Kellett Point Cove - Roche Cove Regional Park CITO - GC4E5VR

On June 30, 2013 sophiavogt hosted a CITO out near Sooke at Kellett Point Cove part of Roche Cove Regional Park.  This was a small part of the park I had not seen before, and I was looking forward to seeing it.

The event was to be an hour long starting at 10:00am.  I was a wee bit late due to being stuck behind someone from Washington State who was clearly having issues with converting to our speed limits, but thankfully when I arrived everyone was still in the parking lot.
Upon arrival sophiavogt had us fill out a few forms, I assume were waivers so that the park takes no responsibility if anything were to happen to us.  Once that was done it was gloves on, garbage bag in hand and off to the site we go.

It was a small beach that was not easily accessible.  When you arrive you are pretty high up on a cliff edge, with a small steep way down on the right and what seemed to be no way down on the left.  But by backtracking a little I was able to find a overgrown path that lead to a cute little grotto in the trees where someone built a simple bench.  From here you could get down to the beach a bit easier, so I called out to the others and down we went.

There was a ton of trash down on this beach, most of it I assume was from the nearby marina.  There was a a lot of rope, boat bumpers, fishnet floats, and Styrofoam.  Sadly the beach was covered in little pebble sized and shaped bits of Styrofoam that could not be picked up, and because it is not biodegradable it will be there forever or just get washed away to another beach.  Even worse it will be eaten by sea life and sea birds, and because their stomachs can't digest the stuff it will sit in their stomachs until they die.

We did a good deed here today, and we removed a lot of trash.  Actually our hero of the day was solo888 who actually went into the water and swam out to retrieve a piece of trash that was floating into the cove.

Returning to the parking lot we ran into Mr. Islandfinders and Paintgirl with her clan, they had arrived late and assumed we went down the Galloping Goose in the other direction.  But they went and picked up a few pieces of trash to say they did their part.

And after all was said and done I headed out with sophiavogt, solo888, neltra, tooniegar and Mr. Islandfinders to find two caches we had previously not found before.

Thank you sophiavogt for arranging everything and hosting the event.  And thank you to everyone who turned out to clean this little beach up.

 

Langford Invasive CITO - GC4DK92

On June 29th, 2013 Cache Crop hosted a CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event at Langford Lake.  Our mission was to assist Langford Parks Dept. in removing invasive plant species from the surrounding area.

Sadly on this particular day Just Leafy could not come with me due to work, but I arrived on scene at 9:15am to eagerly pull these horribly persistent plants.

I met with G-Force in the parking lot and headed to the site when we heard this little voice calling out to us saying "Excuse me".  Turning we saw someone neither of us recognized, but then she asked "Are you here for the event?"... We told her yes and she introduced herself as Dutch Chocolate, a name I remembered because I had just recently done one of her caches.

We arrived at event GZ (ground zero) to find Mrs. Cache Crop hard at work already.  Saying hello and donning our gloves she introduced us to the enemy.  These enemies are known as Daphne Laurel (a plant we have dealt with before), Ivy, Scotch Broom and one other I don't remember the name of.

As we started work more and more people showed up, and shortly we had a small army working away eliminating the enemy.  Sadly I had to stop work because I developed a few hives and a rash from the Daphne Laurel, which if you refer back to the CITO I wrote about back in February actually have some toxic properties. But I hung out until the end and assisted in what way I could without getting into the thick of the plants.

It was a lovely hot day, and Mrs. Cache Crop had refreshments and snacks for us too. 

Which were prefect to keep the energy up and beating the heat

But soon the 2 hours allotted to the event were up, and we had made an amazing dent in the invasive species where we were working.  Looking around we had several heaping piles of the plants for Langford Parks to pick up, which were impressive to see.

Thank you Cache Crop for hosting the event and for supplying the refreshments.  And thank you to everyone who turned up to help.

Bon Voyage Cacheandshoot

June 12, 2013 was a day of mixed emotions for a few people in the GCGV caching community.  One of our military geocachers was posted back out east in Nova Scotia, and this was the evening of his farewell event.

Cacheandshoot came to us a couple of years ago when he took up his posting here at CFB Esquimalt where he worked as a military photographer. 
It is said when we arrived here he had little hope in connecting with any of the cachers here in Victoria.  But as time went on he met alyseluvsmike and a few more including us, and forged some fun friendships.

