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Worlds Second Largest Power Trail


Olewaif

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The Confederation Trail Cache Project ( CTCP) has resulted so far in 1,177 geocaches placed and released along the C.T. in Prince Edward Island, .Canada. The trail is so far over 240 Kms. long and exists along the old railbeds ( the Railroad was discontinued on ' the Island " in the late '80's ). This trail is a bike/hike only trail and thus is NOT like the ET power trail, in that you can NOT expect 400+ caches per day. Instead you might reasonably score about a hundred caches a day. The CTCP was created by a dedicated group of PEI cachers using the 'convenience name' of ' geowhacker. This 'power trail' is already attracting interest from cachers near and far. The group winds through scenic and relatively easy to navigate trail from one end of the province to the other. All caches are within 20 meters of the trail and are usually fairly easy finds.

There is still room for more caches on some of the old railroad spur lines and it is likely that by the time the CTCP is completely finished next year , it will total out at around 1600-1700, which would make it the longest trail on Earth by a comfortable margin.

Power trails are not everyones ' cup-of-tea ' but this trail has already won accolades from both power-trailers and those not so much into that

a typical PT, as it demands and delivers a difference experience.

As one of the small group responsible for this projects, I would like to invite all to come to the beautiful " Gentle Island " and cache our trail!

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C'mon, this doesn't sound too bad. Matter of fact, I've looked at it. Probably the last time the same OP posted about it.

 

1700 caches - all caches are within 20 meters of the trail and are usually fairly easy to find. Based on that description it sounds like the Disney World of Walmart caches, from hell.

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1. It looks to me as if P. E. I. has, and had plenty of nice caches to look for without and before this trail was created.

 

2. P. E. I. definitely seems to be a nice place to visit, no power trail needed.

 

3. Monkey see, monkey do. 'Hey! Nevada gots a power trail and people are flocking there to do it...let's get one too! Oh, and to make sure we get noticed, let's make ours bigger than theirs...yeah, that's the ticket!'

 

Sadly, this looks like the beginnings of a regional power trail competition.

The awards banquet will be held 1 April 2015, so let's get busy tossing those film canisters! :laughing:

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Sounds like a great trail, I'd love to come out and hike portions of it one day. I think caching is a great way to draw attention to it and highlight something besides Anne of Green Gables on the island.

 

I know everyone likes different things and for me sometimes having that many caches along a hiking trail becomes an annoying distraction and takes away from the experience. I'd likely target every 10th cache or so just so there is some distance/time between having to stop and seek.

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We've always wanted to visit there, that would give us an extra reason to go. I like well-thought out caches, but at the same time, I'd be happy to visit the location for the scenery, even if it's a row of film canisters.

 

I have no idea what the containers are, but they are overwhelmingly listed as smalls. Perhaps someone who has been there can elaborate. Not like it would be a spoiler or anything. Pssst. The ET trail is all film canisters. :lol: And for us American's, they are all 25M or less from the trail, which is 82 feet or less.

 

Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

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This trail is a bike/hike only trail and thus is NOT like the ET power trail, in that you can NOT expect 400+ caches per day...

 

Not for long. If a motor vehicle can negotiate the trail you can bet that people will try. There is a segment of the numbers hounds segment who aren't deterred by bothersome things like legality.

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I see you've already attracted the usual cohort of power trail haters. While I'm not that interested in traditional power trails, I find the idea of a hiking/biking power trail intriguing. It actually requires that you expend some energy getting from one cache to the next. I would be far more impressed by someone getting 100 caches in a day on the PEI trail than by someone getting 1000 caches in a day on the Alien Highway. Thanks for posting this information.

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This trail is a bike/hike only trail and thus is NOT like the ET power trail, in that you can NOT expect 400+ caches per day...

 

Not for long. If a motor vehicle can negotiate the trail you can bet that people will try. There is a segment of the numbers hounds segment who aren't deterred by bothersome things like legality.

