Good morning everyone. The most geocache types (icons) found in a single day by a Manitoba geocacher is 11. That honor is shared by four people. KurtB, Bike4Me, 4elements5senses, and V.A. In North Dakota, it's N0SND with 11 cache types. Next door in Minnesota, there are 19 geocachers who have found 11 cache types in a single day.
Leap Day. That one day we get once every four years to keep the calendar year in sync with the astronomical year. It's also the one day that's the hardest to fill in on your caches found and caches placed calendars. You have to wait four years before you can go geocaching on February 29th again. Needless to say, Leap Day is also a busy day for geocachers with plenty of events being held.
I remember Leap Day 2016. I had booked the day off work for the sole reason of going geocaching. I was able to attend three events and I found eight puzzle finals. Leap Day 2020 wasn't a big deal for me as I have that spot filled in on my respective calendars. I should do something though. I got this idea from Cache the Line, different geocache icons. I already have two for Leap Day, I should add to that this year. I didn't really have anything specific planned, maybe a virtual, most definitely a traditional, who knows what else I can add. As the day drew closer, I was looking at the geocaching map and saw the potential for more icons. An Adventure Lab, an Earthcache, and more. When I started adding it all up, I had the potential to do nine icons in a single day. I've never done nine before. The most I've done was six. Back in July of 2016, I did a traditional, mystery, multi, letterbox, virtual and an event. The significance of doing nine in a day is for a challenge cache that's around these parts. "The Bobby Hull Challenge Cache" GC4BXQ9. Since Bobby Hull wore jersey number nine, the challenge is to find nine icons in a single day. Getting nine around this neck of the woods was difficult due to the lack of Virtuals (very few), Wherigo's (also very few), Webcams (none), and Lab caches (none). With the recent addition of newer Virtuals and now Adventure Lab caches, the potential to do nine in a day around here becomes a possibility. Working against me is the fact that I have cached out a good chunk of the city. I did manage to target nine types. Can I do it?
The first icon that I'll be doing is an event. I haven't attended an event since July, 2019. I really didn't want to go, but I needed the icon. The event took place on the other side of the city at 9am. I only get two days to sleep in and today is one of them. I did manage to get up and make it across the city just in time, arriving at 9:59am. Signed the logbook. I had missed most of the crowd but I was able to chat with a couple of the remaining geocachers. With me, my plans can change on the fly. Even while at this event, I was changing which caches I was going to go after. I had received intel on one of the icons I would need, and therefor, changed a couple of other caches that I would go for. Off I went to get more icons. Next stop, Assiniboine Forest. This is a vast section of land within city limits that has been preserved as a forest area. There are plenty of geocaches hidden within the forest as well. The South section of the forest has plenty of paths to walk around on. Major, well groomed paths, lesser paths, and deer paths. My next three icons will be found within this forestry area. I have been to the forest many times for geocaches. It is a very nice area to walk and you can encounter wildlife too, and woodticks during the right season. I have seen many deer in these woods. While here, I made it a point to put my phone in my pocket and enjoy the walk. I don't need to have my face buried in my phone as I watch the distance to the next cache count down.
I grabbed a traditional that's a fairly recent hide. The geo-trail was quite evident. Icon #2 is in the books. Seven more to go. I continue with my walk around the forest. It was a nice day for it too. The temp was -2C at the time, but with the wind, it felt like -8C. Being sheltered amongst the trees, I never noticed the wind.
Leap Day. That one day we get once every four years to keep the calendar year in sync with the astronomical year. It's also the one day that's the hardest to fill in on your caches found and caches placed calendars. You have to wait four years before you can go geocaching on February 29th again. Needless to say, Leap Day is also a busy day for geocachers with plenty of events being held.
I remember Leap Day 2016. I had booked the day off work for the sole reason of going geocaching. I was able to attend three events and I found eight puzzle finals. Leap Day 2020 wasn't a big deal for me as I have that spot filled in on my respective calendars. I should do something though. I got this idea from Cache the Line, different geocache icons. I already have two for Leap Day, I should add to that this year. I didn't really have anything specific planned, maybe a virtual, most definitely a traditional, who knows what else I can add. As the day drew closer, I was looking at the geocaching map and saw the potential for more icons. An Adventure Lab, an Earthcache, and more. When I started adding it all up, I had the potential to do nine icons in a single day. I've never done nine before. The most I've done was six. Back in July of 2016, I did a traditional, mystery, multi, letterbox, virtual and an event. The significance of doing nine in a day is for a challenge cache that's around these parts. "The Bobby Hull Challenge Cache" GC4BXQ9. Since Bobby Hull wore jersey number nine, the challenge is to find nine icons in a single day. Getting nine around this neck of the woods was difficult due to the lack of Virtuals (very few), Wherigo's (also very few), Webcams (none), and Lab caches (none). With the recent addition of newer Virtuals and now Adventure Lab caches, the potential to do nine in a day around here becomes a possibility. Working against me is the fact that I have cached out a good chunk of the city. I did manage to target nine types. Can I do it?
