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

From the Bash to the Stock Part 2

Day 4
Early in the planning of the trip I had to make a decision: Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Both cities were good candidates but the thing that made me choose Pittsburgh was that to get through to Indiana we got to geocache in West Virginia. Which, other than the single strip going up by Pittsburgh, is totally under Pennsylvania and Ohio so I'd likely never have the chance for a long time.

So for Day 4 we started off and headed to Washington. No, not Washington D.C., Washington, Pennsylvania. We made a few finds and a DNF before getting back on the road to WV. We got off the highway near West Alexander to make sure we got a proper photograph.

We continued down to Wheeling, West Virginia, right on the border of Ohio. We picked up another cache before heading across the bridge and grabbing a few in Bridgeport, OH. We had a few more historic stops before Columbus including the "S" Bridge virtual (GC71EA) and a cache in Old Washington, where one of the northern most battles of the American Civil War happened,there is even a Confederate marker in the cemetery nearby. (GCRMJ8)

Next was probably the second most painful part of the trip. Our third Wherigo ended up being a bust as some sort of glitch prevented me from finishing. (Others have had that problem on their iPhone since then so at least I'm not the only one) even worse is that the only other cache I had in the area was 20 ft up in a tree so the entire hour or more detour was a waste.

Finally we get into Columbus and visit one of the coolest topiary gardens at A Sunday Afternoon Cache (GC897E).

We explore the city for a bit before our parking meter expires. After that we check-in to our room, where we begin researching places for supper. The Spaghetti Factory turns out to be just down the street! We have one of the best dinners ever before packing it in for the night.

Day 5

Remains of Union Stations across from Nationwide Arena

We only had a half-day or so to see the rest of Columbus so we started early at the Arena district. The district features the Nationwide Arena, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. We manage to grab a few caches (and a couple DNFs) before heading back downtown.

Statehouse of Ohio

We do a cache which takes us on a tour of Columbus including the state capitol and Ohio's Supreme Court. We even see the site of the First Wendys.

Soon enough we're back on the road and on to Cincinnati. However we take a short detour to Dayton, Ohio which is famous for the Wright Brothers. We admire the monument nearby before grabbing lunch and a neat earth-cache. From there its straight south to Cincinnati.

In Cincinnati we did another Wherigo (GC2Z5TT) which was a neat tour through the history of the area. We then tried to make a mad dash to a cache hidden at the top of a skyscraper only do come up 5 minutes late! Oh well. We go to a Reds game which is much fuller stadium this time.

The game was great as we watched a nail biter and ate hot dogs. Todd Frazier came up at the bottom of the 9th (his theme was Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me so I was rooting for him) and then this happened.

After that it was down south to our hotel.

Day 6

Now we're almost there! We being onward to Louisville, Kentucky. We make one stop on the way, Kentucky Speedway. Since I'm both a NASCAR fan and it had a virtual, this was a no brainer for me.

After that is was straight into Louisville. My first stop was Tom Sawyer (GC39E) which has been around since March 2001. The second major cache I wanted was The Muggles Take Memorial Wherigo cache (GC24G61) which was another great Wherigo.

Jen and I on the left

From there we went to the Churchill Downs for our first flash mob in this area. We then went in with everyone else to see a race. Not every day that you get "right at the finish line seats" at the same track the Kentucky Derby happens at.

After the race we scooped up a few more caches before heading to Taco Bell for lunch (where I was introduced to the Dorito Taco for the first time. Amazing.).

After that we went into downtown Louisville for another flashmob. It was a pre-event of sorts to the wedding that would be happening at GeoWoodstock.We stuck around for a few more caches before grabbing a bite to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. We then headed back for the motel which was a journey itself (every highway on ramp was closed). We needed our rest for Day 7.

From the Bash to the Stock Part 1

Day One

As far back as this time last year I began planning a theoretical trip down to GeoWoodstock. When I realized the Geobash was only a week before I suddenly started looking at a roadtrip down to the Woodstock from there. It wasn't until maybe a month or so before the Geobash that I took the idea seriously and dropped the hammer, buying the hotels, one in Erie, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville and Toledo. I was able to successfully recruit my sister to join me (she is not a Geocacher and doesn't really care for it). I figured if it's reccommended you have a partner while caching even close to home, having a partner in a foreign country on a weeklong roadtrip would be a good idea too.

So the day before the Geobash I convinced Jen that we should go down that night, rather than in the morning as we had originally planned. This was so I could grab a nightcache that was there and hopefully get to the pre-event camp fire that was being held. We got over the border fine and made are was to the Allegheny State Park. We stopped in Salamanca for some Subway and gas before we went down the winding (and dark) roads of ASP.

