Mar

23

There’s a New Cache in town - Part 2

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Photo by Roger ErikssonChickadee Hangout is the name of the new Micro cache we’ve placed along the river valley.

The terrain is somewhat challenging at this location, but the scenery is spectacular (especially during a very heavy snowfall!)

You’re bound to run into these feathered friends while approaching the cache. I can’t take credit for the awesome here, that belongs to Roger Eriksson.

Source: Chickadee Hangout, GeoCaching.com
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Mar

18

Premium v.s. Basic?

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MSN Geocaching Group ThumbA was posed over at the MSN Group last night. Part of the post caught my attention and prompted a reply ;-)

I woul just like to kown if you have 100 plus find why you are not willing to pay for a premium member ship. After 50 to 100 finds I think you would know if you like it or not. So give me reasons not to support .com. I would like to know..

Well, Testy and I have discussed this in the past, so I was comfortable with our (longer than usual) response. I won’t excerpt it all here, but my key point was:

…and I think the premise of the is flawed. Simply by playing the game, placing caches, participating in discussions like this one, encouraging others at Meetup.com or events, and posting to …participants in *are* supporting .com…by adding value to the . That value is what makes playable - the quantity and quality of it’s participants. And I bet the model that Groundspeak/.com is using *depends* on a very high level of involvement - at the basic level.

This should get some discussion going…

Source: GeoCaching-Alberta MSN Group
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Mar

17

Everything old is new again…

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EarthCaching LogoI’m told that .com has re-introduced a previously-suspended cache type — the EarthCache.

So, what’s all the fuss? Well, this type of cache aligns with one of the reasons many of us use to help convince non-cachers of the credibility of our activity…it’s educational:

Earthcaches are developed by geocachers, geologist, paleontologist, or that have an interesting and unique feature near them and would like to share it with the world. All you need to get started is a GPS receiver and a good idea.

To develop your own Earthcache and share it’s educational value with others, follow the Earthcache guidelines and submit the GSA Earthcache Submittal Form for and approval. Once your site had the guidelines and is approved by GSA, you can view comments by who have visited your Earthcache and benefited from it.

Curioiusly, EarthCaches are NOT listed on .com’s Cache Type page…though if you do a keyword search you can pull up a listing.

Special criteria are used to evaluate EarthCache submissions:

Because of the nature of Earthcaches, they go through a special approval process in where the language and appropriateness of the cache are tested by the Earthcache team. The Team uses a set of guidelines as well as their own to ensure that the quality of Earthcaches is maintained. The Earthcache team is also expanding to make sure that caches in languages other than English are not excluded from the project.

EarthCache.org’s cache listing page shows fewer caches…but has more detail as to the creation and approval of qualifying caches. After parusing the list, it appears that some of these would be quite challenging…and !

Source: EarthCache.org, Today’s Cacher Article
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Mar

13

Weekend GeoCaching Blowout!!!

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Image hosted by Photobucket.comWhat a wunnerful weekend for in the Great White North.

First up, was the afore-pictured get-together. Officially called the Hot Dog Cache (see below) - it was a great gathering of GeoCachers from the capital region - though some Calgary folk (pictured) managed to make the 300+km trek north to enjoy the festivities (and we enjoyed their company too!).

For this special event, a new birthday-themed cache was placed ~350 metres from ground zero — and our CowTown guests garnered the FTF! Well done!

Door Prizes, Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate (nice!), Hot (double-fine!) and Hot Comaradarie were the order of the day - especially when the day was a very blustery +3C.

I know we (Brat&Testy) enjoyed the company, as well as meeting some new (to us) area GeoCachers…and it appears that the 20+ attendees had a good time as well. It sure inspired us to go do more caching…we bagged three more today ;-)
As for the Hot Dog Cache…check out the photos below!

Source: Hot Dog Cache, Happy Birthday …, Photos on Flickr
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Mar

6

Snoring babies and Altoids?

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Image hosted by Photobucket.comIn order to truly enjoy the small things in life I believe one must take at least one walk with a snoring baby. Although he didn’t snore loud or a lot every so often a little chortle would drift out from behind his dad’s ear to give us a chuckle.

NOTE: Did you know that according to the US government’s patent office there are hundreds of anti-snoring devices on the market. Some of them startle you awake when they sense you are snoring. Unfortunately, they may only work because they keep you awake!

But I digress, Little Spud of the Time& crew, wasn’t exactly in a great sleeping position, just happily stuffed into his too small Michelin man snowsuit perched on his dad’s back in a backpack while the rest of us and big spud splooshed and slipped our way hunting for three caches downtown.

The N. Sask. river was still frozen over and there were lots of tracks on the snow still covering the ice. You know even in the dead of winter I’m not sure I’d walk on any river its just too creepy. We saw the stupid Queen frozen to her perch on the southside of the river and what looked like a hovercraft type vehicle skim down the middle of the river. I had a of airboats in the Everglades, until the glare of snow and ice brought me back to reality, although I did see a really big squirrel…you know the ‘gator kind waiting to drag you down a stump and gnaw on your pinky finger.

The caches were a bit challenging especially one of them, having never seen an Altoids container it was a challenge before we looked up the clue. When I first heard of Altoids I wondered what the heck an Altoid was as it sounded like something you got like a hemroid and certainly not anything I wanted to find out in a forest, at any rate I’m glad cache containers are not all like this!

The walkways were icy when we started out but by the time we got back to the north side of the river around noon we were all doing much more splooshing than slipping. And splooshing in a big puddle is much more enjoyable especially when you’re, uh … older … yeah your boots are higher :)
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Mar

4

GeoCaching Article in this month’s Canadian Geographic

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GeoCaching Article in this months Canadian Geographic (image: coverma05_sm)This month’s issue has a rather good introductory article on - titled “ in the Eastern Townships”. The article deals with a newbies pursuit of the ubiquitous tupperware container. A pretty good read - Geographic also has an site where an excerpt is posted, along with some .

Source: Canadian Geographic
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