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Geocaching and Father's Day.

Good morning everyone.  This week's fun fact is all about my neighbour to the West, Saskatchewan (easy to draw, hard to spell). 
*Oldest: Sask-cache-one (GC14F) placed January 7, 2001
*Highest elevation: SSGT Beautifully Hidden (GC1WX6E) 4,459ft
*Lowest elevation: Athabasca or bust (GC2CE9Q) 679ft [and only found twice]
*Most favorite: Westcan 7 Feature Cache (GC78ZAB) with 181 points [Sask-cache-one is second with 121]
*Top hider: bennykidd - 780
*Top finder: scratch1 - 28,506
*Longest daily streak: hurleyanne - 1,639 days

Happy Father's Day to all the geocaching Dads out there and even the non-geocaching Dads.  I am a Dad myself to two boys and I'm very proud of what they've accomplished so far.  They do have geocaching accounts, even though they (actually me) haven't logged a find in almost three years.  They have been on a few adventures with their Dad.  Sometimes it requires a little bribery to get them to tag along.  A visit to a video game store or a Tim Horton's after we find a geocache will have them grudgingly going along.
 
(standing on a frozen creek to get a cache)

My oldest, Duesenberg 2002, was eager at first when I started geocaching.  We would go walking the trails of a park near our home (Little Mountain Park) finding geocaches.  We soon found ourselves doing some bushwhacking to get to GZ.  This would be my first experience trudging through the bush for the sake of claiming a geocache as found.  I would quickly learn that geocaching in the bush while wearing shorts and sandles isn't the best idea (even though I still go bushwhacking in shorts).  Playgrounds were always a good place to go geocaching.  The boys would play on the structure while Dad searched for the geocache that was hidden somewhere in the park.  The hardest part was getting them away from the structure so we can move on to the next geocache.

When I started blogging, I asked my boys what memories they had about geocaching.  The first one that d-2002 came up with was one particular Saturday afternoon when it was my weekend with them.  There was one geocache that I had attempted that was located in a back alley.  I was in plain sight of all the houses surrounding the area.  I came back with the boys in tow.  The GPS was pointing me to one side of the alley that didn't really offer up much for a host.  Having the boys with me made me look less suspicious.  As I searched where the GPS was pointing me and expanding my search, d-2002 went even further with his search.  Soon I heard "I found it".  On the other side of the alley, about a house or two down from where I was searching was a telephone pole that had the cache tucked inside.  The coordinates were off by a little bit.
(a more recent pic of d-2002 as we did one of the newer virtual caches)

My youngest is Mew Two.  If I need someone to climb a tree, Mew Two is my go to person.  Mew Two's contribution to what was his first story was the very first geocache he found on his own.  Very early into my geocaching days, I was attending my high school's 50th anniversary.  Afterwards, I made my way across the street to find a cache along with Mew Two and d-2002.  It was a pine tree hide.  We searched and searched and couldn't find anything.  Giving up, we were about to head back to the car when Mew Two asked why a battery was in a tree.  Huh??  In a tree that we didn't search in (there was a few trees here), was a bison tube hanging off a branch.  Found it.
(Mew Two way up in a tree looking for a geocache)

Mew Two also owns a geocache.  He wanted to hide one but needed a container and a place to hide it.  One day, he proclaims that an empty Lay's chip can would be the container.  "Really?  You couldn't pick something smaller?"  LOL  I taped it up and we went in search of a hiding spot.  I thought we found the perfect place, only to be rejected because we were to close to one of the stages of a multi that I didn't find yet (I have since found it).  I recalled another geocache getting archived in my favorite park, Kildonan Park.  The location is right by Rainbow Stage, an outdoor theatre.  The boys were with me when we had found that cache and I knew this spot will work.  Almost three years later and that cache is still there.  Some weird things have happened over the years, including the container going missing twice, only to reappear again.  I also found a different container nearby with some weathered paper inside.  After doing some research, I soon concluded that this was the archived cache (I still have that container).

The boys don't do much geocaching at all nowadays.  I think my daily streak may have killed it for them.  They also dislike events so I can't take them to those either, even if it includes food.  I don't think they mind Earthcaches as you have the chance to learn something and discover new places.
(if we didn't stop for slurpees, we might have had first to find on this one, LOL)

(another adventure with Mew Two)

That's it for this week.  What adventures will all you Dads out there go on with your younger cachers?  Until then, be safe, peace out (d-2002 says that a lot), enjoy, and remember, geocaching is meant to be fun.

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