Once there we went out to grab the night cache which Jen actually enjoyed. After that we settled into the Geomobile and dozed until sunrise. And by dozed, I mean freezing my ass off trying to sleep. So finally sunrise comes and we are starving. We venture off when we see a person setting stuff up at the event site.

The man turns out to be one of the organizers and we chat a bit until he mentions there is a food truck open. My sister and I can barely contain our excitement when we order a pair of breakfast burritos (which were amazing) and then set off to grab a couple of close by caches. One of which is at a covered bridge which are always neat to see.

By the time we get back others have started to arrive and we head over to get signed in.  We take a look at the shops before caching grabbing my first Wherigo at the ASP Zoo cache. After a successful bunch of caches we have lunch and go to the group photo before heading to Salamanca for the Flash mob event.

With the events over we head to one of the oldest caches in Pennsylvania, Cache In The Marsh (GC211E), which is on state game lands. While I went for the cache Jen waited in the car. Unfortunately for me, although the map showed only 1000m to the cache, it did not show me the large marsh and winding trail. I get to the spot and remember that this is a projection cache and get my projection app working. Bang! A gun shot goes off in the distance. Yup, that projection looks good now! I find the cache and go back to the car (Jen probably thought I got shot or something).

After that we head to the hotel for some rest and chow to end day one.

Day Two
Today was going to be our first  major driving day. After grabbing a few caches around our hotel we head down to the first webcam cache of the trip, The Boro Web-Cam (GCN8GZ). I was of course worried as to how I was going to take the photo (with roaming and what not) luckily there was an open network nearby (library or something) and I was able to grab a picture:

 After that we grabbed a few more before heading for another oldie, the Stone Wall Stash (GCFF). We managed to find the cache with some work (mostly getting over a stone wall, go figure). We continued making stops at other caches like the Springfield Falls cache and Earth Cache, (GC45A8 &GC3CCBH) and an interesting stop at an simple parking grab where we watch a bunch of skydivers come down.

Finally we get to Pittsburgh (don't ask about the 20 minute detour we had to take!) and check into our room. After a little charging for the iGPS we head out. My #1 objective for Pittsburgh was to ride one of the incline railways and it was a success. We took the Monongahela Railway down to the city where we got out second Wherigo cache of the trip, Just Visiting (GC283K9). While down there we grabbed the Jailhouse Rock cache which is a neat puzzle dedicated to Elvis (GC22HPF).  Not wanting to push our luck (and rock climb up) we went back the incline. While Jen went to put some more change in the meter I went off to grab a nearby cache and met two wonderfully nice newbie cachers.

Yup we found it!

After that me and Jen grabbed a bite to eat and packed it in for the night.
 
Day 3
Day 3 started off with a bang. I sat my sister at a Dunkin' Donuts (free wi-fi) and headed down to get Uneven Pavement (GCB7D3), my 2nd webcam of the trip.

Possibly the worst picture ever. Thanks Jen! (That's me in the centre)

We then grabbed a series of caches in Schenely Park (including some challenges). Finally we decided to grab one more cache in the area before heading downtown. A virtual a tiny bit out of the way but it has almost 30 Favourites, Walk The Block (GCB22C). As we drive up my sister gets too close to the metal curb and POP! A broken piece of metal pierces the tire. And the spare is broken. The Geomobile ain't goin' anywhere.

After a couple kilometres worth of walking, some (roaming) calls, $200 dollars and a TON of luck we were back up and running by 5 PM. Unfortunately that makes the rest of the day a geocaching bust. On the bright side we could still attend our night festivities. We head over to the famous Primati's for a bite to eat before catching a Pirates game which was certainly a highlight of the trip.

After that we spent the night at our hotel before moving on to Columbus!

End of Part 1

Sun setting on Pittsburgh

Official Geocaching App iPhone Review

The Geocaching App for the iPhone is one of the easiest ways to go Geocaching now. It's added hundreds and hundreds of people to the game. But is it worth the price?

1. Accuracy

Since January I have found over 700 caches using the Geocaching App and have rarely had issues with accuracy. In fact it probably is more accurate than your standard GPSr when considering how long it can take a GPSr to get a signal.

2. Mobility

The Geocaching App benefits from being on the iPhone because it has a data plan which allows you to download caches on the fly. This has worked for me several times  (including just last week) when I stumbled upon a cool spot while driving or I'm stopped with friends or family during a roadtrip and want to see if there is a cache nearby.