Cacheandshoot was known by us to be competitive in a friendly, and energetic way.  When he became friends with us we were all under 1000 finds, and for some reason the race was on.  It was comical how much competion there was between him and alyseluvsmike. 
If I were to go out caching with him and not have her there, she would chastise me for helping him get his numbers up.  But then she would plan a big day caching and take me, and rub it in to him after!  It was a fun time; however while being caught in the middle of them and thier race to 1000 finds, I actually beat them to it. 

Another fond memory of my time caching with Cacheandshoot was hearing about how he also had a friendly compition with his sister back home.  He even concoted a plan to beat her to a specific goal too, and he named it Operation Bucephala.  You see I believe that the word Bucephala is in her caching name somewhere, and it is because it was her favorite subgenus of anatidae (ducks).  I can not remember what this goal he had to beat his sister on was, but it sure was funny to hear about it at the time.

Well onto the event! 

It really was a great time.  We gathered at the location for the alloted time, and had our group photo together and each of us recieved Canadian Forces geocoins.  After that we went for food and drinks at Swans Brew Pub across the street. 
We stayed late into the night telling our caching tales, especially listening to cacheandshoots.  We laughed and talked, and slowly we dwindled to being just me and him left.  After he learnt that I was at nealy 4600 finds (how he didn't know eludes me) he has decalred that it is his next goal to beat my numbers.  I wished him luck in that endevour even though I know he can do it, and I welcome him to try!

We finally called it a night, and after making sure he got home headed for mine.

Thank you to all who turned out to the event, I know it meant a lot to him to have you all there.

And thank you cacheandshoot for the event and geocoins.  You will be missed by us here on the West Coast, and I hope that someday we will cache together in your home caching grounds.

A Quickie CITO in Langford

On June 8th 2013, cache crop hosed a CITO (Cache In Trash Out) event in Langford.  As the trend is these days we were to meet at the specified location at the appointed time, and clean trash for one hour.

The turn out for the event was fantastic, many of our local cachers arrived to clean the area up.  At first glance there didn't seem to me much, but once we headed down this blocked off and unused load we began to see what it was all about.
While there was a large amount of construction garbage everywhere, hiding in the trees that lined both sides of the street were mounds of regular people trash, broken glass, broken an discarded BBQs and much more.

Our geo work-crew dived right in, and cleaned to our heart content, working our way down the road.
In the end I think we hauled out a significant amount of trash, and we proudly gathered around it for victory photo.

Thanks cache crop for hosting the event.  Thank you to all the geocachers that turned out to help out.  And a big thanks to Alpine disposal for coming and picking up the trash we left conveniently piled up for you.

As always just click on the images to view larger versions.

Best Geocaching Day Ever!!!!

As you my readers know, I had a tragic accident with my GPSr on June 1st while out at East Sooke Park.
This event had deeply impacted me, really it was like loosing a friend.  Many of you sent me condolences on Facebook and over text message.  And I thank all of you for your well wishes.

But only some of you know, my grieving period was a short one.  And someone special in my life came to my rescue!   Thanks to my Dad (Postie Bear), I am now the proud owner of a Garmin Oregon 450.
He was very upset that I had broken my 550, so he went out of his way to give me just one more Birthday present.  And I am sooooo thankful for this most gracious gift!



I was so happy that I rushed to The Source and bought two new Micro SD cards for it, and a new Invisible Shield screen protector from Landsharkz.  Helen at Landsharkz was awesome and gave me a new Making Tracks neck lanyard for the unit so that I don't drop it again, thanks Helen!!

I rushed home and set it up, but installing the new screen protector means no use for 24hrs so you don't get fluffys and dust under it!

But like I said in the title, this is a geocaching day.  So this is not all about me getting my new unit!
Today I also teamed up with a pair of cachers I had not really done any caching with before.  This was cameracowgirl and the Mrs. from The Incredibles.  We headed to a location in behind Thetis Lake, one that I had been to before with Magicman65 and his wife Angelcheeks.

We had a fantastic time going through here.  There is a ton of variable terrain, and the cache hides for the most part were quality.  On this day I got only 2 finds to their 8~9 finds, but it isn't about the numbers so much as it is about the adventure and how it is shared with friends.  And I count my lucky stars for having such wonderful people in my life to share in the adventure of geocaching.

Thank you cameracowgirl and The Incredibles for such a nice day out.

And a SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to my dad Postie Bear for putting a new GPSr into my hands, you are the BEST!

Saddest Geocaching Day Ever!

