Chillibusher

Caching on the Island is fabulous. I am visiting on the Island right now. I used to live in Victoria before I knew about caching. Now I cache everytime I'm in town. The Island has some of the best caching around. Victoria supplies a huge number of caches and all of varying difficulty and types. If you can get out here, I would highly suggest caching here.

Just a quick reminder that we will be having the third and final chat session tonight. Hope to see people participating between 10 and 11 this evening. I hope I can stay up that late!

Bumping this up to remind people of the next chat session happening tomorrow evening from 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Hope to see you there.

Thank you to those who participated tonight with the online chat. The transcript is available at the chat page. Just click the link beside Sunday, March 26. Hope to see others at the April 6th chat scheduled from 9 - 10 pm.

Hey Guys, glad to hear you are coming to our neck of the woods. Here are a few caches that are close to Cultus Lake or are just a few minutes away by vehicle: GCNGRX GCTT9W GCNH5D GCJJCP - A micro GCRKNM - A small walk/hike is involved GCG8D1 GCNXQ1 - A micro GCT715 GCG8D6 - A hike is involved but a great view at the top! GCJ8NK These are all fun caches and there are others up at the lake but many are micros. Lots of unique caches around this area, so I hope you have fun. Hope this helps some. Chillibusher

The British Columbia Geocaching Association (BCGA) will be hosting three evening chat sessions to discuss ideas regarding the upcoming workshop with Parks Canada. Although a face to face meeting is always better, BC is far to large for people to travel to a meeting. Having an online chat will hopefully allow cachers from across British Columbia to have their voices heard. This is being done so that I can represent cachers opinions and present BC ideas when I travel to the workshop in May. The dates of the chats are as follows: Sunday March 26 from 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm Thursday, April 6 from 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm Tuesday, April 18 from 10:00 pm - 11:00 pm Everybody is welcome to partake in the discussions, however, the purpose of these sessions are for British Columbian's to discuss the issues and we therefore ask non-BC partipants to be respectful of this goal. The chat is being held on the BCGA website but you do not have to be a member of the website or association to join the discussions. We ask that you please read the disclaimer on the bottom of the page before entering the chat room. I hope this will be an opportunity for BC cachers to come together and bring their ideas. I look forward to the upcoming discussions. Please bring ideas or opinions in a respectful and responsible manner. Here is the link to the chat room: British Columbia Chat Room Regarding Parks Canada Policy The chat room will open in the near future.

Does one have to pay the BCGA membership fee before they can be heard? Just curious, because so much of the BCGA website seems to be locked down to non-members. Other than that, I'm cool with your representation. You've got the best interests of the hobby at heart. No, you do not need to be a member. Anybody can read the information about parks in the news area of the BCGA website. I am willing to listen or read any ideas from BC cachers.

I am the contact person for the BCGA. Opinions and ideas will be formed by our group and I am acting as the information contact person. I have stated how I feel about caching in parks in other threads. Here is a summary: I know that geocaching has an impact in parks. I also realize the benefits of having geocaching available in parks. This is an activity that all ages and abilities can participate in. There aren't many things like that out there where everybody from Grandpa to child can do an activity together and be equally excited about it. I know that we (BCGA) can not represent both extremes of ideas of BC cachers from banning caching to no policy at all in parks. We have to work down the middle and find common ground that the majority of cachers and parks can be happy with. I think parks should be open to caching. We are not very different from hikers or photographers. 90% (and yes I just pulled that number out of thin air) of geocaching activity can be covered by existing policy for hikers/runners/walkers in parks. I am open to hear all ideas in these forums and I will do my best to represent opinions offered. Please remember that everybody has had the opportunity to voice opinions directly to Parks Canada for the past eight months. I look forward to working towards a positive geocaching policy.

Thanks DBC! This is the main topic that needs discussion right now. At what time is a cache not fulfilling it's purpose and therefore removed or relocated? I can see both sides of the coin. We as cachers want a cache to collect history and be there for as long as possible. From the park's perspective, they want to know that this thing isn't going to be there forever. With that being said, there are certain regions of the province that will always have visits (Lowermainland/Island regions) and there are others that will get few visits in Northern regions. Putting a time limit on the cache since the last visit is one way to go. The other thing to remember is that it will be allowed to be moved to a new location within the park if the cacher wishes so. The last point to make is that this will have to be self policed. It will be up to the responsible cache owner to make these decisions. Anyone have any other ideas of setting criteria for life span?