Having a Premium account is even better since you get the Pocket Query functionality. This lets you save your data (and money) and save the caches and required maps to your phone, with this I was able to cache in both the Bahamas and US with ease. No looking up a ton of maps to add to your GPSr.

3. Maps

The maps for the Geocaching App are great. You have the choice between the Terra maps, Street Maps and Google Satellite maps. A downside is that you cannot download the Google maps to your iPhone.

 4. Logging

A great feature of the App is logging your caches. As long as you are a fast iPhone typer, submitting logs while out in the field is simple and you can even submit photos!

5. Trackables

One of my favourite features is the trackables, simply type in the tracking number and you get the goal, recent logs and the ability to discover or pick up a trackable. Really useful in the field.

Overall the Official Geocaching iPhone App is a great buy, especially when tied to a premium membership. Well worth the $10 A great buy.

Openmaps: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Apparently Google started charging for the use of its maps now, Groundspeak has elected to move over to Openmaps, currently powered by Leaflet and tiles provided by Mapquest. What are the benefits and disadvantages to cachers?

The New Maps

The picture above shows my favourite part of this transition: Clickable caches from long distances. In the above picture I can see all of southern Ontario and still pick out caches and see the cache information. It still even gives you a choice box when you've selected multiple caches. It also still keeps the basic features of the old maps with selectable cache types, pocket queries (which seem faster to me) and the advantages of openmaps (trails and other user added features).

The bad is the load times, which seems to fluctuate and are at time not even noticeable. Reportedly Groundspeak is going to host the maps on its own server which should knock out the load times. The ugly is also shown in the first picture. Gaps in the satellite imagery which might not even be gaps as it could be loading times as well.

Overall I would call this a great improvement over the old maps. I miss the look, but still the ease of viewing caches is just amazing.

Challenges.

Challenges have taken the Geocaching world by storm, whether that's in a good way or bad way is up to you. But they're here and let's take a look at what they offer us. First let me deal with some of the reasons people hate them.

•  They aren't challenging

Okay, this is Groundspeaks fault. If they had just named them Virtuals and then Photo Caches, Action Caches, etc. This wouldn't be an issue. Naming them Challenges obviously brings up images of "Geocaching Challenges that relate to getting a certain number and/or type of geocaches."

• I can't believe they count towards you finds! That really waters down actually caches.

Really? Oh and how are things like the E.T. power trail any better? This goes into the "they aren't challenging" argument as well. Not all geocaches are challenging, are they? What about people who already have Locationless challenges on their account, should those be taken away? How is one challenge worth less then finding 1000 micros in a row?

• This has nothing to do with caching, get rid of it!

First off it obviously does have something to do with caching as many are GPS based. Locationless caches were once a part of caching and now those have been returned via worldwide challenges. Challenges also replace virtuals which were (and still are) a part of geocaching.

• Well Locationless and Virtuals were archived for a reason!

Yup, Jeremy Irish actually discusses this in a Latitude 47 post that the reason Virtuals were retired is that it became too hard for reviewers to manage. This has been solved with a rating system. It has nothing to do with them not being fun.

• Geocaching is using a GPS to find a container, that's it.

Yes but my problem with that argument is that I could care less. If I can get equally fun games like Virtuals and Webcams and Locationless caches on Geocaching.com, then why the heck not?

• Kiss a Frog? Challenges are stupid

Okay someone could easily say the same thing about LPCs. But the great thing is that Groundspeak isn't afraid of getting rid of downvoted challenges and the fact that you can only post one per day and only from premium members. No virtual power trails here!

Let's get into the things I don't like now

1. The new log system, right now some idiot named Comatose is spamming the Kiss a Frog one with messages. Hey idiot, being an ass is still being an ass. Anyway, they look more akin to a forum which is not what people want, getting rid of the dates is a horrible idea too. My question is why didn't Groundspeak give this a trial run? Let Premium Members sign up for a beta and then get their feedback! 
2. Photo caches should be: "Take a photo with yourself or GPS in front of this object." Not: "Take a photo of you doing something near said object" THAT'S WHAT ACTION CACHES ARE! 
3. Searching isn't working properly. Fix it.
4. There currently isn't a minimum distance between challenges. This could lead to the Waymark problem where I'm logging a challenge for being on the Empire State Building, another one for  throwing a coin off of it and another one for throwing a paper airplane off of it. 

