Manitoba Geocaching

[Prairie Jeepin]

I just thought it would be a nice idea to have a specific thread dedicated to Manitoba Geocaching issues, information, ideas, events, plans, communications, introductions, acquaintance making, &c.

 

Short of asking GC.com to make Provincial Forums, this will have to do

 

Feel free to start using this Thread for all things MB Geocaching/GPS related.

 

Cheers,

PJ - SW Manitoba, Peace Gardens locale.

Edited September 23, 2004 by Prairie Jeepin

[+junglehair]

Greetings from a transplanted Manitoban. I grew up just outside of Winnipeg, but have been living in Rochester, NY for the past four years for work. I still make it home a couple times a year to visit family (and go caching, of course).

 

You guys have a long way to go to catch up with the geocaches around here. Last I checked there was something like 60 caches within 100 miles of Winnipeg. There are over 1800 caches within 100 miles of my house here!

 

I am now the President of the New York Geocaching Organization. Not bad for a Canadian, eh?

[Prairie Jeepin]

You guys have a long way to go to catch up with the geocaches around here. Last I checked there was something like 60 caches within 100 miles of Winnipeg. There are over 1800 caches within 100 miles of my house here!

Yes we do They are few and far between in my area. I'm down by the Int'l Peace Garden. The closest one to me is 16 miles away. I'm hoping I can help fix that and get a few of my own out there to bring up the local area activity a bit.

 

Congrats on the position btw.

[+MedicP1]

The closest one to me is 16 miles away.

Well there's part of your problem PJ your measuring it in 'miles' the numbers look much better if you use Kms or CBs (Cases of Beer) or SSs (Slap Shots).

 

Check it out...

 

Hey the closest cache to me is only a 12th of a "2-4" away!

 

or

 

Heck the nearest cache is only 32 slap shots away! (If you've ever played on a perfectly frozen lake you know exactly what I mean. )

 

Hope you get lots of hits on this thread, do you have an association yet?

[Prairie Jeepin]

LOL Medic

 

Thanks for the well wishes. I don't know if there is an MB GC Assn. I haven't seen nor heard of anything, but I am relatively new yet. Might be a good idea eventually.

 

Cheers

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

Great idea to have our own thread. I think this sport is going to explode this next year in Manitoba. Word of mouth is moving and some great people are getting involved. There are quite a variety of caches being created now and we have the advantage of being able to imitate the best that have been done in the rest of the world, since we're so far behind in numbers. As long as they stop disappearing at the same rate as they appear. Some of the most difficult ones we haven't taken on yet with our young family like those done by a complex cacher like Master Instigator. These have been highly recommended. Another cacher PMClure puts a lot of thought into his, location, location, location. Any of his are worth it! Polarbeardiggers caches are very enjoyable. The hikes at so many of the rural MB caches are challenging and worth it. The city ones are just good hides.

 

And we need more. Looking at a map of Manitoba there are more empty spaces that need to be filled so that our autumn drives are cache-filled and worthwhile. Every provincial park should have a few and certainly there are many local and city parks that are waiting for a small tupperware container to be hidden just so...Winter is a great time to plan out some clever ones and that is what we hope to do in the long months when nearby caches are few and far between.

 

Here is a webpage with a few of our fave's so far...not updated for a few weeks though. It is amazing that basically all the caches have created a special memory with our young family. Remember the time when...is a favorite phrase and wouldn't that be a good spot to hide one? a regular query by our 10 year old.

http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.com/~eidse/geocaching.html

 

Let's grow and catch up to that little province of New Brunswick in numbers!

[+junglehair]

I'd recommend trying to get the Winnipeg Free Press to run an article about geocaching. It seems that any time the media mentions something about it around here, we have 20 new people sign up.

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

Can anyone tell me which are the oldest geocaches in Manitoba? Who was the first cacher to hide one in our fair province and is it still accessible?

[+Peter and Gloria]

The oldest Manitoba cache is C1BUA - cache 1n builtup area by Brian Drader. It was in the front yard of his house in St Vital until recently when it was moved to Killarney MB. It was first placed on Feb 5, 2001.

[ertyu]

The Free Press ran an article not to long ago, I saw a couple new people logging after that.

 

Winnipeg Free Press Article

[+junglehair]

The Free Press ran an article not to long ago, I saw a couple new people logging after that.

 

Winnipeg Free Press Article

Awesome! Thanks for the link.

 

Edit: Hey! It even mentions me!!! How cool.

Edited October 6, 2004 by junglehair

[Prairie Jeepin]

That was interesting.....thanks for posting it.

 

C1BUA is 20 min away from me but I havent had the time to go check it out. When you work in the Ag industry, time is often at a premium for anything other than work ----- until the snow flies

 

Not only that but I was using a eTrex Yellow from work, until it was borrowed for a hunting trip and got burnt in a trailer fire. Good thing I wrote down all my waypoints before I returned it.

