Out With The Old, In With The New - Happy New Year 2013!

Well just wanted to do a quick and last blog post for 2012.  Just Leafy and I wish everyone a very happy new year.  May 2013 bring everyone the very best, tons of amazing adventures and of course lots and lots of geocaches!

Happy New Year!!!!!

12-12-12 Events and Night Caching with Giant Pickle

So 12-12-12 the last time the date could be the same numbers consecutively for about a hundered years has come and gone, and we geocachers really did it in style. 

There were three events in the Victoria area today, and we The GO! Team had all events covered;  while I Shadowcaster attended the Grifung event in View Royal, Just Leafy attended the Oak Bay event...  Ahhh the convenience of being a team under a single banner!

The events were "The end is near!  Flash mob - GC40KTG" hosted by Grifung, "12-12-12 Behind the Tweed Curtain Flash Mob - GC3YHWT" hosted by AnnieMaroo, and "12-12-12 Event - End of the Mayan World - GC40MRX" hosted by Landsharkz.

The Grifung and AnnieMaroo events were earlier in the day at about the same time on opposite ends of town, while the Landsharkz event was in the evening at a local pub!

I will take my turn first and write about the event I attended,  "The end is near!  Flash mob - GC40KTG" hosted by Grifung.

As I pulled into the entrance to the park in View Royal where this event was being held, I could tell this would be an interesting one.  There were already a lot of people already there, and the parking lot was totally full.  Figuring that the line of cars properly parked were cacher cars, I parked blocking them just like many others had done... Only to find shortly after that they were not, as a group of grumpy dog walkers returned to the lot to vocalize their displeasure at our presence.  

Oh well sucks to be them really, we just moved the cars around a bit and stayed as planned.  There was not a chance that these grumpy ladies were going to hinder our plans for a 12:12pm on 12-12-12 group photo.  

Soon the time got close and as we all arranged ourselves into position for the photo, Dave (Pracademics) came whizzing into park, jumped out of the car and ran into frame...  Talk about good timing!!

Grifung began to count down, smiles were plastered onto our faces, and then it was done.

As people took off to return to jobs and/or return to caching on this day, many stayed for a few min to log trackables and chat.  I stayed for as long as I could, but then slid out and headed for home.

While that was taking place Just Leafy was in Oak Bay at the event she attended, "12-12-12 Behind the Tweed Curtain Flash Mob - GC3YHWT" hosted by AnnieMaroo.  Now she will tell you about that event herself.  So Just Leafy take it away...

What a neat day to host an event on 12-12-12! I love numbers so I can really appreciate this kind of thing. As there were two events taking place at the same time Shadowcaster and I thought it was a great idea if we both attended one event each since we're a team now...and that's what we did! I guess you really can be in two places at once!!
It was great to see those of you who attended this event (Behind the Tweed Curtain Flash Mob) and hopefully there will be a larger turn out for the event being hosted by Landsharkz tonight!
I LOVED trying to get my photo with the dogs that were there...it was quite comical!
Thanks AnnieMaroo for the chocolate, I enjoyed every last bite!

Later that day we got out and did a few caches out near home that we were saving and went home to prep for the evening event  "12-12-12 Event - End of the Mayan World - GC40MRX" hosted by Landsharkz.

At this event we had a great time.  It had been many many years since the last time I was at Ma Miller's Pub, but the food was as good as it was back then.  Sometimes at these kind of events it is hard to socialize due to people sitting in groups and not really migrating around, but we did what socializing we could.

As the evening progressed the pub set up for it's weekly Karaoke.  Some of us were brave soles that went up and sang our hearts out.  This included Wrooster doing "Sweet Sixteen", Nanakatz doing some song (sorry I don't remember), Wrooster with Just Leafy and I doing "It's End of The World As We Know It", Steve of Islandfinders with Just Leafy doing "Love Shack", and myself rocking "Enid"!

