Island Spirit 2012 (WestCan2)

This event was our 1500th geocache find!

What a great way to log a milestone!!!

So after a well deserved nights sleep, the big day arrives.  July 7th, 2012.. The day of all days..  Island Spirit 2012 Geocaching Mega event.  This was not just a day of fun and excitement for Just Leafy and I, since this was another event that we were working as volunteers at.
With this in mind we had to rise early that day to get to the Exhibition Grounds, because the first of our tasks were to assist with the registration tables.  Just Leafy got what I would say is the dream job of handing out the limited edition geocoins that people per-ordered over the online registration, so really she got to see their faces light up when they saw how awesome they were!

I got to work right beside her handing out event lanyards and name tags, and the highlight of this was that my partner was a groundspeak lackey named Nicole AKA Louis Bliss.  This made it very easy to complete the geocaching challenge "Meet A Lackey" and also netted us a couple of Lackey Crossing Trackables!

As time moved on the end of my time on registration came to an end, and  my next job began.  This was a particularly fun job, working at the trackables table.  Here we got a chance to talk to cachers that wanted to learn a little more about trackable dog tags and geocoins, and to help people figure out where a trackable wants to go so we can help it get there!

Here I met many a person drawn to the allure of shiny metal coins and tags, and here many were wowed by my trackable tattoo.  Some people are in awe, while others are in shock that someone would want to be be trackable.  And with all the great conversation and company I was getting, my shift came to and end.  But where was Just Leafy??

I was just starting to think it would be fun to go look at some of the merchandise that the vendors had at their booths, when I noticed Signal the Frog (groundspeak's mascot) paying a little too much attention to me.  That's when Geoprincess7 walked up to me and said that Signal wants to have a picture with me.  That was when I clued in, and realized exactly where Just Leafy was.
I agreed to have my picture with Signal, and high-fived the amphibian, and moved on to look at all the great stuff for sale.  That picture will be a conversation piece when we have a family someday, that's for sure.

I have to say Just Leafy is quite the trooper.  This particular day was very hot, and she played that role for over four hours.  That is something I would have trouble with if it was me!

Anyway, it is obvious that we did not go geocaching at all durring this event.  And that is just fine with me..  You may be asking "What!  You didn't go caching", and my answer is plain and simple. 
The Island Spirit Organizing Committee did a wonderful job of filling the day full of fun things to see and do right on site at the Mega!

 There was a kids zone, complete with fun kid type stuff.  I believe that as part of the entry fee for the kids zone, they even got to make themselves trackable tee shirts.

There was a closest to the pin contest.  This was where people who registered for the contest took a numbered flag and inputted coords to their GPSr and headed out hoping that theirs had the most accuracy for the day and planted their flag where they thought the waypoint marker really was!

Then there was the activities that were called "Challenges" that when you completed them you received a token that when combined with the centerpiece fit together like a puzzle.  The centerpiece being a trackable that you can activate for your geocaching.com account.
The challenges you could partake in were:


  
1) Navy flag identification (a primer was on site for easy identification)

2) Identifying a Douglas Fir Pine-cone out of a few other types & identifying the gender of Dungeness Crabs (easy with an info sheet nearby)

3) Drawing a sea creature on your GPSr with tracks turned on (fun and very hilarious)

4) Completing your geocacher BINGO cards (easy to do, and helps you make new geofriends.. or proves how well you know the ones you already have)

I only wish I had taken pictures of these things to do.  Seriously it was fun to watch people draw on thier GPSr with tracks, cause it made it look like a bunch of confused people were wandering around following a faulty compass!

 There was also an amazing performance from a local Quw'utsun First Nations dance group.  They have a very rich and diverse culture, and I only wish I could learn more about them.



Soon the closing ceremonies came, and the announcement of the contest winners and draws were made.  All the thank yous were addressed.  And the Mega officially came to a close

And with that they transitioned into the big dinner that was planned, but sadly we did not register for this.  So off we went in to Duncan to The Dog House Restaurant (a favorite of ours), and had a nice dinner with our friends The Moss Troopers.

And with one last trip back to the exhibition grounds, we watched a fantastic magic show put on my Chris Yuill AKA Magicman65! 




Whew.. what a lot to talk about in just one blog entry!  And I am not even done yet...  Sadly I was too distracted to take many pictures, so I have borrowed a few from the event page gallery!  Be sure to stay tuned for more stories about this amazing geocaching weekend!