Well what was to be a great day caching after my birthday turned out to be a sad sad day.  Creyke Point - GCMY34 was to be the first of many finds today, but it did not happen that way. 

We arrived in ESP at the parking lot and began our walk out.  As we approached GZ we originally arrived up too high, so we came back a different way and were too low. 
Trying one more way got to within 4 meters and I got the beep telling me my GPS need new batteries. Taking a second to change them I fumbled the GPS, then dropped it and watched in horror as the events unfold. 

The GPS fell glass screen side down right onto the rocks and shattered the screen. And to add insult to injury, because the battery door was open and batteries out the memory card door and memory card went flying out.... No where to be found.

We searched for the memory card, but in the end only ended up finding the cache. So signed that and looked a bit longer... Still could not find it.

Eventually admitting defeat we moved on back to the parking lot, and began a long quiet drive home.

Goodbye my friend!

Brentwood Bay Lighthouse & New Cachers Ahoy!

I got off work at my usual time just before midnight on Sunday May 26th and met with my friend for coffee at the Saanich Plaza Tim Horton's.  While we chatted and talked over some stuff he got a text from his wife asking when I could take them out geocaching so they could see what it is all about. 

Well what great timing for them, as I had planned to go do Brentwood Bay Lighthouse - GC1G195 in the afternoon of May 27th (technically that day in 12hrs).  I told him how I had checked out the tide charts, and that we should be able to walk out to this one, and what it would be like to get to it.  Excited he called his wife and told her, and when he hung up he told me they were in.

I woke up the next day and ensured that they made a geocaching.com account (for those that don't know, it's free) and went out to pick them up.  We didn't have the greatest of weather, but we sucked it up and headed out. 

Arriving in Brentwood Bay, we parked at the parking coordinates for an old cache that was located nearby and used the the low tide to walk out to the cache.  A little info for anyone reading this,  if the tide is out the exposed beach that is below the high tide line is considered public property.  So you can access tough to reach areas without trespassing.  But be smart and get back before the tide comes back, or you are stuck.

It was a lot of fun getting to this one.  We saw a ton of starfish clinging to the rocks waiting for the tide to come back, large live mussels strewn across the exposed beach, and actually got sprayed at by several that were buried below the sand.

Eventually we made it to the cache, and our friends now known as team_pasha were given the honours of retrieving the cache and signing first. 

I have to say that doing a 1/5 for their first cache is pretty cool.  And even cooler was being there to experience it with them. 

Welcome to the world of Geocaching team_pasha, may you be blessed with good reception and tons of finds!

Caching East Sooke Park with magicman65

On May 18th, 2013 I got together with my friend and fellow geocaching blogger magicman65 to do some serious caching in East Sooke Park.  Just Leafy really wanted to be a part of this adventure, but sadly she had to work that night.  This meant that she had to sleep all day to be ready for that long 12hr shift.

I woke up with great enthusiasm, walking to the blinds to our patio door and opened them to a sight I was hoping not to see.... rain!  But I still had hope as the rain was light and the clouds looked high in the sky.
You have to understand that I am a fair weather cacher.  I just can not stand getting wet in the rain.  Just Leafy likes to tease me and say things like "Oh you don't like getting wet, so why do you swim" or things like "You don't like getting wet, but you shower".  But as I said just above, I don't like getting wet in the RAIN!

Pulling out my phone I opened up Facebook and sent magicman65 a message to tell him what it was like out here by my home, and to my surprise his response was that it wasn't raining out there at his.
Now I know that Victoria/Saanich and the Westshore Communities tend to have slightly different weather from each other; however  now the question was, what was it going to be like in East Sooke.
Well it was was time to find out, and that meant getting in the car and heading out.

Well I tell you, the difference from in town to the Westshore was staggering.  About when I got to my exit into Colwood there was nothing but sun and blue sky.  I was floored!
I got to magicman65 and Angel Cheeks' place and parked the car pretty much right on time for our meet up of 10:00am, loaded up into his truck and away we went.

We arrived at the parking lot and got right to work.  We attempted one that I had got before "GC23V14 - get err of", but soon discovered it had a few DNFs (Did Not Finds) attached to it.  This caused us to call of that search, and we moved on.
This trail was familiar to me, and you readers will have read about it before.  Let's go back to Easter Weekend last year, you may remember that Just Leafy and I came out to ESP (East Sooke Park) with Paulboy.  If you haven't read it, you can find it by clicking HERE.  We did this very same trail loop back then!  Amandazon who owns the majority of the caches here archived the old ones and released a new set in the same locations.