After the event Giant Pickle asked us to join in on some night cache adventures, and we headed out to do "Quest for the Nocturnal Shark - GC1R8RN" and while attempting it knocked off "Rocky Horror Shark Show - HAG VI - GC23NP1" by chance.

What a great day for caching, and attending a series of fun events.  Thanks Grfung, AnnieMaroo and Landsharkz for putting it all together!

 Oh and check out the newest geocoin to join our collection too!

ABRUPT ENCOUNTER WITH REALITY GEOCACHE With Paulboy, Cougar Kid and Pracademics

Well back in August I did POINT DEFIANCE GEOCACHE with Mr. Moss Troopers and Pracademics and attempted ABRUPT ENCOUNTER WITH REALITY GEOCACHE but we were met with a closed gate, that impeded us in getting there. A decision was made that we would just not do it that day, and we moved on to get other caches in the area and come again in the fall in hopes that the gate would be open.

Time went by and plans were laid, but sadly this time Mr. Moss Trooper had to decline... This then required us to find a new team to go up with us. I first tried to get alyseluvsmike involved, but they had plans to be in Nanaimo with Creaky Clan Chris the weekend we were planning for, so obviously they could not come!
So who else would be up for coming with us... I thought and thought and thought.. Ok I didn't think that much becasue the answer was obvious....  Paulboy and Cougar Kid.

I met up in the morning of Saturday November 24th with Pracademics, Paulboy and Cougar Kid, and started the long drive out to this wonderfully beautiful area. Laughs and jokes kept us lively the whole way up, but the ever present wish of an open gate for easy drive up was in our minds.

We first stopped at a familiar location to let Paulboy and Cougar Kid get POINT DEFIANCE GEOCACHE, and once we did that we were on our way to the most important one of the day.

But sadly when we arrived our hopes at finding an open gate were crushed due to active logging in the area, and this time we had to resort to plan B... Walk the 4.1km up!!

 This is a steady uphill climb, but with steeled hearts we trekked all the way to GZ, me being the slowest of the group yet the youngest..  Guess all my weightloss this past summer didn't increase my uphill stamina at all!  When we arrived on site where the hide would be we began the search and made a quick find.  It was really cool to find that the original lid was present at the hide site.

Of course we took the time to take some goofy photos, and had a bit of a rest and headed back downhill.

It is nice to get another iconic TEAM cache found, and even nicer to find it with fun and wonderful cache friends.

Thanks for keeping it alive!

The Return of Hobo & Miss

Hi there everyone!

Just Leafy here!!  I'm excited to write my very first ever entry to our geo-adventure blog.  Why is it that I get a chance to write one??  Well, the answer is because Shadowcaster for once could not attend the event as he was working that evening.  I thought it would be a good idea to attend so I went without him.

As most of you may remember back in May of 2011, Hobo & Miss of jolly ol' England came to town and hosted an event at Swans Pub here in Victoria.  I believe that this is a previous entry in our blog marking our 999th cache back then!

Hobo & Miss were back again on November 9th and they held an event to check in with old friends and to meet some new ones!

I brought a girlfriend along with me who is curious about geocaching so she could start meeting the geo-caching crew within the community and to hopefully boost her interest further with the social aspect of the game!  I can't wait to show her some of most creative caches out there once the weather gets warmer and so that a full day can be made of it!

We enjoyed the company!  There was lots of laughter and we had a great time playing music bingo!  The food was terrific and can't wait until I return to have those nachos another time!! 

It was sure nice to see Hobo & Miss again!

A big thanks to them for hosting the event bringing some of us together and a big thanks to all the cachers who showed up too - it's always great to see familiar faces!!

Plans Made, Team Chosen, Team Signature Item Designed & Now The Long Wait...

The gears have been set in motion for quite some time now for us thanks to our good geo-pal Paulboy. 
This intrepid cacher has had this idea for some time to get a group of fun, crazy, out of this world cachers together to go down to Nevada and tackle the ET Highway Cache Series.
This series is two thousand caches long, spread out over a nice long stretch of highway.