Island Spirit Scary Night Event

With the party sufficiently started, Just Leafy and I had to rush off to Paulboy's home in Ladysmith for a BBQ.  This was because we were not technically attending the Island Spirit Night Event - GC3EX20, we were working it!  And this BBQ was for everyone that was helping Paulboy make this event possible.

Last I read Paulboy reports that 424 cachers went through our scary gauntlet in the woods!
HOLY COW!!  This event almost hit mega status alone!!!

Sadly I have no pictures from this event because we were out there helping make this the most talked about event of the weekend.  Just Leafy and I were about three quarters of the way around the lake manning the station where you heard the blood curdling scream, and then with your attention in the other direction got soaked down with a water gun.  My favorite moment is when Ann of Cache Crop stopped right in front of the stump I was hiding in, and with everyone's headlamps on her I unloaded almost an entire clip of water on her.  She was absolutely soaked!!!

To get the full picture of the event my suggestion is to read some of the testimonials in the logs.  In fact I will use my favorite log from Giant Pickle.  His log on the cache event page is written as such:

"Man, I was worried from the get-go on this one. All paulboy's talk of the scary things in the park. aahh!

So, I don't know how it went with everyone else, but with our small group which included sdkonkle, EpicGirl, alyseluvsmike, bomabound, creakyclanchris & others... we were all scared half to death. I guess I really shouldn't speak for everyone else though.

I mean first we were fired on by a dihydrogen monoxide autocanon with some fancy auto sensing gizmo that when we walked by it just started firing. We lost one in our group on that already.

The huge bats that were out carried off another... I don't even know who it was.

After that there were bears, lions and tigers... oh my! I mean those bears were so scarey... especially the one that seemed to shake with laughter as we tried to scare it off.

There was this one really spooky light that showed up... and then disappeared. Then there was this strong wind, as though a train was going by... but not really. It was a ghost train. EpicGirl was captured by the ghostly engineer... sdkonkle jumped on the trail to go save her. He got her off the train just before there was a burst of flame that we couldn't even feel... and then it was gone just as suddenly as it appeared.

The worst was the blood curdling screams. I really wanted to help that poor woman, but creakyclanchris stopped me and he went in... sadly, we never saw him again!

We were able to fight/scare off most of the bears, but one really nasty big one got ahold of mike from alyselovemike... but alyse proved her love and beat that bear silly.

I don't know how we could possibly be expected to search for letters in the dark under all this duress.

Perhaps that explains why our group only found 10 out of the 11 that was really supposed to be 12.

Ha! But seriously, thank you paulboy and volunteers for putting on a greatly entertaining event. One that will be remembered for a long time. There was one thing that I was wondering about though paulboy... see pic.

Thanks for my second trip around the lake today, and a really great time."

Thank you everyone that attended you were great!  And thank you everyone that helped Paulboy make this event such a special experience!!!

Let's Get The Party Started

 After a fun filled 2.5hrs tubing down the Cowichan River, there was a short time in between where Just Leafy and I could jet over to my best friends house to set up camp in his backyard.  We had set up our tent and gear in good time, but found that we had to get the heck out of there and jump over to the next event that was on out schedule.  This was Let's Get The Party Started - GC3GRJ5 at Fuller Lake Arena.



This event was held so as to let people pick up their registration packages and such, and to help in stopping congestion the day of the event so that people could get on with whatever fancied them best during the Mega.  I have to say that how it was executed was managed beautifully and was a nice and easy to flow through.  It was really fun to walk around and chat with geofriends and meet new people.
I definitely had the advantage when it came to meeting new people here, as my trackble tattoo draws people to me.  Just Leafy had me and Mike from the Geoknights get together for a photo of our tattoos, I only wish that C2C2C and I could have had a shot together too... But maybe next time!!


Call it kinda childish, but one of the highlights of this event was getting to have our picture taken with geocaching.com's mascot Signal the Frog.  This is is something I got to do many times at the Mega, but for different reasons.

 As well I got a chance to attach a trackable dog-tag to a specific special traveler.  It happens to be a small bar fridge door that some guy made into a trackable, and has invited others to attach their own to it as well.  This turned into quite the task, because we did not have the proper tools to attach it.  But with a bit of running around we finally found a nice lady that works as maintenance staff at the arena that was willing to loan us the tools necessary, and shortly after had the trackble attached and ready to go!

Looking at our watches again, we noticed that time was running away on us.  And with that we had to end this party and move on to a BBQ at Paulboy's home in Ladysmith before the next event started.

Please enjoy the pictures from this event, and thanks for all the fun!

