caching for a day (we had done 26 by then) we drove an hour to get to CC...

Wave to the old Indian if you wish...

We went for dinner to a small restaurant and found that their AC had broken down...why we did not turn around and go somewhere else we will never know so I cannot tell you...but we made it through our meal and went back to our AC'd room...

Seeing that it was not yet totally dark we went out again to do one last cache but we failed to find it...which was a good motivation for doing more caching the next day...so see you then.

On the Road Again...

2009-08-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

We have had very little time to do any caching since we moved to Deroche. Just two days is all we managed, once a whole day with another couple, and once part of a day when there were all of a sudden five new caches in our immediate area. Of course, that meant 'Boots On' to go after the FTF's, and small miracle, we got them all. Talking about people wanting us back into caching to go to all the trouble of placing these caches just for us! It isn't that only we went after them, but we were just too close to give anyone else a chance.

These past four weeks were very busy with Stepping Stones going on. Perhaps I will write about that in a new blog I have wanted to start for quite some time but so far never got around to. But now those four hectic weeks are behind us, and we have a chance to catch our breath, we want to get back into caching to a degree.

Yesterday saw us make that desire the first reality. We went into Mission, but mostly into Abbotsford where enough new caches had been placed since we moved that they easily kept us busy for a day. We did not really have any spectacular things happen to warrant a special post to this blog, but I figured that if I do not start writing again it will not happen...how is that for logic...must be all the sunshine we have been having...sunshine and some extreme heat!

So beside the fact that we did 17 caches, four of them multis which always take more time, there is not really anything to report. So I will insert some pictures to liven this one up a bit, and that will have to be it for this time.

One cache was just a monster as far as weight was concerned, but it had a cache in it so it had to be lifted to get at the bottom...

But then some people just laugh at the pull of gravity...

Caching always brings you to interesting, historical places...

A mother and her children beside Stoney Creek in Bateman park...

And with this one we wave you goodbye for now...

PROOF

2009-03-05T22:22:00.000-08:00

Just in case anyone had even the slightest temptation to think that I was making up what I wrote in the previous post, here is the proof...

Picture taken off the computer screen by no other than our prize winning photographer!

So there!

First Place Twice Over

2009-03-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

Tonight the BC Geocaching Association published the results of the photo contest they have been running for the last couple of months.

It won't surprise you to hear that Mom shot about two million pictures of which she submitted about ten.

Voting was to be done by members of the BCGA; each account had only one vote, not like in the NHL where...

Erica and Alice did the voting for us, and I think they voted for one of Mom's pictures. Talk about overdoing the 'we're not biased!'. (How's that for punctuation, Thelma?)

Tonight the results were published...I said that already. Want to know the result?

She won first place in two categories, to wit Urban and Wild Life.

The pictures speak for themselves.

She is rather beside herself with this result, and justifiably so! I have already congratulated her quite abundantly. Why don't you join me?!

BOOTS ON!!!

2009-03-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

We woke up on Thursday with even more snow on the ground than what we had come home to the day before. Any plans of going caching went out of the proverbial window.

But wait, oh my...BOOTS ON!!!

BOOTS ON!!! in our house is the equivalent of the 'Whoopee!!!' cry of our first nations in times gone, of 'Action Stations' over the intercom on a warship, and of 'Supper is served' in many homes...
That is not to say that any of these can come close to the urgency in the voice that cries BOOTS ON!!! But then...oh well...

Our computer screens were full of evidence that mountainman had been a busy man indeed. But that was a few hours earlier and we had slept right through it. Six new caches had come out in our immediate area. Hopes of getting to any of them first were slim, looking at the time that had already elapsed since they came out.
However, Erica had been hoping so much for being part of an FTF adventure that we climbed in our boots and hit the snowy road, the Jeep purring contentedly as we went.

Arriving at the first one, we saw to our surprise no tracks in the snow near where we thought the cache had to be. We found the cache. Our first FTF of the day, PelikanKru's first FTF ever! Happy days are here again!

On to the next one, but that one never made it into the Garmin so we skipped it...

Arriving at the next closest one we were again surprised to see virgin snow in the area of the cache. Second FTF of the day. Snow is good!

Just when we were ready to put the cache back, someone pulled up into the parking spot next to it. Wait. Wait some more. She is in no hurry to come out of her car. Let's walk around with note books in hand as if we are inspecting. Never a look came our way. But look, she is getting busy with...it's on the floor apparently...sneak...got...cache... back... in place... and she never even looked up once. Floor is good!

Expedition continued! Arriving...oh unmarred snow...the stuff poetry is written about...another FTF...PelikanKru rules! Rules is good!

Home, picking up coords for number four. But first breakfast. Breakfast is good! So what if we don't get any more...three in a day in which we did not expect to find any....Three is good!

Up to number four. Alice is now with us too. You never know. Nobody has logged it yet. No virgin snow this time...such grief...but a virgin logbook nevertheless...o joy! Joy is good!

Four was the record of FTF's for goinggone in one day. Was it breakable?

'Guys, there is one in Mission too. Feel like going?'

'How long will that take?'

'O, 15 there, 15 back...o, about half an hour I'd say.'

'Okay.'

I'd kind of forgotten the landscape at the end of Wren ...steep down, steep up...don't really notice it so much on a summer day...but now...steep, snow, slippery... Do we or don't we? We had already been in a bit of a skid earlier that day...even a Jeep and 4x4 is no match for straight ice going down hill...

Alice went to reconnoitre the steepness and slipperyness of the situation. We got the go-ahead. Made it to the bottom of the hill without problems. Uphill was no headache either.

Arriving at the park we found the gate closed and the closest we could get to the cache was over 300m. Girls wearing just runners. Eight inches of unplowed snow. Unplowed is no good!

'Let's do it. We made it this far, a little more can't hurt.'

Nobody mentions the 'half hour or so' it would take to do this one.

Trudging through virgin snow over our ankles direction cache.

We make it. Find the cache quite quickly. Joy abounds. Another FTF! FTS's are joy!

Eventually we get home again. Nobody is unhappy with the day we have been given. The sunshine and the snow makes the mountains look incredible.

God rules!

It's All About the Numbers! NOT!

2009-03-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday of last week we went to Bellingham. The weather promised to be rainy but it actually was not too bad until the middle of the afternoon.

We had never really done any caching in Bellingham so it was new to us all. We spent a good deal of time in the Bellis Fair area and a little to the south of it. There were enough caches there to keep us busy. It being a shopping area with mall upon mall we ran into a goodly number of lamppost caches which count for as much as any other cache but which become a little boring and predictable after a while.

By now Erica had her official log book stamp: PelikanKru with a neat little pelican on it, courtesy of Fastamps (design courtesy of Mom!). Both girls had become total experts at all the administrative aspects of caching, operating both the GPS and the Palm as if they were born to it. And both proved to have developed finely honed geosenses so that I was pretty well reduced to driving from cache to cache. Only when they ran stuck did I have to come to the rescue which I did a couple of times quite impressively, even if I say so myself!

The hand that you see pictured in one of yesterday's posts was in a cache called Farm Hand. It was probably a left-over from the 'weird' types of caches the two organizers of last year's Lynden Hallowe'en event had bought and found no place to use it. On this day we found another: Don't Bite the Hand etc.... Maybe the next time we'll find one that is called: Don't Feed the Hand that Bites You...

Around mid-afternoon mom called to acquaint us with the happy tiding that it was snowing in Abbotsford and that it was sticking and might we be thinking of coming home before it got too bad. We decided that we might indeed.

On our way back to the north country Erica picked up a few more caches that we (goinggone) had already found earlier. They helped her to beat her previous personal number of caches in one day, set the previous day. Her new record is now 20! Some people are just naturally good at this thing called caching!

Talking about numbers, also on this day she got her 50th cache! Not an impressive number perhaps, but you have to reach this number before you can go on to bigger things. So it is an event worthy of being noted; so here it is: duly noted that PelikanKru found a total of 50 caches and counting! Congratulations PelikanKru! Now on to bigger things in Winnipeg where spring is around one of the corners, somewhere...

Let it be noted too that cachers love to remind themselves and each other that this 'sport' is not about the numbers but about the fun in its many varieties, many of which I have pointed out before in this series of blogs. The fact that you see behind each cacher's name the number of finds he/she/they have everytime you see one of their logs must be sheer coincidence! Because...it is not about the numbers! And therefore I should really resist the temptation to share with you all that on this day I reached 1400! But then, whenever a person says 'should' it is usually too late, as it is in this case.

Therefore, before I throw out any more numbers, I had better quit. Done. Easy.

O, we came home to a LOT of snow! Jeep weather!

FERNDALE

2009-02-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

By Monday night Mom had caught a bit of a cold which by Tuesday morning had developed into a whopper. "No caching for you today, my dear!" Too bad for we had started the week off so well with the four of us.
There was little sense in staying home as she would probably spend most of her time in bed, so we left somewhat reluctantly but not with burning feelings of guilt.

We had decided to go to Ferndale in Washington State, territory I had not been to before so I could enjoy the finding of new caches as much as the girls.
The fine citizens of this town will probably howl at my statement that there is not much that struck us a special so I have no pictures of fine buildings or other interesting things, but so be it...I said it.

The weather forecast had not been great but the day turned out quite nice: windy but sunny so we were fine.

The caching went well. We did not come across any that were beyond us. The girls proved themselves born 'finders' so we did not have any DNF's that day. Well, maybe, but we are sure that the cache we could not find is a victim of the floods they had in January. One sees evidence of that everywhere, and a number of caches have been lost to a watery grave and are only now being replaced. We came across some totally clean log sheets but were not ever tempted to claim an FTF.

Erica had a personal best of 14 finds that day.

She also started a bit of photo shoot of caches to show to her family and friends back home. Enjoy the evidence...

SERPENTINE

2009-02-28T20:29:00.000-08:00

I am planning to write a few short blogs this time instead of trying to pack everything into one long one as I have been wont to do. Somebody referred to it as 'schmozzle' in her blog...

On Monday, the four of us (remember, we had Alice and Erica with us...) went to the Serpentine Fen Bird Sanctuary, a place we had not been to before.

The weather did not quite know what it wanted to be like when we left, but as the day went on it turned out not too bad until later in the afternoon when it started to rain.

The place is a sort of wetlands with a dike running through it and along the Serpentine River. It has 6 caches in it so we thought it might make for a nice day. And so it did. We had some difficulty with one of them but then were joined by a fellow cacher, Fryertuck, who helped us but to no avail. Later on in the day we ran into him again, and by that time he knew where to look, having run into yet another cacher. So you see that the network was really working that day.

