Trappings Of A Tripper

[BC Tripper]

I've had so many wild experiences caching in BC that I thought making my own thread would help a few other cachers get a good laugh from it, if nothing else. So here goes:

 

BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

August 15, 2005

 

This past weekend The Cheebz and I headed over to the Sunshine Coast to visit a friend's cabin at Sackinaw Lake and do some geocaching.

 

Our first morning there, our friends decided that they wanted to foray into Sechelt, and since I've never actually been there, I thought "what a perfect time to do some geocaching!". So we loaded up the trucks and headed down the coast.

 

We got to Sechelt eventually. Made our way down to the pier that Seeing Sechelt by the Seashore was supposed to be on and looked for it for a while. Felt everywhere but still, no cache. As I was bringing my hand back over one of the railings, my car keys fell into the water. Cut to me, in my underwear, trying to fish my keys out of the water under the pier. I didn't get them, and neither did the friends we called to bring a mask and snorkel to better our chances. The coast gaurd didn't care either.

 

So there we left my truck. In a no parking anytime zone on the reservation in Sechelt. I thought for sure I'd come back and my laptop would be gone along with my wheels. But I didn't have a choice, so there it stayed and back to the cabin we went.

 

Saturday morning I spent on the phone with about 50 people trying to figure out what to do with my truck. I only have one spare and it was at my house, no courier could bring it, and everyone that would have brought it over was busy or out of town. So we decided that the best option was to have one cut. But for that you need the key code on the spare. It rubbed off. Now the only way to get it is to phone the dealership and get them to tell me. Call the dealership and guess what? They fired all their employees and have no computers anymore, they're out of business and can't help me. Call GM. They can't give it to me because they're not a dealership. HA! So, the plan changes to me taking to ferry over to Horseshoe Bay and getting the spare from another friend. Except that the people with us don't want to wait for me in Langdale for two hours. So, we try and get the truck towed to Langdale to be there when I got off the ferry. GM tells me they can't tow a 4X4, and BCAA tells me they can't drop me at the ferry terminal they need an addrress. Cut to me, picking a random address out of the Langdale phone book to have my truck towed to. Finally a break. They'll drop it at that corner for me.

 

Then another friend calls and says he finally got our message about coming to the coast and he'd love to, but he has no money because he lost his paycheque at a basball game. DONE AND DONE. You bring key, I supply beer and ferry fare.

 

We left the cabin to go get him from the ferry at about 3. Down the coast we went again. Then came the problem of finding the "random intersection" i had picked from the phone book. Twenty minutes of cruising the highway ensued until we found the right exit, and there was my truck, parked on some random persons' lawn, just waiting for me.

 

The next day was another early morning. I wanted to make a last ditch effort to get some geocaching in before we headed back to Vancouver. So we said our goodbyes, and hopped into the truck to head for Sechelt. Again. It was a nice drive, and just as we were approaching Blastoff's Launchpad, we saw a fish and chips stand. Mmmmm....eating fish and chips next to the ocean at a roadside stand. Brilliant! I haven't had cod that good in a long time. Then we set out for the cache again. Up some random road, turn right, no exit, go down a dirt road and viola the cache is only 180 metres away. Unfortunately it's on the other side of a stand of trees, so we needed to find another way in. Cut to me backing up the truck to turn around. Back of the truck goes down, front goes up, and crunch. The Cheebz trys to open his door and can't so he climbed out my door. Survey the damage. My truck is in a hole. A hole that's bigger than my truck.

 

More phone calls ensued. Try explaining that your truck is balanced, by both bumpers, over a hole. Well I did. To the towtruck driver I had to call. And guess what? He remembered me!!! Even asked me if I was the girl that threw my keys off the pier.

 

As you can imagine, it was not easy getting the truck out of the hole. But we did eventually manage it. The Cheebz promptly informed me once safe on the ferry that I had now lost the following privelages:

1) Car keys;

2) Driving;

3) Anything remotely related to a GPS.

