Landsharkz

Sorry for the long wait, but great things take time! We had multiple bids for multiple years and so the WestCan committee deliberated and decided to award WestCan3 and WestCan4 simultaneously. A western Canadian event that is happening in the summer of 2013 has been advised that their bid was successful for WestCan3 and another event has been advised that their bid for WestCan was successful and will be WestCan4. WestCan3 will be announced here in a day or three... basically as soon as they have the branding in place. WestCan4 will be announced at WestCan3. WestCan5 is also waiting in the wings.

The full Geocaching.com GeoTour, like Gold Country has, is quite pricey. I think it starts at around $2500.00 to have a geocaching.com branded GeoTour and then you've got the cost of all the paraphernalia like coins, brochures, staff, etc. We've been asked us why there isn't a 'GeoTour' in the Cowichan Valley after all the work setting up the Island Spirit 2012 legacy trail of caches. There are 192 geocaches and they all get visited regularly. In a way, it's serving it's purpose to bring people to the region, long after the rush of the Island Spirit event and week of events/activities. Does it need to be come a GeoTour? Last year there were coins to earn/find and lots of cool Island Spirit swag sponsored/funded by Tourism Cowichan, the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the BCGA, WorldCaching and Landsharkz.ca. It was a great team effort and as a result the region was busy with local and visiting cachers well into the fall and even through the winter. It's creating exactly what we told the sponsor it should do! To make it into a GeoTour on geocaching.com and Tourism Cowichan's own site, would require a bit of time and money by the Cowichan Valley Tourism Region and a lot of participation by local government. They'd need to create the additional webspace, work with geocaching.com to promote it on their website and then create the marketing material for their tourism publications. Their tourist guide goes to print well before the next season. They'd need to come up with a new coin and probably new caches to entice people back. When you look at the area, and consider BC Parks and the CVRD's geocaching policies/requests there really isn't room for another great influx of caches. In both instances we know about (Best of the Bad and Gold Country), the toursim regions paid for the programs with funding from local industry/government or they accessed grants through their provincial government (Western Economic Dev). BC Parks has done two promotions using geocaching and offering coins but there's nothing coming up that I'm aware of. Also, the Western Economic Development office that partially financed the two GeoTours noted, have said they likely won't offer funding for these in the future. This summer Gold Country is offering a third Geo Tourism program. The launch event is on June 29th if you want to take part in the action! Gold Country Geocaching Poker Run You can find details here: Gold Country GeoTour on Geocaching.com or here: http://www.goldtrail.com/news.cfm

Hi basketballer2456, A good place to start would be the GCGV Facebook page, the VIGPS discussion forums or the Victoria Geocachers Meetup Group. We have a large community of friendly geocachers in Victoria and it shouldn't be too difficult to find somewhere that you fit in and people to go caching with. There's often events and so coming out to a few of those would be a good place to meet cachers F2F. There was a CITO a couple of weeks ago and I know of two more events that are listed right now (one involves chocolate!!), plus we're going to be hosting another CITO on EarthDay weekend. We're a pretty social bunch . On your geocaching.com profile, find the link to 'Newest in BC' and the events for the entire province will always be at the top of the listing. https://www.facebook.com/pages/GCGV-Geocaching-Community-of-Greater-Victoria/265751214361?fref=ts http://www.vigps.com/ /Helen

