Recent Fun Geocaches

Ah, geocaching. Yes, another blog posting about one of my favorite activities.

I love it when I come across a cache that someone put some serious thought into and didn't just hide a "tupperware in the trees." Especially when it's something unique and hand crafted. (I will admit, not all of mine are all that special. I have a couple that are just tupperware, but I think most of them have a unique element to them)

Anyways, there's been a lot of really good caches that I've found recently. Not all of them have I taken pictures of, but quite a few of them.
I'm going to share some pictures of the caches here (mostly for the benefit of my cousin who also loves geocaching, though she lives far away and we can rarely go together... and she's the one that got me into it by talking about it.... so she can have some new ideas for hides herself..... or for any of the rest of you and inspire you to take up this fun hobby!!)

Lots of spoiler pictures. But I won't say where they are hidden or the name of the cache.
Enjoy!


This one took me a few minutes to find. Not too hard though.


This one I found tonight and it was worth the walk in the very cold wind...

huh, a lock... now what's the code?
Okay, I know. Now what's this?? A second lock... oh boy, this is going to take a while.

eeny meeny miney mo.... which key?
(would you believe I picked the right one of the very first try? What are the chances? It literally made me laugh out loud when it worked!)

Lastly, I had seen these online and had planned to one day hide one of these myself, so when I saw it, it was a quick find cause I knew exactly what it was...


These are all great examples of fun, unique geocaches and what helps to make this a hobby that I love. Now go out and find some yourself!

Out and About Geocaching

Well, with the weather being so nice this past month, I've been able to get a lot of geocaching done. I was looking today and I've found 46 caches so far in the month of October. Wow. (though, there's a lot of other geocachers out there that found that many in just one day this month)

Last weekend was the Calgary Cache & Release event (CCAR). It's a 24 hour marathon starting Saturday at noon and ending Sunday at noon. This is the second time we've participated, though we only go out on Saturday, and even then it's sporadic with all our other activities. There was a lot of drama on Facebook leading up to the event. A lot of not nice things were said and some of it was directed at me. I wouldn't have done anything differently... it was other geocachers who had their noses bent out of shape with the release of "non-judged" caches (one of which was mine). Anyways, it wasn't pretty and I felt quite hurt. Some of the people I used to look up to because of their amazing geocaches, are now people I don't care for as individuals. So disappointing. But, despite all the hoopla... Cam and I had a great time during the event and found 17 caches on the Saturday and even met a few new geocachers out on the trail.

I've found some fun caches. I even took some pictures to show you (some from the CCAR event and some others)....This one was pretty cool. It involved magnets on top that caused the cache to drop out the bottom.
An interesting teepee that some kids had built beside a geocache. See, sometimes the kids do have fun when I drag them out.


The Halloween themed cache was one of the best ones I've seen in a long time. It was complete with a lot of screaming sound effects and flashing lights. What really made this cache impressive was how to open it... which I'm not going to tell you here... you'll just have to see for yourself. Want to know which cache this is... just ask.


A FTF (First to find) cache for me. I've only found three before. Most geocachers race to be the first to find a new cache. During a CAR event is the best time to get at least one. This particular cache was nice enough to have a FTF prize... a Tim Horton's gift certificate. Sweet.


Me and Matthew found Thumper on the side of the road in Bearspaw. Matthew liked this cache.


Some caches make me think... "What the heck?" Actually, this one made me giggle at the silliness of it all.


Any guess where this cache might be hiding. I've seen quite a few of these, so it was a real quick find.


See anything in there Emily?? It's not the cache, but maybe it'll tell us where to go.


Night time caching is always an adventure. Searching in the dark is so much harder. Thankfully this last one was an easy find and thankfully it had a good clue as to where the log book was hiding.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Anyone interested in going geocaching with me?? I'm always looking for someone to come with me, especially during the day.

Creating Geocaches - my newest obsession

Okay, I'm a bit pre-occupied with making new geocaches lately. Just a bit.

