Ice Cream Social in the Cowichan Valley

On the 21st of July, Just Leafy and I loaded the car with geocoins and folding chairs and headed up north to the Cowichan Valley.  On this particular hot and sunny day we were going to an Ice Cream Social event hosted by our good friends the Cache-keteers.  

We made the drive over the Malahat in a decent amount of time despite being late out the door and arrived to find a large number of cachers from all over the Island already there.

This was a really fun event, full of interesting things to do to keep everyone engaged in some way.

Upon arrival and signing in we were given a Geo-BINGO sheet to fill in.  This is a fun game and a way to put names and faces with certain achievements.  On the sheet in a grid is a bunch of different things to ask cachers if they have completed.  Veteran cachers can sign most of the blocks, while novice to new cachers can only sign a few.  It is great way to meet new people, and have those people help you talk to others that you may have otherwise neglected to.  After completing your card you hand it in with your name on it and receive a ticket for the draw later.

After that came the ice cream!  The Cache-keteers had a nice selection of frozen confectioneries.  I had a rainbow ice cream, which was a very interesting blast of different flavors.  This was a type I had not tried before!

The day progressed and more games were played.  There was this very interesting game where a  person had to roll a log sheet, stuff it in a nano cache, stuff the nano into a bison tube, stuff the bison tube in a small cache with swag a logbook a pen and a info sheet, stuffing that cache into a ammo-can with logbook pen info sheet and swag.  

The first to finish the task was the winner.

When I did it, I got my finger caught in the latch of the ammo-can and got pinched really bad.  But nothing that could not be ignored... But that was my first geo-injury at an event!

Next came the ammo-can toss.  This was set up by age and gender!

The kids had a nice small ammo-can to try and wing across the field, while the adults had larger heavier ammo-cans... But the men having the largest!

I watched for a while, and then decided to give it a try after seeing my wife get in line.

Soon it was my turn and I got in my best under-arm tossing stance, gave the box a some power up swings, and then let it loose.  And it flew, and when it came to the ground it landed a whopping 67 feet away!

The location was marked, and when all was said and done I was the undefeated champion in the Men`s category!  I should be an Olympian lol!

On came the draw, and there were a bunch of winners of all the cool donated prizes from Landsharkz, World Caching and GeoKnots.  I personally won a GeoKnots friendship bracelet.

There was also a guess how many Jelly Beans there are in the jar contest too, and that was won by one of the Lemon-T clan!

Even my dad Postie Bear made a appearance on his way home from Saturna Island, I know he was happy to see everyone and glad to get a chance to talk to friends from our trip to the ET Highway.  

And after all was said and done, Just Leafy and I headed down the trail to find a Challenge Cache that we had the requirements for and a few of the CVPT caches on the way back.

Thank you so much Cache-keteers for the amazing event!!! And a thank you to everyone who was in attendance!

Event Announcement!

Hello everyone.

As you already know August is being named as the “31 Days of Caching” month. By finding a cache and logging “Found it” or going to an event and logging a “Attended” you receive a souvenir for each of the days in August. This means there is 31 souvenirs to be had!

With this in mind I figured it would be nice to help you all out and get you a nice easy smiley and souvenir by hosting an event every Saturday in August.

All of these 5 events are held in a different public park around Victoria so that there is a bit of variety.
Each of these parks have benches and picnic tables at them, but if you would like to bring your own chairs feel free to do so. Bring trackables to share, or bring your unsolved puzzles to chat with others about. The theme here is to just get together and have a bit of geo-fun.

The events will be 1 hour long from 10:00am to 11:00am so that you can get home or get on with anything else you plan to do that day. And this also allows you to save an actual physical cache for another day.

Be sure to log your intent to attend at the official event pages (links provided in the schedule below).

I hope this helps you all out and boosts your 31 day streak along in August.

See you all there.

Schedule and Links:

Saturday August 3rd - Mill Hill Regional Park

Saturday August 10th - Mount Douglas Park (Lower)

Saturday August 17th - Gyro Park  International Geocaching Day

Saturday August 24th - Willows Beach Park

Saturday August 31st - Queens Park

Wedding Day!!!

Today started like any other day... Except earlier than I would have liked.  For some reason my body decided that it was time to wake up at 6:00am rather than my alarm time of 8:00am.  Lying in bed I contemplated about what was about to happen today hoping it would all run nice and smooth.  For today we The GO! Team are to be married.

Last night after rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner Just Leafy and I parted ways like tradition dictates.  I truly wish we didn't have to keep to that silly routine, but it's what has to be done.

She stayed the night at one of her Bridesmaids' house, while my Best Man and one other Groomsmen stayed at my home.  Finally when exhaustion hit we turned in to rest before the big day, only to find that it would take way longer to fall asleep when so much anticipation was in the air.

But sleep did finally come, but this is where we come to part of me waking too early like I mentioned above.

But this crazy cacher had a plan today!  What plan was that you ask?  Well I'll tell you...  Not only was I to get married today and host my own event, but there also happened to be a CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event at 9:30am at Hyacinth Park.  And I, that CRAZY cacher that I am intended to be there... And I was!

I showed up at Hyacinth Park looking all dapper in my Tuxedo Print T-Shirt to the dismay of all who were there.  But I could not just sign in and leave, this would make me feel bad.  So I picked up a couple pieces of trash, had a couple of quick photos and was on my way.

I am sure this created quite the stir, and was the talk of event.

Moving forward I dropped my car off at the B & B we were going to stay at tonight.  Got picked up by another of my Groomsmen and headed home to sit through a couple more small panic attacks, and to get ready for the big event.  My boys did a fantastic job of seeing me through the anxiety (which was minor), and for ensuring I got to the church with time to spare.