 

Looks like they have gates at the intersections. I'll bet ATV'ers aren't deterred. And you could always power trail cache with a Smart Car.

 

6442490343_b8d4e45104.jpg

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If you gotta make a a power trail, I sure like this one way more than one along a highway that encourages throw-downs. I could see this being cool if you could camp overnight- basically do some backpacking while also geocaching. But I have no idea if that's allowed along this trail.

 

But yeah, generally I prefer a nice long hike that takes me to one or two spectacularly-placed caches so I can enjoy the scenery.

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Is there anyplace along the trial to plug in and recharge my Segway?

 

I can't possibly be the only person in the world who had absolutely never heard of a Segway. That is until the guy who invented them died in a Segway accident. :unsure:

 

I'd better get on topic. So I'll echo what some others are saying, if you're going to have a power trail, this is my kind of power trail. The only one I have done, 45 caches over 6 miles, was on a rural rails to trails. And they were all smalls and regulars, not a film canister in the lot. That is why I'd love for someone to come along and say what containers are being used here. I believe every single cache on this PT is listed as a small.

 

Oh, I wouldn't be in it for the numbers on this one, I might do like every 5th one or something.

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Oh, I wouldn't be in it for the numbers on this one, I might do like every 5th one or something.

 

That's what's puzzling to me.

 

There is no way this is a "power trail" in the usual definition - a film can every 0.1 miles along a road, that will allow a person to rack up the numbers. You're the second person to say they'd find every Nth cache (5th & 10th were mentioned). I'd have to agree - If I'm hiking/biking in the woods, I wouldn't stop every 528' to grab a cache - I think it would ruin the walk.

 

I suspect this trail will not attract the numbers that the ET Trail does, so I don't understand the need to drop a cache every 528'. I suspect the people that will come out and hike this trail would still come if there were 90% fewer caches, so why bother with so many?

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More information Re CTGP (Confederation Trail Geocache Project) :

Containers: All containers are small to medium sized camouflaged pill bottles with smaller plastic vials inside, containing the log.

They are meant to last. So far there has been no reports of problems with the cache containers.

Hides : Caches are hidden for the most part (98 % +) on the back sides of trees. The CT trail is treed along almost its entire length. None are meant to be visible from the trail. When we did the trail after release we moved a few caches that were visible as needed to assure( as much as possible) that muggling wouldn't happen. Some are as close as a couple meters from trail.. most from 5- 20 meters .. a VERY few more than that. All are on old railway allowance land ( railways were closed and rails torn up in late 1980's), which in PEI is public land. This placement was done WITH the permission (and assistance) of the PEICT Authority.

Finding times vary from a matter of seconds to several minutes. In a few cases our group of 8- 10 bikers took 10 or so minutes to find a cache. If this was due to a coord problem , that was addressed. if it was just that the trees were denser and the hide better than average.. that's how it stayed. This was never intended to be a classic " get--a-crap-load-of-caches worth NO effort group. It took the group I cached the CT with this past summer THIRTEEN pretty full days of biking ( spread out over several weekends) to find the entire CT group. Some others who've done them have been a bit ( but only a bit) faster , most are taking longer. A GOOD realistic fairly full day average on the CT would be about 75-90 caches. That would entail a bike/hike of about 15-25kms.

Click on any CT cache to see the general write-up for the group for additional information and also feedback from cachers. I might also draw your attention to the AGCA website where a number of forum threads on the CT exist.

Re Accomodations , amenities etc. The CT has numerous rest stops with toilets , picnic tables etc. plus it crosses many roads where you can access the very many tourist facilities ( lots of camp grounds etc)the Island offers. This is a major tourist destination with a lot of other attractions and all the amenities you'd expect.

I knew when I posted the original on this thread that the anti-any-power-trail idea people would be out and posting. Negative-feeling people (on ANY topic) are ALWAYS more vocal and likely to post. That's their privilege. They also are not required by any one to GO on a power trail. For those who do like them, the CTCP is new and we think it's pretty unique. I like a varied caching experience myself and both place and cache for P/G's , puzzle caches, multis, earth caches and small or single caches on quite difficult hiking-only trails ( of which there are several on PEI) . There's around four thousand caches on PEI... we're not that small at about 180 miles long by from 4 to 30ish miles deep. Lots of sq miles in there.