But before we finished this one, we had to return to the car to eat. Some people really need their food at set times to avoid headaches and such while others just go and go...like in goinggone maybe?

This also meant that we had to return to where we had been before. In the meantime it had started raining so two of us opted for staying in the car while the dedicated ones among us, to wit Erica and I, dressed up for the weather and went to claim the cache. Erica, of course, had no choice, for she had to sign the log. I had a choice, but I choiced not to pull age...

After returning to the Jeep we decided to call it a day and headed home.

Geocaching 101

2009-02-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

A week ago we had the Abbotsford Geocaching 101 event, organized by us and some other local cachers in our club house. This event, under the auspices of the BC Geocaching Assn. is done yearly in several places throughout BC. Its purpose is to give new cachers a chance to meet with experienced cachers, to learn a few of the basic tools and tricks involved, get a taste of caching, and so on. The veteran cachers use these events as a meet and greet where existing ties get renewed and new ones started. And this event can be logged as a 'Found" so you even get a smiley for it.

We were pleasantly surprised by the turn-out. We probably had a crowd of some 60 people with a nice mix of 'old' and 'new'.

We had planted a couple of new caches in the park behind us so we went out in bunches of new and old to find them. As they say, a lot of fun was had by all.
This event was attended also by Erica (PelikanKru) from Winnipeg who had arrived the previous day to help us celebrate my birthday. Somehow she managed to stay out of all the pictures we took.

On this day her sister Alice also arrived from Hamilton with the same idea in mind. She too showed up briefly. Alice is very much in love with caching since we introduced her and her family to it last summer, but they have not yet made the full commitment and spend the $400 and get a GPS...

And just so you won't forget whose birthday it was, here is the proof in the pie...

Happy Birthday!

2009-02-20T11:38:00.000-08:00

Can a person wish himself a happy birthday? Too late! I just did.

It is turning out to be a great day even though I did not sleep so well last night. I am sure you are all thinking that it was a case of 'one more sleep and it is my birthday'.

Well, that was not what this one was about. The real reason is not hard to guess for those who follow this blog. Of course, it was caching related.

Last night we were quietly watching Peter Mansbridge doing his National thing, including his interview with Harper and the always fascinating At Issue Panel. I don't think very highly of the CBC, or any TV station for that matter, but Peter is a class by himself, imho.

During a break I do what one is supposed to do: amble over to the WR. On my way back to PM I take a quick peek at the computer screen and exclaim...well, you can guess what I exclaimed...yes, that's right: 'O shoot!' Five new caches showing.

'Put your boots on, dear.'

Nary a protest nor the question 'Why'. Just body rushing through air...

Two minutes later (well, sorry okay, but we had to read the cache pages, download to GPS and Palm; put boots on, clothes too, so don't call us slow pokes, please) we are on our way and trying out the Turbo feature on our Jeep...it worked well!

Three minutes later we park. Fifty seconds later we have the cache in hand. Two minutes later we are back in the car, on our way to the next one, less than a km away.

Arriving, we see something like the grown-up version of the burning bush...a pine tree with light moving around inside it. Of course, that light belongs to no other than our fellow crazy night FTF hunter (last week he did one at 2am) TESKELLY.

'That you, Kelly?'
'Of course!'. (tone indicates: 'stupid question'...)
'You found it?'
'Course!' (tone unchanged...)
'We found the other one.'
'Okay. This is my second one.'
'Okay. Good for you. We won't bother then.'
'You guys want to sign this one?'
'No, we need to keep a few available for a day we can't go too far afield. We're off. Good night'.

So off we are, much more sedately through the quiet winter night.

'There were two other caches...'
'Yes, but they were tree climbing caches. Not tonight, or maybe not ever...'
'Oh. You turned chicken?'
'No, of course not, but it is nearly midnight!'
'It is midnight every night some time... Okay, lets go home and have another look at them.'

At home sanity returns to the mind that was temporarily lacking same.

Instead I send a email to another cacher and invite him to join me tomorrow at first light. No response. He is probably on the road trying for FTF's.

I go to bed. Wake up at three, a normal occurence, nothing to do with caching either...

There is a response email. A message from a very frustrated cacher who had missed all the action the previous night, very unusual for him.
I email back saying that I will be available for calls anytime after six. Go back to bed, set the alarm. Wake up at 4:30. Not an uncommon...well, you knew that already. Check email. Nothing. Of course not!

Go back to bed. Actually sleep a bit. Wake up at 5:50. Neutralize the alarm so the other half of goinggone will not wake up.

Shower. Coffee. Dial number of Les. Let it ring once. If he is awake he will hear it but hopefully it will not wake up his family. No response. Of course not!

Ten minutes later try again. Bingo!

'Meet you in Clayburn Village at 7.'

We get to the area. We cannot locate the cache. It is white so there is a chance we might but we don't. So we pick the most likely tree and up goes Les...way up until he spots it. I guess that means I have to say 'Bingo' again now I have started this thread.

He comes down safely. Off to number two. We park in a sleepy street and head for the trail, ladder under arm...Nobody phoned the police as far as we know.

At the tree we spot the cache. Same procedure repeats itself.

I am back home a little after 8 where a very surprised and still sleepy caching partner greets me, totally surprised that she never noticed anything until she woke up a few minutes ago, but not in the least feeling guilty...
But I have to give this to her: she was more interested in my adventures for the first few minutes than in the fact that she was looking at a birthday person who had just spent the 'one more sleep and it's my birthday' night rather sleeplessly...

But then she made up for that momentary lapse in the priority thing-ah-muh-jiggy...

Party Time?

2009-02-15T20:53:00.001-08:00

Just a quick little update on the fact that sometimes we find more than just caches.
Mom especially is very good at finding 'caches' left by dogs which gets her very upset every time but we always find some water to clean her boots. This week it was the ocean that served as the supply depot. I have no picture of this...good thing, right?

Also this week, while caching in White Rock, I found a cache of a different type. The picture tells it all.

I guess some young people were having a bit of a party in this park when they suddenly had to get rid of their booze. My assumption is that the night following it snowed and they never came back for their booty or couldn't find it back. To top this all off, the next day I found some more of the same in a different location.

As you know, I have lost all kinds of things during caching: glasses, cell phone, stick, and more. The following picture, which I am under orders to include, shows that I am only a hat away from loosing my head...

Hopefully soon I will able to post the picture that won the BC Geocaching Caching Photo Contest, taken, of course, by no other than Mom...hopefully...please...or perhaps not...please...for we'll never get more than two caches done in a day from that day on because...'wait a minute dear, I need to take a picture...'

Which one would you pick?

Welcome KCNEL

2009-02-08T17:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Saturday Feb.7, we took Casey and Nellie caching for the very first time in their life. They had been really looking forward to it during the last couple of weeks and especially Nellie kept asking about what to take and what she could expect. There isn't a whole lot one needs to tell a new cacher, so I basically limited it to 'good shoes' and 'warm clothes' in case it looked like the weather would be cold. When she kept asking if that was really all I told her to also bring her hipwaders so as to be ready for crossing a stream or two.

She did not react positively to that, either because she doesn't have any and didn't want to get them, or because she couldn't visualize herself in a pair. She said she would cross barefeet and pants up instead. If you know how Nellie would sometimes walk through the barn rounding up the cows you will have no trouble believing that she would actually do that.

We had a wonderful day with them. It was not warm but the sun was out and we went to the Chilliwack River area where we went last year for my birthday. We took them to some caches that we had done already as well as some new ones (for us). Casey got the hang of it quite quickly until irlpguy threw us, almost, for a loop with one of his specialties which I cannot divulge here in the interest of other cachers who read this blog and may want to do this cache one day. They wouldn't want to know what the cache is like until they have tried it or found it, of course.

As we traveled east we found more and more snow on the trails, and then we came to a cache where we could have used a blowtorch to get it out of its frozen hidey-hole. That's when we decided to call it a day, fearing that further up it would be worse. So those have to wait for my birthday this year. You can join us if you like...

When we got back to the road we found that we were actually quite close to another cache so we walked up yet another trail to have a look for one more find. That's when we found a garbage bag with three young trees in it on the trail, and a short way up a couple with a shovel. Quite incredible in this time of 'green' awareness people ransacking the forest for their garden, at least we assume that's what they were doing. They denied all knowledge of the garbage bag and had some kind of sob story to explain the shovel. We should have taken their picture and their licence plate number but that would probably not have gone anywhere so we didn't bother.

To make us feel better, Nellie found a cache, her first one, so we all rejoiced and headed home. Casey is determined to get himself a GPS so he can take his grandsons out; Nellie is not so sure she wants to do anymore slipsliding in the woods (of course, in spite of all her questions, she came woefully unprepared as far as footwear is concerned).

It was a fun day. It always is fun to go with other people instead of just the two of us. But not many people are available, so it remains a rarity. But again, if you feel an urge...You can ride in the Jeep which worked like a charm on the snowy and icy forest roads...

Five Ways to Stop a Cacher and More to Stop the Garbage

2009-02-05T21:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today we were near and around Lynden, WA. The weather was beautiful and the countryside peaceful and great to drive through.
One of the caches we did today is Five Ways to Stop a Cacher. I had never seen a sign at an intersection that actually says 5-Way. But as the picture shows, they do exist and at this point there were five such signs. Okay, so you already guessed that. Fine!

As the picture also shows, we found the cache, adding one more reason for a cacher to stop...get it? Good!

Like I said, it is a pleasure to drive through the Watcom County area. However, there is one thing that really takes away from the fun. I am not saying this to preach at our southern neighbours, but they are so badly in need of recycling laws and places to bring their stuff instead of throwing it every which where. As one of the pictures shows, it can get very bad. But there is no incentive for people to pick up their junk like we have it. That, of course, is still not a reason to just dump it wherever, but it certainly would help.

Think what you may of homeless people and hobos, they clean up an incredible quantity of recyclables. You see them coming into the Return It places with garbage bags full of cans and bottles. Those places actually hand out those bags to these people to go out and fill them up. Cities should really thank them for their service, especially Langley where within the city limits you will not find a can or bottle. Quite incredible!

Last week we were in Surrey on a schoolyard. We picked up for at least $10.00 worth of cans, and felt a little guilty for doing it, because there is no doubt that sometime during the day some homeless person would have come by to pick them up.

What you do find everywhere, including Langley, is Tim Horton's (note the apostrophy, please!) and Starbucks' garbage. When will we have a government that has the guts to make it a law to put a return fee on Icecap and other plastic containers that litter the landscape and that don't get picked up by the hobos because there is no return fee on them. And while they are at it, the government I mean, they can also outlaw drive-by's to stop the exhaust fumes polluting our atmosphere...So there! Anybody have Harper's cell number? Could you call him?

