Good morning everyone. I was too preoccupied last week with submitting a puzzle cache that I completely forgot to include a geocaching fun fact. I did realize this after I had published last week's blog and tried to include a fun fact in the comments on Twitter and on my FB page. Normally the fun fact is one of the last things I add to the blog but I'm doing that first so I don't forget again. LOL. Without further ado, the top calendar loopers (having found a cache on every calendar day over time) in Canada is 3-Bearss from Nova Scotia. They have completed the calendar 30 times. In the States, it's IMSpider from Newark, Deleware with a whopping 110 times completed.
This week I want to go back to the animals we come across in our geocaching travels. For those who see my Twitter account, or my FB page, may have seen this pic as my cover photo.
This week I want to go back to the animals we come across in our geocaching travels. For those who see my Twitter account, or my FB page, may have seen this pic as my cover photo.
The story behind this goes as follows: About two years ago, I drove out to Riding Mountain National Park for an event hosted by local geocacher, Jabbywockyz. It was a hiking event and I got to meet some of the local geocachers and hear their adventures.
After the event, I slowly made my way home, via a power trail. I'm working my way along, minding my own business, finding geocache after geocache. I came up to one GZ and noticed a large amount of cows grazing. I crossed the ditch towards GZ to make another find. One cow? to my left gave a snort/huff. I didn't really give it much thought until I saw all the other cows raise their heads from grazing. "Don't mind me, I'm just geocaching." I grabbed the container, signed and replaced. As I was doing this, I noticed all the cows had started moving in my direction. I double checked to make sure there was something between me and the cows. There was a barbed wire fence. That made me feel safer. After my encounter with a goose (that's the next paragraph), I stay away from the animals. As you can see, all the cows came up to the fence.
2016 had to be the year of animal encounters. I had my fair share of them. Prior to the cows, I was caching South of the city. I parked and made my way to GZ that was at the corner of two highways. I came up to one spot but the GPSr said I had some distance to go yet. It must be the telephone pole over there. As I made my way in that direction, I heard a loud honk. I looked and there was a Canada goose, standing up with wings spread, not looking too happy that I'm in the area. Something tells me that the goose has it's nest right on top of the container. As I moved sideways, wondering how am I going to get to GZ, and wondering where are the rest of the geese, I heard another honk off to my left. I looked and saw the head of a very pissed off goose sticking up over the tall grass, mouth opened, and running towards me. I decided right then and there that I wasn't sticking around any longer and made tracks back to my car. I also kept an eye on where that second goose was. It's now in the air flying towards me. All I remember was seeing this object about the size of a football in the air and wondered how the heck are they able to get off the ground. I guess I had made it far away enough from the nest that the charging goose landed, although still running after me but eventually stopped. Reading past logs on that cache, other geocachers encountered the same goose. At this point I just want to say that the Canada goose is a nasty creature, and does not represent what a true Canadian is, friendly. The picture is where my goose encounter took place. It's one of those telephone poles. The 1400 on the sign is the weight of my car. I couldn't resist weighing my car. LOL
As I said, 2016 was the year of animal encounters for me. After having dealt with a pissed off goose, I don't hang around when I'm approached by animals. I retreat to a safer place. As was the case when I was caching just North East of the city. I came up to GZ which was a puzzle final. I saw a flimsy looking fence around GZ, but didn't think much of it as I was able to step over. I searched the most likely host but couldn't find anything. After a couple of minutes of searching, I spotted something move in my peripheral. Goats. They are inside this fence. I've never dealt with a goat before so I wasn't taking any chances and jumped back over to the other side of the fence. My goose encounter clearly had a negative effect on me. I didn't get this particular cache that day but I eventually returned another day. The fence was gone and so were the goats. I found the cache on the ground.
That's this week's encounter with animals. There's more. I have seen my fair share of deer. That's for another blog. Part 3 possibly. Until then, peace out, be safe, enjoy, and remember, geocaching is meant to be fun.
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