There's a "Cache and Release" event coming up in a couple weeks and I'm wanting to release some of my own caches for others to find during this 24 hr marathon of finding new caches....

Here's what I've been doing.....


Spiders. I don't like spiders, but I do love them for Halloween decorations. In fact, I've probably got about a dozen of these in my halloween stuff. So, when I was thinking of what I could do, I thought of these spiders and thought they might make a good geocache. Inside the spider is a black bison tube.

Next cache idea, I will admit is not my own. I actually came across a blog online that had some interesting geocaching stuff. Click here for a link to his site...
This geocacher had a pdf to print out and make into a paper crane, and then you use it to solve where the actual cache is hidden.

Sorry that my paper is all creased. I made my crane, then decided I wanted a picture of it unmade, so I unfolded it all again instead of reprinting it.I love the fact that this person is willing to let others use this idea and use the pdf that they had made.
So, now that I have that, I thought "what could I do for hiding the actual cache?" I could do the usual thing and just hide a tupperware container, but that's not very fun. So, I found some vinyl and made another crane. Vinyl, so that it's waterproof and will last fairly long out in the elements.And then I placed a bison tube in the bottom of my new vinyl crane. So fun.

So, now that I've got some caches made, I'm on the look-out for some place to hide them. I think the spider one would be awesome in some long grass or in a hollowed out big log (not that it's easy to come across those, but I'm looking) I think the crane would be good in a hollow in a tree (I know, geocachers hate micros in trees, but I'm hoping the "camouflage" is creative enough for people to overlook the micro in a tree thing)

I've got another cache I'm working on too. I know, 3 at once?! I actually had some other ideas but was torn as to whether they broke "geocache hiding rules".
But, I'll wait to tell you about my other one later. It's a work in progress and one I'm excited about.

2011 May Long Weekend - Part 3 (finally)

With one of my favorite hobbies being geocaching, we of course had to find some new geocaches in the Radium area.

We found this clever one in a little town called Wilmer. This was a two parter. First set of coordinates took us to a large rock monument that had several plaques about Conrad Kain, a man that did a lot of exploring in the area. After answering several questions, we realized the second and final part of this cache was right beside us, by this display (see pictures).
Then we found a couple in Invermere. The first one was at a little "museum" that talks about Lake Windermere and the history of Invermere. Nothing was open, but we did spend a few minutes looking through some of the buildings. We've driven by here many times, but this was the first time that we actually stopped to see what was here. Sometimes, this is what I love about geocaching, taking me to new places that I might otherwise never take them time to stop and look at.

The little boys with the gps, leading us to the cache area.
Ben made his first find. Good job finding it.

This other cache in Invermere was down by the water. The kids liked the short break to throw rocks.

We took my parents out on the Sunday and found this quick find. Not an unusual find for us, since caching in the city, there are plenty of these. Did you know these "lamp skirts" lift up? We had a good laugh when Mom had a hard time spotting the black magnetic case, even though it was right in front of her.
While finding this cache, we spotted an Osprey nest. Dad managed to get this picture of one of the birds...

The same guy that did the Wilmer cache (up above), also did this new one in Radium. It's right in the main town of Radium. Very clever hide! I quite liked it.

And the finally, to end my posting about this weekend, I just wanted to mention the games we played. Matthew wanted to play "Blink". A card game that me and him frequently play at home. It's a game where you race to play your deck of cards faster than your opponent, by matching either shape, color or number (or shapes). Anyways, it was quite funny. I hear a commotion in my sister's trailer and I go in there to find Matthew playing against Ryan (my niece's fiance) and Matthew is winning. Matthew was so thrilled that he won. Just look at his face. Ryan on the other hand, seemed quite shocked that he lost.... twice! Matthew was definitely giving some of the men around camp a run for their money on that game.

Well, that's all I'm gonna share with you. Hope you enjoyed the glimpse into all the fun activities we had on one of our favorite weekends of the year. I think we look forward to our annual family campout all year long. And now you know why.

