The Cache-keteers Get Their Quack On

On April 29th, 2012 the Cache-keteers held an event back at the very same cafe where I proposed to Just Leafy back in December.  Just Leafy was exstatic to be returning here, and I can understand why!

The purpose of this event was twofold:

1) The usual get together and chat

and

2)  The start of thier cross Canada ducky TB race.

So what they did was choose from Diraduck's huge collection of little rubber duckies a representitive of themselves and thier husbands.  And with that got them all ready and tagged up with travel bug dog tags.  You can visit thier website to see the contestants of the race and track thier point progress HERE.  The point to getting all of us cachers together for this part of it is to get the trackables into our hands and watch them scatter in many different directions to start thier journey. 

The main goals for this race as they set forth is for the trackable to reach Prince Edward Island and return to Vancouver Island before January 01, 2013.  This gets thier trackables 500 points for reaching each of those destinations.  There are other ways to get more points which are also detailed in the link I provided above.  So technically one could win if it met the other criteria enough times without reaching either destination, but that would mean alot of traveling and such.

Another cool aspect of this particular event was that they were looking to add one more person to this race. They did this in the form of a contest, and the contest winner was whoever had the next closest birthday.  And that person was ME, ShadowcasterCDN!!!!  So out of the collection of rubber ducks I chose one that was painted like a Canadian Goose.  I felt this would fit perfectly with the cross Canada theme!  But also because I am not a Cache-Keteer and all their duckies look like duckies, this way I can stand out from all the rest. 

I also won a little basket of duck related items, two of which I gave to EternalKarma's little girl!!!
Speaking of which, after the event EternalKarma came with us to the Kinsol Tressle and we aided in them getting a few more caches along the way!

Thanks a ton Cache-keteers for another great event, it was such a pleasure to return to this little cafe!
And to all the cachers who attended the event, it was very nice to see you all and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

PS:  IT'S 3 MONTHS TO GO TILL THE MEGA IN COWICHAN!!!!!!!

Earth Day K9 Flash Mob Event

Well as the weather gets better and cachers start to wander out a bit more, it is to be expected that an event on Eath Day would be in order.  And AnnieMaroo did not disapoint!  She planned another flash mob cache event at Beaver Lake, but this one was geared toward cachers of the canine persuasion.  And as the time to line up came, we all bunched up at the picnic shelter and our picture was taken.

This concluded the flash mob portion.  But now down to business!!  There was a new cache near by that had not been found yet, so a group of 20 or more of us headed into the bush to find it. 
And as an hour of hunting and passed, we all tired of the failure and slowly departed to do other things.

Needless to say the cache owner of that particular cache fixed it up so that it would be a bit easier to find, and it was found later that day!

Thanks again for a fun excuse to get together AnnieMaroo!  And nice to see everyone again!!!

Caching Roche Cove Park with TheFutureSpud

What a glorious day caching it was on April 14th, 2012.
And what a great day for thefuturespud to get out and cache for the first time in about a year. Anyone who has read our earliest blog posts, or has checked out mine and Just Leafy's profile on geocaching.com will know that thefuturespud is the man who got us caching in the first place. To be fair he did not introduce us to caching, as that honour lies with Sahara_Jeepers from Nanaimo. But it was thefuturespud that showed me there was an app for my phone, and that started the whole adventure and unleashed Just Leafy and I onto the unsuspecting Vancouver Island caching community!! So now you know who to blame!!

But anyway, for some reason he did not stick with geocaching. And as our numbers started to rocket skyward, his stayed way down under 100. So we were excited when he asked if he could come out with us and cache somewhere. Looking at the maps at geocaching.com I chose Roche Cove Park. There was a looping trail that had about 10 to 12 caches that we could do in about 2~3 hours, with easy to moderate terrain ratings. And because this was a place that I have not been to since my mid-teens I figured what a great place to go cache!!

We arrived and got our packs ready, and started with a cache that was located right in the parking lot; "Sign of The Times.... Roche - GCQ7X0". That turned out to be a nice easy start, but man the log sheet was smelling pretty funky. With that complete we turned our attention to the Cedar Gove Loop. This is a very nice trail, with a bunch of easy'ish caches all the way around. The only thing was the heavy rains we had the week leading up to this day had caused it to become very muddy at spots. But we did not let this bug us, and we were able to get through these muddy patches with ease!

We had a great day caching this area, and ended it all with "Water Music - GC32K06". The caches were pretty well stocked (if they were large enough to hold anything), and the logs were in great shape for the most part too!

Thanks to all the cachers that have hidden in this wonderful park!

East Sooke Park and Easter Event

On Saturday April 7th, Just Leafy and I joined forces with Paulboy of Ladysmith and tackled the ESP (East Sooke Park) Series.

We really could not have asked for a better day! The sun was shining all day long, the temperature was beautiful, and the air was full of the smells of spring. And that is really a geocacher's perfect day.

We started out with a couple of caches down on East Sooke Road before heading to the designated parking area for the main set of caches on our list. But once we had those done, it was time to get serious.
We drove to the end of Parkheights Drive which starts you out at the bottom of what looks to be a driveway. But fear not cachers, it is not a drive way! Just follow it up (on foot) and you reach the park trail/road start.

We began our main set of caches right at the sign, and started the giant loop of caches following the trail not to far away. The second cache was muggled (stolen), but luckily Paulboy had an extra pre-made micro cache in his hip pack. using that we replaced the stolen one and were able to log it as found.

The hike itself was fairly easy. A lot of ups and downs smallish hills, but nothing to get to concerned over! And the scenery was just beautiful. No spanning vistas or anything, but just beautiful old forest.

When we were halfway, we decided to break for lunch. And when looking at our watches realized we had gotten all we had done in less than two and a half hours, I spoke up and told Paulboy about the Easter Event at Mt. Doug Park. We calculated that we would be done our day by 12:30~1:00pm and figured we could make it to said event before it was done. So back to caching we went!

Sure enough we were done by 12:30pm, and back to the vehicles by 1:00pm. With the 27 caches we were able to find done we snapped a picture together, hopped in our cars, and away we went to join in at the Egg-stravigant event. And found one more along the way! This gave us twenty-nine found for the whole day, including the Event!

Arriving at the event we found it in full swing! It was nice to see everyone that turned up, and especially nice to see the family I had suggested the event to had attended and had a great time.

Thanks Paulboy for inviting Just Leafy and myself to join you in East Sooke! Thanks to The Incredibles for the Easter Event. And nice to see you all again!

HAPPY EASTER!!!