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.

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.

Editorial: Winter Blues,,,

Let me start off by saying this: I'm NOT a fan of winter. My love of Geocaching is not helping that. Winter means it's cold (so you don't want to Geocache), it snows (traveling is harder and so is finding caches) and the days are shorter (meaning less time to Geocache). Overall winter is sort of a Geocachers nightmare, there's been a total of 3 new caches in my area and with the Holidays coming full swing I doubt there will be many more (thus ending my FTF month streak).

And you can see the effects winter is having in my stats, I currently have a total of 7 caches. Compare this to my lowest month July 44(other than when I started Geocaching in mid-March at 42).

Right now I find myself reading Geocaching blogs (Fermentums GeoBlog is a great new one) and the GC.com Forums.

So what gets you through the Winter months? Any tips for Geocachers on the hunt in winter (besides the obvious don't get yourself killed tips)?