What a Year!

Wow it's been a loooooong time since I've written anything here. That's probably because I haven't done any significant caching lately. And why is that you ask? Let's see... an anniversary, a wedding, a baby, a wedding, a funeral and an anniversary!!

Yes, in one year we have gained two sons-in-law and one grandbaby and lost a beloved nephew. It has been quite the year to say the least.

And of course every time I want to sign up for an event it has happened during one of OUR major events.... the Tulameen Turtles Great Coal Rush happened on our daughter's wedding day (can't believe they didn't discuss the date with me first! lol), Teskelly & Curnew's Super Secret Hike happened on the day of my nephew's funeral and the Amazing GeoRace 2 is happening on our anniversary... for some reason I cannot convince my non-cacher hubby to spend the day racing against 19 other crazed geocacaching teams... if that doesn't scream romantic I don't know what does!?

So we've come full circle, my partner of 29 years and I, and this year we're going back to Princeton, Coalmont & Tulameen to celebrate the milestone that is most important to us. He asked me what I wanted for an anniversary present and I told him all I wanted was to cache all weekend with no complaints from him and he said "done deal."

Time to celebrate the year of changes and to play a little catch up! I'll keep you posted.

9 Pounds of Water

Today I went caching with my caching partners in crime, Nurse Hatchett and Lillooet Lady. We decided that we would try the Taggart Peak Trail. Carol (Nurse Hatchett) is an ICU nurse and her days off are scheduled long in advance so we plan our hikes long in advance and then hope that the weather will cooperate for that day. Unfortunately, this time it couldn't have been much worse.

The day started cloudy and progressively got worse from there. It rained and rained, soaking the forest like one of those misters you see in the produce section of the grocery store.

Now if you're not from the Pacific Northwest you have to understand what it's like to hike in a temperate Rain Forest when it's raining. Let's just say they don't call it a rain forest for nothing. By the time we had reached Taggart Peak #12 we were soaked to the knees. By the time we reached the lookout there was no point in trying to stay dry.

It was around this time that Lillooet Lady imparted us with one of her famous wise thoughts, one that made us go hmmmmm..."Why don't they make towels out of denim?" she said, "Because I'm sure I'm carrying about 9 pounds of water in my jeans!"

It never fails to astonish me what I will go through and put myself through to get a couple of smilie faces. If you're a cacher and you're reading this maybe you have an insight into this phenomenom? Why do we do this to ourselves? Why is that when I came home today I was soaked to the skin, shivering and miserable yet completely happy?


Hmmmm?
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to wring out my jeans.

Watch Lake - Camping with Our Friends

Every year, on the first weekend of May, we go camping with the Veers & Klassens... and every year we try to go somewhere different. Seven years ago when we first started this tradition it was to find some pictographs in Lillooet near Seton Lake. The second year we decided to explore Hedley. We stayed at the Colonial Inn, saw all the ancient paintings on Old Hedley Road and took the tour up to the Mascot Mine. It was incredible.

But then the boys (Tony, Terry & Werner) decided that this holiday needed something more. Something they'd enjoy. Apparently pictogaphs and historical tours weren't cutting it for them. They needed something else...like fishing.

So we added fishing to the mix. The boys were happy. And let's face it ....if the men aren't happy no one is happy.



Around the same time I discovered this wonderful little thing called GEOCACHING. And, lucky for me, the girls (Joan & Carol) really enjoy it too and love going caching with me...so now we had to add geocaching to the holiday!! This is getting complicated!

Fortunately British Columbia is loaded with history, fishing lakes, pictographs (though they are trickier to find) and caches....loads and loads of caches!

This last trip we spent at Watch Lake where, much to his amazement, Tony caught his biggest Rainbow Trout ever - 10lbs and 30 inches long! What a happy man. Terry and Werner caught some nice fish too. We sat around the campfire, listened to the loons and ate, alot! Carol, Joan & I had a blast exploring the Painted Chasm, Clinton, Green Lake & 100 Mile House. We cached and explored for two days straight and I found my 1500th cache at Crater Lake... with my two awesome friends!