It's about choice. Pick what you like. Ignore what you don't. Many cachers come to our Island and don't do any CT caches.. that's fine. They can still cache for weeks here and find the caching experience they want.

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BMW-G-650-GS-dual-purpose-motorcycle.jpg

I'll stick to my old knock about. B)

b079ed25-8ec5-4c16-92ef-f9abfc1e747b.jpg

 

I knew when I posted the original on this thread that the anti-any-power-trail idea people would be out and posting.

As one of the more vocal anti-power trails folks on these forums, I gotta say I'm kinda digging how this one was set up. While I'm not a huge fan of pill bottles, at least they didn't use film cans. :lol: Locally, when I see "pill bottle", it means I'll find one of those sort of transparent, kind of amber looking bottles with the white child proof lid. It also means, (if the cache has any age to it), that I'll find a wet, moldy log. I have found, however, that these stinkers are not the only "pill bottles" out there. I actually like the thick white plastic bottles with the multi thread top. Those do fairly well at keeping moisture out.

 

Which kind did they use?

 

Also, it the trail paved or dirt? (Thinking street bike vs mountain bike)

Edited by Clan Riffster
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Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

 

Meh. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 20 miles long and has a virtual and an Earthcache on it, 14 miles from the mainland.

 

"meh" because Confederation Bridge is in Canada and you would need a passport to get here?

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Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

 

Meh. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 20 miles long and has a virtual and an Earthcache on it, 14 miles from the mainland.

 

"meh" because Confederation Bridge is in Canada and you would need a passport to get here?

The last time my wife and I went to PEI we took the ferry from Nova Scotia. I was amazed at how inexpensive it was for me, the little lady and our car to be transported across. In fact, it was free...that's right, no charge, zero, nada. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...you can't get off the island unless you pay, lol.

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Starting to look forward to the updated cache saturation guidelines that limit caches to be 5.28 miles apart instead of 528 feet ....

I'll go for that, Phoenix and Scottsdale are getting out of hand with these things, so much so that the City of Phoenix has banned all caches in the mountain preserve now.

No one seems to care, just numbers that all that matters. My favorite caches take me to places I've never been, not 500" in front of me 275 times. Here the new PT's are have new GeoCodes, not GC any more, they are GL.........for GeoLitter maybe, just sayin!

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Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

 

Meh. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 20 miles long and has a virtual and an Earthcache on it, 14 miles from the mainland.

 

"meh" because Confederation Bridge is in Canada and you would need a passport to get here?

 

It was just comment on the length of the bridge. I not only have a passport but I had to send it in the passport agency about a year ago to get extra pages added to it because I had filled it up with stamps and visas. I'd actually like to visit PEI some time. I've been to Nova Scotia (briefly) and spent four days in Newfoundland, but haven't been to PEI.

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I'll stick to my old knock about. B)

 

I knew when I posted the original on this thread that the anti-any-power-trail idea people would be out and posting.

As one of the more vocal anti-power trails folks on these forums, I gotta say I'm kinda digging how this one was set up. While I'm not a huge fan of pill bottles, at least they didn't use film cans. :lol: Locally, when I see "pill bottle", it means I'll find one of those sort of transparent, kind of amber looking bottles with the white child proof lid. It also means, (if the cache has any age to it), that I'll find a wet, moldy log. I have found, however, that these stinkers are not the only "pill bottles" out there. I actually like the thick white plastic bottles with the multi thread top. Those do fairly well at keeping moisture out.

 

Which kind did they use?