This worked out very well for magicman65 and I, and we decided to make it a fresh new experience for me by doing the loop in the opposite direction to what we did a year ago.

What a day it was.  It was neat doing it the way we did, as I could not
predict the cache locations or the dips and climbs of the trail.  All the while we talked about everything geocaching (of course), and my up coming wedding.
We saw so many neat things along the trail on this trip, from cool insects like Centipedes and Black Beetles, to multiple trees growing out of the large horizontal limb of another tree, to smiling faces in the stumps.

All the caches we did were dry and in good condition.  And although they were all micros in the woods, they
were all trail side and easy to find.  This is great because it minimizes the impact on the surrounding environment.
Taking our time and having fun along the way we completed the circuit in about 5.5hrs and walked 12.9km, netting ourselves about 23 finds.  And returning to the truck we headed home.


Thanks magicman65 for such a fun day in ESP, and thank you Amandazon and all the other cachers who hid caches along this trail.  Without your contributions to the area this day could not have happened.

If you would like to read about magicman65's geocaching adventures, be sure to click on the banner below to link to his geocaching blog.  And don't forget to subscribe to receive notifications when he posts something new!

Mother's Day and FTFs

This Mother's Day weekend I decided to head up to Comox to visit with my parents.  It more or less was to be a surprise for my mom, so on Saturday night after the wedding we were attending we loaded up and headed out.

I first had to drop Just Leafy off in Nanaimo so that she could do the same thing I was doing, but I have to tell you the rain was insane.
One of the things I hate the most about this Island is the Malahat.  This particular highway is stunning to look at, but the people that drive it drive like they have a death wish.  And this is even more true during horrific weather conditions.  So the first leg of my journey was no fun, but I got her there safe and sound.  But now I had to get from Nanaimo to Comox on a particularly long and dark section of the highway.
But at this time of night there was not many people driving in that direction, so I was left to my own devices.

I pulled in sometime before 1am and after a small chat with dad headed to bed.

I awoke early the next day to find mom up already, so came around the corner and surprised her saying "Happy Mothers Day".  She was so glad to see me and as I handed her the gift I got her she said that thing moms always say "You didn't have to, you are my gift".
But eagerly she opened the gift, and she was very pleased.  You seed my mom is a big Harry Potter fan, and I have taken to getting her HP collectibles lately.  Last year I got her a House Gryffindor scarf....  But this year she got Hermione's Time Turner.  A beautiful replica of the prop used in "The Prisoner of Azkaban".
She set forth to setting it up in it's display case, and found it a nice home on her china cabinet.

After breakfast we loaded up into the vehicle and drove down to Bowser for a bit of geocaching.
The reason we headed out there was to look for a specific XTREME GPS TEAM cache that had been archived but could possibly be out there.  If we did find it we would be the first to in 8 long years.
The cache was "EMERGENCY ON PLANET EARTH CACHE - GCK718" (the TEAM loved their caps lock).  The reason I have made the cache name and GC number red and struck through is to emulate geocaching.com and serve as a reminder this is an archived cache.
Sadly we could not find it, but we were not 100% hopeful that we would.  The site has had a lot of construction waste dumped here, and could serve for a small CITO someday.

Our caching friend bigbluemarble was also here the day before trying the same thing, and when she heard we would be there texted me some coordinates for a cache she and Cougar Kid had placed that was not published yet.  She asked us to not claim the FTF, but to log it as a test run.  We were happy to comply and did as asked, leaving the FTF spot to the first to find after publication.
My poor dad Postie Bear was kind of hoping for a FTF, and I told him not to worry that he would get his first one someday.  We continued with a few more caches, and headed off with mom to have a coffee and a snack.

The next day dad did his logs, and because we had found a couple that belonged to someone he knew he made sure he mentioned that in his logs.  That cacher later emailed my dad and said that she had a cache that had been out 24hrs already and that no one had claimed FTF on it yet, and in the email included the GC number and the name "Little Tiny Teeth - GC4C0PH".  We quickly looked it up on my iPad and realized it was back where we had done some caching the day before, not to far from the Denman Island Ferry.
I looked at dad and said "There's your chance, let's go".  And we quickly headed out the door.