I think the worst part of this "fiasco" is that it really shows what spoiled brats geocachers are! You'd think there would be some measure of maturity for something that is (as of this second) only TWENTY FOUR HOURS OLD! But no, people are as I said above, spamming the logs, setting up facebook pages against it, disabling their actual geocaches, leaving for other geocaching websites! Are you kidding me? Honestly when PS3 players were having their credit cards stolen and online not working it wasn't this bad! It goes to what I've thought for a long time, many geocachers want to TELL YOU how you can play. To them I say "Don't let the door hit your whiny ass on the way out!".

"I've always loved a good challenge" - Lana Turner

Finally Done...

My 100 Days In A Row of Geocaching is done. I ended my streak yesterday with 101 days caching from May 5th to August 14th. I chose not to go on simply because it isn't really necessary. Beyond 100 days I would have to go for the 365 challenge, the problems with that are:

• Cache density in my area isn't high enough. 
• I will have to make it through the winter months, and my experience from Valentine's Day earlier this year (trudging through a huge snowstorm to get a cache) was not fun.

Instead I want to focus on making caches. I have 7 cache ideas that I need to put in motion. My time geocaching will be spent on filling up my calendar and finding more on specific days. I want to start a vlog and I'll also try to post more here.

For some reason, July/August have been pretty quiet, geocaching event wise. (Odd because it's peak summer months) Walking Woody's Event is this weekend and there is another event in south Haldimand near the end of the month. September will be much busier with GAGAFAP and then hopefully a triple event on the 10th-11th weekend, that's not mentioning my job and starting school!

I should also mention that I'm waymarking. Yup I know, hypocrite. But it's mostly for some geocaching challenges that require waymarking (example1 and example2), so I've just started taking pictures of everything with my cell phone and if it has a waymark I log it, if not I'll try and make one quickly. I'm almost to 200 visits and have close to 50 waymarks.

I'm actually kind of excited to see what the upcoming challenges feature turns out to be, I'm going to try and post one on the first day.

Multi-Record Breaking Day

Last Saturday was the COG (Central Ontario Geocachers) Mega Event in Barrie, Ontario. I set several personal records there:

1. 1000th Geocache
2. First Mega Event
3. Continued my Streak with 37 Days in a row
4. New Best Day Record with 42 caches
5. Farthest North: Old Smokey
6. Oldest Cache Found: Water Spout (July 26th 2001)

I'll post more on my experiences at 007 COG Mega Event soon!

Geocaching Bucket List

Here are some of my top goals:

• Find 10,000 Caches
• Go to a Megaevent
• Complete the Geocaching Triad (APE cache, HQ and Original Stash)
• Find both remaining APE caches
• Find a cache on all 7 continents
• Find a cache near all 14 wonders of the world (natural and man-made)
• Find a cache in 50 different countries
• Go to an event in a foreign country
• Get a cache in every state of the US
• Get a cache in every province of Canada
• Find a true 5x5 cache
• Do a scuba diving cache
• Get the ISS cache!
• Fill out my Difficulty/Terrain Rating Chart
• Fill out my Date Chart

What about you? Do you have any big geocaching dreams?

Trying Waymarking

Today I decided to try out Waymarking again. Let me just give the problems.

• Categories. There are FAR too many. I'm just going to pick a few at random:

1. 7-Eleven Stores
2. Dedicated Benches
3. Butterfly Gardens
4. Wikipedia Entries
5. Traffic Parks

 By having sooooo many categories they completely water down what waymarks are worth. I probably went past 100 on my way home today. Think about FTF hounds and how many times caches are found. Would you be surprised to learn that some waymarks are never found at all? Or haven't been found in 6 years? And these are in communities, not mountain tops.

• Finding Waymarks.  Why isn't there a map function like Geocaching.com? Oh this is why...
• Only one Category per waymark. So for, lets say, the Empire State Building. There is probably 10 different waymarks, at least. One for wikipedia, one for New York Skyscrapers, one for New York Buildings, one for Famous Landmarks, one for 1930s architecture, etc. etc. (I'm just guessing but wouldn't be surprised at all).  I've already got 26 visits for only doing Niagara Falls, Hollywood and the Queen Mary.

• Waymarks. Can someone tell me what the difference between Beverly Hills, California and Beverly Hills, CA.? Because they're both waymarks.

•  Categories. Did I talk about this before? It needs repeating. Here are the sites own statistics: Over 1000 categories for over 300,000 waymarks. Geocaching meanwhile has over a million caches and only 15 categories. Most of which are barely used.

There has been chatter that waymarking and geocaching are going to be merged. That obviously cannot happen. There's just way to many categories now. The question then becomes: Can Waymarking be saved? The answer: Probably not. The first thing they'd have to do is make multi-categoried Waymarks but from my experiences in web development it seems like that would require a huge change of the websites mechanics. As it stands now the site has barely any use, ask yourself: Am I going to go and log all the 7-Eleven Waymarks?