Does anyone have Obama's cell number? Could you call him? He is the one 'who can' so there is no longer a need for a can here and a can everywhere!

I'll end with this picture of our new cache mobile. If you have very good eyes, you may be able to see the eagle in the tree in the background. We saw lots of them today and they continue to take our breath away.

Go Climb a Tree

2009-01-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

Has caching entered a new stage here in the Valley? One cacher in Chilliwack (geo canuck77) has decided to elevate, literally, the game somewhat by placing caches into trees. Now caches in trees is nothing new, but they are always within reach of a person of average height. They are mom's strong point while I can not ever find them, perhaps because my sense of colour is somewhat off and everything blends in too well.

However, geo canuck has given the whole idea a different twist. You now climb into the tree, often 15 or 20 feet up. Sofar they have been nice big, safe trees, but not the kind that you just kind of walk up into, you know. like Zaccheus.
The bottom branch is high enough to motivate the first cachers to arrive at the first one of this series to go back home and get a ladder. Of course, it did not help that irlpguy is not as nimble as he used to be now he is retired...

This first cache was attempted in a blazing snowstorm, in darkness, and as the attack was planned and executed more and more people arrived, even titelines from Abbotsford. If you know what driving from Abbotsford to Chilliwack is like in a snowstorm, you either admire their mental fortitude or wonder about their mental stability. But we all know, an FTF is an FTF, and more than once have we ourselves been described in various forms of not very flattering language when the topic of our crazy FTF adventures comes up.

The first Tree Climbing cache was found and FTF's were claimed. Which brings me to an interesting point. It is becoming quite common for FTF's to be shared by two or more parties, and I say more power to you. I even feel a little ashamed that I have not shared some of our FTF's with the person who was there with me at the same time...sorry TK and BR...But I was not aware of it at the time that one could do that. For think, if there have been 100 new caches in the past months, there must be at least 140 FTF's relating to same. What must people think...? Or is it not important to always ask ourselves, 'What must people think'? I would think so!

When the next Tree Climbing caches came out, we found that one of them was right across from where Alfred and Kirstin live. This discovery was grounds for a great idea: why don't we go visit them and have Alfred do the climbing?
As the picture shows, that was no hardship for him and a nice way out for us.
When that first one was in hand, we suggested that he might want to do another one...? So off we went to the old base where he went up a tree again and delivered another cache into our hands. Thanks, Alfred. Don't get out of practice, we have a few more coming, including the final which apparently is in one of three trees...

Then the day came that we wanted to go out to clean up some more in Chilliwack and right into our path to Little Mountain was another Tree Climbing cache. Knowing this, we had put our puny three foot stepladder in the Jeep...if others bring extension ladders, why can't we. We stopped and looked at the tree...The bottom branch was perhaps seven feet up? Eight? After placing the ladder, I tried to get my leg over it, but even stretching beyond my limit was not enough to complete that feat. That left us no choice but that the other goinggoner get up on the ladder and then use my shoulder as the next step up. Did she blink? Did I hear loud protests? Neither!!!

On the ladder, on my shoulder, and up she went...

Intelligence never being in short supply when we go caching (we like to believe) we had determined before she went up where the cache was. Twenty (?) feet up? No matter, she reached it, opened it, reached for her pen and, oops, found it missing. Three deft throws and one deft cache, make that catch, later the log was signed and the journey down to terra firma began and was completed without my cell phone having to come out to dial 911. Was one of us just a tiny bit proud of her daring feat? You bet! Was one of us rather proud of his brave-hearted partner? You bet!

A remarkable thing was that several people walked or drove past, the tree being pretty well next to the side walk of a fairly busy street. Did anyone questions what we were doing? Never! Did people driving by stop to take pictures or at least hang out of their windows and honk? Not a one! Did someone phone the Parks Board or 911? Think of another N word!

All of this goes to show that even after 1000 caches there are still new things to learn and experience, a fact we do not rue. Instead, we look forward to further feats and accomplishments. And we are so thankful that we have the health and time to do all this. Won't you join us sometime in February like you did last year?

As you can see, I managed to spread the pictures around...thanks, Ed...!

Weather Woes...

2009-01-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

Most cachers in our area had no choice but to take an unwanted three to four week break from caching because of the weather and all the snow we had. Today, there is still a lot of snow around in some places, but the roads are clear and the sun has been shining in some parts of the Fraser Valley, mainly the Abbotsford area and east. West of Abbotsford was souped in by fog for 21 days.
One day last week we decided to start caching again and decided on the Watershed Park in Delta. Bad move! We were in the fog all day while back home everyone was basking in the sun, behind their kitchen windows that is.
Friday the fog finally lifted in Surrey so that's where we went on Saturday. It is true, there was no fog, but there was not much in the way of sunshine either and still a lot of snow in places.
We have not really come across anything very exciting in the way of caches except for one series that I will talk about in the next post.

As you can see, I have posted three pictures. I wish there were a way in blogger to place them in different areas than just at the top. If someone has some ideas about this, please let me know.

And they said "He is a hobo."

2008-12-13T19:23:00.000-08:00

This week and last week I did most of the caching on my own. The good half of goinggone had so many other things on her plate that she had no time to come along.
One of those days I spent in Coquitlam. For one cache I ended up in a small park that was situated right behind an elementary school. Moments after I got there the bell rang for recess and all of a sudden there were more kids than trees in the park. And it did not take long that they spotted me.

"Look, there is a hobo". " A hobo, a hobo. Come look at the hobo!"

The word spread like wildfire. Before long I was being stared at and commented on and analyzed by at least 150 kids, all at a safe distance of at least 80 feet; make that 25m...Some kids found it too scary to stay; they ran. Others took their place. It was an ever shifting group of gawkers and hobophobes! And I, instead of tactfully retreating, just stood there, watching the spectacle with what I am sure was a beatific smile on my weathered face...

But I did get a little scared as it went on. What if the principal or one of the teachers comes out, witnesses the commotion, and phones the police? Not that I had done anything illegal, but sometimes non-illegal people get picked up to tell their story away from those that have been upset by their mere presence.

In addition to that, it is true that I looked probably more like a hobo than a civilized city dweller. My coat had picked up lots of green from wet trees and branches; it would not surprise a lot of people if I told them that I slept in the woods in this garb...Neither is it surprising that people jump to conclusions.

I mean, what does it take anyway? I have a daughter who would regularly proclaim to all in view and within hearing, "I do not know this man. I am not in any way related to him. Quit looking at me. I am someone else, okay...!"

Then a little miracle happens. A boy, say he is ten years old, comes out of the crowd and walks up to me. He does not look scared. My smile had won him over!!!

"Do you live here in the forest?", he asks.
"No", quoth I, "I live in a house just like you."
"Then why are you here?"
"I like the woods, just like you do."
"Oh."

And away he walks and announces clearly to all present,
"He is not a hobo."

I did not really hear any sighs of disappointment, but they were in the air...they kind of wafted among the trees...Now there was no hurrying back inside and tell the teacher; nor wait impatiently for school to end to get home and share the horrible news about the hobo.

The hobo that almost was.

Of sun, snow and caches.

2008-12-13T18:47:00.000-08:00

The weather channel had one of those awfully red screens yesterday, warning us that we would get snow! That is a big thing for them, for once or twice they have been caught totally off guard by not predicting snow, and then we would get a dump with all the consequences of that: cars not being able to make it uphill, cars in the median on the freeway, etc. It ain't ever happening again that we have snow and not having been told about it.

You in snow country know how you talk about snow in BC and that we don't know how to drive in the snow, and how we call two inches of snow a lot of snow. But you probably don't know (and it is true, you cannot know everything...) how we sit here in amazement every winter when the news and the weather channel show us all those pictures of cars in ditches and on top of each other and stuck in the city and all that...we say to each other: did you know that so many people from BC moved to the Prairies and Ontario? Poor sods, not knowing how to drive in the snow...not even with all those experts around them, not even with all the practice they get...

Anyway, the weather channel is not ever going to be accused of not predicting snow for this region. So now they will put up the red screen and tell us that we may have severe weather, to wit 2 inches of snow...never mind how likely or unlikely that may be.

We did not get any snow where we live, but they had some in Vancouver and Victoria, so they can proudly say to the folks in those towns: See, we told you so! Ha!

Today it was invigorating but rather windy weather, especially enjoyable inside. But after noon we said, "Shouldn't we go out for a bit? Aren't there any caches left nearby that we have not found?" So we thought of some: on Sumas Mountain. We took the truck, and a good thing we did.

The first cache was at Gate 1, just after we got off the pavement. It was howling up there, and it was a good thing we found the cache rather quickly so we could get back into the truck.

Then we had to go way further up the mountain. The gravel road started to show snow and ice. The driver, she switched into 4wd. The truck, she did just fine!
We got to Gate 2, parked the truck and stepped out into the snow. We took time to take pictures to prove that I am not telling no tales either.

We found also this cache quickly. Good thing!
Then back down the mountain to do one more in the McKee area where it was colder than up on the mountain...more open to the wind, I guess.

In all, it was an invigorating adventure, and we feel great now that our hands have thawed and we have had a warm meal. Who said caching had to be boring, eh?