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 24, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

September 11, 2005

 

Today was spectacular! The Cheebz and I got up early to survery the weather because we'd planned a hike up Seymour, and all was well. So we packed the dog into the car, and went to MEC to buy some hiking socks. We got to the parking lot at Seymour about 12ish, and started towards first peak.

 

The first little while was uphill on gravel paths as we'd decided to walk the ski-run to the top of the Bowron chair. Then it turned to steeper rock terrain, over which the dog bounded, and I cautiously followed. At about the bottom of the face, The Cheebz tells me that "that's the easiest way up", and casually points to a crevass in the rock about 5 feet deep, 80 degrees vertical, and 50m high. I vetoed that right quick and we followed the (almost as steep) path to the peak. We did finally make it to the peak, and holy moly, what a view! I'd never been up Mt. Seymour before because I don't really ski or snowboard, so this was completely new to me.

 

We stopped for a while at the peak and found the geocache that is located on the first peak, Mount Seymour. I thought for sure that some disaster was bound to happen, because we were geocaching, but nothing seemed out of place. We started our descent around 2ish, and while coming down Pete pointed out that there were clouds rolling in, so we should pick up our pace.

 

Turns out they weren't clouds. It was a huge plume of ash and smoke that was emenateing from the Burns' Bog fire. So, for the last hour of our hike we were forced to breath in this toxic crap that burned. We made it to the car ok, and everything was fine for a couple of hours until Pete started coughing and complaining that his throat was sore. Mine started to swell too, and the clinic confirmed that we did indeed do some damage to our throats. Liquids for a few days, but that's ok, I like ice cream and it was worth it

 

A picture from another nearby mountain:

 

We're somewhere at the end of the ash cloud...

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 24, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

October 31, 2005

 

We made it back to Harrison tonight and camped at Sasquatch Provincial Park. We did attempt geocaching @ Hicks lake before we crashed for the night but it was too dark, and we decided to come back in the morning. Which we did. To our dismay however, a large tree had fallen into the road overnight and the road was blocked. I think Pete wanted to give up, but ill be damned if a tree was going to prevent me from seeing one of my favorite lakes in the morning. So, we tied up the tree onto the Jimmy and gave her the gas. Funnily enough the tree was rotten, so it moves out of the way, but left all its bark where it had fallen into the road. Almost gave the illusion that there were two trees.... We geocached around the lake for a while, then made some sandwhiches and headed out to a more remote geocache ontop of a mountain, Bearly Breathing.

 

The cache page did say "deflate your tires 15-30%" to get up the road to the cache, but we didnt really believe that it was serious terrain. So up we went along another, smaller FSR, called Bear Mountain. Of course we went up the wrong road first, got stuck, put it in 4LO and made it a bit further untill we saw trees across the road. One of them someone else had already taken an ax to, so we continued with my little hand ax until it fell over the cliff. Then Pete drove over the other tree, while i directed him away from the cliff on one side of the truck, and the granite wall on the other. It was craziness, and was only topped when we figured out we'd gone the wrong way about 50m further on... So we did it again, backwards. A little further along, another tree nad fallen, but it was still off the ground about 4 feet, so I got the pleasent chore of holding up the tree, while Pete drove under it. Good times!

 

Eventually we did make it to the top of the mountain, and there was a small pristine little lake to greet us there. Along with an outhouse who's roof had fallen in. Good thing there was no one to peek over the stall Found the cache, and made a hasty retreat down the mountain as the fog was setting in. We did get a great view of the valley frmo up on the mountain though: the clouds were actually lower than where we were, and above us as well. Almost like a cloud sandwhich, with black mountains rising out of the cloud and disappering above it.

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 24, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

February 20, 2006

 

We decided that this weekend we would head out for a FTF on the Skookumchuck Hot Springs Earthcache. What a long, relaxing, stressful, wonderful weekend. Me and GeoJamie had some beers and waited for The Cheebz to get off work, then we loaded the camping gear and headed for the campsite at 20 Mile Bay. We drove down through Mission and out towards Harrison until we found gnullify aqueous exiguousness . Doubled back and got onto the West FSR at about 3AM. Drove for a while until 20 Mile Bay, only to find the campsite closed. So there we were, 5AM after driving since one, and no campsite within 20 miles. So we continued up to Sloquet Hot Springs. Finally made it there about 730. It had snowed since the last time we were there and the path down to the springs was a little less than negotiable. I fell, twisted my ankle, and the boys slid down toboggan style. After a dip in the springs it was back to the truck for a nap.

