Good morning everyone. This week's fun fact should be a favorite. The Canadian geocacher who has collected the most favorite points on all their caches is Tupper T. Turtle with 8,314. The top American geocacher is WV Tim with a whopping 23,587 points.
You're probably wondering who or what an SM66 is. SM66 is a casual geocacher, a full time nurse, a full time single mom, and my girlfriend. She knew of geocaching before I had met her, had an account, but never had a chance to find a geocache. So I can't take credit for introducing her to this hobby. My tales of travel, adventures and my dedication to a daily streak interested her (or she thought I was crazy) and we made plans for SM66 to experience what geocaching is all about.
We decided on a day trip to Hecla Provincial Park. This was in September of 2016. I had never been to Hecla and neither had SM66. We set off early with a minimum of a two hour drive ahead of us. We arrived at our first cache location, "Ray's Mini Cache #5 A Rough In The Diamond" GC4N1WW. A short walk to a very scenic spot. If I recall, I was able to make the find on this one. SM66's first cache found. Onward to our next cache "Ray's Mini Cache #6 Take In The Beauty" GC4N1XN. Another short walk with the shores of Lake Winnipeg behind us. We both spotted this one. So far, so good. Two attempts, two finds.
"Seth's Secret Stash" GC3PECM was our next stop. My GPSr was bouncing and had me running around in circles. SM66 made the find, her very first find on her own. "Simone-A-Course" GC4GX80 was next on the list. Another short walk. A quick find when looking from the right angle. Along the way, SM66 pointed out some trees that had blight, what blight was and how I could spot it. Lunch time. We headed over to the marina for some food, before continuing on our adventure. Two more caches were found after lunch. "North Point (MBGA Blitz) GCW62H was found by the both of us with a gorgeous view of Lake Winnipeg from a viewing platform. "Muggle Beach" GC1H2V0 took us on another pleasant walk along a pathway, that was until we had to leave the path and do some bushwhacking. SM66 found this one, and it was back to the pathway where we stopped to remove the many burrs from our clothes. These burrs were of the tiny variety, so you can keep finding and picking them off for days. So far, so good. Six attempts, six finds. This is where our luck would run out. "Ray's (Hecla) Path Cache)" GC2BA3X had us scratching our heads, wondering where the heck this one was hidden. We searched every possible spot, inside and outside. It didn't help that my GPSr was bouncing around again. I even attempted to check under the structure. The ground looked damp, but stable. While searching, my right foot sank up to my ankle. Oh shoot (not what I really said), and before I knew it, my right leg had sunk up to my knee in swamp sludge. I managed to get out. A walk back to my car where I had a change of socks and another pair of runners to put on. This cache will have to wait for another day. Before leaving, we checked out the camp grounds. SM66 was impressed and made plans to return next summer with the camper.
Our next adventure together came a couple of weeks later at an annual event "Cache The Marsh", hosted by local cacher OHMIC and held at the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, A Wildlife Management area just outside of the city. We teamed up with northduck's daughter and Canada City to solve coordinates to new, unpublished caches.
It would be months before we would go caching together again. This time it would be in sin city, Las Vegas. Our first time travelling here. We were joined by SM66's sister and brother-in-law. They had heard of my adventures, seen the pictures I had posted, and were interested to know more about geocaching and experience finding one. When you're on the strip, the virtuals are a must and a quick, touristy type of geocache to do. I picked out one traditional cache to find so our interested muggles could experience geocaching. We were told to stay away from parkades as they were unsafe for tourists. The closest cache to the Luxor Hotel (as we waited for our show (Criss Angel, Mindfreak) to start) was "Cache With A View #2" GC1V196, in Excalibur's parkade, across the street from the Luxor. It was a quick find and GZ did offer a wonderful, and different view of the strip.