The date is set, the flights and hotels have been booked, budgets have been discussed and we are ready to go!

Our cache team consists of Paulboy, Cougar Kid, bigbluemarble, JuRuu, seekandsail, CRkyaker, Postie Bear (my dad) and us The GO! Team (Shadowcaster & Just Leafy). 

We will be kicking off this adventure with an event at the Luxor Hotel and Casino the day before we start, and caching our brains out for five days after.

Our cache team is called the CIA or Canadian Island Aliens and we have t-shirts, hats and pathtags with our team logo (designed by me Shadowcaster)  to go along with us.

We may even toss in an event here before we leave to collect trackables to take the Las Vegas with us and for people to wish us Bon Voyage, so stay tuned for more info on that.

Mid-Island Halloween Costume Event, Night Caching, 1900th Find & 12 FTFs

October 27th, 2012 was the Mid-Island Halloween Costume Event in Comox, hosted by cachers Coast2Coast2Coast and Let's Go Caching at the Comox Recreation Center.  This was our first event this far north of our regular event attending circle and it did not disappoint.

We picked up Paulboy in Ladysmith and made the trek up to the Comox Valley in the dreary and unceasing rain.  On the way up Paulboy told us there would be a series of Night Caches that would get published that night, so when we arrived in Comox Just Leafy and I had to pop into Wal-Mart to pick up some cheap rain gear so we could do them without getting soaked to the bone.  After we picked up that equipment we jumped back into the geo-mobile and headed to the Rec Center.

We arrived early enough to figure out that we had messed up at little.  As it turns out this was a potluck event, and we didn't have anything to contribute.  But luckily my dad who is now a new cacher and resident of Comox was going to attend, and we were able to inform him so he could bring something for the both of us.

It was nice to see and meet so many cachers, and also nice to catch up with those that I already know but don't see too often.

So many people came in costume, and there was a contest by ballot for the best costumes.  Categories were:

Top Overall:  Awarded Magicman65 (King)
Best Geocache Costume:  Awarded to 3 kids dressed as trackable lizards and Kurt of Let's Go Caching (Garmin Maps GPS)

Best Couples Costume:  Awarded to C2C2C and wife for dressing up as Sunny & Cher

Best Kids Costume:  Awarded to Chickadee Rose for dressing as Princess Peach

(See photo at end of blog entry to see the costumes)

As the event came to a close we wandered out and poised ourselves with Paulboy to tackle the soon to be released Night Caches.  We were still enroute to the starting coordinates when the familiar "Ping" on the phone stated the new caches were live and ready, and by the time we arrived Pollywog and HB-vanislelady were already there waiting for someone to arrive and join their group to begin the search. 
I mentioned that maybe we could wait for the larger group, and they all felt that with all the rain we should just get started.  So away we went.

What a great series!  The whole thing was Halloween themed, and each one gave us a great laugh.  The whole time we were sure there was one or two of the cache owners out there ready to scare the bejeebus out of us cachers, but turns out there wasn't.  There were thirteen caches in total, and we got FTF (First to Find) on twelve of them.  We had actually missed #2 and grabbed it later, this made me feel better as it allowed the other group to snag FTF on it.  We even hit our 1900th cache find at one of these caches in the night series!

Over all what a great night!  Just Leafy and I had a blast, and we look forward to attending further mid-island events in the future.

Tipping A Pint To Good Friends!

On the evening of the 17th of October the Cache-keteers threw an event for caching couple ScraphappyJ and Cacher Lou at the Cobblestone Inn and Pub.

We walked into the pub about 30min early to see Chris (Magicman65) already there enjoying a meal.  We joined him and talked for a while until the next set cachers arrive, and went into the billards room to sit at our actual tables.  Cache talked and the flashing of trackables ensued, all the while more and more cachers poured through the door.