Puddle-de-dum

2008-11-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

This morning I had the privilige of being allowed to go caching all on my own. The main reason for that was that mom went to see the doctor yesterday who, when he heard that she had already been on the trails again, was not amused. When he proved to her that her muscle has not yet healed completely by squeezing her calf gently in the crucial spot, she was not amused either. Doctors' offices clearly are not always the amusement parks one would like them to be...
The other reason she had little desire to join me had to do with the weather: we had some refreshing rain.
I went back to Campbell Valley Regional Park where on previous occasions one cache had eluded me: Clue: The Kitchen. Perhaps I have mentioned before that this is a series based on the game Clue. At each cache you get some information as to where the murder might have been committed or not, who might have dun it or not...You, dear reader(s) might as well acquaint me with your familiarity with the game so I can have you help us solve the mystery. Clue: not in the kitchen...Clue: not the colonel or Mrs. White. Rest to follow upon approved qualifications, yours. By now you, if you are worth your salt, have figured out that I found the cache, no?
I also found some others there, puzzles that you do not know where they will be until you solve them and get the coordinates.
Did I mention it was raining? I had to take the Shaggy Mane trail again for a stretch. They should change the name to Sh...y Mane trail...; again, if you are worth your salt, you have figured out what the name should be. You can mention it in your application if you are not averse to using that type of language...I will close my eyes so I do not have to be party to it...
Rain makes for puddles. Puddles bring out the little boy in me, the Dutch little boy. No, not the one with the famous finger, but the one that produces dry land out of watery places. That happens by digging canals so the water can move to where no one lives. I have not yet succumbed to the temptation of having a shovel in my cache mobile on rainy days, so I am reduced to the one, stone-age tool I always have with me: my stick. So on my way in I dig little canals, seeing the water gush out of the puddle, off the path, into a lower area. Such instant gratification this produces that one forgets about the rain and wet feet and all the concomitant misery of BC weather. And one wonders why the duo of cachers that calls itself Puddlejumpers is not with me but would rather shovel snow...or hang drywall...ah well...
So from puddle to puddle I hopped and skipped, humming as I went, puddle-de-dum, puddle-de-dum, until I got onto the Ravine Trail. Not much in the way of puddles there...the ground does not get mushed up and holes are not created by horses hooves...and as a result it is not a Sh...y Trail, as a matter of fact the ground is hard enough to make it a bit of a skating rink, especially when going downhill...four times I almost had my back join my feet at the level where they live, but thankfully my legs have become strong through all the exercise of this year that I was able to stay upright...
On my way back to the car I checked on all the work I had done. I had a hard time finding back the spots where I had laboured: most puddles had become dry land!!! Welcome to Holland, I thought. Puddle-be-gon, puddle-be-gon...

1000

2008-11-23T17:05:00.000-08:00

It's been at least a week now since we arrived at the milestone of our 1000th find. Some of you probably classify that as belonging under not quite sane, while others stand applauding (thank you, thank you...please imagine us bowing humbly...) for this wonderful accomplishment. Some of you even contributed to it.
We had kind of hoped to make this find in relation to a special cache, but we could not think of one worthy of it, so we decided to just let it happen. And so it did: it was kind of part of a 'normal day's work'. We went to Rolley Lake where there was a new series, and the second one in that bunch of five was the one. Mom is looking for the picture to prove it but it starts to look like we left it with the cache for it isn't here.
We plan to place a special cache celebrating and commemmorating this event. We have called it Millenium I {the 'I' is something like a hopeful hint at some future event (can you perhaps guess what that might be?) and we hope to put it somewhere near Rolley Lake.} Perhaps we will take a picture that will keep.
Mom was in Victoria for four days last week to help celebrate Paige's birthday and to do some caching there with Niki and Paige. Niki is quite hooked on the idea of becoming a cacher and now she discovered that her phone will actually function as a GPS she might actually realize her wish.
By the way, the pictures have been found...
Last week I promised to write another blog right away but it never happened. I was meant to mostly glory in the fact that we had one day in which we had four FTF's. I guess the glorying idea was wrong so I now mention it somewhat modestly...hmm.
I might as well reveal in this post that I (the other half of goinggone was deemed not be fleet enough of foot) went with a group of four others to Mt. Vernon Saturday a week ago to just cache for the numbers, in other words to add to our respective totals. We did 33 caches that day, but it wasn't really a lot of fun. Just going from parking lot to parking lot, lifting skirts on lampposts, looking under benches, signing the log and moving on to the next one...no, I'd rather go on a two hour hike for just one cache...
Regardless of it all, we (I especially) are very happy and thankful that we have this hobby, that we have the health to pursue it, that we can do it together (when there are no ouchies), that it gets us out in all kinds of weather and at all times of the day (the second batch of that foursome of FTF's had us hit the road at close to 11pm). We are also glad that the gas price is coming down...
We are toying with the idea of un-winterizing the RV and taking off for a while, setting up in a few places and do some caching...I have to see yet whether that will actually materialize...we will keep you posted.

Our First Cache! Finally!

2008-11-16T17:22:00.001-08:00

I am getting rather behind with my blogging. We (I) are (am) just too busy caching during the day (the leg is pretty good again) while at night we are occupied with other activities. So today I will try to cache(!) up a bit by writing more than one, hopefully.
As we were getting closer to the magic number of having 1000 finds, we felt more and more guilty about not having placed a single cache ourselves. Well, we did something about that feeling of guilt and went and bought a bunch of containers and other paraphernalia.
Our first cache is called All About Caching, a container full of helpful items that cachers use: tweezers to get the log out of these little nanos, a couple of bison tubes, etc. We put it at the rest area between here and the 264th exit. It has in the meantime been found several times. Our second cache is one aimed at scrapbooking activities and has the title of Scrappy...would never have guessed that one, would you?
The third one we placed in some trees near a clearing for a pipeline so it has the appropriate title of PLINE. This one almost landed us in the ditch. I thought I'd drive into the clearing and somehow the little ditch was not in my view until one loud scream stopped me dead in my intentions, saving us from going down. I was able to back us out of our perilous situation.
We have more caches ready to go but need to find suitable places for them. Mrs. Goinggone had the idea of doing a series to do with nursery rhymes, so you can look forward to those. But the one that needs to go out first and soon is one that we will probably call Millenium I, to celebrate our 1000th.
Mom is going to Victoria on Tuesday, so we will need to do this tomorrow.
We will keep you posted on that, hopefully accompanied by picture(s).

Campbell Valley Giant - 900

2008-11-03T21:53:00.000-08:00

Last week I spent three days in Campbell Valley Regional Park which is located south of Langley, close to the border. It is a good size park and at the present has over 20 caches, some of them multi's which means that they can be two or four or more parts.

Unfortunately I had to go by myself each day because of the affliction my dear wife is burdened with. Btw, it is getting better but it will be a while before she'll be her old-mountaineering-self again.

Going out alone is not a total disaster but it is way more fun doing it together, especially when one comes upon a problem that seems insurmountable and for which an additional pair of eyes would be very welcome.

I had only one such problem: 'Clue - The Kitchen'. This one is part of a series based on the game Clue where each cache contains a clue. In the end, when all the clues have been obtained, we should be able to tell 'who did it' and in which location. We are not there yet and may never get there if I/we don't find all the components. Like I said, an extra pair of eyes, especially eyes that are kitchen trained, would have been welcome.

The park is for a large part suitable for horses. This means, among other things, that the trails are well fertilized. Unlike dog owners, horse and rider are under no obligation, apparently, to do the scoopy/baggy thingy. Or the shovel/wheelbarrow thingy. I could support this problem with pictures but I won't. I am sure most of you thank me for that.

I did a lot of walking those days, especially the first. When I left my car, I was sure I would only 'do' this one cache called 'Have you seen Douglas?' and then return to the car to move to a different parking spot. Well, I saw Douglas, one of the largest Douglas firs I ever saw. I cannot show you a picture; you will understand in a moment.

However, when that one was in the bag, the next cache seemed to be closer than the car was at that moment so it's not hard to guess what happened. What is worse, it kept on happening so that by the time 2 o'clock came around I was miles and miles (kms and kms just doesn't do it justice, I feel) removed from my vehicle that is adorned with the sticker: "Found cache, Lost car".

I had left everything in the car: drink, food, apple, camera, and some might add, my wits...Neither had I taken a reading of the car's location in terms of coordinates when I left it; of course not, I was going to be back in a short while...! And my park map was guess where: in the car.

In the end I had to bother someone to tell me how to get back to my car.
It is now 4 o'clock. Why not ask someone at 2? Well, you know, there was one cache fairly close by, so it would be a shame to leave that...and then, of course...etc. etc.

The lady that I approached must have seen the condition of my body on my face: before she even bothered trying to tell me where to go she gave me an apple and a candy...the apple was meant for her horse, the candy for sugar. But there was no doubt in her mind that I needed it. She said, 'I don't want to read about you in the paper tomorrow.'

Anyway, she told me how to proceed to the car and nice as she was, I was sure she was wrong. So I let her depart and then headed in the direction I was sure I should go. Until, of course, I stumbled upon a cache...and got lost again. And had to approach some others. Fortunately, the weather was nice so there were lots of people on the trails. Anyway, to make this already long account not any longer, I did get back to my car. And drank, and ate...and headed home, and ate again...and looked back on a day well spent.

Somewhere in this account I should have mentioned that one of the caches I found was our 900th: Campbell Valley Giant, a huge cedar. Again, I have no picture....

Lights Out In Lynden

2008-11-02T16:41:00.000-08:00

A new day, another post...time for catching up on reporting on caching.
Now you know about the owie calf, you will understand my hesitation to take the person so afflicted to a caching event in Lynden last week Saturday (Oct.25).
The idea behind these events is to meet other cachers, exchange experiences, ask for hints on caches that they placed or found, and perhaps do some activities together. In this particular case the event was organized with Hallowe'en in mind; the plan was to have a potluck supper around 5 and after that clean up together. By the time that was all done it would be dark and we would be given a sheet with a list of 13 newly placed caches in and around Lynden that we all could go after in the dark.
I had my reservations about attending this with a person who is less than mobile...but the vote was 1-1 which means I lost...go figure!
Seeing that it was a nice day, we left in the morning to do some caches in Sumas and Lynden before the event. After doing a couple in Sumas we discovered that we had forgotten to take our second most important tool: our flashlight. So back we went and back we came, taken the border line ups with patience and resignation.
Once in Lynden, I cached and the patient stayed mostly in the car. She was not complaining, and I was never gone for long. So that went alright, really, and it became more and more evident that it was a good thing I lost the vote. I think we did about 12 caches. One neat thing about it was that we kept running into other cachers. No wonder, because some 100 people had signed up for the event.
So when 5 o'clock came around we found ourselves with those 100 or so people in the Lynden Community Center, meeting people whose names you had seen on the website or in cache logs, or whom you had met that day. It was a very good atmosphere in that room as you may conclude fromt he picture above.
When the time came to go out into the dark, it did not dawn on me that here was a chance to score some first to finds...it did on mom but somehow we did not communicate at that moment. So we, I, took our, my, time to upload our GPS with the info of the 13 caches instead of tearing out of there and going for one cache, never mind the others: they could wait. But as I said, I was totally asleep at the wheel, so we had no first to finds that night.
We did find 12 of the 13 though. Quite a neat feat considering that it is dark, you do not know the town, have no map...I guess it was all due to having the best navigator available available!!!
All in all, it was a fun event. We hope they will do a repeat next year. You can all come and join us.