 

Then we left Sloquet to head for Skookumchuck. I drove while The Cheebz napped. We ended up driving past the bridge crossing, so we had to carry on and double back after the 2nd crossing. What mess we were when we finally pulled into Skookumchuck after almost a full 24 of driving. Took our photos for the Earthcache in front of the natural spring, and then settled into the tub for a lonnnnng soak. It was incredible. The camping spots are great, clean, have outhouses and everything. So we set up camp, went to sleep early, good thing we did because we got next to no sleep it was so cold.

 

Skookumchuck Hot Springs:

Edited March 24, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

March 20, 2006

 

The cheebz and I decided that this weekend we would try to find Bulldoze my caches thru the hotsprings at night a fairly "out there" cache next to some wild hot springs.

 

We arrived at the site, which we had pegged as Cogburn beach the first night. We made it without event, made a large bonfire and sat around drinking beers for the first little while. A kind of "cool down" from the city if you will, that lasted precisely a nanosecond. At which time it was interrupted by sharp barking noises, the smell of skunk and the sudden realization of how those two things "go together". Poor dog, seriously, she reeks. We made her a bed out of an old sleeping bag, and bedded down ourselves for the night after that.

 

Woke up in the morning to a semi cloudy sky and decided to make a break for it and head for the springs in case is started to rain. I decided to take the somewhat higher path along the beach to the road than Mat took:

 

he did indeed get stuck, and if you look closely enough at the photo you will notice that his entire rear differential is buried in the pebbles. so. i decided that i would attempt to dislodge him from this position. at which point i also got stuck in the pebbles. i dont have a picture of that because well, i backed down into the lake and drove in 2feet of water to get out. i then decided that after an hour of "digging out" mat's truck, and it not actually being "out" yet, that we should drive up the road to the logging camp and ask around for a tow strap. the first people we came upon had one.

 

 

this picture was taken AFTER we had already tried to pull him the other way and couldn't. so backwards it was for a while, until the truck was unstuck aprox an hour later. Mat wanted to give the guy something in return, which i understood, so we talked to him for a while and discovered that he was also headed to the hotsprings. great, we said, meet you there and we'll have a case of beer for you. so back into Harrison we went in my truck, to the beer store etc. and then headed up to where we had parked Mat's truck. This is when I started to hear an odd flapping noise coming out of my truck.

 

 

as you can see, this required us to pull over, read the owners manual to find out where my jack is located, and jack the truck up. so, we found the jack, put it under the truck and started to turn it. until it broke. seriously. we then drove the rim onto a rock and changed to the spare.

 

finally made it back to Mat's truck and decided that we had better still try to get to the springs since that's the whole reason we went camping. piled into Mat's truck and drove up to the turn off where I actually managed to find STRESS FRACTURES IN TITANIUM. An amazing feat considering our luck so far. 50 feet up the road from there we saw one of Mr. Blue Dodge's friends coming down off a steep slope. He informed us "that" is the way to the springs and "you are not going up there".

 

Why? I asked.

 

Because there's 20 stock SUV's already stuck up there in 4 feet of snow.

 

Stay tuned for the rematch.

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 24, 2006 by BC Tripper

[+bottlecap]

Absolutely fantastic stories! Thank you very much for sharing them!

This may sound weird, but I wish I was caching with you folks. My best story is "got to parking coor's and was surrounded by "NO TRESPASSING" signs".

Enjoy the hunt!

[BC Tripper]

Thanks! I thought they'd at least be good for a chuckle. If you're ever up in Vancouver, drop us a line, we'll hook up something "adventurous".

 

BC Tripper

[QuigleyJones]

Those were some great stories

Thanks for sharing.