We have just received shipment of three NEW trackable geocoins and we're excited to share them with you! The first is our Canada Micro 2013 geocoin, a tribute to the discontinued Canadian Penny. Our 2013 Canada Micro features the Canadian Cacher Beaver Dude of course! What is Beaver Dude going to do with all his jars of pennies and did his Good Luck just run out? You can find it for sale here at Landsharkz.ca where we have it for sale singly, in 5 packs or in 10 packs. This coin is trackable on geocaching.com with a custom penny icon. Link to Canada Micro 2013 Next up is our Diva Cacher coin! Being a geocacher doesn't mean you need to be one of the boys. This geocoin celebrates both the diva and the geocacher in you. This trackable geocoin features everything you need for a Diva outing: pumps, a purse and sunglasses on one side. The other side has your geocaching essentials: sturdy hiking boots, GPS, and a backpack with all your geocaching gear in it. This shaped satin nickel coin will be noticed at 45mm by 45mm and three beautiful pink crystal gemstones in the toe of the purple pump. This is an amazing gift for yourself or the Diva Cacher in your life. Trackable at geocaching.com with a custom icon! Link to Diva Cacher geocoin Finally, we'd like to present our first Making Tracks geocoin. The Making Tracks Geocoin features a snowy geocaching scene on one side and the obverse features the Making Tracks logo. This antique silver trackable geocoin is designed to bring out the Explorer in you! Head out to your favourite geocaching spot or Explore new places! The coin is 30mm tall and 50mm wide. It is trackable on geocaching.com and has a custom icon. Link to Making Tracks geocoin Why so many all at once? Well, if you like more than one, you can save on shipping by combining your favourites. Plus, we've had a discount code running for a few days... it's in effect until midnight pacific time March 13th (today!). Enter 'SPRING' at checkout and get 15% off your entire order! If you miss this code, 'Like' our page on Facebook and watch for the next discount code! They're offered to contest participants!

My bike rack has a square protrusion that fits into the square opening which is slightly recessed under the car. There's no other components. I only put our bike rack on when we want to transport bikes, because even though it's hinged and swings down to access the back door of the vehicle, it's still a PITA to get anything in and out of the back when it's on. I'm envious that you can fit the car in the garage. Ours is full of of 'stuff' that we can only fit hubby's Valkyrie

I've seen swing arm racks that fold down to ground level to easily load your kayak, bike, whatever. They're designed to be used by one person and require no 'strength' or 'height'. They were at a place in Victoria, BC called All Season Auto Racks. If you look for an 'auto rack' store in your area, they'll likely have a selection. /Helen

They do well on eBay Jeff....

Chris Edley designed them for the Geological Society of America. There's also a matching pin and they both have the 3D handprint under the translucent enamel. If you'd like to find out more about this coin design please send a note to chris at landsharkz.ca or grab a coffee and call the phone number you have on file. He's actually here in the office today!

I would like to announce.... that there will be a WestCan3 announcement forthcoming shortly .

We get email notifications of all new topics but figured if we chime in every time we think of a comment, people would get fed up with it... 'Oh what the heck are Landsharkz saying Now!'. See, this is what happens!

Skip sleep, do both . The coin is nice, but then again adding a province and First Post to your growing collection would be cool too. Here's the coin icon if you haven't seen it yet.

Why did you post this in Geocoin discussions? Are we the smartest eggs in the carton? B-). The Saanich Police have an account and hid a cache at their station. It was a great way to let the community here know that they're in the game.

Je voudrais être plus proche, parce que nous utilisont les eTrex10's pour les classes et je les connais bien. Vous pouvez aussi demander dans les forums Québec Association Géocaching.

Binrat that's a great idea! Ickster has hidden one here in Victoria to honour the two recipients who are buried here in town. It's a tough puzzle and also hard to find once on site. Here's the challenge presented in the cache listing: "Find the graves of the 2 Victoria Cross recipients buried in the Greater Victoria area." *Notice he doesn't tell us who they are or where they're buried . Then after you've done your detective work... "The cache may be found 26921 metres from the most northerly grave, and 18303 metres from the more southerly grave. Distances are "round world" vice flat (it makes a difference in this case). PM me if you need help." GC1N6J8 For Valour

You can read about the WestCan series here: http://www.island-spirit.ca/the-westcan-mega-series/ There is a group of Exec made up from WestCan1 & WestCan2 to review submissions. There has been an enquiry to host a WestCan event in 2013 and also an enquiry for 2014. If there isn't one in 2013, then 2014 would be WestCan3. More details will be posted once commitments are made.

You can read about the WestCan series here: http://www.island-spirit.ca/the-westcan-mega-series/ If you would like to put together a bid, please contact us for more info. There is a group of exec from WestCan1 and WestCan2 that are reviewing submissions. There has been an enquiry to host a WestCan event in 2013 and also an enquiry for 2014. Details will be posted as they are firmed up.

