Good morning everyone. Did you know there are 11 Letterbox caches in North Dakota? The most found is 'Hephaestus: God of Fire and Metalworking, part 2' GC4FV35 with 138 logged finds. Utah has the most with 849 Letterbox caches. In Canada, Ontario leads the way with 767 Letterbox caches. Manitoba is 3rd in the country with 138. The most found Letterbox cache in Manitoba is also the oldest Letterbox in Manitoba. 'World Peace' GCG4ZM, placed in May, 2003 has been found 345 times.
For those who have been following along, know I haven't done much caching at all since the start of July. In the four months since, I have found 46 caches. Nineteen of those were found in July, with another thirteen in August. Aside from a trip to Brandon at the beginning of August, I haven't dedicated any day towards a big caching trip or just a day itself to go caching. Part of the reason is that life has done a complete flip for me. I'm busier now and I don't really have the time to go caching. Also, I was feeling burnt out, discouraged. Geocaching had lost its appeal. When I was returning from the North Dakota Camping and Caching event in June, I hit up a small portion of a powertrail, maybe thirty caches. It was such a struggle to do that small portion, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Stick a fork in me, I was done.
The first weekend of November found me not only kid free, but pet free as well. The boys were spending the weekend with their mom and took the geo-pet with them. For the first time, I felt like caching and had the opportunity to do so. Where shall I go? I don't want to travel too far as I have stuff to do at home. I know in the summer I had plans on doing a Letterbox powertrail that's just to the North-west of the city. I never got there. Was I insane for attempting a powertrail? Considering how I felt at the start of Summer, a powertrail would test my well-being. How far along would I get before calling it quits? I had counted 45 caches that I still need to get from this trail. If I'm successful, that's almost equal to what I have found in total over the past four months. Looking back on my stats, the only days that are comparable are the ones in which I did a powertrail. Can I do this? I was feeling up to the challenge, but time will tell once I get out there. When I do anything like this, I always bring something to drink and snack on. Today, it's water and leftover Halloween candy, mini chocolate bars, bags of chips, twizzlers, all the healthy stuff LOL.
It's a typical, beginning of November Saturday. Cloudy, temperature was around +2 Celsius (almost +36 Fahrenheit) with a windchill that made it feel like -3. Just as I'm about to drive away from home, a car passes me. Nothing unusual there, but I recognize a shape on the back window. It's a travelbug. A geocacher just passed me on my front street. I tried to get close enough to get a picture so I could discover the car and find out who it belongs to. Sadly, I didn't get close enough.
As I approached the general area to begin this quest, I encountered a couple of things that only geocaching would present to me. A dirt road to drive down. Luckily, the road was dry enough and drivable. As I passed a wooded area, a deer crossed the road ahead of me. I couldn't begin to count how many deer I have seen while out geocaching. I had moved my rubber boots from the trunk to the passenger side of the car so they could warm up just in case they might be needed. I'm crossing ditches. With the amount of rain we had in September and the freak snowstorm in October, who knows what the ditches are like. I arrive at the first cache. A quick find on the hydro pole. Ditch was dry. So far, so good.
It wasn't long before I started to encounter some ice in the ditch. It wasn't much. I was able to leap over it and sign the log sheet. No boots required. I should mention that the log sheet wasn't your typical piece of paper rolled up. It was a fan out style. I haven't come across a log book like this. It was nice that I didn't have to unroll and roll up a piece of paper at each cache. It fit nicely in the preforms that made up this trail. Sadly, not everyone was signing it properly. There are two sides to each piece of paper. Most of the finders were only signing the one side. There was room on each side for two signatures. Some only contained one signature, or the finder took up both spaces.
Soon I found myself near GZ, with a larger patch of ice separating me and the cache. I had to cross over the ice. No choice here if I wanted to claim this as found. Out came the boots. The boots didn't warm up that much, so they were still cold on the feet. Feeling brave with rubber boots on, I made my way to GZ, signed, and back to the car to switch back to my runners. A couple of caches down the road and I was putting the boots on again. I knew the ice would be thin, so I pushed down with my foot to break up the ice before taking another step. This ditch just got a whole lot deeper than earlier up the road. The water was near the top of my boots, which is half to two thirds up my shin. This made for some careful navigating. After grabbing these caches, I opted to leave the boots on for the remainder of the power trail.
Another indication as to just how wet the last two months have been, I passed on a couple of occasions, farm machinery working the fields. The remainder of the way was uneventful. If a good song was playing on the radio, I cranked it up so I could continue listening while I walked to GZ, singed the log sheet, and returned to the car. Music is therapy and singing along to your favorite songs helps to take away the stresses of life, even if it's only just for that moment.
I did it. I found all 45 caches without any struggle and I was still feeling good when it was all done. If I have a chance to do this again next weekend, would I? Probably not. No point in over doing it. I'll savor today. I may not go caching again for the remainder of the month. Who knows. Baby steps. I hit a milestone that was a little overdue as well. I've passed 100 Letterbox caches found.