We arrived at GZ (ground zero/posted coordinates) and after a brief search we had the cache in hand.  Nervously dad opened the container and looked at the log, and with a grin said "We are first to find"!
He collected the toonie which was the FTF to prize and we signed the log.
Dad was pretty happy, he was all grins.  And on the way home we stopped for a nice cup of Joe (coffee) and discussed future caching plans.  As the day moved forward I loaded back up and headed for home.

It was a fun semi-caching weekend, and it was so nice to help dad get his first FTF!  Thanks for reading!!

The GO! Team's Wedding Photo Flash Mob - GC4B4K9

That is right, we are hosting a quick photo event the day of our wedding.  Our fantastic photographer Megan of Fetching Image Photography was absolutely ecstatic at the idea of a Flash Mob photo with the geocachers of Victoria and surrounding area.  So if you are a cacher on Vancouver Island or visiting the area on the day of the event and want to play a small part in our day, we invite you to log your intent to attend at the cache page.  Make sure to read the details of the event so that you know what is going on!

Also clicking on any of the blue text will take you to any of the relevant web pages!

WWFM X - May The Fourth Be With You

On Saturday May 4th, 2013 (May the 4th be with you) the tenth annual WWFM X (World Wide Flash Mob) Event took place.  The event here in Victoria (GC47HQK) happened at the beautiful and scenic Clover Point, while we were joined by others all over the globe at various other events.  The WWFM is described as such by the folks at geocaching.com:

"More than 15,000 geocachers attended one of more than 350 geocaching flash mob events spanning the globe. From a small beginning, the WWFM has grown astronomically, spreading around the globe to include more geocachers and more events every year. The WWFM events are 15 minutes of fun and excitement, packed with “typical” geocaching event activities like group photos, event meals (usually Hershey’s kisses), prize giveaways and trackable trading."

Originally it was just going to be me Shadowcaster of The GO! Team going to this event, as Just Leafy was at Goldstream Campgrounds camping with some of our friends.  But this morning (6:30am) as a I was getting my beauty sleep I got a call on my cellphone from her telling me that she was already up and would like me to come pick her up and bring her too. 
So up I got, quickly dressed with the fog of sleep still in my head I headed out to pick her up.

The weather today was just glorious, and when we arrived at Clover Point we were greeted with a crystal clear view of the Olympic Mountains in the distance. 
Already many cachers were gathered around (not at) GZ (ground zero), waiting for the appointed time to move into the center of the grounds to proceed with the actual Flash Mob. 

When the appointed time arrived, the waiting hoard of waiting geocachers turned and headed to the center.  The table in place and logbook set out, people poured in from all directions to sign.  Then we all lined up for the group photo taken by cameracowgirl, who has graciously given her permission for the photos to be used here on this blog.   Be sure to click on them to view the larger versions!
After that the draw for the WWFM X official geocoin was made, and Mr. Landsharkz was asked to reach in and pull out the winners name.  And the winner was AnnieMaroo, so a congratulations goes to her!  You enjoy that coin, we look forward to discovering it at a future event!

It was so nice to see all the usual friendly faces and to meet a few new people as well. The attendees of the event were from all over.  I believe we had some that were just off the plane this morning from the east coast, and as well there were visitors from Germany in attendance as well!
We always seem to talk to the same people all the time, yet we want to get around to more...  But it will have to be next time when we put our foot down and make sure we do.

An absolutely huge THANK YOU is in order for A-Team and G-Force for putting the time and energy into planning and hosting this event.  As well, another thank you goes to all who turned out to make the event a memorable one!

2013 Earthday CITO Weekend - Fort Rodd Hill

The weekend of April 20th~22nd 2013 was the Annual Earthday CITO (Cache In Trash Out) Weekend.

The folks here in the Greater Victoria Area had a couple of events planned for the 20th & 21st this particular weekend, but we The GO! Team could only attend one.  And that one was GC498W6 - Earth Day Garry Oak Ecosystem Restoration CITO hosted by Landsharkz and site sponsored Parks Canada.

Sadly I Shadowcaster was unable to attend due to being on the mainland that weekend, but my better half Just Leafy did.  So lets all give her a warm round of applause as she writes her words about the event for your reading pleasure.  So take it away Just Leafy......

"Just Leafy of The GO! Team here...

Unfortunately Shadowcaster couldn't attend this event with me but going solo for a change wasn't too bad after all since there are always other cachers to visit with!

The weather was on our side that morning!