I have to tell you.. If you are passing through Cobble Hill and and can have a chance to stop in at the Cobblestone Inn and Pub, make sure to do so.  The food and atmoshphere here is great.  I enjoyed the best nachos I have had in a long time, while most places skimp of the toppings this place piles them on.

Soon AnnieMaroo showed up, and after being out east in PEI she had a ton of trackables to be discovered and picked up.  So it was trackable heaven at the head table, while everyone crouched over the table and recorded numbers for later!

One of the highlights of this was that Annie just happened to find and pick up both mine and Porchlizard's Trackable Racing Ducks.  This means it made it to PEI and back again, and racking in a ton of points. 

This was good news for me, since I didn't even know mine had made it.  When it got to Alberta and then happened to unfortunatly come back to the Island, I got discouraged and stopped paying attention to its progress.  But in the mean while it seemed that Paulboy found it before going to PEI in August and took it all the way there.  So it looks like Porchlizard and I are in the lead WOOO-HOO!  But just cause they went and came back already does not mean the race is done.. So don't rest yet Porchlizard, get that ducky back out there!!!

Slowly the night came to an end, and all the cachers started to trickle back out and to thier homes (or caching).  And soon enough it was our turn to leave.

We had great time, and enjoyed the experience very much.  Nice to meet you ScraphappyJ and Cacher Lou, and thank you Cache-keteers for hosting another fun event!!

Our 1800th Find!

This cache "RACE10: Cacher Cacher Body Snatcher - GC2HB25" marks our 1800th find.

I had this mystery cache solved months ago, but never got out here to find it. Since 1800 was just around the corner we figured it was time. So today the last day of September came, and we decided we would end the month with a milestone find.
We headed out, grabbed our coffees and drove to the parking coordinates. We arrived and found a little side alcove to pull into, and away we went. It was a nice walk all the way to the cache, and while I did spot it first I pretended I didn't so that Just Leafy could have the ah-ha moment too. We signed the log, took our celebratory photo and started out.......

But this is when this dog came running out of the bushes at us. It was steaming mad, you could see the whites of it's eyes and it was bearing its teeth at us. Leafy the dog lover was seriously frightened, and was clinging to me. I picked up a stick to use in self defense just in case the animal proceeded to advance in attack. This is when we heard over the dog barks and growls the voice of some person in the distance shouting the dogs name, and it ran off back into the bushes.

We were both relieved that the dog never attacked us, it was a very nerve rattling scene. We won't ever forget our 1800th cache that's for sure!!!!!

Having Fun at the Wherigo 101 Event

On Sunday the 23rd of September the Cache-keteers held their Wherigo 101 event.
This highly anticipated event was held for the purpose of teaching cachers how to participate in a Wherigo Cache, and to give those that do not have the means to complete one a chance to get the one placed for the mega done. 

This is a very different kind of cache.  While there is a tradtional style cache at the end, you must complete the objective set forward by the Wherigo creator.  Think of this like an interactive videogame that you play outdoors in a specific location.  The tools needed for this one is a pen/pencil, clipboard, graphpaper, and a GPS capable of running a Wherigo Cartrige or at least emulate it. 

Once you are on site you run your cartrige and start the game.  In this particular case the objective is to find your way out of an invisible maze.  This is where the writing tools and stationary come in handy, as you will use these to do a little cartography.  Deadends are nothing to dispare about as they usually are programmed to dispence some clues to you to help your adventure along.  Those that are lucky enough to navigate easily through the maze don't end up with the addional clues, but can feel rewarded in having some superior intuition.  And once you find your way out of the maze, you are given the location of the traditional cache so you can sign the log.