You don't have to be a member of the BCGA to participate, you just have to love caching! I don't have a specific date, only that it will be in the spring. People will hide caches and then we will have an evening event where we can all get together to talk and eat. We will give out awards for different categories....(muddiest trail, largest cache, hardest to find....) Hope we will see lots of cachers getting out there placing and finding caches!

Hey Spuddy, Yes....there will be anther cache blitz this spring. Information will be available in the near future on the project. Glad to hear people are anxious to get some caches out there.

Another fantastic show! The quality and content were outstanding in this episode. As always, I anticipate the next one! You are a great asset to this province and our geocaching scene. Well done.

A HUGE thank you to HalfCanadian. You put together a fantastic event and I really enjoyed the day of caching. I think I grew two inches after being watered all day with the rain, but it didn't matter! Thanks again!

I use an older Palm M130. It is colour and comes with 8 megs on the unit but it has a SD card expansion slot in it. I bought a 64 meg card at London Drugs for $20 and I have almost 2000 caches in the palm right now. I also use it for work. Got it off ebay for a good price for what it does.

Hi Icenrye, Just caught the latest show and another great one it was. I really enjoy watching these productions on a rainy day. Can't wait for #8! Great job.

I was having the same experience this weekend. I was putting out caches and had a terrible time getting any reading. I have never seen such poor reception before. I was starting to wonder if they turned off the satellites on Sundays to save power or something. Cool to hear about the new satellites though.

There have been questions as to why people should join the BCGA. I can tell you why I decided to pay for a membership with the BCGA. An association (or anything) can’t run without money. The BCGA puts on four geocaching events per year and these are attended by a large number of people. The last two events were attended by approximately 70 people each. These events require venues, prizes and materials and costs add up. Paying $1.00/month to something I believe in and enjoy so much is something I want to do. I also believe in giving back to something that gives so much to me. Geocaching has given me great experiences and I want to support an activity that does this for me. I took on the role of a director in the BCGA because I believe there is a need for this association. As this activity spreads into the view of society, there will be a need for an association to support cachers of BC. The website is maintained and updated with information. Although we don’t post information every day or every week, the current information on the site is very useful for people starting out. I would still like to see a section on the do’s and don’ts of caching and cache placement written and placed on the site. That is one area of caching education (which people have previously pointed out) that we are missing and it will be worked on shortly. There is a section where people can leave news items or submit articles if they like on the BCGA website. They do have to be approved before posting, like any other site. We would love to have people write in about caching news or activities. I don’t want to try to sell memberships here because that isn’t what this thread is about. It is up to each individual to make up their mind if they want to support an association or not. You can still go caching and access information from the website if you aren’t a member. I hope this answered some of your questions.

If you can tell me where they are selling the 60CS for less than $200 let me know! I will buy two of them. Welcome to the great obsession of geocaching! Always great to see new cachers coming to the area. Feel free to visit the British Columbia Geocaching Association. Lots of good links to useful websites on geocaching. VIGPS.com is also a good site. It is the home of the Vancouver Island cachers and they can offer lots of good advice as well. I use a Magellan Sportrack Map. It has been a good little unit. Holds the satellites well in the forest. I have never not found a cache because of the GPS. You don't have to go big to start out. Hope you are able to get into the game soon and discover how much FUN it can be!

Found them online here I still think you could open a bottle with one!

As long as you can pry a cap off a beer bottle with it, it has to be useful....right?

Just caught the video. Great work ICENRYE. Really looking forward to the next one. Any hints on where you might be appearing?

You and the remaining three directors would have to appoint me to fill the new vacancy. Uh, you would have to be a member. A couple of the current directors weren't members when they were last elected ... they paid up their dues after the general meeting. Incorrect DBC. All elected directors were members in good standing. What you said is a lie, plain and simple.

Hello all, Here is a little update. We have a preliminary design worked out and are working on the specifics of the design. We are contacting mints to work on prices and options. The response for the coin has been overwhelming and I hope we can produce a coin that people will be pleased with. The preliminary design includes a picture of the province, our flower and a British Columbia landmark. This is of course subject to change if the mint has problems with it, but I hope we can make it happen. We don't have the artwork done up in a digital form yet to display. The process is a long one as other people know who have designed coins. We haven't forgotten about it and will post info as we have it. Hope this answers a few questions. Cheers!

I make my own personal coins with my custom stamps. They come packaged in a small bag with a Canadian flag and my email address so people can email me to let me know where the coins are. I would love to trade with people. Let me know. Check out this link to see my coin.

Hey.....no worries. That kind of question is exactly what the forums are for!