Either the site is going to evolve and jump onto handheld devices or its going to die. That's the only way. Especially with Virtuals coming back to Geocaching as early as this Wednesday.

In depth comparison of Geocaching.com to Waymarking.com

The bounce rate is the number of times a person goes to one page and then doesn't come back.

Okay. This is not promising.

Oh god.

May I Present: The American Civil War

Last week I read a newspaper article about the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. Nothing interests me more than history, especially military history. So immediately I wanted to know if Geocaches were in proximity to the battles. This somehow led me into making a bookmark list of them. Ten minutes later I'm opening wikipedia to do every battle. There is a LOT of Civil War battles, little did I know. It took me about 4 days to go through them all but I finished it with a total of 617 geocaches.

Bookmark List

 I made sure all of them are searchable by state (search Ten. if you looking for Tennessee) or battle name (Gettysburg or Antietam for example). There's also specific keywords like Cemetery, Tour, submarine, museum, and naval. Currently I have found zero of these caches. But someday hope to have all of them.

Some interesting ones:

GC563E The H.L. Hunley submarine cache

GCVCHC The High Bridge

GC123C One of my favourite quotes

A Proud Papa

It took awhile but I finally got the Geocache "Placing" bug. I recently placed two new caches, making my total placed caches four. This, combined with the emergence of spring, has spurred a flurry of activity in my area. Both have been found around 15 times. Pretty good considering the crappy weather we've had recently.

But I've figured out what makes placing caches so fun for me. The logs! My first solo cache was floating around in my head for awhile and I finally took the plunge. I got my cache (micro) ready and got my GPS and I was off. I spent only maybe a half hour or so looking for the best possible spot which unfortunately was hard to come by since all the major branches in the area were cut down and the hook for my cache to hang with was too small. At last I spotted a place (at the time I thought I was settling, now I realize it was perfect) and got my coordinates (I also double checked them).

After submitting it and having it go live I waited to see the response it would get. So far it's been really positive! Most saying they enjoyed the cache or that the coordinates were dead on. And that means a lot coming from cachers who have almost 4000 finds! Both my new caches have people who submitted pictures and someone also used my cache for their 100th cache milestone!

It's a strange feeling of pride. Like the caches are my children and I'm the proud father or something. Placing your own caches is a rewarding experience for sure. And to me it emphasizes that if your going to be placing caches, do it right!

(Also, try to be nice in your logs ;) )

Geocache Season has Begun!

At "Hockey Cache In Canada - Gretzky #99 (Revisited)"

Today is the first day of spring, but geocaching is already in full swing. Sharon12 and I kicked the season off in Brantford on March 2nd, grabbing excellent caches such as the first half of Coach's Crew Sails the 7 C's and March Madness! both of which 13coach13 helped create. I also finished the requirements for an Alphabet Soup, I just need to go get it!

After that was a small drought thanks to a winter "last hurrah" snow/rain storm. But I still managed to grab a few caches, including an early March FTF (which was certainly interesting), a birthday cache and introducing geocaching to someone while on a date! I was also busy publishing two caches which have thus far received very positive responses! 

Sharon12 at the Battlefield Falls Cache

Smith's Knoll Battlefield Cemetery

Finally it was the 15th and my first (in season) geocaching event of the year. Sharon12 unfortunately had to work that night but that didn't stop us from using the morning to grab some amazing caches in the Stoney Creek area of Hamilton. Of course Hamilton being the "City of Waterfalls" we got an amazing view of the Battlefield Falls. Cache of the day for us would have to go to A Tropical Drink by the legendary Blue Quasar.

One of our favs

After that I went to Brantford alone for the event and to do some caches. My first cache had unfortunate incident that had me spreading profanity non-stop. Luckily I've survived so far, but this does nothing to ease my concerns regarding the Event Curse. I mean, serious personal injury? What's left? Only broken bones and death! Anyway the cache turned out to be an FTF for me so it evens out. I got a few more caches including a my first letterbox of the year. The event itself was great, I heard a couple good stories and had a good meal. 

This Saturday was GHMGC's (Golden Horseshoe Monthly Geocaching Club) meet up in Burlington/Oakville. It was my first non-event meeting of multiple cachers and caching as a large group. It certainly made for an interesting time. After a few caches me and Sharon12 split apart from the group to get some of the most interesting caches (we were on a limited time schedule) including my first Earthcache of the year. We trooper'd through from 9 till 2:30 with no drinks or food to finish the Big Smiley Series!