You're probably wondering who or what an SM66 is. SM66 is a casual geocacher, a full time nurse, a full time single mom, and my girlfriend. She knew of geocaching before I had met her, had an account, but never had a chance to find a geocache. So I can't take credit for introducing her to this hobby. My tales of travel, adventures and my dedication to a daily streak interested her (or she thought I was crazy) and we made plans for SM66 to experience what geocaching is all about.
We decided on a day trip to Hecla Provincial Park. This was in September of 2016. I had never been to Hecla and neither had SM66. We set off early with a minimum of a two hour drive ahead of us. We arrived at our first cache location, "Ray's Mini Cache #5 A Rough In The Diamond" GC4N1WW. A short walk to a very scenic spot. If I recall, I was able to make the find on this one. SM66's first cache found. Onward to our next cache "Ray's Mini Cache #6 Take In The Beauty" GC4N1XN. Another short walk with the shores of Lake Winnipeg behind us. We both spotted this one. So far, so good. Two attempts, two finds.
"Seth's Secret Stash" GC3PECM was our next stop. My GPSr was bouncing and had me running around in circles. SM66 made the find, her very first find on her own. "Simone-A-Course" GC4GX80 was next on the list. Another short walk. A quick find when looking from the right angle. Along the way, SM66 pointed out some trees that had blight, what blight was and how I could spot it. Lunch time. We headed over to the marina for some food, before continuing on our adventure. Two more caches were found after lunch. "North Point (MBGA Blitz) GCW62H was found by the both of us with a gorgeous view of Lake Winnipeg from a viewing platform. "Muggle Beach" GC1H2V0 took us on another pleasant walk along a pathway, that was until we had to leave the path and do some bushwhacking. SM66 found this one, and it was back to the pathway where we stopped to remove the many burrs from our clothes. These burrs were of the tiny variety, so you can keep finding and picking them off for days. So far, so good. Six attempts, six finds. This is where our luck would run out. "Ray's (Hecla) Path Cache)" GC2BA3X had us scratching our heads, wondering where the heck this one was hidden. We searched every possible spot, inside and outside. It didn't help that my GPSr was bouncing around again. I even attempted to check under the structure. The ground looked damp, but stable. While searching, my right foot sank up to my ankle. Oh shoot (not what I really said), and before I knew it, my right leg had sunk up to my knee in swamp sludge. I managed to get out. A walk back to my car where I had a change of socks and another pair of runners to put on. This cache will have to wait for another day. Before leaving, we checked out the camp grounds. SM66 was impressed and made plans to return next summer with the camper.
Our next adventure together came a couple of weeks later at an annual event "Cache The Marsh", hosted by local cacher OHMIC and held at the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre, A Wildlife Management area just outside of the city. We teamed up with northduck's daughter and Canada City to solve coordinates to new, unpublished caches.
It would be months before we would go caching together again. This time it would be in sin city, Las Vegas. Our first time travelling here. We were joined by SM66's sister and brother-in-law. They had heard of my adventures, seen the pictures I had posted, and were interested to know more about geocaching and experience finding one. When you're on the strip, the virtuals are a must and a quick, touristy type of geocache to do. I picked out one traditional cache to find so our interested muggles could experience geocaching. We were told to stay away from parkades as they were unsafe for tourists. The closest cache to the Luxor Hotel (as we waited for our show (Criss Angel, Mindfreak) to start) was "Cache With A View #2" GC1V196, in Excalibur's parkade, across the street from the Luxor. It was a quick find and GZ did offer a wonderful, and different view of the strip.
The summer of 2017 saw us return to Hecla with her camper for a week of relaxing and a little bit of geocaching. All of us (SM66, myself, my two boys mew two & d-2002, and 3 dogs) went for a walk to find geocaches that we didn't attempt the summer before and complete a field puzzle.
That's it for this week. Be safe in your travels. Check for wood ticks (yes, they're back).
As my teenager, d-2002 likes to say; peace out. Have a great week everyone. Enjoy and remember, geocaching is suppose to be fun.
😊😊❤
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