Geocaching and the Staycay

Good morning everyone.  This week is about souvenirs.  Top collector of souvenirs in North Dakota is gnies and MinotRanger with 146 each.  Top Manitoban is dani_carriere with 202.  I am currently 57th in Manitoba with 102.  For those that know me will know that I don't really care about souvenirs anymore, except for new places that I have cached in.  That is one stat that I won't be going out of my way to work on.  On to a more positive subject, this week's blog topic.

For those that are not familiar with the term "staycay", it's basically a vacation but you don't go anywhere.  You stay home.  I usually take a week off in the Winter.  What does a geocacher do when they have a week off with no real plans other than some errands?  Do some geocaching of course. 

Anyone who knows me knows I like to have goals to shoot for.  For this particular week, it's to boost my February finds.  It's the only month now with fewer than 200 finds.  I managed to boost January up to 200.  That leaves February.  Caching in the Winter isn't the most ideal.  This Winter, there is a lot of snow, for certain to bury all caches not Winter friendly.  Even caches that are hidden under a park bench maybe buried in snow.  Add on to that the windchill which has been wickedly cold.  There have been days where it was -40C (-40F) or colder with the windchill.  Not ideal conditions for doing any geocaching or be outside for any length of time.  Bare fingers on a metal bison tube is not a good combo.  The saving grace is a bunch of new caches that were published.  A new series called "Long Cold Winter", which I lost count as to how many there are in the series.  It would have been ok if this series was a power trail, but it's not.  It's scattered all over Hell's frozen acre, and the notifications were actually getting annoying as they didn't come all at once.  They were scattered through out the day.  I do have an issue with the series title.  Winter? That it is.  Cold? It's Winnipeg in the Winter.  It's going to be cold.  Suck it up buttercup or move.  Long? Last time I checked, Winter is from December 21 to March 20.  It never changes so how is this Winter Longer? Anyway, I have some caches to find along with other caches that have been published in the past couple of months.

I also have a couple of other things I was hoping to do while on my staycay.  One was to get down to the Forks and walk a portion of the River Trail.  Every Winter, a skating trail is created, starting on the Assiniboine River and making it's way on to the Red River.  Last year, the trail set a new record for length, 10 kilometers (6.21 miles).  There is also a walking path beside the skating path.  Since I haven't been on skates in a few years, I opted to be safe and walk some of the trail.  I covered about 1.5 kilometers (3 kilometers round trip) with no end in sight at either end.  They have warming huts scattered along the way.  Some are very unique in design.

(A view from the bridge looking East at the junction of the Assiniboine River in the foreground and the Red River, running from right to left, in the background)

(Looking West from the same bridge, along the Assiniboine River with the Forks just to the right)

(I did find bison tubes and this bison as well near the Legislature building)

(I walked one kilometer to the West, now to walk back)

(Snow structures on the Red River)

(Just one of the warming huts.  Looks like a few people inside.  Those legs are fake LOL)

(A couple more warming stations)

Another place I wanted to get to was Dalnavert House.  Built in 1895 for Sir Hugh John MacDonald, 8th Premiere of Manitoba and son of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.  Dalnavert House is a Victorian mansion located in downtown Winnipeg.  My oldest son, d-2002 volunteers there through school on Thursdays, so I thought I'd pop in and have him give me a tour.  It only cost me $6 and the tour was about an hour long.  You can find out more about Dalnavert House and it's hours here --> http://www.friendsofdalnavert.ca/

(The outside of Dalnavert House)

(The Parlor room)

(Main Dining room)

We can't forget about the geocaches that I've found.  I'd say about 99% of the containers found were your average, nothing special bison tubes, preforms, etc.  If you're all about the numbers like I am, then these caches will fit the bill.  If you prefer quality over quantity, then the Long Cold Winter series is not for you.  But that's not to say I didn't come across anything interesting, container or otherwise.

(This was an awesome hide.  One of the best ones I found)

(I had to wait out a muggle deer before I could go get the cache)

 

(One last find that I thought was very minty)

Now that I'm done logging all my finds, I can provide my totals to see if I was successful.  This February, I found 53 caches.  Second most finds for the month of February.  2016 was my best so far.  It was also Leap Year, so there was an extra day of caching.  My total finds for February now sits at 227.  I hit the 200 mark and then some.  January is now my lowest month for finds with 200.

I also completed another challenge in February.  As mentioned in a previous blog, I was working on completing my 365 day found calendar for the 4th time.  All that was left was four days in February with three finds each.  Mission accomplished.  Now to start work on the 5th rotation of the 365 day found calendar.  There are only two days in March that have four finds.  March 2nd and March 3rd.  I found three on the 2nd and have plans on finding a few on the 3rd.  With that said, my challenge for March is to find 29 geocaches.  Sounds easy enough, but when you have a good chunk of the city cached out, that makes this a little tougher.  Why 29 geocaches?  That will give me a total of 5,285 overall finds, moving me up to 42nd place in the province of Manitoba for finds.  This will be a new feature to my blog as I will provide updates on existing challenges and give myself a new monthly challenge.

That's it for this week.  Until next time, be safe, be happy, have fun, and enjoy.  Peace out.