Beautiful day to go caching

Overall an excellent way to celebrate my first GEOCACHE B-DAY! There is no debate that geocaching has profoundly changed my life (for the better). The people, places and things that geocaching has brought me to are unimaginable and I can't wait for more!

And its definitely not over yet, on the 30th I have another event that Sharon12 will be attending with me. And after that I'm looking into the future for possibly going to a couple CITO events, the Spring Fling mega event in Barrie and the Geobash mega event in New York!

Happy caching!

Idea for 11/11/11 Event

UPDATE: Not happening because of Remembrance Day I guess, maybe 12/12/12

Last year for 10/10/10 Groundspeak held a "event" where all cachers were encouraged to log at least one cache that day in an attempt to set a record for most caches. Cachers were promised a new Souvenir. It succeeded and thousands participated. For the Groundspeak this must have been exciting, however for your average cacher the results were only shown through given statistics and the Lost & Found video.

So what can Groundspeak do for 11/11/11 that can top 10/10/10? What about getting everyone to log the SAME cache in one day. My suggestion: A one day only Locationless Cache. "WHAT!?" I hear people crying out in agony. Locationless Cache is the only cache type that would work in this instance, any other cache requires a specific spot, severely limiting your numbers.

Locationless Caches were "Grandfathered" (retired so to speak) several years ago for good reason. They don't really require you to go to a location. But this is exactly why a Locationless Cache would work in this case. The fact that they're Grandfathered is incentive for the thousands of cachers who don't have access to them!

I think that in light of how well 10/10/10 did, it proves that the Geocaching community can get the word out. I think it would take a tiny bit of work on Groundspeaks for this to succeed. Let's make this happen!

The FTF Code of Honor

Inspired by a topic thread on the geocaching.com forums I wrote up a quick FTF Code of Honor, FTF etiquette whatever you want to call it.

1. If two or more geocachers arrive at the GZ at the same time then out of respect the FTF should be shared. Regardless of who spots the cache first. 
2. To claim FTF the cache must be found and signed by a geocacher after the cache is published
    2.1 Beta-Testers or anyone given coordinates or information before a cache is published cannot get the FTF. COs providing a Geocacher with information not given on the Geocache Page is also forbidden.
    2.2 Exception: A Geocacher or muggle finds the cache inadvertently prior to publication and can claim FTF
    2.3 Exception: Event caches or caches placed at events and later published. See Rule 4.
    2.4 Exception: An Earthcache may be considered an FTF as soon as:
                                 A. The requirements are met.
                                 B. An online log is posted.
                           An Earthcache FTF may be revoked by the CO if conditions are not met.
3. No laws or attribute rules set by the CO shall be broken in the pursuit of an FTF. Examples: Running red lights, caching at night when told not to. If any attribute rules are broken by an "FTF hound" then it automatically moves onto the next eligible finder. See Rule 5.
4. Event cache FTFs are left up to the CO
5. Confrontation and debate is to be avoided, do not ask for FTF confirmation from a CO. If you believe you have claim to an FTF for whatever reason, mark it in whatever program you use as such and move on. See Rule 6.
6. FTFs are not an official part of Geocaching, relax and have fun.

Anyone else got anything that should be added?

Guide to Posting Geocaches

1. Scout the location
1.  Use GIS maps (many counties have them) or whatever you can find to figure out who owns the property
1. If private then make the request to the owner, have information like this Official Guide (pdf)
2. If public (like a park) then make an attempt to find out if they have a policy on geocache and try to find a way to contact the park manager.
2.  Go to the location yourself. 
1. Identify things that may be hazardous to cachers this could include roads, railways, a lamp post with wires sticking out, a minefield, who knows? 
2. Identify problems the cache itself may cause. This could be harm to the environment, muggle threats or issues the police may have with it.
3. If its a park, find out if there are certain open hours.
4. Consider the terrain rating. One spot may be better if it's accessible to those with disabilities or children. 
2. Make the hide
1. The right container
1. Your first concern is making sure you have the right container. A general rule of thumb is the farther the walk, the bigger the container. 
2. Make sure you container doesn't look dangerous. This means "pipebomb" containers are right out.
3. If it is a size small, regular or large, be sure to have some "swag" in the container
   