Boo!! Landsharkz style!! This trackable geocoin features Mr and Mrs Landsharkz dressed for Halloween with a ghoulish halloween backdrop. Someone described the graphics as The Beast meets The Little Mermaid, but we'll leave that to you to decide. There is also a custom icon! This coin is 42mm x 3.0mm and plated in gleaming polished nickel. We have made creative use of translucent paint to show off the mid level art details. The price is $10.00 and if you check out the details in the listing and on our site, you'll find that there's an opportunity to acquire a very LE non-trackable matching coin as a gift with purchase. We initially advertised these on the weekend to our newsletter list and on FB so there are only a couple of dozen of these coins remaining. Order now to get them in time for Halloween! Landsharkz 2012 Halloween Geocoin

No matter how old the coin or what happened to the folks who hosted the codes originally you can always get codes at the 'Lost Activation Code' link. It's useful to bookmark.

junebug60 - are you saying that code doesn't work or that the coin isn't logged into the cache... or both? I have sent a note to the Kootenay Pirates to alert them to this question. This was one of the very first trackable geocoins in British Columbia - very cool to find one after all this time.

We would like to finally present the trackable geocoin that we designed and produced to celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. We were going to advertise it here sooner, but the first run sold out before we had the chance. Now we have a second shipment so thought we'd better post it here quick! There's always a story behind a coin and this one is no different. Knowing that the Royal Family has some pretty tight rules we did some very thorough homework. Last year I communicated with an Information Policy Advisor at the UK National Archives and obtained and reviewed 'The Queen's Diamond Jubilee' Guidelines drawn up by The Lord Chamberlain's Office, Buckingham Palace, London. The Guidelines cover the images, devices, Arms, Crests, etc which can be re-used for commemorative merchandise during 2012. Everything from the use of the crown, the ER with the dates, etc is covered in these guidelines. Even the date after which souvenir items must cease to be produced is covered in this document. We started with a photograph of the St Edward's Coronation crown, text usage gudelines and then custom designed our side of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee coin. The Queen held a contest for primary students in the UK to come up with an official design for her Diamond Jubilee year. The image you see on the obverse is the winning entry. This hefty coin is 45mm diameter, 3.5mm thick and plated in polished nickel and polished gold. Subtle design features are oodles of translucent paint and pearl glitter on the St. Edward's crown. If you have a friend of family member who is a royalty buff, but not into geocaching, we also have a non-trackable coin to add to their Diamond Jubilee collection. Price is $12.50 CAD for the trackable coin. You can find this beauty here.

If you're driving Hwy 1, there are about a dozen geocaches ON the highway and more if you venture off a little bit. I wouldn't rely on a smartphone in case there's spotty or abysmal cell service. If you're a Premium Member you could do a route query from Watson Lake to Whitehorse and make it about 1km wide in case you want to venture down any side roads. There's a cool looking EarthCache by magicman65 at the Continental Divide: The Great Divide If you want to see the caches along the route on a map, open the EarthCache above and click on the map on the lower left, just above the logs. Zoom back until you can see the entire route. I think even without a Premium Membership you can still click between the map layers on the top right to choose one that shows the detail in that region. If you want to load some caches on your GPS but you don't have a Premium Membership, you can click on each cache and then choose 'send to GPS'. Its a bit slower to load caches one at a time, but you'll get the same end result.

We have some trackable Halloween geocoins that we could send. Please send a note to robyn at landsharkz dot ca with your mailing address and she'll send them out to you today.

Their forums are here: http://forums.calgarycachers.net. You could contact Red90 or peanutbutterbreadandjam to say Hi and let them know your skill set.

First of all we always check 1, I, 0 and o.... Is it possible you've found an unactivated coin, or is there evidence it's been travelling?

Hi Jahad, We'd be happy to assist and we are in Victoria, BC. Send me a note to helen@landsharkz.ca if you haven't found anyone else yet.