fizbot

Just got my Quebec (2 of 13) Souvenir. Very cool artwork. Our Canadian Souvenir's artwork rocks, especially compared to all the others! Yay Canada and yay Roxxy G. for designing them. I particularly like the avalanche thundering down. Just like those real winter 5/5's.

Hi Helen, I'm glad that your apple cider stayed off the computer... No, I'm not expecting to do ALL of these caches (especially in a single day which would be even more of a challenge :-) ). But would love to have company or tag along with another group who may have additional local info to help reduce the DNF possibility as I'll only have one chance at these. Thanks for the recommendations!

I'll be traveling to Victoria for a few days over xmas and was hoping to get out to do a couple caches that would help fill my Diff/Ter grid and was wondering if any local cachers might be interested in joining me to help provide some local experience. Sometime between Dec 27th and the 29th would work best for me based on my travel schedule. Caches that I'm targeting right now include the following: GCPWM3 3.0 5.0 [Traditional] 55.49 Cowichan Valley British Columbia Map ninja turtles The Troll's Lair Geocache GCM7GR 3.0 5.0 [Multi] 57.37 Cowichan Valley British Columbia Map Jewel Cachers Mr Croft's Copper Pot GCT2H3 3.0 5.0 [Traditional] 61.14 Capital British Columbia Map nudiebums Circles around Wallace Island GC8AF9 3.0 5.0 [Traditional] 95.06 Nanaimo British Columbia Map bcrockcrawler, xstitcher, & BMXer Newcastle Van-Isle Cache #2 GC14GMM 5.0 3.5 [Mystery] 28.36 Capital British Columbia Map M in 3D Owed to mtn-man Final GC21DEN 5.0 3.5 [Mystery] 17.51 Capital British Columbia Map Kiwibirdman Somewhere Down The Line I don't have access to a boat so Wallace Island and Newcastle might be difficult :-) If you are interested or have suggestions, please email me on my GC id. Thanks, Fizbot (Paul)

BQ - you must really be on the decaf now! :-)

Well, I'll be there over XMas and will "scout" some caches for you :-)

What were the 4 DNF's? Just curious. I think I know one.. Ahh... those DNF's! Your cache: Urban Sprawl - Grandview Courtice Micro - you also confirmed that it was gone. We Recycle-Iroquois - final stage was gone and YEARS 2 - Jungle J confirmed that it's gone and has replaced it now. So you have the distinction of having stumped everyone! :-)

Some very nice and interesting caches in Rattlesnake. You should be able to get into all the other conservation areas for free too if you show your Rattlesnake pass. I'd recommend heading to Mount Nemo which is very close by too which has some nice caches and a great view.

Note that you only get ONE REGION unlocked with the Bluecharts package. The bluewater charts really are quite incredible if you have them on your GPS out on the water. I used to use it all the time when I lived on the coast. Nothing like knowing exactly what underwater feature you are fishing over or trying to get to. Also found it great to mark each point you got a strike as it let you return to that exact "hot" spot. (which was surprisingly effective!) fiz.

If you would like help choosing the route so you're not zig zagging all over let me know. Right now you seem to be darting all over the place. Darting all over the place? at 4AM those are straight lines!

Awesome news! Maybe we will be able to do our own map updates soon rather than waiting for Garmin and Maggie to sell us new, yet out of date, mapping software.

I just used the iPhoto that came with my mac. You can do way better stuff with iMovie, but it take a bit more time. BTW Fiz, I don't know if you scanned my tube, but you are in there I think from my movie of the first Montreal Even Cache by Shawn & Holly. Wow, that was quite a while ago now. Seems like in an entirely different country (well Quebec). I think that I spotted myself in the background right at the end stuffing my face and see Nozz there from the local crowd. Lots of good caches in Quebec. I think that I should be able to log most of them twice though... once as a cache and once as a puzzle for having translated the french so that I can figure out what the heck it was that I'm trying to find! :-) :-)

Very nice. What software did you use to pull that together? I like the zooming and panning effects

I have to agree though... some areas have really bad map coverage whereas others are not bad. I have had few problems with Garmin maps and auto-routing in Ontario and most of Vancouver, but having been in Squamish last weekend and trying to navigate around the Vancouver airport, there is MUCH room for improvement. I do expect that these things WILL improve, especially as the use of GPS's becomes more and more common, but it will never move as fast as we like.