Calf Is Owie

2008-11-01T19:59:00.001-07:00

Mom is on crutches. What does that have to do with caching? Well, everything and nothing. Everything. because she is not caching. Nothing; because caching is not a matter of life or death. All the caching that got done in this family was done by my going out by myself and having a good time, but it would have been better, much better had we been able to do it together. The only positive is that now I could set my own pace and get an excellent work out walking the trails that I took. Oh, and the other not inconsiderable positive side effect is that she spends a good deal of her time at home working the puzzle caches which we until now pretty well have ignored. However, we are looking at too many areas where we have all the normal caches done and all that is left is the puzzles.
She is getting really good at it. At this moment she is wrestling with the Little Rascals. Part of this week she was in the company of the Three Stooges for two days. She has been in outer space tracking Star Wars episodes. Etc. etc. Now I can go out to find the caches.
The leg is getting better but we expect her to need at least two more weeks before she is ready for the mountains again.
We had some beautiful days this week but the forecast is for rain pretty well all of next week. So wet I will get...
Now to how this came about:
She went into the garage, (last week Tuesday) two steps down, and somehow tore her calf muscle. Excruciating pain evolved quickly. Phoning the doctor resulted in our going there an hour later. He could not really tell how bad it was because touching her leg put him in grave danger each time...like tickling a skittish horse, maybe? The leg would go airborne direction his face, jaw, nose, eyes...he has no insurance for that. He did come to a tentative conclusion that her achilles heel was probably not severed but that is as optimistic as he was willing to be.
Back on Thursday. The pain was down from a 19 (10 is high) to about a 3...much better. Now it was safe to determine that is was (only) a torn calf muscle...painful, not pretty, but heal-able. Get crutches and stay off the leg. Done.

View Me, View Me...

2008-10-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

It's almost two weeks ago that we decided that we should have a little more exercise than we get with just city caching. So on this overcast day with rain threatening we set out for an area west and north of Mission. We knew a couple of new caches had been placed there but two or three days had gone by without anyone claiming them. So we decided that maybe we should have a look. And who knows, they were still untouched.
So, parking the car along Dewdney Trunk Road we set off on this well maintained logging road. The first part was rather uphill but then it flattened out somewhat...but that was the last of the 'flattened' for the day. Uphill and uphill, never ending uphill! Not necessarily all that steep except for some portions, but we plodded on...didn't we want the exercise? And weren't our legs a lot stronger than a year ago? And didn't our lungs have a much increased capacity for huffing and puffing than they used to? Yes, to all of the above, but still, flat stretches are nice, really!
After more than an hour of this, we arrived at a cache that we might as well do as we were on our way up...not a new one, just a rarely done one, and we began to understand why. We couldn't find it...
So on we went, and up we went, and up till we arrived at the end of this logging road. We expected a trail to continue our travels on but that was no trail to be found. We must have missed a turnoff!
So after trying to find a shortcut down, I, just by myself, and after almost losing each other (Wouldn't that have been fun! A new chapter in our caching history, time for a new sticker: found cache, lost wife!). So we went down the way we went, came by the turnoff we should have taken, and were now within a stone's throw of this first cache we tried earlier...why don't we try once more just in case our journey leads us into an area that would un-necessitate our coming back this way...
So we looked and came up empty again!
Well, to the new trail then on our way to the (hopefully) not yet claimed caches called Little View and Big View. Do I need to acquaint the reader with the nature of the terrain and the gradient of the trail...No? You already guessed?
Well, on we go then until we finally arrived at the first view. And what a view it was in spite of the fact that it was not a clear day. The lake with the little island in the middle is called Hoover Lake. We said, "Well, even if it is not a first-to-find, at least it was worth it for the view! Yea right!
It was a first-to-find!!! Three hours or so after we left the car we had a cache!
Now onto Big View. If Little View was as great as it was, what might we not see at this next one!? Well, to not to let you sit in suspense for ever and to share our disappointment before we actually get there, it was not nearly as good. The weather really took this one away.
Our trek up there was wrought with fair sized rocks , fallen trees all over the place that we needed to get over or around, low hanging branches, and now a fairly steady drizzle as well. But we persevered: might as well; now in our fourth or fifth hour. And who knows: another first-to-find? Quite likely. If nobody had been crazy enough to make it to Little View, certainly nobody would have gone where we now were, past any view of sanity.
We got there! I already mentioned the disappointing view. Somewhere down there we saw Mission and Hayward Lake, but the fogginess didn't really do it justice in spite of the fact that we had now climbed at least 2000 ft.
The hint was 'under a cedar' near the path. Should be easy, except there were no cedars close to the path, so we ventured away from the path under the few little cedars we could find. You guessed it: no cedars, no cache. Right! Coming all the way up here and not finding the cache? Not ever!
I said, "Dear, some people don't know their trees. We have run into that before." No sooner had those words left my mouth or under a fir tree she found the cache! Hurray! The cache is in hand! And, you guessed it, another FTF (you should know by now what that stands for).
What goes up needs to go down. So that's what our weary and wet bodies did. But not long after we were stopped dead in our tracks. In our path was a bird the likes of which we had not seen before. Larger than a dove, smaller than a chicken, with orangy patches above its eye. It uttered a very low sound as if it were angry. Out came the camera and pictures were taken. And more pictures because the bird came closer and closer, making for better pictures, of course...and closer, and more pictures, and closer to within a foot... and...well, you get the picture, I hope...
When finally our camera was sated with pictures we got ready to move on. But you think the bird was done with us? It wouldn't let us past! We move to the right, it moves to its left and we move to the left, it...well, you get the picture...you have gotten good at getting the pictures by now, right?
I finally had to shove it aside with my stick and quickly move past it without stepping on it. Then it starts to follow us! It wasn't nearly small enough to be an orphan but it surely behaved like one. In the end our longer legs got the better of him/her and we disappeared out of view...
This blog just goes on and on, it seems.
So we come close, for the third time that day, to the spot where we tried to find that first elusive cache. And what do we see? Another cacher! With his dog Sasha. Shaking of hands all around and pleased to meet you's and what's your handle. His is Hellraisers, from Mission. He is the FTF'er par excellence! But this time he got beaten by a couple of wet and tired old fogeys.
So now he does not know whether he wants to go on. To give him time to make up his mind we all together take another try at this cache that keeps playing hide-and-seek on us. With his help we find it, fairly soon actually. It was just a matter of walking along this one tree on the right side instead of the wrong side like I had done a number of times...
By now one of us really had had enough, and the other one of us promised a while back that we would not bother with a fourth cache in that area, much as that bothered him, for would we ever want to come up here again just for this one cache? Probably not. A cache with such a nice name too! "Old Tales of a Lumberjack"!
Then says Hellraisers, "You know there is another cache here close by?"
"Dear, how about you stay here while Hellraisers and I quickly do this cache?"
Good old sport that she is, she comes along.
An hour or so later we are back at this by now quite well frequented spot. Fatigue is etched in the face of one of us, satisfaction in the features of the other one of us. Four caches, two FTF's!
From here it is all downhill in fairly steady rain. But somehow rain is not nearly as wet when you have found your caches as when you have not.
Seven hours after we left our car our little eyes spy it again.
It was a day well spent!

700 in the dark

2008-10-01T21:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I blogged about our geocaching adventures. Somehow it did not seem to work while we were on the road. But now we're home again, and while I am still retired (and plan to remain so) I have no excuse anymore to neglect this activity. And to be frank (to quote a popular sentence opening by politicians), I find it not a hardship... And to be honest (....) I kind of like it.
We did a fair bit of caching during our travels. When we left home our count was at less than 400...when we got home it was at 702. So that is not to be sneezed at.
The city that we probably remember most kindly for its caching opportunities is Holland, MI. The place is just plastered and looking for them has brought us into interesting places and made us feel at times as if we were in the Netherlands with all the genuine Dutch names everywhere. I do not know how many caches we logged while we were there, but I do know that if we stayed there for another week, we would still not be done by a long shot.
By the time we hit Ellensburg, WA we were close to our 700th cache so we decided to try and get that number in that place. We discovered that there was a night cache near our campground, and seeing that we had never done one of those, we decided to make that one our 700th.
A night cache is one where you go into the area with a flashlight. As you shine the light around, it will pick up little reflectors attached to a tree or other objects. These reflectors guide you farther into the darkness and if you have never been in that area (and we hadn't) it is kind of spooky...Perhaps that's the whole idea. I have to say that Mom dealt with it as a real trooper.
So we arrive at the spot we need to be. Now find the cache. It took us a few minutes...the clue was: find the chain, then the ring that is attached to it, then pull up. Well, Mom found the chain, and the ring, and gave a mighty heave...open pops a box, and at her stares a skull...
I have to give it to her: she did not scream; she just froze for a few seconds...or maybe more than a few...but honestly, no scream...
The pictures tell the story.
In the meantime we have not been idle. I spent a few days by myself in Langley and we went there a couple of days together. We have had some nice weather.
Today we reached our 800th...!
That is probably worthy of its own blog page, but I don't want to bore you...
We hope to make the 1000 before the year is out.

Hand it to me...

2008-06-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

We have been on the road now for almost two weeks and, curiously enough, we have not really missed home. In my journal I have begun referring to our RV as 'home'; note the ''; when they disappear it might mean that we will not want another
home again...
Our first stop was Green Lake Prov. Park. We had no problem finding a place; it was mostly deserted this early in the season. On our way there we did a couple of caches but we were more concerned with getting there so we left a bunch unattended. We will just have to go back there one day.
Our next stop was Williams Lake where we stayed in a private campground at the grounds of the WL stampede. We did a fair bit of caching there but we got a little tired of all the micros. One area we did not really have time to explore to any great lenght was the WL River park and trails: quite a nice area of about 12 km in length along the river until it joins the Fraser.
Not enough time...we are on a schedule (!) so it still feels rushed. Yesterday we arrived here in Dawson City, and when I thought about it this morning it looks like we have basically only one day here for ourselves. Today is Sunday so we are taking it easy. There is not really a church here that looks half decent (I was sure there was a CRC here, but think it must have folded) so we listened to a sermon on Spindleworks and will do that again later on. Tomorrow we have nothing scheduled but caching. Tuesday is taken up partly by the soccer game and Wednesday we have to leave again and take two days to make it to Calgary. Rush, rush...not an easy life by any stretch...but complaining never got me anywhere so I will not start that...and enjoy thankfully, very much, what we have and receive each day.
I skipped Prince George where we had a nice time,, also staying in a private campground. We visited with Jim and Nallely Witteveen a few times and had a really good time with them. They are settling in and making contacts and dealing with other things in their life. Read their blog: http://www.jimwitt.ca/
I now remember telling you about most of our activities in PG in the email I sent a few days ago so I won't repeat all of that..The caches in PG were much more enjoyable than the micros in WL. Some people really like to hand it to you as one of the pictures shows. Mom jumped about 3 feet when I kindly endeavoured to hand it to her.
And being out in the wild also reveals that she is particular regarding certain animals. At Green Lake it was a snake that made her scream, try to scream, but her cold prevented her from producing any kind of sound louder than a pipsqueak so I did not hear it and was unable to come to the rescue...In PG it was another interesting creature just minding his own business that caused unheard-until-now noises in the forest...the picture shows how cute he really is...and what a nice size he has grown to be...and how he could be a very well camouflaged cache...and how I would have loved to hand that to her...
O, and that reminds me of Yorick...if you go to Hamlet Act 5, Sc. 1, you will be able to figure out for yourself what kind of cache the Yo-Rick cache was like... Mom figured she had done her quota of ups and downs for the day...so this one I found by myself and I had no opportunity to hand it to her...or cause an underworldly noise to be heard in the woods...or take a picture...alas, poor Yorick.
There aren't that many caches here so we should be able to make to make a good dent in that tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will improve somewhat so that we can at least stay dry and so the OFF does not wash off ...we had to use it quite liberally already in PG, and I am sure we will be here as well...good preparation for when we see Erica and her family.
On that optimistic note I will call it a blog. O, mom posted some pictures on Facebook as well...go check them out...and if you are not already a Facebooker, you will have to become one now, I guess.
Love, Dad and Mom

Larissa and Aidan Go Caching...