So once again we had another great holiday with our kindred spirits. Thank goodness BC is a big place... it's nice to know that we will never run out of places to fish and to hike and to cache and to explore.

New Truck! Let's Go Caching.

I have to admit that I am so jealous of those lady cachers out there who have a husband or significant other who loves caching as much as they do. Because, let's face it, a woman caching alone, on a trail, in the forest is just not a good idea. I miss so many FTFs because I'm just not comfortable going alone, especially when Mtn-Man is busy publishing at 11pm! So frustrating.

My husband does not get the whole "searching the forest for tupperware thing" but he does love the outdoors. He just loves being out there exploring any backroad that we haven't yet been on. Our two passions aren't exactly the same but they go hand in hand pretty well.

Last week we bought a new 4x4. I knew it wouldn't be long, I hoped it wouldn't be long, before he'd be ready to take it out on a real test drive. Then last Friday he said, "Are there any caches you'd like to find on some mountain road? "Let's take the truck for a real ride." Yah!

I had been waiting for a chance to travel up the West Harrison Forestry Service Road for so long so that's where I suggested we go. There is a series of caches that tjguy98 has placed at a bunch of interesting points along the road and a few others as well. We found all but one of tjguy98's caches. Just want to say here that I LOVE ammo boxes in the forest. Saves the environment from getting torn to pieces... but I digress....



Tony's favourite cache was called "Playtime" (GC1B0FE) - perfect spot to try out the 4 wheel drive - works great apparently. One cache by DanG took us to the most incredible view of the lake and then we paid tribute to Mtn-Man at GC1DCJ4 - another awesome cache!

There was also the fossil bed that we had heard about but never seen. We both love finding these kind of unique places. I had remembered that someone had placed the FVRT cache there once quite a while ago and so I looked at the past logs and found the co-ordinates. We found the site easily enough but then Tony remembered that someone had said they were also lots of fossils at a landslide. We kept going, about 6km, down the road and came to a shale slide. Almost every rock there had a fossil in it! Very cool.

So as you can tell we had such a great time. He got to put his new 'toy' through its paces and I found 8 awesome caches. For about the millionth time we commented on how glad we are to be living in British Columbia.

Thanks honey for the awesome day!
So glad you bought that truck.

Too Busy Caching!

I know it's been soooo long since I last wrote here but I've been too busy caching to do any writing! I guess that's a good thing and a bad thing!

In the last few months I've had the opportunity to do some caching in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Washington & California! Tony & I went on our annual trip to Texada Island and we enjoyed caching all the way there, up the Sunshine Coast and all around that beautiful island. And I had the honour of caching with "goinggone" as they reached their 2000th milestone at BC's Oldest Cache in the UBC Endowment Lands. Of course our favourite place to explore is our beautiful home province!

And yes I love caching at home. The green, moss covered forests smell so rich & earthy and are so beautiful to look at and it is where I feel most at home - but it sure is fun to experience hides in other places and see how caches are hidden when there are no stumps or roots to hide them in!! The Prairie cachers are so creative in their hides (my dad was so impressed) and caching around Disneyland is pretty amazing... you'd think they'd all be teeny nanos in such an urban muggle-rich environment but one of the largest caches I've found in a long time was just metres from the Disneyland Gate!



This incredibly mild winter may not have been too great for the Vancouver Olympics but it sure has been great for caching. We've done some awesome hikes, seen some amazing places and, in general, just enjoyed being out there. I hope you have too! Cache on!! I know I will!

GeoTourism

There's a new word in the caching community...it's "geotourism" and you know what? I'm loving it!!

This last weekend we decided that, before the snow started flying, we'd try to do a little sticker collecting and find some Gold Country caches. What a great time we had! While Carol drove and I attempted to navigate, Joan read to us from the Gold Country cache book. Every story was so interesting, well written and just brought our province's colourful past and each cache location to life! We learned some pretty cool new things and took in some amazing views. So far we've found 10 Gold caches. My favourites so far? The Pit House and the Old Bridge in Lilloet for the history and Hat Creek Coal for the view. Can't wait to do the rest!