 

Also, it the trail paved or dirt? (Thinking street bike vs mountain bike)

 

Snipped out the images from the post. I'm going to bet big white vitamin type bottles with a screw on lid, and the OP said they were camo taped. The one rails to trails power trail I did (which was also in Canada), about 1/2 the "smalls" were good sized bottles of that sort, with wire imbedded in the camo tape for hanging purposes. That one also contained regulars, including a couple tree climbers. I tell you, that was a great power trail. This one doesn't sound too bad either, for us hata's. :)

 

I posted a pic of where the trail crosses a main road, and it was dirt in that area. Not to say the entire length is, but I'll bet there's a good chance.

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Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

 

Meh. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 20 miles long and has a virtual and an Earthcache on it, 14 miles from the mainland.

 

"meh" because Confederation Bridge is in Canada and you would need a passport to get here?

The last time my wife and I went to PEI we took the ferry from Nova Scotia. I was amazed at how inexpensive it was for me, the little lady and our car to be transported across. In fact, it was free...that's right, no charge, zero, nada. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention...you can't get off the island unless you pay, lol.

 

we took the bridge when we were there in february

 

 

Hey, I just want to see the cool 8 mile long bridge. Which I guess is almost 15 years old now.

 

Meh. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel is 20 miles long and has a virtual and an Earthcache on it, 14 miles from the mainland.

 

"meh" because Confederation Bridge is in Canada and you would need a passport to get here?

 

It was just comment on the length of the bridge. I not only have a passport but I had to send it in the passport agency about a year ago to get extra pages added to it because I had filled it up with stamps and visas. I'd actually like to visit PEI some time. I've been to Nova Scotia (briefly) and spent four days in Newfoundland, but haven't been to PEI.

 

you should make your way over there, its beautiful...just avoid going in the winter, Nova Scotia was fine but New Brunswick and PEI had snow banks way above our heads lol

 

we had no snowshoes so we did a lot of all-fours crawling to avoid sinking in the snow up to our waist in places :lol:

 

New Brunswick

 

fb63352a-9efe-494b-81d7-80039daa5a15.jpg

 

PEI, just where we got off the bridge

 

DSC00243.jpg

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I can see the logs now.

 

"Johny, Bob and I were riding my BMX bike down the trail today. Johny, the navigator, rode on the rear pegs directing us to the next cache. Bob, the runner, rode on the handlebars and was thrown off of them whenever Johny told me to brake for the next cache, which gave Bob some momentum getting to the cache. Now I was chosen as the driver since I have the best balance of the bunch"

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Cache containers are screw top pill bottle ( 6-8 oz )and so far all reports say they are dry.: Trail is gated at EVERY crossing.. both sides with locks AND is patrolled by folks enabled to write tickets. Anyone caught ( there are a LOT of hikers/bikers and they will take plate numbers or photos ( EVERYBODY had an Iphone.. you'll get busted) with any powered vehicles get ticketed. This trail IS open to snowmobiles in mid-winter but You do NOT want to step off groomed trail once snow gets deep... sink to your butt. We get some serious snow here from Jan-March. I suppose you COULD snowmobile along.. stop.. don snowshoes.. trudge around off trail to find cache.. get back on snowmobile etc. I wouldn't want to do it. Like I said this is a working mans ' power' trail.. however you get them.

The Confederation Bridge 2-way toll is $43.25 charged ONLY when leaving the Island. It's quite a structure. It was privately built and came in under budget (1 Billion) and on time. If government had built it it would still be under construction and would have cost a gazillion bucks ..lol.

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This trail IS open to snowmobiles in mid-winter but You do NOT want to step off groomed trail once snow gets deep... sink to your butt. We get some serious snow here from Jan-March. I suppose you COULD snowmobile along.. stop.. don snowshoes.. trudge around off trail to find cache.. get back on snowmobile etc. I wouldn't want to do it. Like I said this is a working mans ' power' trail.. however you get them.

Ah, I can see it now. Instead of the local inn keeper on the 6 o'clock news talking about how business has been booming since the power trail came to town, we will see the local snowmobile shop keeper on the news instead talking about how rentals have been up.

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