Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A Little Caching on the Prairie

I know this Blog is supposed to be about our travels around BC but I just couldn't resist throwing this entry into mix. My latest trip (sans hubby) took me to visit my great friend in Burr, Saskatchewan. Having found most of my caches exclusively on the West Coast I was really looking forward to seeing how caching on the flat, dry, scrubby landscape of the Prairies measured up to caching in the wet, thick forests of the Coast.

It sure was different but was it ever awesome!

My very first Cache in SK was called Christ Church. A tiny little church by Patience Lake with a wonderful history lesson, it was a perfect, easy find to start my geocaching vacation on the right note.



The morning after I arrived we were greeted with about 4 inches of new snow!! We were going to go caching today! Well the first thing that I learned about Prairie people... a little snow stops nobody. We found 5 caches that day and it didn't quit snowing once! Pretty darn proud of myself!

Our next caching day took us to Lanigan, Jansen and Guernsey. I am embarrassed to admit that I thought all prairie caches would be easy to find...really how hard could it be? Was I ever wrong. After I spent 1/2 hour searching in the scrub bushes (and DNFed I might add) I have to admit that there are some pretty creative ways to hide a cache that I hadn't even thought of before this. No rotting logs or stumps for these cachers! And no geo-trails! I had no idea how much I relied on spotting that tell-tale trail. That's probably not a good thing.

On Saturday night we went to an Earth Day supper in the Burr Hall. It was a very appropriate celebration considering that we had been spending most of our time enjoying the outdoors and while we were there I was fortunate to visit a little with "Mac5." An avid cacher, who owns the local Health Food Store, she was more than willing to talk with us and dish out more than enough hints for some caches we just couldn't seem to track down. It was so awesome to talk caching with someone I hadn't met before! If you're reading this it was so nice to meet you and thanks for the help!

All too soon my holiday was over. I left behind a few travelbugs and coins, made a few new friends & converts, hid a new cache and gained a new appreciation for cachers on the Prairie.