I learned some new things while planting in the Fort Rodd Hill gardens and grassy areas and loved that we were making a positive difference and a greener planet!

It will be nice to return later in the Spring or even this summer to see the growth of the things we've planted!

Thanks to Landsharkz and my fellow cachers for an enjoyable day of making a better greener earth!"

Thank you Just Leafy for your story!  And thank you to everyone who participated in CITO events world wide this weekend, you all helped make this planet we call home a bit more greener and alot more beautiful!

Another Year, Another HAG (HAG 9)! And Then Some Detective Work CSI Style!

Well it is several months into the new year and of course the 9th annual HAG (Hide and Go Cache) has been and gone.  For any of my new readers or casual muggle readers, the HAG is a two month caching ordeal.  The local cachers of Vancouver Island participate by using the month of January to hide a bunch of new caches specifically for the event, and wait in anticipation to launch day. 
Launch day is in February, and this is when all the submitted caches for the HAG get published by our fantastic local reviewers.  This is when all the cachers head out in frenzy to make the FTF (First To Find) on all the new caches.  And then spend the whole month of February getting out there and finding what they can.  When March rolls around, the HAG is officially over.  This is when all stats on the HAG caches are collected by the "HAGs" as they like to call themselves, which is Amandazon and Mrs. Cache Crop.

After all is said and done, now comes the last part..... PARTY!  That's right, we all meet up at the 6 Mile Pub for an evening of merriment and food.  As part of it all the people that hid a cache gets a token of gratitude from the HAGs, and then the winners of the trophies are announced. 
In previous years Just Leafy and I have won the Best Log award and the Best Puzzle award.  But sadly we did not have time to participate in the hide part of the HAG this year becasue of the trip to the ET Highway.  But it was nice to let someone else win for once!

Here is the list of winners this year:

Most Finds: Wrooster
Most FTFs: Wrooster
Most Hides: Vicmorda
Best Night Cache: Team World Tour for Crimes in the City GC44F4E
Best Multi: rock'n'roll for BLT Multi GC4525J
Best Log: Paconlacellars and LJL for their logs in It's Elemental, My Dear Cacher.
Best Trail Series: birdseecer for the SS series ending in Culmination GC44WYP
Best Puzzle: Mike&Lily for If The Shoe Fits GC44HMR
Best Camo: The Incredibles for Red-Breasted Nuthatch GC44AD8
Tricky Trophy (most convoluted, drive-you-nuts cache): slimshadysr for SSsr's Stereogram Stash
Intrepid Cacher Trophy: 17blonde for the terrain she covers putting caches in the Sooke Wilderness
Pyramid Trophy: ljg-47 for the MANY contributions she has made to caching in the Sooke Hills.

Congrats to all the winners of the 9th Annual HAG.

To all who attended, it was nice to see you all there!  To those that I did not get to speak to, lets work to make that happen at the next event.

After the event was completed I teamed up with sdkonkle and Giant Pickle to go do the night/multi cache "CSI Victoria - GC202AR".  While still at the 6 Mile Pub joined forces with Team World Tour, and drove out to stage one.  When we arrived and started following the clues we soon ran into LEMON-T, and our team became 7 rookie CSI Agents. 
We solved stage one and headed onto the others, quickly figuring out what to do.  Soon after driving to some really cool places that were used for the stages we found ourself at the infamous final.  I say infamous not becasue it is hard, but because someone keeps stealing the reflective tacks that are used to mark the way.  We had arranged to contact the cache owner at this point to get some valuable tips to get us going, and after that was done we moved along and quickly (almost too quickly) had the cache in hand.

Thanks Giant Pickle and sdkonkle for inviting me to join you on this most excellent quest.  Team World Tour and LEMON-T it was nice to finally get out and cache with you, and I hope to do it again.  And to Mrs. Incredibles thanks for adopting this cache and keeping it alive, and a big thanks for that tip to allow us to actually complete this amazing night/multi!!!

And another thank you to A-Team for the use of your photo from this event!!  It's like you are becoming my personal photo journalist!!

CITO At Fort Rodd Hill

On February 24th Landsharkz hosted a CITO the which I have never seen before.  I have been to many CITO (Cache In Trash Out) Events over the past couple of years, but never one that took place at one of my favorite childhood locations.  This is of course the one and only Fort Rodd Hill!