The first icon that I'll be doing is an event. I haven't attended an event since July, 2019. I really didn't want to go, but I needed the icon. The event took place on the other side of the city at 9am. I only get two days to sleep in and today is one of them. I did manage to get up and make it across the city just in time, arriving at 9:59am. Signed the logbook. I had missed most of the crowd but I was able to chat with a couple of the remaining geocachers. With me, my plans can change on the fly. Even while at this event, I was changing which caches I was going to go after. I had received intel on one of the icons I would need, and therefor, changed a couple of other caches that I would go for. Off I went to get more icons. Next stop, Assiniboine Forest. This is a vast section of land within city limits that has been preserved as a forest area. There are plenty of geocaches hidden within the forest as well. The South section of the forest has plenty of paths to walk around on. Major, well groomed paths, lesser paths, and deer paths. My next three icons will be found within this forestry area. I have been to the forest many times for geocaches. It is a very nice area to walk and you can encounter wildlife too, and woodticks during the right season. I have seen many deer in these woods. While here, I made it a point to put my phone in my pocket and enjoy the walk. I don't need to have my face buried in my phone as I watch the distance to the next cache count down.
I grabbed a traditional that's a fairly recent hide. The geo-trail was quite evident. Icon #2 is in the books. Seven more to go. I continue with my walk around the forest. It was a nice day for it too. The temp was -2C at the time, but with the wind, it felt like -8C. Being sheltered amongst the trees, I never noticed the wind.
I arrive at my next destination. While I was driving to the event, I realized that I forgot my boots at home. There was no time to go back for them, so I'll have to make do without. Lets hope I don't have to go romping around in very deep snow. The snow getting to GZ was maybe ankle deep, but I wasn't there very long. Signed the sheet. Third icon (Whereigo) complete. Of all the icons I was going for today, the Wherigo was the one I was most concerned about. I've only done four of these before, and only once by myself. I can never seem to get the cartridges to load on my phone. I'm not the only one with that issue either. Maybe GCHQ could make these easier to do?
While walking around the forest, you will come across structures such as this one below. These have been here for a very long time. I was finding them five years ago when I first started caching in this area. I think this is very cool to see. This is also why we should observe and take in where we are instead of having our faces buried in our phones or GPS.
I'm heading towards a puzzle final. I'm trying to figure out the best way to get there without having to go through deep snow. I was hoping to find a lesser (minor) trail or a deer trail that will get me closer to GZ. It's on these trails that you could have a better chance of seeing wildlife. Less people traffic. No wildlife today. You do get a sense on how easy it could be to get lost in the woods. Everything looks the same, no matter which direction you look.
Finding the final to this puzzle took a little longer than I had anticipated. One of the attributes says "available in Winter". To me, that says Winter friendly. It's going to be at least a few feet up a tree possibly. After doing the drunken bee dance for a short time, I spotted something that made me investigate further. I found not one, not two, but three ammo cans. These are all part of the final and one has the logbook. Searching three ammo cans is better than a dozen film canisters.
Found the logbook, signed and replaced as found. Icon #4 is done. It's time to head back to the car and go for icon number 5, the multi-stage. I was originally thinking of doing a different multi, but after seeing that it had many stages and could take some time to do, I started searching for one that had possibly fewer stages. This was one of the caches that I was changing as the day was progressing.
I opted for a newer multi stage cache located near the recently opened rapid transit bus corridor that was built in the Southern part of the city. This corridor connects the downtown area to the University of Manitoba. This multi takes you for a walk along the walkway that's adjacent to the corridor. Once I got the first waypoint down, it was an easy walk to the final. Multi-stage cache signed and icon #5 complete. Four more icons to go.
Will I be able to get the next four icons? Tune in next week for the conclusion to my Leap Day challenge. Until then, be happy, be safe, be kind to others, hug your geo-pets, enjoy life, and most of all, have fun. Peace out.
(Leap Day? I leap every day on to my favorite chair)
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