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Recommendations please


stonefielders

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Hi

We are a British family coming over to canada for a three week holiday. We have hired a car and will be driving ourselves and camping our way from Calgary to Vancouver (including Vancouver Island)

We would really like recommendations for the best caches to visit.

We jave two small kids (ages 3 and 6) but they breed 'em hardy in Yorkshire so they will happily walk climb ad canoe. (any caches requiring canoeing need to be near a hire outlet - we can't get our canadian into the hand baggage) We tend to prefer rural traditional caches - the kids are motivated by treasure! But a few micros around towns will break up the sightseeing.

We are really excited about our holiday and are looking forward to exploring Canada, we would very much value any suggestions for caches to visit

We will happily bring any Tb's that want to travel back to Britain but not sure how we'd arrange a pick up

With thanks in advance

the stonefielders

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I was in BC in march and these were my Favorites

Chiliwacks first You'll get to see Bradal Veil Falls

 

Chipmunk Caves These are some awesome caves, bring a flashlight.

 

White Rock Earthcache Beautiful beach in White Rock and of course, the White Rock itself

 

Shannon, You Crazy Diamond Shannon Falls, 3rd highest in BC

 

Stawamus Chief Earthcache Stawamus Chief is the second largest granite monolith in the world

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Thanks for all your help so far

Next question:

We have the whoole of britain as a 1:25,000 map on our PC, we download the caches onto it to help with at least finding the sart of the trail if not the cache.

What would you all recommend is our bast option with maps whilst we are on holiday in the states either hard copy or software that we can do print outs from before we come? Plus even better is there any free software to be had?

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For free do you use Google Earth? I haven't tried printing from it so can't say if that's a good solution.

 

For cheap software MicroSoft Streets&Trips offers coverage for all of North America but if you want to print maps before you leave I don't know that you can buy the North American version in Britain.

 

Edit for spelling :D

Edited by PDOP's
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Speaking as a one time tourist to Vancouver, our highlights were:

  • Stanley Park is probably a must for first time visitors (eg GC58E9)
  • Punta del Este (GCMYTN) on Buntzen Lake. Cache too tough for kids, but there are a few others in the area.
  • Drive from Vancouver to Squamish (eg GCJ2RC, GCQ8FC, GCKECG)

Coincidentally enough, we will be heading to Vancouver (and possibly Vancouver Island) in two weeks. I've been scanning geocaching google maps and we can't find a trail or park with a high density of caches. We're looking for a place where you can park the car and spend half a day or a full day finding ~15 caches. Any suggestions of this type?

 

Thanks,

Lychee & Green Apple

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Calgary Consensus Favourites (in town) from Wildwoddke

 

Calgary Area Favourites (out of town) from Wildwoodke.

 

From those...

 

If it is hot out this a great fun hike on your route. and as mentioned Cold Cache is a must do.

 

If you like hiking that drive could keep you busy for a few years. :D There are caches on pretty much every trail from Calgary to the national parks, so you can't go wrong.

 

For mapping, you might want to try the recently released GPSTurbo it has Toporama and Google maps built in and allows for printing large areas in high quality.

Edited by Red90
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Speaking as a one time tourist to Vancouver, our highlights were:

  • Stanley Park is probably a must for first time visitors (eg GC58E9)
  • Punta del Este (GCMYTN) on Buntzen Lake. Cache too tough for kids, but there are a few others in the area.
  • Drive from Vancouver to Squamish (eg GCJ2RC, GCQ8FC, GCKECG)

Coincidentally enough, we will be heading to Vancouver (and possibly Vancouver Island) in two weeks. I've been scanning geocaching google maps and we can't find a trail or park with a high density of caches. We're looking for a place where you can park the car and spend half a day or a full day finding ~15 caches. Any suggestions of this type?

 

Thanks,

Lychee & Green Apple

For numbers and scenery come to Victoria on Vancouver Island :) . Park on Glendenning and start working your way around and over Mount Doug! Alternatively, there is Ten Mile Point area (saturated with caches and million dollar homes!) and Thetis Lake Provincial Park. There was a cache machine here a few weekends ago and I think the folks from the mainland who came over got about 130 caches in a day and a half. (At least that's the number I saw being thrown around). I don't know the route exactly, but it isn't hard to do that in this town if you've never been here before :) .

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Thanks again everyone

We are hoping to get over to vancouver island

10 mile point area was mentioned is this the road from victoria to point Renfrew?

We are planning to get the ferry from port angeles to victoria then have a couple of days getting from victoria to Tofino then across to Nanaimo and vancouver.

My kids fancy the dora team caches in nanaimo - playgrounds and mention of dora the explorer and swiper and they are hooked in!

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Thanks again everyone

We are hoping to get over to vancouver island

10 mile point area was mentioned is this the road from victoria to point Renfrew?

We are planning to get the ferry from port angeles to victoria then have a couple of days getting from victoria to Tofino then across to Nanaimo and vancouver.

My kids fancy the dora team caches in nanaimo - playgrounds and mention of dora the explorer and swiper and they are hooked in!

10 Mile Point is a point of land and 'subdivision' in Saanich which is part of Greater Victoria. It has waterfront vistas on 3 sides, parks, trails and lots of caches.

