Saturday 28 September 2013

Southern California Honeymoon and Caching (Part One: The Prep)

So sorry for the long hiatus.  Busyness, tiredness and lack of motivation held be back from writing, but I think I can start again now, so here we GO!

In October (the 1st to be exact) my wife and I left the cold rainy weather of British Columbia for the warm and wonderful land of Southern California for our Honeymoon.
The past few days in Victoria had been like a monsoon.  Rain and wind were all we were seeing, so we were very looking forward to skipping town.

My wife had never been to California before , and on top of that had never been to Disneyland unlike myself who had been when I was 12. So this trip was all about that.  But as a avid geocacher I of course had to look to see what was in the area, and what I could grab while I was there.

I was shocked to not find too many in the Anaheim area, none of which I could easily just take off to.  After all I am here to be on my honeymoon and ride the rides, so dismissing myself from my wife to go grab a cache not to close by would be treading on dangerous territory.

There was however a couple of Virtual Caches inside Disneyland.
For my non-geocaching readers a virtual cache is this:
Virtual Caches are coordinates for a location, which has some other described object. Validation for finding a virtual cache generally requires one to email the cache hider with information such as a date or a name on a plaque, or to post a picture of oneself at the site with GPS receiver in hand.
So I took a look at these, and started with the two closest to the gate.  Well to my surprise, this was not really a nice easy virtual.  No in fact it was a Virtual-Multistage Cache, and had 13 stages! Needless to say this one did not make it onto my GPS!! Like I said above I am on my Honeymoon and paid to ride the rides, not collect info from 13 different locations around the park.  So I looked at the next one over near Frontier Land and thankfully it was a regular one.  Also near that one was an Earthcache, and the requirements for that seemed nice and easy.  So it was loaded up too.

Since we were going to be at Knott's Berry Farm, I looked up that area too.  One virtual, and it was like the first ones in Disneyland (13 stages), so I skipped it.  Looked up Hollywood, and there was nothing feasible for me to do there too.  So I didn't load up any of those either.
That left one more place to look at, and that was San Diego.  And what did I find there????  I hit the the jackpot!!  There was a virtual inside the Zoo and another at Sea World, a small power trail next to the San Diego River that would lead right to Ocean Beach where I could also nab a Webcam Cache (a rare cache type).

So there I had it, a nice list of caches to do that should not take away from the experience of being on my Honeymoon.  I discussed the details with my wife and she was fine with it. In fact she was better than fine, she was excited. And so the adventure was soon to begin.

Check out Part Two (coming soon) to read about the trip and the caching!

Pictures Of Caching Areas 
(click on images to enlarge)

Disneyland

Knott's Berry Farm

Universal Studios


San Diego 


Sunday 15 September 2013

Geocaching and the Police

Today was a day to purge the email account of any and all old messages hanging out in the Inbox.  There was one that had been sitting there for a little bit from geocaching.com about DIY caches and quality hides.
It made a very interesting read, but what caught my eye was a link to their blog "Latitude 47" about tips from law enforcement officers so that caches don't mistaken for something more insidious.  

We geocachers hear about it all too often, about that cache out there in some place that some muggle (non-geocacher) stumbled upon and thought it was a bomb, or some other device.  This resulting in a call to the police; who in turn contact the bomb squad, which then gives geocaching a bad name in the community.  We then think that is okay, as it was not here in your home town.  But then horror of all horrors, right there in your local paper you read about it happening where you live.  You lower your head and groan, and wonder why!

It is a problem that happens all over the world, but there are things you can do to help the activity of geocaching keep a good name.  This is where I refer you to the blog entry at "Latitude 47".  It was a very interesting and educational article, and you can find it HERE.


Sunday 8 September 2013

Vancouver Island's New Mega!

Well it is official, Vancouver Island will be hosting another Mega Event in 2014.  The venue is the same as 2012's Island Spirit event, which is the world class Cowichan Valley Exhibition Grounds!  This is exciting news for B.C. and Vancouver Island geocachers, as travelling to the states to the many Mega's that at hosted there is huge drain on the pocket books.  Island Spirit 2012 was all about the magnificent bio-diversity and tourist friendly attractions that make Vancouver Island a world leader in year round tourism; so really what is this Mega about?  Well the answer is really in the name, and this one is called "3IEE (3rd International EarthCache Mega Event)".  So this event is Earthcache related, which is an interesting cache type of it's own.

Some may be asking what is an Earthcache??? Well let's look to geocaching.com for information on this fun and informational cache type:

             "EarthCache

An EarthCache is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature of our Earth. EarthCache pages include a set of educational notes along with cache coordinates. Visitors to EarthCaches can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage its resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth. For more information about EarthCaches, visit http://www.earthcache.org/."

Going to another level, let's also see what the Mega Event's cache page has to say about the event:


"We are excited to announce that the 3rd International EarthCache Event (3IEE) will be happening in Duncan, British Columbia, Canada on October 11, 2014! Following on the footsteps of the EarthCache Events in Maine and Utah, and building on the highly successful Island Spirit Mega Event, the EarthCache Team, Geocaching.com and Landsharkz invite you to join us for 3IEE! The venue will be the Cowichan Exhibition Grounds which are world class facilities.



This is an exciting one-day event full of EarthCache seminars, activities, vendors and more! There will be a selection of EarthCache related satellite events in the days leading up to the Mega to make this a destination of fun for all geocachers."

In the cache description you can see that Landsharkz are the ones hosting the event along side geocaching.com and the Earthcache Team.  Landsharkz was the driving force that helped get Island Spirit off the ground in 2012 alongside a team of amazing volunteers from all over Vancouver Island and British Columbia geocaching communities, which made Island Spirit a smashing success!  Knowing that they will get the same support for this event, I know this will also be an amazing Mega to look forward to.

So what are you waiting for log your intent to attend at the event page HERE and like the facebook page HERE for future updates.

We The GO! Team are super excited to see you all there!