Good morning everyone. The oldest Earthcache in Manitoba is "Dunes Day', GC12902. It was hidden on April 18, 2007. It is still active, receiving 16 favorite points so far with 76 found logs. The oldest event listing for Manitoba is interesting. "Turtle Island Festival GPS Challenge" GCGKHB is listed to have taken place on August 6, 2003. In the description, the event date is listed as August 9, 2003. There are only two log entries for this event. Both in 2004. A needs archive by local cachers Peter & Gloria (they're still active) and by mtn-man, who archived this listing. I'm not sure if this event did take place in 2003 and how many people actually attended.
There are many attractions and places of interest in and around the city of Winnipeg. In the Fall, there are corn mazes. It is just that, a maze carved in a field of corn. One of these mazes can be found about 10 minutes South of Winnipeg. It is called A Maze In Corn. It's not just a maze. There's also a petting zoo, zip lines, hay bale pyramid, a pumpkin barn where you can pick out a pumpkin, and so much more. That's in the Fall. It's Winter and the corn maze is long gone and the field is covered in snow. Last year, the owners of the property decided to create a snow maze for a Winter activity. If you're going to build something, why build small? Go big. They went so big that it was officially declared the largest snow maze by the Guinness Book of Records. I never made it to the snow maze last year. This year, sm66 and myself decided that it would be a fun activity to do together. We bundled up and headed down for an afternoon of fun.
When I sat down to start putting this blog together, I didn't realize just how many pictures I had taken. I had to make some tough choices as to which pictures made it in and which ones would be cut. How could I take so many pictures inside of a maze that's created with snow? You'll see why.
There are many attractions and places of interest in and around the city of Winnipeg. In the Fall, there are corn mazes. It is just that, a maze carved in a field of corn. One of these mazes can be found about 10 minutes South of Winnipeg. It is called A Maze In Corn. It's not just a maze. There's also a petting zoo, zip lines, hay bale pyramid, a pumpkin barn where you can pick out a pumpkin, and so much more. That's in the Fall. It's Winter and the corn maze is long gone and the field is covered in snow. Last year, the owners of the property decided to create a snow maze for a Winter activity. If you're going to build something, why build small? Go big. They went so big that it was officially declared the largest snow maze by the Guinness Book of Records. I never made it to the snow maze last year. This year, sm66 and myself decided that it would be a fun activity to do together. We bundled up and headed down for an afternoon of fun.
When I sat down to start putting this blog together, I didn't realize just how many pictures I had taken. I had to make some tough choices as to which pictures made it in and which ones would be cut. How could I take so many pictures inside of a maze that's created with snow? You'll see why.
On arriving, you will find this sign, directing you to the different areas of the property. As you can see by the sign, there's much more than just a maze. It is easy to spend an entire afternoon here and have loads of fun.
Before starting the maze, you have to get a picture at this sculpture. It's the perfect photo op.
The maze isn't about just finding your way from start to finish, there are different things to locate as you weave your way around this snow sculpture. We have a challenge. How well will sm66 and myself do in finding these things?
There is the main entrance that sm66 is pointing to. There are also openings all around the maze if you need to make an emergency exit. As you can see, the walls are about six feet high. If you happen to be over six feet tall, then you could use your height to peek over the walls.
We found the first fire pit. It was an opportunity to warm up a bit before venturing on.
We found the second fire pit and a carving in the wall, celebrating the province of Manitoba's 150th birthday. That is the Manitoba emblem.
We successfully found the third firepit and another sculpture in the wall. It's another Manitoba 150 themed carving with a polar bear this time. sm66 couldn't resist giving the polar bear a kiss. We also found the centre lookout point and the hay bale as well. On average, it takes about 30 minutes to navigate around the maze.
We did hit a few dead ends along the way. We tried to navigate our way to the exit, only to come out at the entrance instead. Not sure how we got turned around, but we are in a maze, so it can be expected.
There are two places you can go to get away from the outside elements. One is a snow bar. Yes, an actual bar that serves a few select alcoholic drinks to warm your insides. The entire bar is carved out of snow.
On the bar are a couple of ice sculptures that are very cool (pun not intended) to see.
If the snow bar isn't for you, there's the Pumpkin barn. It is heated with heated washrooms and food to eat. You're probably wondering what does this have to do with geocaching? Absolutely nothing. There are no geocaches here, just a fun place to spend an afternoon. You can use your geo-senses like I was to navigate around the maze. I did lead us to dead ends and spots where you keep going around in circles. A local cacher did host an event here last year. I haven't seen any indication of another event happening here this year. The maze is only open until the end of February. It could go into March, depending on the weather.
That's it for this week. Did you go geocaching on palindrome day? I did. You'll be able to read about that adventure next week. Until then, be happy, be safe, be kind to everyone, enjoy life, hug your geo-pets, and most of all, have fun. Peace out.
(Why didn't you take me? I could have sniffed our way around the maze)
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