Well back to the event.  Just Leafy and I had real trouble getting out of town this day.  I am always very upset by the one lane bottleneck just after Spencer Road, as it is amost always very backed up.   Eventually we got through it and we were on our way, but this did not stop us from being nearly 30 minuets late.
We arrived to find the event in full swing, and we got a real chuckle at seeing this small hoard of cachers walking seemingly aimless through the feild here.  From what I understand there were people driving by and literally slowing down to look at this odd event taking place.

We were ushered into the maze by Diraduck, who urged us to hurry along.  She gave us a brief but very understandable outline of what to do, and away we went.  Well wouldn't you know it, shortly after starting we hit our very first dead end.  This is when Joe of the Moss Troopers cantered over to us and gave us a hint to get us on the right track.  And armed with the hint we continued on, and started to do very well.  But then we ran into another snag, Just Leafy accidently got tap happy on the screen and cleared the junction that I needed to draw to move on.  But with some help from Tracy of the Moss Troopers we got the info we needed, and were able to continue our quest.

Well in the end we did very well!  Of all the dead ends in the maze we only hit two more, and quickly made our way through the maze.  And I think we were about fith or sixth to get to the cache and sign the log... Not to shabby for arriving late!!!


At the end prizes were handed out to the individuals that made it to the cache the fastest, and a special prize was given to the last person who happened to be Paulboy!  He got a bag of Turtles Chocolates for being slow and steady.

But wait... Who is this arriveing just as we are all coming to a close... It's John and Anne who we all lovingly call Cache Crop.  While we all hung about talking like we all usually do, we noticed Cache Crop having some issues with the maze.  So I volunteered my services and helped guide them along.  They thanked me very much for helping them out, as they were sure they would be in trouble if I hadn't. 

In the end, this turned out to be another fantastic event hosted by the ladies of The Cache-keteers!  Thank you so much SoobaxM, Porchlizard, Sheesh695 & Diraduck for all your hard work and dedication.  And thanks also goes to the Moss Troopers for being on hand to assist with their Wherigo Creation!!!

The GO! Team & Paulboy Torrorize Thetis Lake

Paulboy of Ladysmith contacted me recently asking if Just Leafy and I would be interested in a day of caching around Thetis Lake on Saturday September 8th.  Sadly Just Leafy would be getting off work that day at 7am, but I was totally available.  And so that day came, and in true The GO! Team fashion I was running behind.

I arrived 10~12 min late, and Paulboy and I did not hesitate to get started. 
We had a great time laughing our heads off at funny caching stories, and talking shop about our future trip to the states, and about my upcoming nuptials.

And of course no caching day with Paulboy would be complete without some leg scraping, spider web tangling, bug inhaling bush whacking!!!!  Oh my poor bare legs.  But really I am not concerned, becasue they will heal!

Sadly I didn't have my good camera with me, so I didn't take too many photos.  But I will leave you all with one that I did take... I think Paulboy would say it is one of his better angles!!

Overall another fantastic day out caching.  Thanks Paulboy for including me in your day, and thanks to all the cache owners for all the great caches in the Thetis Lake area!!

Caching Fun in Campbell River and Comox Valley

Well it had been a while since I had seen my parents, and figured it would be time to visit with them (and get some tech work done for my dad).  They live in the Comox Valley, and that area is one that I have only scratched the surface of when it comes to geocaching.  So really a trip up there is a blessing for a geocaching couple like Just Leafy and I.

We started our trip on Saturday September 1st, and had it planned to attemp three caches on the way up.  The first of which was in Cobble Hill, and this one particular cache was where I needed to drop off a Racing Travel Bug.  This was the final spot it had to reach, and if it did it would win the race it was in.  So we arrived a the park and made out way to the cache, and found with the assistance of another cacher that was passing by (sorry we can't remember his name).   We placed the TB and headed on our way again. 

The second stop for the last two we wanted to grab were in Coombs, home of the goats on the roof!
We found those two really quickly and then took a moment to grab one of thier famous Ice Cream Cones.  Anyone who has stopped here knows what I am am talking about!!
But that little break in the trip was done all too soon, and then it was back to getting ourselves to Comox.
Really there is nothing more to tell about that day, so that was three caches down and many more to go over the next few days.

