Geocaching and the Trans-Canada Highway Adventure Lab Series

Good morning everyone. I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with this opening paragraph. It should be something that's interesting, a fun fact about geocaching. Stay tuned. Hopefully soon.

Last week I mentioned going on an adventure, scouting out places for an Adventure Lab. Today is the results of that day.

The pictures didn't download in their proper order, so I'll just go with the flow of the pictures and there's plenty of pictures. The Trans-Canada Highway Adventure Lab Series - Austin MacGregor has ten stages. I did scout out more than ten locations plus I found a few geocaches as well. Let's see where last Sunday took me.

Four of my stops are at cairns commemorating previous schools or school divisions. These are things I discovered because of geocaching. This one is for the Image Hill school. You don't see the plaque because an answer to a question is on it. Although, if you look closely to the far right side of the picture, hanging in a tree is a yellowish container. There is a geocache already placed here. Image Hill Cache. GC62103

One of four stops in the town of Austin. Another cairn, or in this case, a big rock, commemorating the old Austin school that once stood here. When I was looking for locations for my AL, I had first turned to sm66 since she grew up in the area. She referred me over to her sister, who had plenty of suggestions. She had mentioned this one and the funny thing about this one; when sm66 and myself stayed at her sister's, I would go for walks around town. I know I walked past this rock and I'm certain I read it. For some reason it didn't stick in my head. There are no caches hidden here.

My adventure did take me to the town of Carberry. I did scout some locations here, and did some geocaching as well. It wasn't a good day for hunting containers in Carberry. I found two, DNF'd on four, and didn't bother with the others. As I was logging these caches the next day, I noticed that the CO did a maintenance run AFTER I was there. I'll be going back there someday. Maybe a combined trip that includes the city of Brandon as well.

Another cairn for a former school. Did I mention that the pictures are out of order? This is at the opposite end of my AL from the town of Carberry. Burnside school once sat near here. One of Manitoba's older caches does sit nearby. Burnside Cache GC14B4 was placed August 5, 2001. When I looked for it this time, I found it 10 meters South of the posted coordinates and there's two containers sitting side by side.

The last of the four school cairns is situated on a corner of two country roads. Emmeline School once sat here and the bell from the school sits on top of the cairn. If you look closely, you can see the geocache sitting under the bell. Emmeline School GC33ZF4 has been around since 2011. Not an oldie, but certainly has been around awhile.

Another place I discovered because of geocaching is this place in the town of MacGregor. Henderson House was originally ordered from a catalog (before Amazon was a thing), and shipped by train to MacGregor, ready to be built (just like ordering from Ikea). There use to be a traditional cache hidden here, but it's been archived.

Back to the town of Austin and Fireman's Park, dedicated to the people who protect the community from fires. Another location I discovered because of geocaching and from staying at sm66's sister and brother-in-law's place. There is a cache hidden here too. This Isn't Texas? GCY1VT has been here since August 2006.

About two kilometers down the highway is the Manitoba Agricultural Museum. Over 500 pieces of antique farm equipment and a pioneer village. It is also home to the Thresherman's reunion held in July when there isn't a pandemic. Of course there is a cache hidden here somewhere. Provincial Treasure GC1EZPM has been here since 2008.

Back to the town of MacGregor. This memorial to fallen soldiers sits at the corner of the church. Only one of four locations in my AL that don't have a geocache hidden somewhere.

This has potential to be an AL location. I found quite a few good spots in Carberry for ALs.

Back to the Agricultural Museum outside of Austin.

And back to the town of Austin. I had seen this in my trips to see sm66's family, but never stopped there. I should of hid a geocache here. A magnetic key holder would work really good at this location.

I did find a few geocaches while I was out putting my AL together. Fortunately, the ammo can is hidden by a tree and not inside this house. I don't know if it's haunted, and I don't plan on going back at night to find out either.

A puzzle final. Who doesn't love finding large containers that have tradeable items inside?

And the final stop on this mixed up AL series is a tree. You have to drive along the Trans-Canada Highway between Brandon and Portage La Prairie to appreciate what is known as halfway tree. Before there was highways and road signs, travelers noted their locations by geographical spots. In this case, it was this very large tree that stands alone. Lonely Tree TCDNMB GC1FP7A is located here as well and has been here since August, 2008.

That was my Sunday last weekend. The AL (TCHALS - Austin MacGregor) is live and has been completed once so far. I also added dad jokes on the completed page with partial coordinates to a bonus cache. When doing this AL, it doesn't matter if you're going East to West, or West to East, the first four locations on either side have the same clues and the bonus is in the middle somewhere. That's how any bonus cache on the TCHALS is supposed to be.

That's it for this week's adventure. My next project is doing something I haven't done in a very long time. Cache maintenance. Yes, I'm a bad owner. There will be a video coming out eventually that covers today's blog.

Until next week, be happy, stay safe, wash your hands and wear a mask, get vaccinated, hug your pets, and most importantly, just have fun. Peace out ✌

There's always just one more picture (like there hasn't been enough pictures today LOL)