We also did a few "Pathways to Gold" caches. I picked up the Pathways book at the Tourist Info Centre in Lillooet and Joan read it to us. I especially loved hearing the excerpts from Harriet's journal as she followed her lost love to Barkerville. My favourite Pathways cache is 23 Camels. What an amazing bit of BC trivia.

And now there's the Blue Sky Caches put out by the BCGA in conjunction with the Provincial Government. I've read that some provinces have completely banned caching in their provincial parks and our government is supporting us & encouraging us to get out there?! Very cool!

I've always known what a great place British Columbia is but, thanks to great programs like these, those who come visiting, let's call them "geo-tourists," will know too.

This is How We Celebrate!

About 3 months before Tony's 50th birthday I asked him if he wanted to do anything special to celebrate. I already knew that a party was out of the question (I tried that for his 30th.... it wasn't pretty) and so I suggested maybe a trip somewhere special. Cancun? Hawaii maybe? He said, "I just want to go fishing." (deep sigh...) "OK, it's your birthday."

As our trip got closer I realized that we were going to reach another milestone while were away. I was going to find my 1000th geocache! Now that may not seem exciting to you, but to anyone who is a serious geocacher this is a big deal. My 1000th... it had to be a good one.

So the planning began. We never travel anywhere without a plan. After doing a little bit of research (and seeing the massive Lake Trout that were hauled out of there) Tony decided we should rent a cabin on Echo Lake. Vernon is only about 45 minutes from Echo Lake so I started looking at all the caches there. I wanted my 1000th find to have all the qualities of what I love in a good cache....a hike, a view, a good hide and a special place. It seemed impossible but I found it in a cache called "Stones Throw." On top of all those things there were even some pictographs on the cliffs above it that we hadn't found yet. Perfect.


(click on the balloon for photo descriptions)
Echo Lake is beautiful, set in the Creighton Valley, and just remote enough to make Tony happy. The cabin we rented was rustic (ala Jed Clampett) but right on the lake... just perfect for a redneck type celebration. The next morning Tony was up with the birds (actually I think he was up before the birds) and was positive this was the trip he was going to catch "the big one." Hours went by and nothing, barely a nibble. He did catch a few little Kokanee but he didn't even deem those worthy of mentioning. After a day and a half he was getting so discouraged. And then, while I was making breakfast the 2nd morning, I heard him whistle from his boat. I looked out the cabin windows and there he was, standing up in the boat, holding the biggest Lake Trout I have ever seen! For a man who lives to hunt & fish, I couldn't have given him anything better to commemorate his big 5-0!

So, now that the mega fish is caught it was time for me! We headed to Vernon right after breakfast. Now, I still had 11 caches to go before my 1000th. No problem, I thought, but it didn't take long to see that maybe it was going to be a problem. We barely had started and already I had 5 DNFs!! Now it was my turn to be discouraged. I was ready to call it quits... it was hot and muggy and I had lost heart. But my wonderful hubby, who was still on his mega-fish high, encouraged me. "Let's do this" he said. And we did. Finally we were off to find my 1000th cache.

The cache I picked (Stones Throw - GC1AEFH) is on the East side of Okanagan Lake. Starting off at Tronson Road, high above the lake, we first made our way down to the pictographs. Wow! That was quite the descent and a little scary but we finally found them hidden away on a cliff. After the requisite photos, oohing and aahing, we continued down to the beach below and to the cache. It didn't take long and we came out at the most beautiful rocky beach, completely deserted, and ready for the search. A little bit of hunting, poking and prodding and there it was! 1000! What a perfect day.... for both of us.

So that was our Celebration trip! We made some awesome memories, travelled where we had never been before, reached a couple of milestones and logged another trip to remember.