Sunday September 2nd rolls around and my parents decide to take us up to Campbell River to get some caching done.  I took to looking on geocaching.com to see what we could do up there and found the ERT Series.  It had thirty plus caches along the road that has been converted to a trail, and I knew that was something we had to tackle.  We arrived and enjoyed our hike along this nice shady trail, netting ourselves sixteen caches total.  There were a ton of blackberry bushes along the way, so finding snacks was not a problem at all! 

We headed into town after for a coffee and got four more to give us an even twenty finds for the day.  Away back home to Mom and Dad's we went for a well deserved steak dinner.  Went to bed at a decent time to be nice and ready for the adventure the next day.  We look forward to returning to the ERT to wrap up the last of them by bike next time we come back this way.

Monday September 3rd, the real day of caching that I had planned before coming up.  I had noticed ages ago a mini powertrail of caches in Courtney that had about twenty-two caches on it.  This trail is called the One Spot Trail, named after a logging locomotive that used to run the railway that used to be here.

This proved to be a fantastic adventure for us.  The trail has a ton of shade, and is in fantastic condition 90% of the way.  It took us through wooded areas and along farmland.  Truely a gem of a trail.

We walked the eight kilometers in about two hours, and really did not feel any worse for wear at the end.  And to top it all off, we found all the caches!!  Not a single DNF (Did Not Find) out of the bunch!

And while we did this trail Just Leafy and I hit our 1700th cache find milestone!!!

Once we were done, and with the energery we had left.  Leafy, my Dad and I found just a few more and netted a total thirty caches for this day.  It's so nice to get out and get lots of caches like this in a city you don't visit too often.

Well that is all I can say really about this trip.  A big thanks to every cacher in Campbell River and the Comox Valley for all the great hides, we appreciate your dedication to providing an adventure to all who embrace this fine activity.

Oh and to my Dad.. Welcome to geocaching Postie Bear!!!  He decided that with all the times he comes out caching with us when we are up here that he should create his own account.  I am looking forward to the many adventures we can have together big guy!

CITO and Blitz Wrap Up (Two Events One Day)

Wow...  I have been pretty bad as of late trying to get these blog entries up to date, and to you my readers I have to apologize.  But lets try to get caught up now!

On Saturday August 25th AnnieMaroo was in charge hosting 2 events.  The first of which was a CITO event and the other a wrap up event for the BCGA Blitz 2012.

For those that are new joining us and possibly not a geocacher, a CITO is an event where we as geocachers go and clean up a park by removing garbage so that others may come and enjoy a clean enviroment.  The word CITO breaks up into 4 words " Cache In Trash Out", and a responsible cacher is one that practices this everywhere they go.  We all need to do our part as warden of the enviroment.

Well this particular one took place at Sunridge Valley / Galloping Goose area, a place we had cleaned up a year before that had been trashed up pretty good in the year since!

We had a great time hanging out and talking as we picked up the trash in the area.  Us cachers always have a great time getting together, the chatter is nonstop!  After about 40min it was time to call it quits, so we gathered all our trash together and stood around it for a group photo!

Here we all split up and did what we wanted for 30min... I am sure everyone did what Just Leafy and I did in the 30min... And that would be cache!  We only did one, but it was one that had been pestering us for a while.  After making that find we headed over to the Esquimalt Lagoon for the second event of the day.

This event was the B12: Blitz Wrap Up for South Vancouver Island.  I won't lie to you all, I actually don't know too much about the BCGA Blitz that takes place yearly.  But from what I gather, it is a contest to hide quality caches that match a theme.  Once hidden and once they go live people look for them of a few months and vote on what ones they think are the best.  To vote I think they click on a HTML link that is provided on the cache page description, and once the period is over the winners for a region are announced at events like this.  Ok maybe I know more than I let on!!