With the time now at hand my wedding party and I stepped out into the church, and away we went.  It was like a whirlwind.  Everyone staring at me as I waited what seemed like an eternity for the ceremony to begin, waiting, waiting, waiting.  I never knew a few minutes could feel so long.  And then the music announcing that the bridal party was ready started.  I remember seeing all the girls come up and take their places, I also remember seeing Just Leafy being escorted up the isle by her dad and brother.  But that was when it all became a blur, and before I knew it the wedding ceremony was done.  

After the receiving line and a few quick photos we were on our way to my event "The GO! Team's Wedding Photo Flash Mob - GC4B4K9".  A smile played across the faces of both Just Leafy and I when we arrived to see everyone there.  So many had dressed up like the suggested theme, and that was awesome to see.  We positioned for the group photo, and had a few shots taken, and then Just Leafy tossed a special trackable bouquet that was prepared by the Cache-keteers which was caught by sophiavogt.  We moved to the logbook signed and then handed out a special gift to everyone in attendance, which was a special wedding Pathtag designed by me.

With that done we moved on to do our photos, and then the reception.  It was probably the busiest and longest day of my life... But it was completely worth it in every way!

A huge thanks to the Cache-keteers for helping run this event while we got married!  You ladies made this event way more special and magical than I ever could have. 

And thank you to everyone who were in attendance, it meant the world to us that we got a chance to share this amazing day with you!

leifa+brett: love and ducks

Well now, the days are counting down until Just Leafy and I tie the knot.  As well this means that our event "GC4B4K9 - The GO! Team's Wedding Photo Flash Mob" is just around the corner!
If you haven't logged your intent to attend yet, we suggest you do.  SoobaxM and her mighty team The Cache-keteers are hosting this event by proxy for us (because we will be pretty busy ourselves), and they have taken this simple gather together and turned it into something you don't want to miss.

Recently Just Leafy had won a free engagement video package from Paper Heart Films, and we claimed it and had the video made.  We had a blast out there on that cloudy day at Beacon Hill Park.  There was a ton of ducks and squirrels about, as well as the omnipresent Peacocks.  Feeding the ducks is an important part of Just Leafy's life, as you will soon learn.

Well the finished product is in, and we really wanted to share it with you because geocaching is featured in it.

So without further ado, we present "Leifa + Brett: Love & Ducks" by Paper Heart Films:

Buoys & Views

Over the past couple of days Just Leafy and I did a couple of caches that deserve a bit of recognition. 
You see, we have been working to fill in the cumulative 366 day calendar in our geocacher stats so that we can complete the requirements for a specific challenge cache.  Sadly I do not remember the challenge cache's name.  But I am sure one of my readers will contact me and refresh my memory.

Anyway, the first cache we did was one that had been on our radar for some time now.  This cache is "GC11W1K - High Wire Act".  We have talked about getting this cache every time we drove past it going up island, but its placement on the Malahat is not convenient.  I know many say they go for it when they are stuck in traffic when the crawl is at a stand still, others just go for it whenever.  But I never liked the idea of either, as you are at the mercy of the traffic actually letting you back in.  So my plan was to just get up super early in the summer so that it is daylight at 5am, head up and park on the shoulder and go for it.  Since there is no traffic at that time, getting back on the road would be a breeze.

Well up we went on 06/26/2013.  For some reason both of us were awake at 4:30am that day, so we went and got coffee and watched a sunrise.  Once that was done we decided this was what we would do next.  As predicted there was no traffic, and we made the 5min walk up to the cache.  We got pretty scratched up and had soaking feet by the time we got to GZ, but the view was worth it.  We took a few pictures and headed on our way.

The next one of mention was a multistage cache called "GCPX82 - Buoys will be Buoys" that we did on 07/03/2013.  We figured this one looked like it could be a nice short easy one to do.  When you are only a week away from your own wedding you need to have the time to get all you need to do done in a day, so short and easy is best.

Before heading out I was able to do the projection from stage one from home, but we stopped there away to take a photo.  Then we drove to the second stage to collect the 4 digit number that was required.  While there snapped another photo (no spoilers included), and headed back to the car to do the basic math to move on to the final.  Once that was done we were on our way.

We arrived as close as we could to the final for parking, and looked at the GPS.  Well it took us to a wall with a big drop, so there was no way we were going to hop that.  So down and around we went, and now the GPS wanted us to wade through a private pond for 60 meters.... Well that wasn't going to happen either.  Standing there stumped as to what we did wrong I happened to spy a friendly face in the distance.  It was Mr. Moss Trooper carrying some wood up some stairs.  I called out to him, and he turned and smiled calling out asking "What brings you to this neck of the woods".  We told him, and we asked if he had done this one before.  It turns out he had, and he pointed it out for us.  Just Leafy went to investigate and there it was.  After signing and returning as found we went over to where their boat was moored and said our hellos to the youngest of the Moss Troopers.  We had to decline his offer for tea, as we had to get out to Esquimalt for me to get my hair cut and a beard trim. 

The last one of mention was one we did today on 07/04/2013.  This was "GC4FBZ6 - Development gone mad...".  We decided to take the drive to this just last night.  Because we had business in Langford that day it would work to drive up and find this cache (You have to head to Shawnigan Lake Rd. to get here), and hit Langford on the way back in after.

There was not much to say about the drive up, except that we got stuck in the annoying summer construction traffic.  But the roadway up to the cache was stunning.  There were some great views and a ton of wildlife to see.  Once we arrived at GZ, the find was quick and easy.. But the view was worth the trip.

We took a couple of quick photos here and headed back down.

Now we only have 10 more caching days to fill in on the cumulative 366 day calendar.  We are very much looking forward to getting this statistical challenge completed.