ET Highway Day 1: The Start of The E.T. Highway

We roused that day nice and early to get a nice start at 6am to drive to Alamo the only city with fuel along the ET Highway before Tonopah.  We stopped here for breakfast and fuel for the van and found that the nice folks here at the Sinclair also make fresh sandwiches, so we ordered a few of them and were on our way.

We did 5 in this area before the turn off to the ET Highway.  This put Just Leafy and I in position to get our 2000th cache find on 0001-E.T. - GC2ZK7J.  This has been long awaited and planned for find for by us, and boy am I glad to have gotten it done.  It was a great ammo-can painted light green with an alien on it.  We all gathered around and set up the camera on the tripod to take a quick group photo.
With that out of the way we were on our way to get this geo-bucket list done. 

The caching was fast, and furious.  It is unlike anything we have done before!

Really you don't have to put any effort into it at all, the caches are all visible from the road hidden under a little pile of rocks.  You just jump out, open, sign, replace and you are on your way again in seconds.  The faster you go, the more you get done.  To some that may sound monotonous, and to the extent I would agree.  But as a team working together you can take nice breaks and watch the wondrous scenery.

As we cached along we arrived in the little town of Rachel (population 47), the little big mecca of all things extra-terrestrial since it is so close to the mysterious Area 51.  This is the cutest little place with a UFO being towed by a tow-truck, and little cafe/bar that serves fantastic food and is staffed by the most wonderful people (they love cachers)!

But this was not our destination, so after a quick lunch we were on our way again.

We cached on and on and on, and eventually we ran out of light.  We cached as long as we could after, but the temperature drops significantly after nightfall so eventually we had to turn back and head to Alamo once more to check into our motel.  Completely exhausted we all turned in after dinner, and dreamed of the day to come.

We ended day 1 with a total finds of 639 geocaches.  I think we could have found more!  But with the first leg of the trip from Las Vegas to Alamo, shopping and getting over the learning curve, the smaller but impressive count was to be expected.

E.T. Highway Adventure: Travel Day & Event

Well the time finally came and gone, but on February 4th Just Leafy and I started our adventure to the E.T. Highway powertrail series.  This adventure started with us leaving Victoria at 8:30pm with a flight to Edmonton.  My health was seriously not at it`s  best, as I was hit with a pretty crazy cold the week before.  Little did I know that the lingering chest congestion would hinder my adventure later on, but blissfully we traveled onward.

After arriving in Edmonton we were put up in hotel compliments of Westjet.  They really messed up a few months ago and cancelled my flight replacing it with one that had a 6 hour layover in Los Angeles, effectively causing me to be late for my own event in Las Vegas.  This would not do, and a comprimise was made with Westjet that would include the above overnight in Edmonton, but would get me to Vegas 6 hours before my event.  And so on February 5th we flew onward in the early morning hours to our destination.

We arrived in Las Vegas without any problems and was very pleased that our bag was the 6th one off the ramp onto the conveyor belt.  We proceeded outside and grabbed a taxi to our hotel, and soon met up with one of our caching companions seekandsail in the lobby of the Excalibur Hotel & Casino.

Since we could not check in yet (too early and rooms not ready) seekandsail let us store our luggage in his room, and we walked over to the food court in the MGM Grand to have a quick breakfast before setting forth and adventuring for a while!

Wanting to show Just Leafy and seekandsail everything I could, I literally wore myself right out.  I had walked myself too far and stretched my energy too thin, and I could not stop coughing.  It almost got to the point that I would not be able to get myself back to the hotel.  But I did, and Leifa and I checked in and retired to our room and presently I passed right out from exhaustion.

The rest of what happened that day resides in Leafy's mind.  But all it consisted of was running around and meeting up with Paulboy and some of the other crew and renting the vehicle.

I awoke at 5:30pm and started to get myself ready for my event.  I felt like crap, and moved slowly about conserving energy.  And soon enough the time came and Leafy and headed out way over to the Luxor Hotel & Casino to where I was hosting the event in the food court.

I have to say Las Vegas cachers are as bad as us BC cachers!  I arrived early to find I was late!! 

It was a great time, over 30 cachers from all over came and attended the event.  Lots of laughs were had, and I got to reconnect with others that I had met at the event I held here in May 2011.  Even Clay4 creator of the E.T. Highway series was in attendance.  Paulboy made him a honorary member of our team and gave him a customized team shirt.