Anyway the winners were announced and then after there was a draw for addional prizes.  I happened to win a bag of micro-cache tubes (beware GCGV Cachers), and Leafy won a cool T-Shirt!

And becasue this was slated as another short event, it came to a close and people dispursed to do whatever they wanted again.

We had decided to take advantage of being here at Esquimalt Lagoon and knock off two earthcaches that were here.  And for this mini adventure Cameracowgirl joined us. 
An earthcache is a cache that does not have an acutal cache hidden at it, but there is a natural lesson to be learned from the area.  To log the cache you must collect the answers and/or required photos and email them to the cache owner.
Well the three of us had a great time collecting the info and pictures needed, and once done headed on our different ways home.

Again, another wonderful summer geocache adventure day.  Thanks AnnieMaroo for the events, and coincidently for your two great Earthcaches!
And to everyone we saw on this day, it was awesome to see you and we look forward to net time!

2nd Annual Geocaching Appreciation Day

On August 18, 2012 Groundspeak hosted it's 2nd Annual Geocaching Appreciation Day.  For many it was a reason to head down to Seattle to attend the Block Party that is hosted near Groundspeak HQ.  But for some of us, the tip to the states is just not an option, and celebrating in our hometowns is the only way.  Thankfully to get the souvenir for this day on your geocaching.com account all you have to do is log a find that day.



But what about those that really want to get together with fellow cachers.  Thankfully because of cachers like AnnieMaroo and the Island Spirit Organizing Committee this was totally possible.

Last year AnnieMaroo held a garden party at her home that everyone could come to, but this time she did something a bit different.  For this years event she hosted another Flash Mob photo for all of us and our K9 cacher pals.  This sure is a quick but fun way to get everyone together, and we dog lovers without one of our own can play with these lovable furry cachers!
Soon we all gathered together for the photo, and after a few snaps of the shutter we were all on our way again.   I for one am one of the last to leave, and I hung out for a while chatting about caches with Camercowgirl and The A-Team!


But this is not over yet.. Island Spirit was also hosting an event later that day just north of Mill Bay at a very beautiful and picturesque winery.  This location had some beautiful scenery and a cache right on site.
But this event was not all fun and games, there was a business side to it too.  At this event Island Spirit was handing over all the legacy caches that were placed for the Mega Event back in July to those cachers willing to adopt one or two or three... or more!
We adopted two of them (GC3H2WR & GC3H2WY), both very close to the Kinsol Trestle in the Shawnigan Lake area.  This netted us two new caches to call our own, but also a pair of the cool Island Spirit Puzzle Trackables that were available to people at the Mega (one of which we will be giving away to a friend in Alberta)!

But sadly this day had to come to a close too soon for us, as I had to return to Victoria to get ready for work.  We said our goodbyes and headed to the car, and both said to each other that this was a really great day.

Thank you AnnieMaroo and Island Spirit for the fun events!  It was great seeing everyone again, and we look forward to the next time!  And also a big thanks to Cameracowgirl for permitting us to use two of her fantastic panoramic photos from both events!!

The Beauty That Is Lantzville

On August 11, 2012 The GO! Team ended up in Nanaimo for a surprise birthday party for Just Leafy's dad.  But when traveling to anywhere as a geocacher, geocaching must be involved.  And this was no exception at all!  We knew we would arrive nice and early, so I checked GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife) for caches that would not require too much driving and not any bushwhacking.  The area that appealed to me was Lantzville, and it did not disappoint!

Lantzville is a wonderful little community, just north of Nanaimo.  The town itself has an array of nice little shops, while the outlaying area is peppered with fantastic parks and breathtaking beaches.  And all over and nicely spaced apart for walking is a series of caches on the beach and in the parks.

A really BIG thanks goes to BigBlueMarble and her daughter ChickadeeRose whose caches made up the majority of what was found.  All of them in excellent condition and filled with great swag.