Tubing to the Mega Event

On Friday July 6th, 2012 the series of satellite events that lead up to the Island Spirit 2012 Mega Event Began.  So many events, and this time so many stories!   And the first would be Tubing to the Mega - GC3CG0M.

The day started quite early for Just Leafy and I as we got out of bed to pack any thing we could think of needing over the weekend.  Groggily we moved about the condo at a snails pace, and loaded the Jeep up with all of our gear.  Soon enough, but not as soon as I wished it to be (for I was probably the more excited one to get going) we headed out the door for the last time and started the drive to Cowichan Lake.

It was 8:00am and the weather was already promising to be one of the nicest days we have had all summer.  The drive went smoothly and we were shortly in Duncan and definitely feeling the need to eat, and with a quick stop at Subway we were ready 100% for the day.  Quickly we made a stop at the nearby Canadian Tire to say hi to my best friend, and were back on our way.


We arrived at the Tube Shack, Cowichan Lakes premier river tubing adventure business located under Jake's at the Lake restaurant  with time to spare.  We began to mingle with the other cachers arriving and had excited conversations with they cachers we already knew.

As we mingled Alan AKA Mr. Wilson and a Mt. Goat arrived, and we planned to enter the water together and ride as a group.  Sadly like always Just Leafy and I spent a bit too long chatting it up with everyone, and then we looked over and saw poor Alan waiting to go.  We quickly changed into our bathing suites, and rushed to Alan's side, grabbed our tubes and away we went.

Mr. Wilson was the first to go in, followed by Just Leafy, and then by me!
The start was slow with the water not even noticeably moving, but it in fact was and we moved along at a decent click.
We shortly ended up joining a caravan of other tubing cachers, one of which is the son of the proprietors of World Caching.  And together we had a blast.

To anyone reading this blog entry that did not attend this event, I highly suggest if you can go back to Cowichan Lake someday to take the ride.  The sights, the sounds of nature, and the fits of laughter that fill the air are worth the 2.5hrs of your time!!

Please enjoy the various shots I got of our adventure while Tubing to the Mega!!

The Other Part Of Geocaching!

Well the majority of the blog posts you have read here have been primarily about our geocaching adventures.  Where we have gone, what we have seen, who we hung out with.  These are the things that make geocaching the amazing activity that it is.  And it's these things that cache owners love reading about. 

Alot of cachers write amazing stories to go with their geocaching logs, while a few just add a simple TFTC (Thanks For The Cache).  While the act of logging a cache is all that is necessary and that simple TFTC is perfectly acceptable, the people that take the time to write their story about the adventure is something cache owners love to read (well atleast we do).

The other part of a great and fun to read log is pictures!  I love it when I see picutres included with someones cache logs!  It is a great way for me to see my cache the way they see it in relation to thier log.  It is just great!

Now I just wanted to take the time to showcase one such picture that was included with a particular log entry.  I contacted this cacher and asked if they would be cool if I showcased this picture here in my blog, and they were ectatic!

So anyway I have this cache "GC2M8ZX - This Alder has an Olympic View".  It's nothing special really, just a Bison Tube in a bush outside my place.  But I had been reading that this particular spot had some wonderful and beautiful snails living there.  Now I live right there, and do you think I actually got out to look at said snails. The answer to that would be no I didn't, but thanks to Gimli*/GeoJoce I got to see them after they were gone. 

This picutre is one that really shows the beauty that can be found in those less than beautiful urban hides.
So thank you Gimli*/GeoJoce for sharing your find in this fantastic photo!

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!!!

WHOA! What's This!!

What's this? What's this?
There's somthing on his leg
What's this?
It wasn't there at the HAG
What's this?
I can't believe my eyes
I must be dreaming
Wake up, cachers, this isn't fair
What's this?

Hi folks! I just had to use the lyrics from the song "What's This" that was featured in Tim Burton's A Nightmare before Christmas to introduce this blog entry!!
So what is this eh!? Well that is my Travel Bug nicely tattooed to my leg by my best friend (and Bestman) Mark!

Geocaching is more than just something that I do. It is a way of life for me, and something a bit deeper than that.
You see for eight years my butt was tied to a computer chair every waking moment that I wasn't at work playing a online video game. My addiction to this game was so deep that it was ruining my health, my friendships and my relationship.

But then Geocaching came into my life, and my world changed. I instantly stopped playing my online game, and got outdoors. The fresh air, the sunlight, the sound of the waves and the wind and the birds and the leaves. I was given a new lease on life. My health returned, my friendships got better and I made new friends, and most importantly my relationship was repaired. And in my opinion geocaching saved my life.

