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!

Little Big Change!

Just a note to say that today August 3rd 2012, Just Leafy and I have officially amalgamated ourselves into The GO! Team on geocaching.com.

This comes the day after our two year geo-anniversary, and was not a decision that was made lightly. 
We have discussed this for many months and finally decided it was the right thing to do.  So as of this day forth we log all caches under my account that was changed to the new/old team name only.

We do wish to say that since we have established ourselves as Shadowcaster and Just Leafy in the geocaching community, we wish to be still called by those names when attending events and such.

Thank you everyone for your understanding and consideration on this matter

~The GO! Team~

Two Year Geo-Anniversary And Going For The Island Caches Part 2: Matheson Lake

Wow we can't believe another year of geocaching has gone by. 

We started caching on August 2nd 2010, and this Aug 2nd marks our two year geo-anniversary and we felt it would be nice to get a cache on that day... But it could not be just any cache, it had to be special. Since these island caches are a bit harder to get to, we felt that it should be an island cache on this special day. And we chose this one to commemorate it!

Just Leafy and I got up decently early and got all the gear together, loaded up and headed out. We took turns getting the boat inflated and grabbed a couple of shots of that, we even had a butterfly come an alight on our craft while we worked! It was like it came to give us its blessing... Ok not really, but it sounded cool right!?

We got to the water, Leafy jumped in the boat and I put on my flippers. That's right I was the motor this time, and my old scuba gear came in hand on this trip lol! While on route the camera crapped out, and so our journey seemed like it was not going to be documented at all. But once on the island I remembered my Oregon 550 has a built in camera, so we got a couple more shots.

Found the cache really fast because it was out in the open, so we signed the log and re-hid it where the hint pointed to. And then we sat by the water and talked for a while about possible geo-adventures in the future, and then made the trip back to shore!

Thanks for a fun cache to do on our 2 year geo-anniversary V.I.P. FAMILY!