 

PJ

[+junglehair]

So who's going to post the first Geocaching event in Manitoba? I hear that Master Instigator held an unofficial event at the launch of one of his new caches, but it would be great to have something as an official event.

 

Here in New York, we often have Pub Nights. Basically we just make reservations at a bar or restaurant, and post the coordinates on the GC.com site. I vote for a Christmas Pub Night, some time between December 22nd and January 4th (ie. when I'm home for the holidays! ) But seriously, it's great to be able to put faces to the names you see in the log books.

[Prairie Jeepin]

Great idea, I like the Pub Night thing sounds fun, but would be far more conducive to those who live in urban areas than us country folk out in the boonies. Perhaps the "Peg" crowd could manage something together.

 

There actually was an event in MB that was initiated in my town a year ago for the Turtle Island Festival. It was arranged by Turtle Mountain Community Development and the old Cache Page is HERE.

 

In fact, odd as it may be, I was just talking to the TMCDC today about this very event while picking up some items for a cache. Perhaps I can convince them to do it again at next years Festival.

 

PJ

[ertyu]

October seems to be the month for placing caches, I count 14 new ones for the month in my home radius.

[Serene Sea]

I don't know how many caches are started in an average month but we could always use a few more. It would be difficult to get the number of caches up if some have to be archived or are lost due to muggles. The friend that introduced me to geocaching recently has already found the majority of caches in our area. One only has to watch how long it takes for the 1st log to appear on a new cache to know they are a hot item!

[TrailMapper]

For all those cachers out there in Manitoba check out www.ManitobaTrails.ca for very detailed trail and road tracks you can upload to any GPS. Having detailed trail info will go a long way to getting you to your caches.

 

Trailmapper

[+graylling]

I visit my brother in Winnipeg (Geargeek) a few times a year and always manage to find some caches while I'm there. You guys have a great province for caching with a lot of area to fill up yet.

 

Here in Calgary we have enough caches within 100 mile to keep everyone going for a while but as always theres never enough. lol I just recently put up a website for caching in the Calgary area Calgary Area Cachers that anyone can check out. You don't have to be in this area to take a look and make a submission.

 

If you are thinking of setting up a Caching group in Manitoba I know that Geargeek would love to get involved. Maybe you can get something going then set up a web site like I have done for caching in Calgary. It would be a good tool to introduce cachers to your group and area.

[Prairie Jeepin]

If you are thinking of setting up a Caching group in Manitoba I know that Geargeek would love to get involved.  Maybe you can get something going then set up a web site like I have done for caching in Calgary.    It would be a good tool to introduce cachers to your group and area.

 

Have been thinking of it, but I don't really have the time to orchestrate anything with my working hours.

 

A proper group would be nice, though I think it would mainly service/benefit city folks as there is a higher concentration of population and they can more easily get together &c. Us rural folks would tend to get left out due to excessive travel distances for regular gatherings.

 

In consideration of this I would suggest two groups be considered,

 

GWGA = Greater Winnipeg Geocaching Association,

 

MGA = Manitoba Geocachers Association.

 

Just some brief thoughts on the matter mentioned.

 

PJ

 

EDIT: Checked out your site, I really like the "Stash and dash" Cache concept. Must get one going here. Cheers mate.

Edited November 20, 2004 by Prairie Jeepin

[+Sam Stone]

Hello all. I'm relatively new here, I did some caching this summer but have been away from it for the last while. Are we to hibernate in the winter or are there active caches in Manitoba in the winter? I can see how it would be both hard to do and at the same time easy to find if the tracks are leading to it.

[+junglehair]

I see that Winnipeg just hit the 100 caches within a 100 mile radius mark! There was only 60-some when I was there in July. Guess I'll be busy when I visit again at Christmas.

 

Mind you, there are over 2000 within 100 miles of my apartment here in Rochester, NY, but who's counting?

[+junglehair]

Congrats to The Old Bat - she logged her 100th cache while visiting me here in New York this past weekend. Way to go, mom!

[Master Instigator]

Wow I can see that a lot discussing has been happening here that I wasn't aware of. It is awesome that people can have this to express ideas to one another. I had emailed Junglehair because I was interested in creating a Manitoba Geocaching Association and I wanted her input into it and she sent me a link to Prairie Jeepin's forum page.

 

Junglehair advised me that it would be good to get a bunch of cachers together to find out what we want to get out of having an association and what we are looking at for the set-up. Let me know if you guys are interested in going out to discus this in person or we can just post it here for now on how we individually feel on the subject.

 

I started to get the ball rolling on creating a Website that is for the Manitoba Geocaching community, but as always that takes time. I have thought of creating a home page that would have all the basic information about geocaching on it. I thought it would be nice to have a highlight page where there could be interviews with the "Geocacher of the Month" where it would be question and answer format to get to know the different cachers in the community. And of course the most important site feature I would work on is creating a forum where we can all chat with each other.