Grumble grumble grumble.... Let's remember back to that night. 10PM... looks like an easy hike to 3 caches... Round trip ~1.3Kms.... Then we hit the trails. Excerpt from conversation that night... "... look, we're already only 200M from the cache! Look, now we're 700M from the cache. Look now we're 210M from the cache. Now we're 900M from the cache. Weren't we down this way before? Now we're 200M from the cache again! How come it says 700M again!? Hey, the track log says were were on a trail only 10M from where we are now! ^&*^*& &%*()$ ^&*^* ^&*9(* (<-- repeated for next hour) ...we seem to be out of FRS range from everyone else... I hope they are still waiting! Hey we're 150M from the cache this time... must be getting close! Ooops, GPS Died anyone bring spare batteries? Hey!? Is that the Cache!? Off to next cache... should be straight forward... Oops, flashlight died, did anyone else bring more spare batteries? ...(more time elapses)... Final cache found! Hurray! Now How the HECK do we get out of here!??? We could try this trail? Might be shorter, or not... You guys go that way, we'll go this way :-> ... hey, tracklog shows that there is a trail 20M over that we've already been on. Let's bushwhack! Hey, tracklog shows yet another trail only 10M over that we've already been on... Let's bushwhack! (repeat several more times as necessary) .. Anyone got any batteries? Anyone?... Hey, there are some lights over there... Look more hikers! It's our other lost group!" Net result: 3 caches, 5-6KM's hiking and a few more ^&&*()'s than should have been uttered given the PG audience. Tracklog at: http://pbruch.dyndns.org/web2/2006_archive...lot%20trail.jpg

Definitely some memories (positive and "other") from past events. My photo albums which might give you a small glimpse of what happens at an event like this are at: 2004 http://pbruch.dyndns.org/web2/2004_archive...thon/index.html 2005 http://pbruch.dyndns.org/web2/2005_archive...hing/index.html 2006 http://pbruch.dyndns.org/web2/2006_archive...hing/index.html And above all, remember that "What happened in Coopers Falls, STAYS in Coopers Falls!" (24 hour - 2004 event, you just had to be there!) -- Geocaching and other photos at: http://pbruch.dyndns.org/

I like the footwear! Could have used that I couple times on the weekend. Definately be a step up from yac trax! fizbot -- Geocaching and other photos at: http://pbruch.dyndns.org/

June! Isn't that a summer fling at that point? (ps. Definately in!)

Who's holding the BFL in the background pointing straight up?

Now that winter is well upon us, those who are snap happy should have some good shots that exemplify both winter and geocaching. Anyone interested in sharing? I'll kick things off with one taken on the waterfront in Oakville (Ontario) after a windstorm a couple weeks back. For those willing to brave the cold, this can be found at GCWXMQ. (more of my winter pics at http://pbruch.dyndns.org/cm ) Paul's Pictures

Winter caching is the best! No bugs to worry about and you can always dress for the cold. (Unlike Summer where you can never take enough clothes off to stay cool... just doesn't work that way.) When else do you get to see things like this: http://pbruch.dyndns.org/cm/displayimage.p...um=2&pos=25 or http://pbruch.dyndns.org/cm/displayimage.p...cat=4&pos=0 Just make sure that you read the cache description and don't try to find that micro that is hidden on the ground in a crack! :-)

What is a Canada Tire penny? Define please I think the lowest Canadian Tire ever went is 2cents, I don't think they ever had a penny, and the first one was printed in the 50s. Sorry, should add more happy faces when I'm being silly. Meant Canadian Tire money. 1 cent denominations were not available until 1962 though. Interesting history at http://www2.canadiantire.ca/CTenglish/ctmoney.html

Canada Tire penny?

Definitely something related to guts.. They must be making too much money too as they are using excerpts from the music video for one of those super expensive 30 second Super Bowl ad! http://www.garmin.com/pressroom/corporate/012307.html Although we probably won't get to see it in Canada. Check-out Garmin man on MySpace too! http://www.myspace.com/garminman I can't wait for the sequel where Garmin Man takes on Maggie Magellan. Maybe some of our Ottawa cinematographers can make a Garmin Man meets Bigfoot movie!? F

Government only had an Etch-a-sketch when drawing the border and couldn't do a diagonal?

I'm personally not interested in benchmark hunting. Yes I've tried it and there is that sense of excitement when you find what you're looking for, but since the benchmark is a somewhat arbitrary reference point I get no sense of discovery from where you are (often in the middle of a sidewalk on the side of some arbitrary street.). I'd much rather hunt for an cache where the hider has put some conscious thought into it and has a reason for bringing you to that spot be it a view, or a hike or for a special hide. (yes there are exceptions to both of these statements, but I'd point out that they are the exception, not the rule) US Benchmarks were an early addition to the GC site just like virtual and locationless caches, but to me it doesn't really seem like it's in the "spirit" of Geocaching anymore as there is no cache to find. Given how these other items have been moved off, I would not be surprised if the US Benchmarks were moved off to another site in the future either, although there is a lot of legacy momentum behind them and it is probably not worth the hassle of moving just to keep things "fair" for other countries. If you just want to find benchmarks, is there something wrong with using the existing publicly available DB's and logging your finds on the Waymarking or navicache sites? Is there a compelling reason why it has to go onto the GC site? There are LOTS of things that people would like added to the GC site as you can see from reading the 100,000+ posts on the Groundspeak Forums > General Geocaching Discussions > Geocaching.com Web Site forum list. Why should Canadian benchmarks (and through fairness, all the benchmarks for all the other countries of the world) take precedence?