That's all for this week. Who knows when my next geocaching adventure will be. Hopefully it won't be too far off. Until then, have fun, be safe, hug your geo-pets, and most importantly, be happy.
For those who have been following along, know I haven't done much caching at all since the start of July. In the four months since, I have found 46 caches. Nineteen of those were found in July, with another thirteen in August. Aside from a trip to Brandon at the beginning of August, I haven't dedicated any day towards a big caching trip or just a day itself to go caching. Part of the reason is that life has done a complete flip for me. I'm busier now and I don't really have the time to go caching. Also, I was feeling burnt out, discouraged. Geocaching had lost its appeal. When I was returning from the North Dakota Camping and Caching event in June, I hit up a small portion of a powertrail, maybe thirty caches. It was such a struggle to do that small portion, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. Stick a fork in me, I was done.
The first weekend of November found me not only kid free, but pet free as well. The boys were spending the weekend with their mom and took the geo-pet with them. For the first time, I felt like caching and had the opportunity to do so. Where shall I go? I don't want to travel too far as I have stuff to do at home. I know in the summer I had plans on doing a Letterbox powertrail that's just to the North-west of the city. I never got there. Was I insane for attempting a powertrail? Considering how I felt at the start of Summer, a powertrail would test my well-being. How far along would I get before calling it quits? I had counted 45 caches that I still need to get from this trail. If I'm successful, that's almost equal to what I have found in total over the past four months. Looking back on my stats, the only days that are comparable are the ones in which I did a powertrail. Can I do this? I was feeling up to the challenge, but time will tell once I get out there. When I do anything like this, I always bring something to drink and snack on. Today, it's water and leftover Halloween candy, mini chocolate bars, bags of chips, twizzlers, all the healthy stuff LOL.
It's a typical, beginning of November Saturday. Cloudy, temperature was around +2 Celsius (almost +36 Fahrenheit) with a windchill that made it feel like -3. Just as I'm about to drive away from home, a car passes me. Nothing unusual there, but I recognize a shape on the back window. It's a travelbug. A geocacher just passed me on my front street. I tried to get close enough to get a picture so I could discover the car and find out who it belongs to. Sadly, I didn't get close enough.
As I approached the general area to begin this quest, I encountered a couple of things that only geocaching would present to me. A dirt road to drive down. Luckily, the road was dry enough and drivable. As I passed a wooded area, a deer crossed the road ahead of me. I couldn't begin to count how many deer I have seen while out geocaching. I had moved my rubber boots from the trunk to the passenger side of the car so they could warm up just in case they might be needed. I'm crossing ditches. With the amount of rain we had in September and the freak snowstorm in October, who knows what the ditches are like. I arrive at the first cache. A quick find on the hydro pole. Ditch was dry. So far, so good.
With any Letterbox cache, you need to have a stamp included inside the cache in order for it to be a Letterbox. How do you fit a stamp inside a preform container? You don't. You get creative and have the stamp on the inside of the cap.
It wasn't long before I started to encounter some ice in the ditch. It wasn't much. I was able to leap over it and sign the log sheet. No boots required. I should mention that the log sheet wasn't your typical piece of paper rolled up. It was a fan out style. I haven't come across a log book like this. It was nice that I didn't have to unroll and roll up a piece of paper at each cache. It fit nicely in the preforms that made up this trail. Sadly, not everyone was signing it properly. There are two sides to each piece of paper. Most of the finders were only signing the one side. There was room on each side for two signatures. Some only contained one signature, or the finder took up both spaces.
Soon I found myself near GZ, with a larger patch of ice separating me and the cache. I had to cross over the ice. No choice here if I wanted to claim this as found. Out came the boots. The boots didn't warm up that much, so they were still cold on the feet. Feeling brave with rubber boots on, I made my way to GZ, signed, and back to the car to switch back to my runners. A couple of caches down the road and I was putting the boots on again. I knew the ice would be thin, so I pushed down with my foot to break up the ice before taking another step. This ditch just got a whole lot deeper than earlier up the road. The water was near the top of my boots, which is half to two thirds up my shin. This made for some careful navigating. After grabbing these caches, I opted to leave the boots on for the remainder of the power trail.
Another indication as to just how wet the last two months have been, I passed on a couple of occasions, farm machinery working the fields. The remainder of the way was uneventful. If a good song was playing on the radio, I cranked it up so I could continue listening while I walked to GZ, singed the log sheet, and returned to the car. Music is therapy and singing along to your favorite songs helps to take away the stresses of life, even if it's only just for that moment.
I did it. I found all 45 caches without any struggle and I was still feeling good when it was all done. If I have a chance to do this again next weekend, would I? Probably not. No point in over doing it. I'll savor today. I may not go caching again for the remainder of the month. Who knows. Baby steps. I hit a milestone that was a little overdue as well. I've passed 100 Letterbox caches found.
That's all for this week. Who knows when my next geocaching adventure will be. Hopefully it won't be too far off. Until then, have fun, be safe, hug your geo-pets, and most importantly, be happy.
Oh yeah, right there, that's the spot, keep scratching
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