4. It's optional but many have a prize for the FTF (may be a gift card or geocoin)
2. The Spot
1. Make sure the hide isn't obvious, not only to keep muggles from finding it, but to give cachers some challenge
3. Get the coordinates
1. DO NOT USE GOOGLE MAPS OR ANY OTHER ONLINE MAP SYSTEM
2. Use your GPS to find the coordinates for a cache. Walk towards the cache from different directions and note whether or not the coordinates are right.
3. Note any issues with your GPS (the signal lose strength in the area?)
4. Also grab the coordinates of any parking lots or trail entrances in the are
3. Posting the hide
1. Cache Type: This is pretty simple...
• Traditional cache is where you simply have coordinates to find the cache
• Multi-Cache is a cache where there are multiple stages to find a cache.
• Puzzle Caches are caches which require you to figure out the coordinates from a puzzle.
• Events, Letterboxes, Wherigos and Earthcaches have their own guides later
1. Terrain/Difficulty use the information you got while scouting the area with the system provided
2. Short description this is a brief description of the cache, include its location, description of the container and any other must know information (how to get to the cache for example). If you don't have coordinates for a parking lot, recommend the nearest legal street parking here too.
3. Long description this can be as long as you want, you can put an interesting story or the history of the area here. What you put in the cache would also be perfect here.
4. Hints There are a couple factors that come into play here:
1. How easy is your cache?
2. Is the GPS signal strong in the cache area? If your cache is at the bottom of a canyon with a weak signal and is well hidden, for the love of god you better tell me exactly where that cache is in the hint
5. Note to Reviewer The saying goes "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" in other words save yourself some hassle and explain your cache to the reviewer. Example: "My cache is a standard micro in a park" or "This cache is behind a business I have the owners permission"
6. Above all else make it look professional. It should be easy to read, contain no spelling mistakes and have proper grammar.  My first thought when looking at your cache should not be "Did a three year old write this?"
7. Submit the cache
4. Activation
1. We're almost there! View your cache listing
1. Add your waypoints this includes your parking information or trail head information
2. Attributes. Totally under utilized feature. You have 10 attributes that you can place on your cache.
1. First mark any Equipment needed to get the cache (boats, climbing gear, etc.) and Hazards such as cliffs, animals or thorns!
2. Second mark any Conditions, especially availability at night, hike distance, winter availability and whether its appropriate for children.
3. 3rd is Permissions this is important for people with dogs or bikers
4. Finally add Facilities. This can be important for people who are planning trips and may want to make a stop in your area.
3. Give it a once over, are the coordinates right? Is spelling right? Is all the information there?
5. Enable the listing! You're done! Just make sure you read the logs and maintain the cache!

Long “Weekend” Geo-Fun

Last weekend was “Family Day” Weekend in Ontario. This was perfect for a good geocache trip for a big reason: there was an event near Toronto and I needed to find an unusual cache for the Ontario Public Holiday Challenge.

I started the weekend of right with a quick geocache FTF run on Sunday before work. Carnigrewal got the FTF (which I had called since FoamFollower placed the cache). But I was able to meet some cachers including JoeyF who teamed up with me to look for a nearby cache we hadn’t found yet. We came up short but it was still fun and got me in the spirit of going to a geocache event.

On Monday it was go time. I woke up and I looked like a blizzard outside. “Darn” I thought, “How am I going to find caches in this?”. Oh well, I packed my needed accessories and left (whoops forgot extra batteries, no way that could bite me later…). Luckily the snow died out completely as I left town.

I started caching of right with Wheel of Fortune ... Spins a tough yet but interesting Dex4 cache which prays on my fear of heights.  I moved on towards the event (I was running late as it was) but I wanted some caches! So I drove around Kilbride collecting the Kilbride Country Cache, a nice tricky hide, Grandpa's Cache which has a great cache container and Restin' in Kilbride a fun multi-cache. Kilbride overall is a good place for caching a couple of hours.

After that I had to speed it up. I drove straight to the event but was still fifteen minutes (fashionably) late. I walked up to the top of the hill. Met up with Rez2100, the event organizer and the other attendees. After a quick slide down the hill I was back to caching. I quickly found an event only cache and then moved on to try and find a letterbox. Big mistake, that whole area was still covered in two feet of snow. I moved on and got two more caches before heading back to the car.

Now my batteries are dying. Bah! I fill up on gas and then the search is on for batteries. I grab another quick cache by the event and then move towards home. I’m luckily able to grab Reservoir Ducks without needing my GPS on hand. I finally roll into Milton and buy a pack of batteries ($5! might as well steal my money) and finish off the day checking off two caches in Milton and Campbellville.