But a thank you goes to eveyone that has hidden caches in the area, Just Leafy and I had an excellent time finding them all!

Going For The Island Caches Part 2 1/2: Matheson Lake Redux

As many of you will have read (or will read) Just Leafy and I went to Matheson Lake to get a geocache on the island there for our two year geo-anniversary.
We were so happy to have gotten out there to find that cache, but that adventure was really short lived and we ached for a reason to go back sooner than later.

Sure enough shortly after mentioning on Facebook that we had done it, we started getting bombarded with questions about if we got another cache while we were there!  I know I was confused and answered politely that we had only the time for the one cache, and that is when we learned that there was actually another one there on the island.
Well I tell you, the two of us started planning that trip really quick and we decided to go today Thursday August 9th 2012.


We awoke early to get the gear ready, and headed out.  This time we left the boat at home!  We chose to both swim out to the island using our SCUBA flippers, this would allow for us to get our exercise in for the day.  And really we could not have asked for a better day... It was BEAUTIFUL out, and the water was actually pretty nice once you got past the initial shock when you first plunge in!


There were muggles (non-caching folk) on the island, but they were too into themselves to notice us and our activities.  And after a short look we saw it and made the grab.  Returned the cache after signing to its home, and covered it up a little better (its was semi out in the open when we found it).

We returned to the water and donned our flippers yet again, but instead of heading back we decided to take a swim around the island first.

Around we slowly went, taking in the scenery from angles we normally would never have.  Saw a Bald Eagle flying around, obviously looking for something to eat.
It truly made our entire day and week to take the time out to do this, and we really should do it more often.

Sadly my camera that I use for water adventures is still out of commission, so all photos had to be done on land!  But at least we were able to get a couple of shots of our adventure.

We now look forward to doing our next island cache trip, so stay tuned for that particular entry in The GO! Team Adventures.

Port Renfrew with Pracademics and MossTroopers

Well today's adventure began with a conversation while in line for Pancakes at the Island Spirit Mega. 
As I mentioned in that story I was talking with MossTroopers and Paracademics and that we made some plans.  And those plans came to life on this very day.... We went to Port Renfrew!

The whole idea was to head up and get the finals for two very epic TEAM KFWB caches, POINT DEFIANCE and ABRUPT ENCOUNTER (the team really likes using caps lock).  Please note that I will not provide any spoilers and there are no geotags in the photos, you will have to figure it out for yourselves!

We all met up at the Mayfair Mall parking lot and started the drive up.  The trip was full of great stories, and laughs were had by all.  And before we knew it we were there, and it was navigation time.

We made it nice and easy to our first cache POINT DEFIANCE, and using Intel about this cache found the access point that allowed us to approach without having to bushwhack up!  The view up here was spectacular, and I could not help myself from grabbing a few pictures of the area.

We approached watching our GPS units noting the distance, and soon we hear the tell tale BEEP that says you are there.  The search was on, but not for long!  About four minutes into the search Pracademics shouts out "Found it", and the first of two were found.  Group shot taken and log signed we started back to the vehicle to go and find the next one.

We headed out to ABRUPT ENCOUNTER, but here we ran into a bit of a snag.  Sadly a gate bared our way.  But with some quick recalculating we turned around and tired from another route.  But nope this did not work either, and none of us was up for the 4km hike uphill to get it.  So this was a DNF (Did Not Find) for us.  But I promise... WE WILL BE BACK.

Luckily there are a ton of caches in the area, including a bunch that were released for the Island Spirit Mega.  So now we turned to these and made a great day out of it.  In total we got twelve for the day, and I even got to revisit some fun memories from my teen years when we made a stop at Lizard Lake.

Thanks TEAM KFWB and their cache adopters for giving this trip its initial reason, and a big thanks to all the cachers that placed caches out here.  We had a great time, and I for one am looking forward to the return trip!