2008-05-27T18:31:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday we became grandparents once again...we praise God for his blessing that he bestowed on Alfred and Kirstin and their children as well as on the grandparents and other relatives of Heidi Leanne.
After visiting the happy mother and her newborn at the hospital we went home with two catches...no, that is not a misspelling for caches...
Larissa and Aidan are staying with us for a few days. They were given the day off from school yesterday, and seeing that we had to pick up the RV in Golden Ears Campground, where it spent its first week of trial, we took them along and did some caching with them. They enjoyed that and so did we. They will want a repeat but that may not happen any day soon as we hope to start next week on our trip east.
The RV passed its trial run, more or less. We found a few things that need fixing, the worst being the malfunction of the 'landing gear', the two front supports. We had an awful time getting them off (they didn't want to go in...). Fortunately we already were hitched to the truck. Today we brought it in for repairs. Hopefully we can pick it up on Thursday or Friday.
Of course, we have continued caching but not as much as we had planned. Of the week we spent in Golden Ears we probably spent half the nights at home because of things that needed attention there. And we came home a day early so Larissa could go to school today.
We will find out how much caching we will do once we are away from home. We are still not entirely sure of our travel route because we are waiting for one more event to have a date attached to it before we can make the final decision(s).
May you all have an opportunity to be out there.

First and Third

2008-05-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

For the longest time it didn't appear that it would happen, but when we opened our email one last time last night, at 10:50, we knew that the day might become memorable in the annals of our caching history. And lo and behold, it did...
The email showed that a new cache had been placed just west of the airport. "Shall we?" one of us asked. The other did not even bother replying but ran out of the study and began dressing. What choice did the other have but to follow?
So, a couple of minutes later we are on the road, in utter darkness and pouring rain. It is hard to see the road at times, and even though speed is of the essence, it is deemed that safety must take priority: I keep my speed down to levels that do not interfere with the regular breathing of my companion. Not a mean feat, I have been told on more than one occasion...
We reach the spot where we can park our car (corner of Echo Rd. and Peardonville, for those who think they need this bit of info. for the biography (The Caching Crazies) they are thinking of writing some day in the future).
Out of the car and into the rain. We are only 75 m. from the cache the Garmin says. We have two puny flashlights. The Garmin has very little in the way of backlighting. The rain makes it very hard to read the Garmin. No use putting on glasses because they will soon resemble the 'droplet' appearance of the Garmin. But we kind of find ground zero, on the road. Now for the tree at whose base the cache resides. One large cottonwood is close enough for thorough scrutiny. I crawl around its mighty trunk on my knees, the undergrowth and branches preventing me from doing it in the upright position.
I find no cache. Around and around the tree I go. Was its base ever ploughed up more thoroughly in its long life? One doubts it. And not with sticks either! Bare hands for you!!
No cache. Try smaller trees. Deeper and deeper we venture into the swampy area to make the acquaintance of smaller and smaller trees, and some stinging nettles, until we feel we have wondered far enough to have to admit defeat.
Back on the road. Peering at the other side of the road. A fairly substantial ditch tells us: no, not here. Nobody would place a cache on the other side, forcing people to jump this one. (But then very few people know about the ditch jumping feats of one of us...) But no jumping tonight. Instead: 'I am wet enough, I want to go home."
Anyway, to keep this a short story, because somebody wants to go home, I tried another way into the dark and unwelcoming bush, and what do you know...I found the cache!!! It was a flashlight with the battery section used for the log. Covered up by stick approximately the same thickness, so that I still almost missed it.
No prize for the FTF (First to Find, for the biographer's benefit), but that is okay. The feeling of victory was sweet enough to make the need for a prize very secondary...(does that make it tertiary, kind of?). What was important too was that we were home before the Sunday.
So, that was our first 'night caching' experience and our third FTF! What a day it turned out to be!
I hope the reader will bear with the fact that we took no picture...instead I am attaching an earlier picture of Stoney Creek.

Key to Rolley Lake

2008-05-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

We have continued our caching experiences but not nearly as much as we would have liked. It is frustrating to see how much else there is to life that interferes with going out and just having fun. On average we get one good, entire day in each week. Besides that, a few hours here, one or two caches there; but the latter becomes more and more difficult seeing that there are hardly any close-by caches left for us to find.
O, by the way, we got a second FTF last week. We came home from some other non-caching activity and saw that a new one had been placed along the river in Glen Valley. Dropped everything and hurried out there. I don't think I really set any new speed records...mom may disagree...No matter, we were the first ones.
We spent most of our time last week in Mission and the Stave Lake area. Mission was mostly local and we did not really see anything spectacular. Near Stave Lake we did some real!!! hikes. Quite the climbs, down to waterfalls and up again, to the top of mountains and down again. But we feel that our legs are dealing with it a lot better than when we started. So we puff and huff and take a break and soldier on again. Thankfully, in nearly every case we found the cache so that made it worthwile. But in one case we didn't because a sign was missing, but still, the hike was wonderful.
Not too far from Stave Falls is Rolley Lake, another place I had never been. I has a nice prov. campground. We may visit it someday with our 'rig'...
There is only one cache there, and we found it, but not after some traumatic experience: the weather was good enough for me to decide that I wouldn't need my jacket so I threw it back in the car and locked the door, realizing too late that I had left my keys in it. Normally this would not be such a big deal because Mom always makes sure to take her keys, and her DL, just in case this happens. However, her keys were not in the bag, and what is worse, the little pocket where she usually puts them, was open. Obvious conclusion: they fell out somewhere along a trail. Or, hopefully, they slipped out in the back of the car when I put the bag on the back seat. Hopefully, lifting my jacket would reveal them. Nevertheless, panic, dismay, and other strong feelings abounded.
We are members of BCAA. But my cell phone was out of range. Fortunately, a kind soul offered to drive around to find the parks people to see if they had a land line or a radio. He found them and a little later they arrived. Very kind men, very helpful. And very good and fast service from BCAA. It probably took no more than half an hour for them to show up.
So the car is open again, and my keys are in hand. However, the other keys, and DL with all the personal info, are not where we hoped them to be.
We did the cache in this area, and after that a few more before we headed home.
There I went once more with a fine toothcomb through the car. Perhaps in the trunk, for the bag had also been there...but no.
Then it started to dawn on me that she has another little pocket where she likes to put things. When I realized that, I was pretty sure that's where they would be. Coming into the house to announce that, I ran into an announcement that the keys and DL had been located in the little pocket of the camera bag.
This camera bag was ON HER PERSON when I locked the car door, when people were rounding up parks people for us, when BCAA was contacted, when the BCAA truck was driving to Rolley Lake, when the BCAA stopped and the man came out of his truck, when he opened our car (neat tool they have for that; I said to him: 'I need to get one of those.' 'Don't', quoth he: 'it will be in the car when you need it'...duh)
Well, as the bard said, all's well that ends well, once again.
It is too bad I did not take a picture of the BCAA truck as well as one of the truck with someone in front of it with her camera bag on her shoulder (so the truck would not look so lonely...).

FTF

2008-04-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

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I cannot remember the highlights of every day we have gone out, so I will just settle for last Wednesday as a good day to share with you. By the way, if you think that going geocaching is all we do you are mistaken. Almost every day has something that prevents us from just taking off in the morning and not worrying about anything else. Usually there is something that needs to be done, and it hardly ever fails being in the middle of the day. Rather frustrating, really...
One great 'worry' is probably off our mind now. Today we settled for a 5th wheel and truck, for sale as a combination, and one we had looked at about a month ago. We never acted on it because it was the 'wrong' make of truck. Today we did the terrible deed. We may not be welcome in some parts of Ontario anymore, but we hope that as time passes people will get used to our sacrilegious act and forgive us.
We will post pictures when we have them. And we won't take pictures until we actually have possession. The final stage is dependent on an inspection of the truck. If that passes we have a deal. Then we can start planning where to take it for a bit to try it out before we start on our big journey east.
Back to geocaching. Wednesday we were at Cultus Lake again. We did not get finished there the last time we were there so we went to clean up. The night before, late, an email came in that someone had placed a new cache in Cultus. Perhaps you already know that there is great honour and satisfaction and other good feelings in being the first to find such a new cache. It is called a First to Find...how appropriate, no? It abbreviates into FTF. Appropriate, no?
Now if you are truly addicted to FTF's you jump up as soon as you get the message about a new cache. Sometimes there are four parties arriving at the same time.
I am not that addicted (yet) to get up in the middle of the night, pack a couple of flashlights and speed out to where ever. We also knew that there was no sense in getting up early and try to be there at first light apart from the fact that one part of our team is not all that enamoured of getting up that early...We knew that we would be beaten to the punch by irlpguy (remember the survey peg, Peter and Petra? that was one of his; o, and for everyone: the Leaping Lizard) who has quite a string of FTF's because that is about all he has left to do in the Valley: he has pretty well covered all the caches here.
So we got there at about nine, two hours after he was there...so we could have beaten him if we had indeed been there at first light...rats...So we were third to find...We actually met the guy who was second on the trail as he was heading back to his truck. He said it had taken him an hour to find it so we were prepared for a long search. We found it in about 5 minutes. I never really know how we stumble upon them, but we do, except of course when we don't...
We spent the day on the trails, some rather steep and long. We followed one trail for about an hour, mostly up and up, at which point we ruefully decided that it was the wrong trail and would not switchback in the right direction and down...And we do not have a clue where it goes.
We did find that cache when we took the right trail.
Our weather is all over the place. We had rain, nice sunshine, wind, you name it.
Today was like the middle of winter. Yesterday we had snow. Nanaimo had a foot of it last night. More to come, they say.
We did not have any DNF's that day and did all we had planned. We were home at about 5. Then we find a message from irlp (whom we are getting to know rather well, had coffee with, email with, put the odd question to when we are stuck) that there is a new cache in Abbotsford. And we also had an email to that effect from Geocaching. com. We figured it was no use going after that one because the email came in at around 2 and somebody would no doubt already have done the FTF. But, of course, we went anyway, and what do you know: we found it quite quickly and discovered that we were the first ones!
So we entered our log on a totally new and clean first page...and took the little prize. The people who place caches always put something in the cache as a keepsake for the FTF, usually in keeping with the 'theme' of the cache, but sometimes it is something as mundane as a $2 Tim Horton's gift certificate...mundane indeed...
Our FTF cache is called '"Sew" What', so there was a little package of needles and a geocaching pin in it.
Okay, that is enough bragging for one post, so I have a good excuse to stop here.
O, I need to announce that we found a Palm and SandyMomGrandma is happily exploring and using it. The end of a lot of printing.
Love you all.

