Good morning everyone. Did you know that there are currently 65 Earthcaches located in Manitoba? I have found 23 of them so far. In North Dakota, there are 26 Earthcaches. I have found one. Yup. 1. One is a lonely number. It's located in Grand Forks.
As a blogger, I have a few blogs started but not completed. Ideas that are kicking around in my head and put down on paper so to speak, but never came back to complete the story being told. These can come in handy for those weeks when I'm too busy to sit and compose something new. This week is one of those incomplete blogs. This one qualifies as a past adventure as it is an adventure I went on by myself last fall. Let's jump into the DeLorean, set the destination date to October, 2018, and see if we can get this baby up to 88mph and go back in time.
October 13th and 14th was International Earthcache Day. Did you get an earthcache on either of those days? I was reading on social media that some geocachers had to go a half hour or more to get an earthcache that they didn't have already. I found myself in a similar situation. Where to go to get an earthcache?
The weekend in question also concluded my birthday week. A week where I book off as a vacation from work and dedicate a day to go on a big geocaching adventure. The Saturday was a yucky day to be outside, so that was spent working on some geocache puzzles and trying to decide which earthcache was I going to try. The other question was, how far am I willing to drive to get an earthcache. I really didn't feel like driving any great distance and finances dictated that I stayed close to home. That didn't leave many options. I headed up to Bird's Hill Park, about 10-15 minute drive Northeast of Winnipeg. There are a number of geocaches to be found in the park. Many traditional, including some of the older active caches, puzzle caches, a WhereIGo, and of course, two earthcaches.
First up was the WhereIGo. I don't have much luck when it comes to WhereIGo's. I think they're fun to do but I've only been able to do one on my own. That was a couple of phones ago (i-phone 4). I couldn't get the app to work on my next phone (i-phone 5), and I haven't tried on my current phone (Android Galaxy). Time to give it a try. It wasn't long before I had the same results. I couldn't get the app to work on this phone either. Back to the drawing board for WhereIGos.
As mentioned, there are two earthcaches in the park. Do I attempt both or just one? If just one, which one? The closest earthcache to the West gate of the park is "Bird's Hills of Glacial Deposits" GC1RK6. This earthcache has been around since 2009. I have not attempted this particular earthcache in the five years I've been geocaching. I think the main reason is that part of the earthcache requires some calculating. If it's basic math, then I'm ok. Anything beyond basic math, then I'm in trouble. This particular earthcache requires me to calculate the density of a rock. I'm in trouble. This is why I have avoided this earthcache. Since I'm here, I'm going to give it a try. When I submitted my answers, the CO got back to me and said my calculations were way off. He did allow me to claim it as found.
With that out of the way, it was off to a field puzzle cache. I liked this particular field puzzle as I had to find the starting point, calculate the bearing I need to head in and go in that direction for a set distance. I did that and I was off. As I was closing in on the distance final, I spotted a likely host. Once there, I checked the cache page for any clues. This is when I discovered that this cache hasn't been found in almost a whole year. Fortunately, it was still a quick find, and despite it not being found in a year, the cache was still in great shape.
Since I was walking around on the hiking trails, I made my way over to where the other earthcache is located. It was a very nice walk on a fall day.
There is enough there for me to find and meet my goal, but with the exception to the newer cache that's near me (I'm saving that one for April 15th, the only day left in April with only 4 finds total), and some puzzles that I haven't been able to solve, everything else is basically at the other end of the city. This is as of Saturday afternoon on April 6th. I set out and went to the left of the map and found six, bringing my total to seven. Half way there.
That's it for this week. If you have a chance, check out the FB page @TheGeocachingGuild. It's the home for geocaching bloggers. You can find my blog on there along with other geocaching related blogs. Until next time, be happy, be safe, enjoy, and have fun. Peace out.
As a blogger, I have a few blogs started but not completed. Ideas that are kicking around in my head and put down on paper so to speak, but never came back to complete the story being told. These can come in handy for those weeks when I'm too busy to sit and compose something new. This week is one of those incomplete blogs. This one qualifies as a past adventure as it is an adventure I went on by myself last fall. Let's jump into the DeLorean, set the destination date to October, 2018, and see if we can get this baby up to 88mph and go back in time.
October 13th and 14th was International Earthcache Day. Did you get an earthcache on either of those days? I was reading on social media that some geocachers had to go a half hour or more to get an earthcache that they didn't have already. I found myself in a similar situation. Where to go to get an earthcache?
The weekend in question also concluded my birthday week. A week where I book off as a vacation from work and dedicate a day to go on a big geocaching adventure. The Saturday was a yucky day to be outside, so that was spent working on some geocache puzzles and trying to decide which earthcache was I going to try. The other question was, how far am I willing to drive to get an earthcache. I really didn't feel like driving any great distance and finances dictated that I stayed close to home. That didn't leave many options. I headed up to Bird's Hill Park, about 10-15 minute drive Northeast of Winnipeg. There are a number of geocaches to be found in the park. Many traditional, including some of the older active caches, puzzle caches, a WhereIGo, and of course, two earthcaches.
First up was the WhereIGo. I don't have much luck when it comes to WhereIGo's. I think they're fun to do but I've only been able to do one on my own. That was a couple of phones ago (i-phone 4). I couldn't get the app to work on my next phone (i-phone 5), and I haven't tried on my current phone (Android Galaxy). Time to give it a try. It wasn't long before I had the same results. I couldn't get the app to work on this phone either. Back to the drawing board for WhereIGos.
As mentioned, there are two earthcaches in the park. Do I attempt both or just one? If just one, which one? The closest earthcache to the West gate of the park is "Bird's Hills of Glacial Deposits" GC1RK6. This earthcache has been around since 2009. I have not attempted this particular earthcache in the five years I've been geocaching. I think the main reason is that part of the earthcache requires some calculating. If it's basic math, then I'm ok. Anything beyond basic math, then I'm in trouble. This particular earthcache requires me to calculate the density of a rock. I'm in trouble. This is why I have avoided this earthcache. Since I'm here, I'm going to give it a try. When I submitted my answers, the CO got back to me and said my calculations were way off. He did allow me to claim it as found.
( a few of the spots encountered while doing the earthcache)
With that out of the way, it was off to a field puzzle cache. I liked this particular field puzzle as I had to find the starting point, calculate the bearing I need to head in and go in that direction for a set distance. I did that and I was off. As I was closing in on the distance final, I spotted a likely host. Once there, I checked the cache page for any clues. This is when I discovered that this cache hasn't been found in almost a whole year. Fortunately, it was still a quick find, and despite it not being found in a year, the cache was still in great shape.
(starting point for the field puzzle)
(could the final be over there?)
(found it. 360 days since it was last found.)
Since I was walking around on the hiking trails, I made my way over to where the other earthcache is located. It was a very nice walk on a fall day.
(walking along one of the many trails with the fall colors and fallen leaves)
I checked out the location of the other Earthcache. I did take pictures of what might provide the answers, but never sat down to gather the information. Once the snow melts and the trails dry up, I'll have to return to the location.
(so this is where the other Earthcache is)
Time to jump back to the present and see how my monthly challenge is going. I did manage to squeeze out two more finds for March, giving me 30 for the month. My March challenge has been met. For April, I want to reach 5,300 total finds. All I need is 14 finds for the month. I have no plans on leaving the city for any caching adventures, so I'll be limited to whatever is available in the city.
That's it for this week. If you have a chance, check out the FB page @TheGeocachingGuild. It's the home for geocaching bloggers. You can find my blog on there along with other geocaching related blogs. Until next time, be happy, be safe, enjoy, and have fun. Peace out.
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