After the event, we all sat and had a quick meeting to discuss the trip.  And soon retired to our rooms to get what we could for sleep before heading out!

And So The Adventure Begins!

Well the time has come, and spirits couldn't be any higher!  Today is the day we embark on a journey filled with laughs, good times, and tons and tons of geocaches.  Our geocaching team called the CIA (Canadian Island Aliens) are heading to Nevada to attempt (to us) an unprecedented number of cache finds!  We are expecting to possibly find 2800 to 3000 geocaches total along the E.T. Highway, surrounding area and Route 66.  It will be go, go, go.. And I am sure we will be pretty bagged (and sick of geocaching) once we complete it all.

Today is more of a get ready and travel day.  We flew out of Victoria to Edmonton and are spending the night at a hotel compliments of Westjet!  The reason of this is that they buggered up and cancelled our original flight, rescheduled us with a completely unacceptable flight with a 6hr lay-over in Los Angeles on Tuesday.  This would have us arrive in Las Vegas 30min late for the event we are hosting at the Luxor Hotel and Casino that very night.  Upon calling them and explaining my situation they came up with this solution, which is way better as it will have us arrive in Vegas at 8am'ish, whereas my original flight would have had me there at 2pm.

So here we are in Edmonton excitedly awaiting our next flight.  Keep checking back to read more about our grand adventure, I am sure we will have tons to tell you about!

The CIA Is Looking For You!

With the clock ticking down the days to our big trip to Nevada to do the ET Highway cache series, it was time to hold an event.  The event's purpose was threefold get us all together in one place for the first time, collect trackables to take with us, and for people to see us and wish us well before we left.  Since we The GO! Team are hosting the event in Las Vegas, the CIA Director Paulboy took the time and energy to host this event.

As usual the turn out was amazing!  An event hosted by Paulboy means fun, prizes, good company & conversation, and even more fun!  And in that Paulboy did not disappoint.   Everyone had such a great time, and soon the event came to an end.

With the team fully assembled, uniforms ready, and trackables collected, The CIA (Canadian Island Aliens) are ready to travel and tackle the largest collection of geocaches that any of us have dreamed of.

See you when we get back, I am sure we will have lots of stories to share!!

Strollin on the Next New Year 2013

2012 was a very eventful year for us The GO! Team.  I would go into everything as a recap, but why should I...  So much to say, yet pretty much all of it is covered right here on this blog!  Just read on down the blog list of 2012 to see all the fun events and adventures that we participated in!

But now lets talk about Lumbo-Tire's famous (or infamous) New Years event, aptly dubbed with his notable "Stollin on" title "GC42RCY - Strollin on the Next New Year".  

Lumbo always holds this event at his mess at the Lt. General Ashton Armory, which is great for a large group of people like us.  I actually think this particular event had more in attendance compared to last year.  We had a photo session down on the parade square, and sadly we didn't end up with any usable pictures.  But check out the video of the attendees we got at the bottom of this blog post!

Lumbo-Tire goes all out, with a no-host bar, to pot luck style food (provided by the attendees), to fun parlor games and fun for the kids. It is always a blast and everyone has a good time.

And lets not forget the trackable bonanza!  People who love to move or log trackables are never at a loss here.  It was a blast for me to show newer cachers my trackable tattoo, and get the gasps of shock...  It really gives me a good laugh to hear them say "Now that takes dedication"!  

As the night came to an end Lumbo announced that a particular cache nearby (one I had found before) was getting archived.  This cache "GC3GCN6 - The MiB go to Washington" usually gives people a hard time, causing people to search for over an hour leading them to give up!  So I took the time to lead 2 groups of people to assist in the find!  On this particular icy and cold night the people I took were very grateful, as it cut down the search time and meant less time in the cold.

After all that, Just Leafy and I stayed at the mess talking with Lumbo-Tire, sdkonkle and his family, and A-Team to almost midnight.

What a great night!  Thanks again to Lumbo-Tire for his hard work setting up yet another fantastically fun New Year event!

And a thanks to all that came!  I wish I could have spent more time talking with all of you, and let's strive to get in some conversations at future events.  Oh and by the way......

Happy New Year Everyone!! 

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!