Calgary Cache and Release Spring 2011

We had a day full of geocaching yesterday, as the Calgary Cache and Release - Spring 2011 (CCARS11) began. CCARS11 is a full 24 hour marathon for some people, but we're only participating on the Saturday.

Our first event was a CITO (Cache In, Trash Out). We went to the Munroe Park and met up with about 50+ other people as we all cleaned up the park. Even the kids enjoyed picking up the trash for a little bit and using the pokey sticks that the city supplied. After finishing cleaning up, they took a group picture (I'll see if I can find a copy, if someone posts it online), and then they gave out door prizes. Lucky for us, we won our first Geocoin. It's a pretty one. Here's some pictures of it....

The CITO event ended just before 11:30, we found the two caches that were in the park, and then we were off to find our first cache released specifically for CCARS11. We picked on one our way home. This one is about 10m from the Bow Valley Chapel parking lot. Sweet. When we arrived there, there was no one else there, so that was very lucky for us. Part of the rules for CCARS11 is that you can not log a cache until after 12pm on Saturday. So, we waited a few minutes, looked for the cache (which we found very quickly) and then waited to open it until it was time.
Now, given who hid this particular cache, we knew it probably seemed a little too easy to find it so quickly under a pile of sticks and leaves. Plus, the cache had been given a difficulty rating of 3 out of 5, so something was up. Sure enough, I open it up and discover that the large ammo can is filled with about 15 smaller containers. I open one up, and it's empty except for a little note that says "This is not even remotely close to the log book. Sorry." Okay. So, I open another, and it says exactly the same thing. "Sorry". Boo. And so it went on. Now, for those of you who are not very familiar with geocaching, part of the rules are is that you MUST sign the log book to get credit for it. Now I know, the 3 star difficulty rating is because I must find the LOGBOOK, not the actual CACHE. Sneaky! I won't tell any more details of where the log book was found, but I will say that it took me a whole 20 minutes to find!!! Just as I signed the book, another group of cachers arrive and I scramble to put it all back together and replace it the way I found it. I won't be forgetting that one any time soon. Plus, I also got my first "First To Find" (FTF)..... which is highly coveted in the geocaching community.... and geocachers quite often will race to be the first to claim a FTF on a new cache. So, it was nice to finally get my first FTF.

We found several others in the afternoon with the girls, while Matthew was at a birthday party.

Then, after supper, the grandparents came over to watch the kids while Cam and I have a cheap date night and go find some new geocaches. This time, I remembered to bring a camera!!!
It seems that most of the ones released specifically for CAR, are a little more unique and fun to find.

Here are a few that stood out.......

This one was exactly what we were expecting. It said that we were to bring at least 2L of water with us when we were to find it. I've never found one of this type before, so it's nice to find something new, though I have heard of ones like this.
Pour the water in..... and the cache will float up to the top where we can get it and then the water drains out the bottom for the next person to find.



This cache was fun. Not many places someone could hide this Canada Day themed cache.
Good thing Cam was there cause it would have taken me a lot longer to realize you could take the bolt out of the bottom and lift it up. Phew! It was heavy too!


This one was a Christmas themed cache. Someone decorated this one up nice. And wholey! It was heavy!! It had the most swag ever! (FYI, swag is tradable items in caches. I don't trade, but my kids love to!)



This one might have been my favorite of the night. I love how bold and in your face some of his caches are. He must have great connections to do something like this......
And FYI, there are NO geocaching stores in the mall. Here's a close up..... and this was just the first waypoint and not the actual geocache....



Okay, another cache. Love how this one is in plain sight. And FYI, this was on the side of the road and no, there's no bus stop there. So random. I love it.
Okay, where's the log book to sign.....

Here's Cam driving. Like the covers we have for our side mirrors? Lots of people out yesterday had them. Just adds to the fun. Oh, the things Cam has to put up with.....


It was a great day. So much fun. We found a total of 20 geocaches yesterday.... a record for us! Our previous record for most caches in one day was only 8.... so yesterday totally quashed it.

So, has any of these pictures piqued your interesting in geocaching?? If you ever want to go... I'm always willing to have someone join me!!