200

2008-04-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

That simple title says it all...or should it read 200 and counting?

We were out for a bit today around Fort Langley to make this number full...One was a very interesting multi of which we include a picture...the hint for this one: you can sit on it if you are small enough...I kind of stumbled on it without a clear plan, as I do most of the time...never seen anything like this before...
This was at the same time our 200th, a nice coincidence.

We struggled again today with how much paper we use for this hobby. One cache had 13
pages...too many, and I printed only two...but then when we were doing this one, a multi again, we found that we were missing information to get to the next stage which means we will have to go back to finish this one. So we saved some paper only to 'waste' it on gas. And yes, this hobby is not exactly 'green' either...the more we clean up around our home turf, the further out we need to go...

We have been told that we need a Palm Pilot. I don't know anything about these things except that they are not called Pilots anymore. We saw the simplest one at Londen Drugs for $50, but it has only 32 MB and cannot expand. The next one up is over $300.

What we need it for is to download caches so that we have the information with us in electronic form instead of on paper. If anyone can enlighten us on this matter or have other suggestions, please do.

Bear in the Bush...

2008-04-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we tied our record of 17 founds...and not a single DNF...and that is a new record...

The above title refers to one of the caches in Cultus Lake. The person who placed the cache made a note of the fact that when he did that, he saw a black bear nearby.
When we did this one, sure enough, we found a totally fresh bear track on our way. The accompanying picture shows the proof. This morning I went and bought bearspray...need to be prepared...have to get a whistle too...lacking that yesterday, we made it a point of talking loudly, and someone even did some singing, something about going out awandering...Did I ever mention that we have fun doing this geocaching thingamajiggy?

We did a lot of hiking again yesterday. There are trails in the Cultus Lake area I never knew existed...and some are quite steep and quite a nice challenge.
Let us acquaint those of you, who now have a GPS, with a pitfall. Our Garmin has now started, no idea why, to download parking coordinates if there are any with the cache I am loading down. Usually I just look at the three final letters or numbers to select the cache I want to bring up, and that has never been a problem. However, on Tuesday we were looking for a cache called 'Caterpillar'...supposedly the cache was under something resembling a moss covered caterpillar....When we left the car, our GPS said that we were within 10 meters, straight downhill...However, there was no trail but we knew there was a trail a little further on. So that's what we did...quite a little trip following the GPS on this winding up and down trail. When we were close and started looking we had no luck. After a while everything started to look like a caterpillar. All the while, we were just below where we had parked...so finally we just climbed uphill back to the car. Another of our Tuesday DNF's.

When we had coffee with another geocacher the next morning and mentioned this cache to him, he said that we had taken the wrong trail...and little by little we found out that we had gone with our parking coords instead of with the coords for the cache...won't do that again.

At least, we had more proof that our GPS works...it led us straight back to the car.

Another one of our DNF's on Tuesday was called 'It's a 'Groovy' thing'. The cache was supposed to be a bison tube (a little tube about a half inch diameter and maybe two inches long, with a screwtop; usually all they have is a rolled up piece of paper that functions as the log). Our GPS led us to a huge rock, taller than I am. Well, it had grooves all right; wore my fingernails out tracing them all; wore out my jeans crawling on my knees all around the thing feeling underneath it where there was space...found a nice, juicy slug too...it kind of had the right shape and size but it was too soft and slippery...Anyway, finally we gave up.

Yesterday we went back...hate these DNF's enough to give them another try (by the way, we revisited all our DNF's of Tuesday and found them all, with a little help for a couple from people who found them before...). The picture shows what we found.
Well, that is all the news for now. Saturday promises to be a very nice day so guess what we will be doing.

2008-04-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

Days of Yore...

2008-04-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

It may come as no surprise to anyone that we have been out geocaching a few times since the previous post. It is not quite all we live for but it does occupy a good deal of our thoughts, actions and goingsout...
Today is a housekeeping day...cleanup, shopping, thrift store...etc.
The weather is not always ideal, and sometimes, like on Tuesday, we were out in the rain a good deal. We had decided to 'take care of' the Cultus Lake area, hoping to set a record. So far our high for one day is 17. Well, we should have stayed home: instead of 17 Founds we had 8 DNF's instead...and that was a record, but not the kind we need or ever hope to break. By the way, we had coffee with someone yesterday whose high for one day is 41 Founds...I did not ask him how he managed that but my hunch is that he started at daylight, sometime at 4am, and finished sometime before midnight...
We are not quite that addicted yet...but give us time.
I am including a couple of pictures. The one is in Yarrow at the end of Wilson Rd. It was the site of the first post office. That is where the Old Yale Wagon Road ran along the mountain before Sumas Lake was drained. An interesting cache, that one...
I am also showing a couple of pictures of a place on the corner of Glover and 216th in Langley. The one shows the vintage car and the Texaco pumps, the other a close up of the price at the pump in those days...and that is price per gallon!
I see that the weather in your areas is improving so... soon out you go...
I will try to get around to posting another one later today, showing some of our results of yesterday...

Ditch Jumper

2008-04-03T22:14:00.000-07:00

We are having quite a nice week as far as the weather goes...but today was the first day that we could go out to do some caches...13 founds and 1 DNF...don't like those...
I will not take the dear readers of this blog through all of them...let me just acquaint you with the fact that someone has placed a cache at every mile stone along the Fraser Highway. This high way used to be the first and only road from Vancouver to Yale although it changes names in Abbotsford to Yale Road...Along the road were mile stones telling the weary traveler that he had gone another mile, and was now one mile closer to the goldfields near Yale in the Fraser Canyon. Most of these mile stones are gone but some remain. All the bright yellow paint that they once had is gone but the 'engraving' of the number is still there. Today we saw #32 and #34. The picture above shows that it was a bit of a jump to get to it...
I volunteered to stay on the safe side to take the picture.
We had a very nice day. Tomorrow we hope have another one.

Smell our Spring...

2008-03-27T18:48:00.001-07:00

Just a nice picture to show that things are coming back to life, even those that we like to avoid...

Crawlies and Boos...

2008-03-27T18:36:00.001-07:00

I thought we should share with you some of the more unusual finds we come across...Do the pictures say enough?
Hope you can all go at it soon...but if it is any comfort, it snows here too, today, yesterday, but we cannot be deterred by that...

One Hundred!!!! (and counting)

2008-03-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

It was March 19, the first day of spring they say, something we oldies will probably never get used to: spring is supposed to start on the 21st! Regardless, we went out caching anyhow instead sitting at home moping because spring had sprung on us two days early.
We knew we were at 99 finds. We had always wanted to do the Downtown Sitdown, a five-stage multi, created by the Kardian Questers (the Archie Kobes family). We had known forever that it was there and that we were very close to it everyday we were at the shop...and that we should do it soon and all that...and then we had Archie come into the shop...and that did it...we decided to make it our one hundredth. So we did. The cache centers around the artistic benches we have on several downtown corners. The pics show two of them. At each we had to pick up some info to put together the coords for the final one which was not downtown but under a tree some 3 km away...can't explain why they did not put the final downtown as well. Maybe they couldn't get the coords to come together with the skimpy information that is available on each bench.
It is not a difficult cache but it took some time. But it gave us our centennial find. We have in the meantime started on our second century.
How is everyone else coming along??? Eh???

Retired and Caching

2008-03-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Blogging is falling behind on our caching. Logging the finds on geocaching.com is not my favourite part of geocaching. The fun is in the finding, sometimes in the being stumped, but to come home to WORK on logging...no...But, of course, there is no way around it so it is done. And then on top of that write a blog? It does not always happen, sorry to say, and so the faithful readers of this blog miss out on some eventful happenings and interesting finds. Well, there is a remedy for that: out you go, snow or no snow, and you create your own eventful happenings and find your own interesting finds. Way to go, Jocelyn. A few feet of snow never stopped you, right?
Today we found another neat one. The picture tells the story. What it does not show is the two muggles, two big dogs barking their heads off less than six inches away from the cache. Fortunately, there was a solid fence. Still, you want to watch your fingers.
We are now at 92 caches found, creeping ever closer to the magic number of 100 when we will get an honourable mention on bc geocaching.com for the entire province to know...
Just saw a post from someone who has over 6200...go figure...
We saw some cormorants in Elwood Park today. Never seen them in town before. Never been in Elwood Park for that matter.
Tomorrow promises to be the one remaining somewhat dry day for this week so we hope to be out again...maybe there will be another blog for you...
I have been thinking of putting a restriction on this blog so people cannot post comments so that they may begin to feel an urge to send comments...so that when the tension is high enough to take off the restriction so that ... anyway, I will not put a restriction on...not yet...but be warned!
And yes, spring is here...

An Incredible Week...

