Geocaching and Past Adventures part 2.

Good morning everyone.  Today's fun fact is all about zombies.  The caches that have been archived, but are still out there to be found.  Top Manitoba zombie hunter is crackerjackie with 25 logged so far.  I'm tied for 11th in Manitoba with missionMode at 12 zombie finds each.  Top Canadian is Joce13 with 1,918 zombie finds.  Looking South of the border, top American is LCSM from New York state with an incredible 2,434 zombie finds.  For my North Dakota neighbors, Pine and Poplar leads the way with 11 zombie finds.  WhiskeySowers and novfrog are close behind with 10 each.

This week I'm going to look back at another geocaching adventure I went on.  I sort of had plans to go on my own elsewhere, until I bumped into ShopCrazy and was invited to tag along with him and his boys in search of a few older caches and a zombie cache in the Southeast corner of Manitoba.  The date was July2, 2016.  The day started off with a coffee event at Starbucks.  That's where I bumped into ShopCrazy and heard what he had planned for the day.  It sounded better than my plans and the idea of finding a zombie cache is always interesting.

(A sunny morning for a coffee event, even though I don't drink coffee)

Once I found a place to leave my car, I jumped in with ShopCrazy and his boys and it was off to find some of Manitoba's older active caches and a zombie.  We were both working on a local challenge cache, Manitoba "Half-Century" challenge (GC4PFQJ).  The object of the challenge is to find 50 of Manitoba's 100 oldest caches.  Our first stop was in the town of Saint-Pierre-Jolys where we found Ye Old Barn (GCKT7Y) that was published in May, 2006.  From there, it was on to St. Malo, where we were able to find PIRATE'S last laugh? (GCKT9D), published in October, 2004.  That was a cool cache to find.

Next up was Tranquil Treasure Trove (GCNE3H), one of the older multi-stage caches in Manitoba, published in May, 2005.  Stage one starts in the sanctuary.  It took a fair amount of searching and maybe doing the dreaded DNF, but we persevered and we found stage one.  Stage two was much easier.

(Some of the views of the sanctuary from the inside)

(Looking down towards the pews from the alter.  Stage one is down there somewhere)

(Back of the pews looking towards the front)

Next up is the zombie cache.  A little background on this.  Carnberry Trail (GCG02V).  It was hidden in May, 2003.  It has a D/T of 1/1.  It was found 6 times over the summer before being archived in September, 2003.  The cache was found two more times in October, 2003.  That would be the last time this cache would be found until....

In May of 2015, some twelve years after the last logged activity for this cache, local zombie cache hunter Stonagal, along with Mustash set out to find Carnberry Trail.  Going on a hunch, Stonagal suspected that the cache could still be there.  He was right.  The cache is hidden in the same fashion as two other caches that the CO had hidden in the same week.  Unfortunately, the lid wasn't on the cache when found.

(Stonagal fishing through 12 years of rainfall, leaves, and a decomposing mouse)

Now it's our turn to find this old, archived cache.  As mentioned, the difficulty/terrain is a 1/1.  That was set back in 2003 and I'm sure the guidelines for difficulty, and especially terrain has been upgraded since that time.  This was about an 800 meter (almost a half mile) trek through the bush to get to GZ.  By today's standards, it is most certainly not a terrain 1.  Maybe a terrain 3.  We found the cache, but the container started to accumulate more water.  ShopCrazy left a water bottle with a log sheet inside for future finders.  To date, we are the last to find this cache.

(Selfie time at GZ)

(I couldn't resist taking this picture.  Geocaching brings me out to where I can be with nature)

We made our way back to ShopCrazy's car to carry on with our journey.  More older caches awaited us.  It came as no surprise after trekking through the bush that we picked up some hitchhikers.  That would be wood ticks.  As we began driving down the road, ShopCrazy spotted a wood tick crawling on his pant leg.  He plucked it off and tossed it out the window.  He spotted another and tossed that one out the window.  And another.  And another.  And another.  I lost count after 20.  I only had five crawling on me.  I suspect that because ShopCrazy was the lead going to GZ and back to the car, he attracted the most.  I was at the back with his oldest boy Zhunter.  I don't recall if the boys had any wood ticks on them.  We stopped at a gas station in Vita to do a tick check before carrying on down the road.

Next up was Hulda Ostman (R.I.P.) GCFFCA and Sandy Pine River Bend (GCFC0C).  These caches were hidden by the same owner as Carnberry Trail and hidden during the same week, so the style of hide and container was the same.  Hulda Ostman took some searching, but we found it.  Sandy Pine was a little easier to spot.  There would be other caches found along the way as well that are not on the oldest list.  Little Church in Wildwood (GC1B4JD) was another stop.  

At the end of the day, I had logged 13 caches in total.  Ten traditional, 2 multi-stage, and one event.  Five of those finds qualified towards the half-century challenge, including the zombie.   Not a bad day with some lasting memories.

My March challenge update:  I'm up to 17 finds so far with less than a week to go to find 12 more.  AngelFreak, the geocacher that I was trying to catch has 30 finds this month and starting to pull away.  I'll catch you yet AngelFreak.  LOL

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