Tuesday was going to be tougher. I was going to Chicopee for some skiing. Just before I leave a new cache get published… in Brantford… on the way to Chicopee! Before I can even write down the hint or read the description I’m gone. Finally I’m in Brantford and I’m walking towards the cache. The first thing I notice about the GZ is the snow. There’s no footprints! I find the cache and open it up. I see that it’s been signed a whole bunch of times? Wha? Did I write down the wrong cache or something. Weird. I put a travel bug in and leave. More on that later…

Then its on to Chicopee, I arrive in Kitchener and move to find Tube Slides and Ziplines a thankfully quick find for me.

After my enjoyable day of skiing I return home and go online to log my caches. I come to the FTF cache and I see that some else has claimed the FTF? What?! First I examine the description, it’s a cache that was formally a multi that was republished as a Traditional. That explains the strangely full log book. Now to address the FTF controversy. How can I prove I was first, other than the “no footprints”? It hits me, the travel bug! I look at the travel bug page and sure enough the cacher claiming FTF picked the bug up from the cache. Meaning he had to have come after me! February FTF complete.

Geocache Challenges

Challenges are one of the most interesting 'unofficial' aspects of geocaching. Basically Geocache Challenges are a simple traditional cache with coordinates, anyone can go and find the cache. Logging it is the tricky part. There are various rules that a CO (cache owner) can create for geocachers to be able to log the cache.

For example, I've already said that I am taking part in the Ontario Holiday Challenge. But there is a literally limitless amount of challenges! Endurance challenges encourage you to find a cache once a day for a month or even a year! Chart challenges make you fill out your Difficulty/Terrain Chart (or your Year Chart or month (finding a cache for each day of the year or month (sometimes including leap years! 2012 here I come...).

A Vancouver Island challenge where you have to find a cache in every box

Keep in mind that these can all be in specific locations too. There's DeLorme challenges where you must find a cache in every section of a map. Challenges where you have to find a cache in every county of a state. Caches where you have to find caches with names that start with each letter of the alphabet. 

Geocache Challenges are pretty much unlimited. You could have ones where you have to find a cache on every mountain in an area, or the 10 highest mountains in North America, one on every river, who knows? They're a fun and interesting part of geocaching and it's only a matter of time before they're made a bigger part of the game.

Slow December, Even Slower January!

Since the first of January, I've only found 1 cache in 9 days. A big problem is of course the cold and snow. It takes a lot to plan out a caching route during spring-summer-fall. In winter though it's even harder. Your looking for caches that aren't going to be buried in snow. That are in trees or some other object above the ground. Maybe even looking for caches that have been found recently, not just for footprints but to know they can actually be found. Just leaving the comfort of your warm home is difficult.

Another problem is the lack of caches. In good season you'd get a couple of new caches every couple days. In January there's only been about 5 new caches so far. I'm not worried about my FTF streak yet, the month is still young.

Good news though. Yesterday I did get an important cache. GC22320  was updated by its owner who found out that the information needed to get the coordinates had changed. I've probably been trying to figure out this cache since April, and it's the last cache I hadn't found located in my home geocaching territory, so to finally cross it off my to do list is a huge relief.

2010 In Review

January & February- I was... a....... muggle!
March- Got my first cache (and first DNF) on the 19th. Sharon12's first cache was on the 26th. First Multi on the 30th.
April- First Puzzle and Series cache on the 1st. My first US cache and Earthcache on the 13th. On the 27th I went on my first power trail and got my 100th cache.
May- Started off with a bang getting 15 caches in Petrolia, Ontario.I got my first Virtual and I had my first event too.

At Introduction to Geocaching, my first event cache

June- I reached my 200th cache. I got my first FTF and did one of my favourite caches of the year.  I also introduced my friend Rob to geocaching.
July- An excellent month with dozens of fun caches, including more caches in New York and the amazing Devil's Punch Bowl Earthcache. The things right in our backyard that we don't even see.
August- I attended my first major event- Dairy Daze V and the last Harvestfest and got my first Letterbox cache.

Our first and last Harvestfest

September- Got 50 caches while on a trip including caches in Arizona, California and Nevada where I got my first Webcam Cache. I also placed my first cache!
October- I attended the Petrolia Discovery Event where I got my 500th cache. I set personal records for most finds in a day (38) and most in a month (95). No doubt getting my Magellan Triton 500 this month helped.
November- I started the Geocache Tribune and got my first puzzle FTF.
December- I hate the cold, I only got 12 caches for Dec. But one of them was my 600th cache and an FTF making it 7 months of FTFs

Looking at 2011: 2011 is going to be a good year. I plan on attending Geowoodstock and getting some challenging caches. My goal for the year is 2500 caches.  That would be 4 times more than this year. I have a bunch of ideas for caches and I can't wait.

Sharon12 holding up a cache

Have a good 2011 everyone!