 

Alternatively, there is cache density at Mount Doug. GCD759 is a good central cache to start your pocket query search from - you should get almost 30 regular caches before you hit 1km proximity! You probably just want the 'regular' caches on Mt. Doug. The best cammo'd multi cache in town is 'Sick and Twisted' :unsure: and it's also on Mount Doug. You should allow at least half a day for it though if you don't know the trails like the back of your hand.

 

You can probably nab 6 caches as soon as you get off the Coho Ferry from Port Angeles right downtown. Our Great White North Geotour starts in the Inner Harbour area also so if you want to see the best sights and grab a cache this is a fun one to do. If you're only in town for a day though and want to get lots of caches, you may want to take a miss on this one as it will take you a few hours.

 

I'd suggest doing a pocket query of 'regular' and 'virtual' caches that are lower terrain and difficulty (maybe 2.5 and less) outside of the city core where parking is free or you can pull over at the side of the road and go for a short or medium walk. Centre your search at GCRBKH (No River, Nice View) and you'll get about 45 regular caches within 3km. There aren't a ton of caches in Goldstream Park (which is on your way out of town to Nanaimo) but it's definately a good place to stop and walk about in a west coast forest. There's probably 8-10 caches within easy walking distance in this park, but the river, estuary and nature house are superb to visit!

 

There are also a few shared route queries from Victoria to Tofino. You may need to break the search up into Victoria to Nanaimo then Nanaimo to Tofino though.

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Hello from Germany,

 

thanks for your many suggestions. I think we have to do a lot of work in our vacation. :D

 

We are on our tour from July 23rd to August 10th from Vancouver to Whistler, Williams Lake, Bella Coola, Port Hardy and finally to Victoria. We have already downloaded some PQs of this tour.

 

One tour we have planned is the "Pacific Marine Circle". We want to rent a small pick-up camper. Is this tour possible with such a camper? I think some parts of this road are only forest roads.

 

We look forward to visit your beautiful country,

 

Katrin and Rolf

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One tour we have planned is the "Pacific Marine Circle". We want to rent a small pick-up camper. Is this tour possible with such a camper? I think some parts of this road are only forest roads.

 

Katrin and Rolf

 

The route you are referring to is very passable by campers. The unpaved portion of the road is actually in better shape than much of the paved sections!

 

The Vancouver Island Forums at VIGPS.com would be the best place to field questions about the Island.

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Hello from Germany,

 

thanks for your many suggestions. I think we have to do a lot of work in our vacation. :angry:

 

We are on our tour from July 23rd to August 10th from Vancouver to Whistler, Williams Lake, Bella Coola, Port Hardy and finally to Victoria. We have already downloaded some PQs of this tour.

 

One tour we have planned is the "Pacific Marine Circle". We want to rent a small pick-up camper. Is this tour possible with such a camper? I think some parts of this road are only forest roads.

 

We look forward to visit your beautiful country,

 

Katrin and Rolf

If you need any info from Port Hardy (North Vancouver Island)let me know and I will gladly forward it to you.....roads, caches, etc

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Hello from Germany,

 

thanks for your many suggestions. I think we have to do a lot of work in our vacation. :ph34r:

 

We are on our tour from July 23rd to August 10th from Vancouver to Whistler, Williams Lake, Bella Coola, Port Hardy and finally to Victoria. We have already downloaded some PQs of this tour.

 

One tour we have planned is the "Pacific Marine Circle". We want to rent a small pick-up camper. Is this tour possible with such a camper? I think some parts of this road are only forest roads.

 

We look forward to visit your beautiful country,

 

Katrin and Rolf

 

Hi,

Be sure that the company that you rent your camper from permits you to drive on unpaved roads. Some of the rental companies do not allow driving their vehicles on gravel or dirt roads, except in established campgrounds. They charge large penalties if the vehicle is driven off pavement.

 

I rented a motorhome from one of the large companies (Canadream.ca) at their Toronto location a couple of years ago, and it was equipped with a tracking device that recorded where I drove the motorhome during my trip. They transferred that information to their computer on my return to verify that I did not break any of their rules before my deposit was refunded. So be careful -- they do check these things!

 

Have a great trip, you will be here during the best of our summer weather.

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Thanks again for the tipps.

 

We will rent our Pickup-Camper from Fraserway and we have good experiences with this company. It is already our fifth trip through BC since 1998. ;)

 

I think, Fraserway is the only one company without a special northern surcharge. But I will ask at the office whether it is a problem because we have also the Hwy 20 (Williams Lake to Bella Coola) in our tour plan. We know "The Hill" :) .

 

In Port Hardy we have planned two special caches:

- GCJ97A "Dakota 576", this must be a very interesting historic site, but I have read in one of the last logs: There is a bear with cubs in the area. :laughing: Have I understood this correctly?

 

- GCY6K4 , our chance for a FTF in Canada! :laughing: Our main goal in our vacation is to watch some orcas and we think the best place for this adventure is Telegraph Cove.

 

We looking forward to find some interesting caches in the area of Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. There is only 10 days remaining. :laughing:

CU

 

Rolf

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