The Geobears in Seattle Part 1: British Columbia

In May of 2015 at the ASP Geobash/GeoWoodstock I was invited by a trio of cachers to join them on an epic adventure to Seattle, WA for the final Groundspeak Block Party. This quartet was made up of myself, Ally&Joe and Pixie&bones. We decided to call this group... The Geobears.

• Flight

We took a morning flight out of Toronto a few days before the event. It was kind of tiring but getting through security quickly and having some Tim's before the flight was nice. The flight itself was fine, one movie and a few drinks later we were landing in Abbotsford, B.C around noon. This was actually my first time ever in British Columbia (I'd been to the Columbia Ice Fields, that was as close as I'd gotten).

Looking back at our plane in sunny Abbotsford

 

After looking around the tiny Abbotsford International Airport, we went out and got our rental car. We just barely were able to pack ourselves into the car and posed for a photo at the local "Welcome To British Columbia" sign before continuing on.

• Mission

Since this was the first time most of us had been to B.C. for caching we decided to spend our half day caching around B.C., our first stop, Mission. You might now Mission as the home town of Canadian singer/songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. So we did a quick look around downtown and grabbed a cache. Then we headed over to Frasier Heritage Park where we had lunch at the Blackberry Kitchen where we had a beautiful patio view of the surrounding mountains!

Nice view for lunch!

When then did some caching in the park, getting a letterbox on the same trails Carly Rae hiked on as a kid. After that we went and visited the Heritage Park Middleschool that Carly Rae went to as a teen (and performed in her first couple musicals) and then saw the Westminster Abbey Church. I hid my own cache nearby as well.

Clark Foundation Theatre, where Carly Rae Jepsen did musicals

Before leaving we stopped at the Mission welcome center to pickup some souvenirs.

• Virtual

Our first stop in the Vancouver area was GC3347 - King of the World virtual. This virtual was located in Harbourview Park, which was a unique park, as it was merely a strip of land along the Lynn Creek. There was a paved trail along it which led to the waterfront and a elevated lookout point. There was a wonderful view of Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and Vancouver harbour. We got our answers for the virtual and then attempted the traditional cache that was there but came up empty (it was indeed missing).

The view of Vancouver Harbour

• Bridge Wherigo & Bridge

We then headed north, up along the Lynn River to Lynn Canyon Park for the Wherigo GC1Q84F - Race to Place a Cache. The difference between the ditch-like Lynn River we saw at Harbourview Park and here with the canyon is amazing! People were in the river going down a natural slide. Because of a lack of parking, Ally and Pixie stayed with the car while Joe and I ventured on. 

Crowded bridge at Lynn Canyon

The Wherigo was a logic puzzle which was kind of tense and not for those with a fear of heights! We ended up having to cross the suspension bridge more than 10 times and one wrong answer would have forced a restart. Thankfully Joe had everything figured out and we made the find without a problem! While we were gone the girls made a find on their own too.

In the trees at Capilano

Next stop was another bridge, the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park which crosses the Capilano River. The park is a little pricey to get into but is really fun. In addition to the bridge there's a tree top canopy tour and a neat suspended walkway. Even though there's no caches, I'd highly recommend stopping by if your nearby. 

Suspended Walkway

•  Stanley Park

Our next place was Stanley Park, this massive almost island-like park was fantastic. We first went to Prospect Point, which had a amazing view of Lions Gate Bridge and North Vancouver. There we got our first earthcache in BC and a traditional cache. A struggle was trying to get GC51KDK - Flash and Dash to the Cache, our first mob-style cache. That website was buggy for us and took a lot of trial and error to finally get everyone online. The cache was thankfully a quick find once we had the coordinates.

View from Prospect Point

We continued down the road to GC3R2R1 - The Hollow Tree - Big Red for pictures before heading to GC3P382 - Deep Thoughts - In the Cathedral for our first multi-cache in B.C. While doing this one Pixie was attacked by a viscious banana slug! Okay, not really attacked but we all got a good laugh. Our time at Stanley Park was far too short, as we probably could have spent all day there!

• Canada Place

Next up was GC3WQYC - CPC (Canada Place Cache). Located at Canada Place, the cache is the most favourited geocache in British Columbia. The cache is fun and we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the harbour. We also got to enjoy a little bit of downtown Vancouver. Definitely need to come back sometime in the future.

Sunset at Canada Place

• Treehugger

Our final cache in the Vancouver area was GC1DD - Treehugger, placed on February 2nd, 2001 it's British Columbia's oldest geocache. By the time we got here it was the dead of night so we brought out the flashlights. This was actually a pretty tough climb but we got to the GZ and started searching. Since it was in the bush it was a tough find, I eventually saw there was a hint and after that it was a quick grab. 

• Border and Dinner

After that we headed straight for the border. We missed the Peace Arch Virtual unfortunately. We kept on the road until we hit Birch Bay (an outlet mall area) and stopped at a Jack-in-the-Box for dinner (my first time there!). We had a tasty dinner and grabbed a few nearby caches before continuing on to Seattle!

Goodbye Vancouver! On to Seattle!

• Statistics

Total Caches in British Columbia: 16

Cache Types:

Traditional

Puzzle

Multi-Cache

Wherigo

Virtual

Total Cache Types: 5

2015 Year End Review - New Posts in 2016!

Happy 2016 Everyone!

It's been several years since I last made a post and I've made a New Years resolution to start up again! 2015 was one wild and crazy ride. Some of the Geocaching Highlights:

• Going on a Geocaching tubing trip down the Credit River outside of Toronto!
• Attending the ASP Geobash and Geowoostock in Maryland! I did 15 States or Provinces over two days and got the oldest caches in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts!
• Passing 8000 finds!
• A day in Washington D.C. with over 30 virtuals!
• Travelling to Montreal on a fun Rush roadtrip!
• Finding all 81 D/T in a month!
• Attending the final Block Party in Washington State! With my new group, the Geobears, we also went to British Columbia (and got the oldest cache there!) and Oregon (got the oldest cache there too and visited the Original Stash Tribute Plaque). We went on an HQ tour and went to the Going APE Mega!
• A ton of fun events including the Lennox and Addington Mega-event, GHAGAFAP and 2015's GIFF!
• Crossed a Lake on a Jet Ski to get a cache on Long Point!
• Got my most finds in a year with 2016!
• Met a bunch of amazing people! Including a certain special someone...

2016 looks to be an interesting year as well! New places to explore and caches to find. It's a Leap Year so that is going to be fun! There's the issue of Challenge caches and how Groundspeak will deal with them will be interesting too! 

Stay tuned for more posts in the coming weeks!