This is why I now proudly wear this Travel Bug on my body. It is a visual reminder that something as simple as this activity gave me back my life!

If you discovered this Travel Bug here, feel free to log your discovery at geocaching.com.

The 8th Annual Hide And Go Cache Event

Well you definitely know that spring is on it's merry way when the HAG comes to town.

The HAG or Hide And Go cache event is a month long event consisting of three stages. The first stage is the HIDE. This is when we the cachers are encouraged to think really hard and come up with a cache and location to hide it in for everyone to enjoy. The second stage is the FIND. This is when all those fun HAG caches get launched and we head out to go find them. And lastly the third stage is the PARTY!!! This is when we all get together at 6 Mile Pub (yes this is the only event that kids can't come to) and chitty chat about all those great new caches, and to see who won the highly coveted HAG awards.

The awards range from "Most FTFs" to "Scariest Cache" to "Best in the Field".
Last year I (ShadowcasterCDN) won for best cache log. The entry for this is here in the 2011 section of this blog and can be read HERE.

This year we placed a puzzle cache out there, and won the "Best Puzzle" trophy.
An award we happily and humbly accept!!

Thank you again to Cache Crop and Amandazon for all your hard work planning and running the HAG! And to all that placed caches a big THANK YOU, and those that attended the event it was a pleasure to see you all again!!

This years award recipients were:

The Geoknights for most FTFs
Ljg47 and 17blonde for the Most Hides
AnnieMaroo for the Best Night Cache
The Incredibles for the Scariest Cache (And amazing puzzle cache idea in my opinion)
Wrooster for the Most HAG Finds
Paconlacellars for the Best Log
ShadowcasterCDN for the Best Puzzle
Giant Pickle for the Best Multi
Dog Cachers for Being Outstanding in His Field.

Once Every Four Years!

There are many things that the Leap Year are celebrated for. Some believe that it is the only day of the year that the female in the relationship can propose to their man, while others just celebrate it in a simplistic manner. But us cachers see it as the elusive 366th day of caching, and since that day is here why not celebrate with a geocaching event.

This is exactly what AnnieMaroo did, and while it was a short event it was a blast. It is nice to get together no matter the length of time, to discuss tricky caches, to just see one another, or to plan grand adventures to come. So thanks a ton AnnieMaroo for yet again a great event. And to everyone that came, it was great to see you again!

100 Days of Caching Completed!

Well we can definitely say "Achievement Unlocked" on this one. We The GO! Team have completed our statistical goal of 100 straight days of caching on February 10th, 2012! The cache was "GCYH9Y - Trick or Tweet" by Sole Seeker. It is a very cute cache, a type we had heard of but never seen before.

The road to 100 straight days of caching was fun for the most part, but towards the end started to feel like a chore. I think if we had tried this back when we began caching it would have been fun until the end, since back then we had not blanketed the city with finds yet. But in order to complete this goal now it required doing only one a day, and doing only one is not as much fun as doing many.

We are very glad to have completed this, and will move forward and try to expand on the running streak. But I am not sure how much further we can really go with it.

Thanks to everyone out there for your geocache hides! Without you our challenge would not have been possible!!

GCGV Track Me Wrap Up Event

Today was the wrap up event for the trackable race that started last december by the folks that head up GCGV (Geocaching Greater Victoria). A whole bunch of trackables were sent off to Australia to travel (hopefully) around the world on a quest for points, and both Just Leafy and I had a trackable in this race.
This event was held at Serious Coffee out on the Old Island Highway, which is a location used quite a bit for cacheing events. I have to add here that if you are not a fan of coffee (and don't get me wrong I love coffee myself), make sure to get yourself an americano. These folks have this down to a science.

Normally this kind of event would have tons of people gathered at it, but because it was Super Bowl Sunday the attendance was less than spectacular. But a few stalwart souls still showed up to hear the results.
With all the winners announced there was one more prize to give out. And that prize went to Just Leafy. The poor girl was in dead last the whole way through, this was because her Travel Bug went missing right away.

The cacher in Australia that picked it up did not log that they had it. It then got placed in a cache somewhere and it never got logged that it was there. And while the year ticked by, it stayed in the archived event's inventory. Finally after giving up on it and moving it to lost status on January 19, 2012, it was finally found in New South Wales and picked up by someone the very next day on January 20, 2012. For this she won a nice book about caching!

Thanks GCGV for another fun event!
It was awesome to see everyone again, we had a great time!!