2008-02-26T21:05:00.001-08:00

Too much has happened since my last blogging...too much to take care of in one post...no matter how much i would like to record all that happened. It comforts me somewhat to know that most of our readers were all part of what happened so they don't really need to be informed. So we will see where this goes...before it goes off into blogland.
By Friday night (the 15th) everyone had arrived who was expected. The next day the eight of us took off for the Chilliwack River Road to spend a day of caching. It was cloudy and sometimes a little drizzly, but most of the day was okay.
I will not record every cache we did and found. Some of the caches we (mom and I, or me, if you prefer) had done already, others were new to us too. Regardless of who found which one, everyone thoroughly enjoyed him or herself (or themselves, if you prefer) and all were bitten by the caching bug...and we all enjoyed the beautiful area we were in.
When most of us decided that enough was enough Henk and Alfred decided to do the remaining caches. And they did, finding each one. I forget the exact total of caches we did that day but it was a goodly number although not a record. I believe that our record is 13 for one day.
I am not sure anymore whether there was one day that we did not go out during the next week. Our group was shrinking as Henk left again on Monday, Thelma on Tuesday, Erica and Alice on Friday and finally, Peter and Petra yesterday.
I am not sure either how many caches we did in all during this period. It does not really matter. More important is the wonderful time we had together, caching or not.
I am incredibly thankful for the wonderful week God gave us, and judging by the reports of each, it was truly great for everyone whether it was a week or just a couple of days of being part of it in person. I hope everyone is already planning for a repeat next year...:)
Of course, we took loads of pictures, and of course, there is no way I can attach them all to this blog. I will let mom decide which ones are going to be it.
I wish Garmins were less expensive so we could buy one for each of you. But I am afraid it ain't going to happen...Sorry... I am very happy for Len and Thelma that they have one they can use and made history with their first cache.

Record in the Sun...

2008-02-14T20:08:00.001-08:00

The sun was out...for the first time in a long time...so we decided to take the day off (again?Alfred is grumbling, I am sure) and go do guess what. Yes, indeed, how did you guess. And we set a record...12 caches in one day.

We stayed around town and found some more parks I had never been in. You've all driven east on Downes Rd. from Mt. Lehman and seen all the trees and woods on your right before you come to MEI. Well, that is Downes Park, parts of it also known as Clearbrook Park and other parts also known as Ron Wiebe Playing Fields. Don't have a clue who Ron Wiebe was, maybe a geocacher...

The most interesting cache was called Stairway to Hell/Heaven. The trail leads to a set of about 8 sets of stairs going down...easy...but a few hundred feet farther you go up about the same number...puff, puff, puff...Never been there either; didn't know it existed. According to Mom there are more stairs farther up/down...hurray!!! Maybe I will go there one day...Perhaps we could hide a cache there for you to find...The picture at the top gives you a bit of an idea...

The forecast for tomorrow is guess what: rain. The forecast for Saturday: sun! And for Sunday: sun. And also for Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday...past that we don't believe the weather man no matter what he says.

So in a few hours Henk will be here, and then one more night of sleep and y'all be here. Hurray!!!

Getting too excited...better stop.

Good night and see ye...

It dawns on me only now that most of you won't even read this before you read this. Too bad; it is such a happy story.

Love y'all,

Dad and Mom, Dad and Sandy, Grandpa and Grandma, Opa and Grandma...

Must some rain fall in our life?

2008-02-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, already another post.! If it is too much, you can wait a few days to read this one.
Today was Saturday (which means a day not interrupted by work) and, in spite of the rain, we left home at 9:15 to head for the Cheam Wetlands, a place I had never heard of before but where the Chilliwack Naturalists had scheduled a walk-about to look at birds and nature in general. I am not sure if fog and rain are part of nature but we had it in abundance. The place is an old marl quarry, marl being something like limestone. It is believed that about 5000 years ago the peak of one of the mountains in the Cheam chain came sliding down and filled the valley, re-routing the Fraser and causing all kinds of other things. Did not see a lot of birds, except for on our way back in the Sumas Prairie: about 600 swans in a field.
The walk-about did not take that long so after it was over we set ourselves to find a cache in that area. Quite a quick and nice find by the lady cacher.
After that, on our way out, we stopped at 'The Mint' and located another one, placed there by some people from Amsterdam. (Hence the name: it is a tower in A'dam which onced housed the Mint). Then we went into the Bridal Falls park and found yet another one. We walked all the way up to the Falls but once again found it very hard to take a good picture of it. But regardless, it was a nice walk and the weather had improved a bit by then.
On our way home we stopped in Sardis to pick up a boterkoek that Kirstin had baked for us. We were home around 4, nicely in time for a short nap.
On that sleepy note I will leave you for now.
The picture shows you a scene of the Cheam Wetlands.
Love, Dad and Mom

Caching in the Snow

2008-02-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Yes, you can sing that to the familiar tune...

There has not been a lot of activity in this blog off late simply because there has not been a lot of geocaching activity lately. The weather has been very uncooperative and, unfortunately, there is really no improvement in sight. So those of you who are soooooo looking forward to joining us in this, be prepared with rain gear and perhaps snowshoes.

Seeing that the shop has been slow, we have been out a couple of times but not for very long and nothing much to report. Yesterday we finally did what we had been planning for some time: scout the area where we want to take our guests next Saturday. So we ignored the rain and cold and went to the Chilliwack River Road. Our aim was to find a number of caches along this road so that when we take you there, we can just stay in the car in case it is raining heavily or snowing...

Our first two finds were not that hard. The second one confronted us with a 'snake' as you can see. Trying to park before we went for the next one landed us in a snowbank and stuck. But the pusher in our relationship got us out again. Too bad we did not take a picture of that. The third cache required a bit of a hike up a fairly snowy hill but we found it.

We are still excited about this hobby. It takes us places we have not really 'seen' before, it gets us out of the house in the fresh (very fresh) air, we are dealing with challenges, we are doing it together and yes, we are looking forward to letting you share in it and perhaps be bitten by the bug as well.

Today we went out again to re-visit two sites that have so far skunked us to see if we could solve them now. Alas, still not. We have to take you guys there and help us. One is in the park right behind us, of all things.

See you in a week or sooner...

Blahblahblah...

2008-01-10T20:39:00.001-08:00

Ever since we got some kind of flu on Boxing Day I have not been feeling great. My stomach continues to bother me and as a result I have not been in the shop a lot since we opened again after New Year's. We are glad that Sandy has been able to go in and very glad that Alfred is managing quite well on his own when neither of us is there. Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise that is has not been that busy.

Yesterday we decided that we would perhaps take this Thursday and Friday off and do some different things in the hope that I might start to feel better. Well, time will tell about the feeling better, but we did something very the samedifferent today, to wit go geocaching in spite of the rain and generally bad weather. We have some good rain resistant clothing, as well as some umbrellas which work wonders in windstill conditions except that they interfere somewhat with our GPS reception. We also went to Bellis Fair (had not been there for years) to get me some hiking boots. Success! No more wet and cold feet when slushing through pools and mud to get to a cache. Sandy got hers in the morning in town.

We are becoming old hands at this geocaching thingamejiggy... we did six today. We have a total of 14 finds to our name (handle...in case you are confused...).

We found three in the morning in Abbotsford, and three on our way back from Bellingham in Sumas.

A lot of them were micros today, some nano micros: tiny capsules containing a very thin strip of paper on which to write the date and our handle(name). Some were magnetic, stuck to some metal post, others in holes in poles or in concrete... A picture is attached, not really in the spot I would like it, but I have no choice in the matter it seems.

By the way, Thelma, again I typed the title, hit enter, and off into blogger space it went...i will try to delete it... This one is proceeding without problems sofar...hold my breath...

If you would like to follow our conquests, go to geocaching.com, click on 'hide & seek a cache' (left top of your screen), scroll down to 'found by username' and type in 'goinggone', click on 'go' which will take you to a list of all the ones we have found.

Happy clicking!

Blahblahblah...

2008-01-10T20:39:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

We wish you all a blessed and happy new year.

We all know where our blessings and happiness originate; may we not forsake to pray and give thanks to our Father for all we need and receive.

May we all walk in the faith that he will provide what we need, even if that is not always what we would like or think we need.

I was thinking this morning, I forgot in what context, that one tool God uses to shape us is what I will call the No-Tool. Could it be that when we ask, we look for something to be added to our lives? Could it be that we are always in danger of wanting to get too 'fat'? Does God need to use the No-Tool to 'reduce' us to a state of 'fit-to-receive', which does not necessarily mean that we then will be showered with new blessings...The greatest blessing might just be that he allows us to attain to this state of 'fit-to-receive'. Think about it...

We had a quiet day today. Spent some time geocaching, of course...Stop in at the Siebengas to get our fill of oliebollen...they were very good, but not quite what I look for in an oliebol...I believe these things are so totally personal that one can really only enjoy one's own completely fully...how's that for a well composed taste-test report...

We found our third cache...not the one that got us stumped yesterday...more about that later...quite an easy one, close to home again.

On our way to the Siebengas we stopped at Upper Sumas Elementary to find one that John S. himself placed there. It involves some math to come to a new set of coordinates, and the math did not work. I ended up with a negative number, and that does not work for coordinates on earth, only in the netherworld...

As to the one that had us befuddled yesterday, I actually had the solution in my hands first thing we got there yesterday...but that did not dawn on us until today. It also involved a new set of coordinates, so into Horn Park we went again...darkness got the better of us there, so the second part of this one will have to wait some more...

I am not promising to write an account or post a picture of every time we go out and 'score'...life has other business to attend to as well. Nevertheless, stay tuned...

God bless.

Blogging We Go!

2007-12-31T21:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, blogging we go.

It's all a result of my Christmas present which caused us to become geocachers today. We thought it might be nice if we kept you, and the world at large, posted on our feats and failures, that is, if the latter should occur...don't hold your breath, please!

My Christmas present was a Garmin GPS 60CSx. I accepted it in the usual way I accept all new things: not graciously, illustrating again how I do not do well with surprises, new things, or spending money on myself.

"You cannot foist a hobby on someone." "It is way too much money." "Lets just send it back."

You can't really send back opened packages of electronics...so here we are...might as well read the manual...buy batteries for it, maybe re-chargable ones...need a charger...

Anyway, today was our first day out in the bush geocaching, together with John and Bettie Siebenga who have about four years or caching under their belt. And we found our first cache!! Record it for posterity!!

The picture is the proof (if I can find a way of getting it in here...and not lose the blog...this is my third draft... the rest has already gone the way of 2007...

We did a second one, still accompanied by our trusted teachers. Found it. No prob. We are pros! (Have we figured out even 25% of the GPS thing-a-ma-jiggy? But that's beside the point. Be quiet!)

So after John and Bettie left we went for our third one...difficulty rating 3 (5 is high). Got stumped! It wasn't anywhere to be found. I guess someone stole it...

We will try again tomorrow, humbly...

And by dint of the fact that today is not tomorrow, this post needs to end before tomorrow...

Sleep well,

Love,

Opa and Grandma.