Fort Rodd Hill is home to some of the oldest and rarest Gary Oak Ecosystems.  While Canada did at one time have many of these ecosystems, expansion and growth of the Human Race has systematically been wiping them out.  Here in Victoria you find them on the rocky hilltops near the shoreline.
To learn a bit more about Gary Oak Ecosystems check out this article from Parks Canada:
Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites of Canada and Garry Oak Ecosystems

These ecosystems are not only at risk from Humans, but also from other invasive plant species.  And one of those invasive plants is the Daphne Laureola.  To learn more on this plant please check out this link also:
INVASIVE PLANT PROFILE: Daphne laureola

This plant is very prolific, and handling it requires special care as it does have some toxic properties.  The sap of this plant can cause rashes and such, and Work Safe BC also has some words on how to handle this plant, since you can also find it growing in your yard: Work Safe BC Info On Handling Daphne Laureola

Landsharkz coordinated with Parks Canada to have us come in and assist them in removing this plant from their Gary Oak forest areas. 

With enthusiasm and an eagerness a number of local cachers converged on the grounds of Fort Rodd Hill and met with the Parks Canada staff for a briefing of what we were up against and what tools we would be using.   

They graciously gave all of us new pairs of work gloves, showed us the cutters we were to use and away we went.

We walked down to near the Lower Battery and were shown our work site.  And I have to say there was a lot of this plant down here.  We set right to work cutting at the root and pulling the saplings.  It was actually a lot of Daphne to clear, but time flew while we all had fun chatting and working.  Soon it was already noon, and Parks Canada supplied us with a nice pizza lunch. 

After lunch we worked away until 3pm, and by that time we had a huge pile of Daphne Laureola.  The staff at Parks Canada were most impressed, and were even more impressed at how we recognized natural indigenous plants and worked around them and left them to thrive and grow.

With that said a big thanks goes to the cachers that showed up to help clear this invasive plant out, a bigger thanks to Landsharkz for planning and hosting the event, and a SUPER HUGE thanks to Parks Canada for allowing us to come into their environment and help them take care of business!

Also a thank you to A-Team for graciously letting me use his pictures from the event in this blog.

 

ET Highway Day 5: The Last Day (For us that is)!!

Day 5 started just like all the rest.... Early!
We all rose and started to get ready and met at the Little A'Le'Inn Restaurant for breakfast.  Discussing what we had to do that day we hurried our eating and headed out.  First on the list was the UFO!  This was exactly like the Alien Head, and we had it all done in short order and headed out to grab some of the surrounding caches by foot.  This took us a few more hours and then we headed back for a warm cup of coffee and a snack.  We said our farewells to the wonderful staff of the Little A'Le'Inn, bought a few keepsakes and trackables and headed back out.

This leg of the trip had us cleaning up some more caches we ignored on the way by before and doing a few small powertrails again.  The going was a lot slower today, but it still had the outcome of some amazing numbers.  Here we saw more of the flora and fauna, and even more diverse lansacapes.  We moved along grabbing cache after cache.  These powertrails were made by a cacher by the name of nvtriker, all of them named after people that have come out here to cache the ET Highway series.  We saw caches named after sole seeker, cache crop, Tugman and Wifey and more.  And one day all of our names will be out there in the Nevada high desert!

We continued until we reached a point where all were in agreement that it was time to head back to Las Vegas.  On the way there we hit just a few more, one near a gas station, the other a letterbox hybrid just off the highway.  And to add a little more excitement to the mix, Paulboy got us pulled over by highway patrol for speeding past a 16 wheeler.  The Highway Patrolman was actually very nice and when he found out we were geocachers let Paulboy off the hook!   I have to say that I do not recommend trying to get away with speeding here, just cause we got off lucky does not mean you will.

We pulled into the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, unloaded, and checked in.  Here I said my farewells to the team, because I had decided not to leave with them to do the 6th day of caching down at Route 66.  Being sick all those days, the lack of sleep, and constantly being on the go had taken its toll on me.... I was just too tired to continue on.

So this marks the last day of our journey in Nevada.  Just Leafy, Postie Bear and myself enjoyed a relaxing day on the Las Vegas strip on the 6th day while the others did 800 plus caches on Route 66.  And I have to say that is what was really needed for me.

The 7th day we headed to the Airport and started for home.  Luckily we run into seekandsail before we boarded our flight, and we got to learn a bit about their fun day in California.

Well that completes my story about our adventure on the ET Highway.  We hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed the experience.

And as one last thing to share, you will find below this post a musical photo montage recapping the adventure.  Enjoy!