 

Humm... that first picture looks oddly familiar

[BC Tripper]

Lol, it is actually yours I found it while looking at the pictures for all the caches in around Cypress. It was uncanny though, to see the cloud from another angle on the same day. Terrible stuff that hotash

 

BC Tripper

[+Cpt.Blackbeard]

Before reading this thread, I did not have a clue who you were, but now I feel I know you well enough to say:

NO, YOU CAN NOT BORROW MY TRUCK TO GO GEOCACHING!.

 

Hehee, great stories, thanks! Oregon is the closest I've come to seeing BC, maybe someday, when I drive to Alaska.

Edited March 29, 2006 by Cpt.Blackbeard

[+Team Red Oak]

Our life is so boring... I'm so depressed.

 

You guys sound like you have so much fun.

 

The closest we've ever gotten to an adventure like that was way before geocaching in the 1980's when we were visiting the mother in law in Oregon and we were in our car on a logging road driving up to some hiking paths near the Detroit Ranger station and we met a truck coming down. My husband had to go backwards down to a wide spot in the road so the truck could pass us. I was quite unnerved and almost hyperventilating. Being from PA originally I wasn't used to mountains that size, logging roads, or driving in reverse on a logging road.

 

Keep having fun.

 

Dawn

[BC Tripper]

Yeah, I do have trouble convincing people to even let me drive my own truck these days. It seems when I say "geocaching" a few people even flinch Most of our caching adventure happen on logging roads actually, now that I think about it. There's too many out here to not enjoy them

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 29, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

October 30, 2005

 

The Cheebz and I left shortly after he got off work on Friday to head to Sloquet Hot Springs on a cache placement trip. This trip should have invloved the following: Drive to Harrison, drive up the East FSR to the top of Harrison Lake then drive 20 minutes around the tip of the lake to a campsite in the woods. As it turns out, you have to go up the West FSR, because the two DO NOT meet at the top, and the only way to get onto that road is in Mission. So, back to Mission we went after driving all the way to Harrison on the #1. Took us roughly 60km out of the way. 4 hours later we were still driving up the road, so we called it quits at about 2:30AM. The Cheeba was tired, and so was I, so we pulled into a pulout on the logging road and slept there in the truck for the night.

 

9:00AM

We begin driving towards the springs again, and guess what, they were only ten minutes from where we camped. Talk abuot lucky eh. Not all was lost though, these springs are some of the best I've seen in the wild. And we did place the cache after all we dubbed it Hot & Wet, Sloquet

 

BC Tripper

Edited March 30, 2006 by BC Tripper

[BC Tripper]

We managed to get out to Bowen Island this past weekend, and although there wasn't any real mishaps, one cache did almost send me over the edge:

 

May 7, 2006 @ 12:11PM

First Cache in our Bowen Island Blitz!

We took the 11 o'clock ferry over from Vancouver hoping to find all of Bowen's caches today. We had a great little hike up to Dorman point but when we got there, there were two muggles having an early cup of coffee at the viewpoint. They said hello while we looked at the view and told us that we could ask them any questions we wanted about what we were looking at across the harbour. We pretended to take some pictures while we poked around a little bit. But after 30 mins of looking, we decided to ask them if they knew anything about the cache. They both said no, but one of them said they had seen a piece of garbage at the bottom of a slope. We walked over to where we could see the 'garbage' and it looked like a possible cache container. The only problem is that it was litterally at the bottom of a rock face, caught in a bush and hanging by a thread. The climb down sure looked easier than it ended up being. What I didnt realize was that after the 'bottom' of the slope there was a 20' dropoff. So there's me, bending over to get the cache with the ground still in view, and then all of a sudden I looked over the edge and realized just how high I really was. Sure enough, it was the cache and once we looked at the hint, we figured that the cache must have slid over 20m down the rocks into that bush. In any event we brought it back up, showed the muggles what was in a geocache, signed the log, and placed the cache back in its intended position. All in all a sucsessful hunt, that could have been way worse .

 

BC Tripper