 

As some of you might or might not know I am in the works of creating a Geo-event in the spring. It will be called the Amazing Cache Race. It will be a two-part event where the people who have pre-qualified will compete in a race that will end at the start of the geo-event where everyone in the community will be invited to come. I am in the midst of getting prizes for this event, but as always 4 hands are better than 2 and 6 or 8 are better than 4. If anyone would like to help me in this either by donating items for prizes, food, or time please give me a shout to my mail box.

 

I am excited to see Manitoba starting to rise and I strongly feel that the next couple of years the sport will grow dramatically. As cachers that are involved in the infancy stage of geocaching in this province, I feel we have to do everything to help it develop for future cachers. M.I.

[Prairie Jeepin]

Hi MI,

 

MGA sounds good but there is location problems for us rural folks with regard to participating in meets. Perhaps discussions online here under a new thread title designated as such (MGA) would be the better option for now?

 

Your website idea and MB specific forum board is meritous also. An online presence could/would be very helpful for MB locals and those visiting MB. Perhaps a combined effort website "by the people for the people" may be feasible? I know I could do some page/site work if someone hosts us?

 

PJ

Edited December 4, 2004 by Prairie Jeepin

[+High IQ]

You folks in Manitoba have some big advantages over other geocachers.

 

1- No trees or mountains to block the signals

2- For at least six months of the year you can walk to any cache on river or lake.

Edited December 5, 2004 by High IQ

[+Shawn&Holly]

If you are thinking of setting up a Caching group in Manitoba I know that Geargeek would love to get involved.  Maybe you can get something going then set up a web site like I have done for caching in Calgary.    It would be a good tool to introduce cachers to your group and area.

 

Have been thinking of it, but I don't really have the time to orchestrate anything with my working hours.

 

A proper group would be nice, though I think it would mainly service/benefit city folks as there is a higher concentration of population and they can more easily get together &c. Us rural folks would tend to get left out due to excessive travel distances for regular gatherings.

 

In consideration of this I would suggest two groups be considered,

 

GWGA = Greater Winnipeg Geocaching Association,

 

MGA = Manitoba Geocachers Association.

 

Just some brief thoughts on the matter mentioned.

 

PJ

 

EDIT: Checked out your site, I really like the "Stash and dash" Cache concept. Must get one going here. Cheers mate.

The Maritime Geocachers Assocition uses MGA for short form

 

Maritime Geocaching

 

MGA Forums

 

Good luck in getting an association going, good way to meet new folks and put some events together.

[+Binrat]

How about:

 

MAG - Manatoba Area Geocachers

MAGEAS - MAnitoba GEocachers ASsociation

GEMA - GEocaching MAnitoba

 

Of from your license plate

 

FMGA - Friendly Manitoba Geocachers Association

 

Binrat

[Prairie Jeepin]

The Maritime Geocachers Assocition uses MGA for short form.

OK, I guess that is off the list then

 

FMGA - LOLOL Binrat

 

This is going to take some re-thinking I see.

 

MAG may work but I would make a slight change to Manitoba Association of Geocachers This would even allow us to have a smaller secondary branch group called "MAG Light" or "Mini MAG" hehehe

 

Back to the drawing board for now.

 

PS: Binrat, love your 6x6

 

PJ

[+junglehair]

How about MANGO - MANitoba Geocachers Organization?

[Prairie Jeepin]

I think I like Mango hmm...

[+junglehair]

And here's the theme song:

 

My baby she like to walk

My baby she like to stroll

My baby she can cache all night

My baby got no control

She do the MANGO Tango!

 

[Prairie Jeepin]

Wow! and it even comes with a free theme song.

 

OK guys, should we? Anyone wanna MANGO tango?

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

MANGO is so outrageous! I love it. So exotic for the Prairie's. Here's an idea straight from a cartoon near you: G-MAN = Geocachers of Manitoba.

Since we're dreamin' aloud how about G.M. and maybe then that company could sponsor a bunch of mini GM cars as travel bugs and if we get the right one we win!!! Oh wait that's been done - but only available to Americans...

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

You know you’re from Manitoba when…

The biggest celebrity you meet is Fred Penner.

Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

Vacation means a night at the Holiday Inn in Winnipeg in winter.

You measure distance in hours. (Especially us country cachers)

You know several people who have hit deer more than once.

Your classes have been cancelled due to extreme cold.

You often switch from “Heat” to “A/C” in the same day.

Your grandparents drive 100/km hour per hour through 13 feet of snow and a raging blizzard – without flinching.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You design your kid’s Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

Driving is better in winter cause the potholes are filled with snow.

Sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pj’s.

You know which leaves make good toilet paper.

You know all 4 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, Construction.

It takes 3 hours to go to the mall for an item cause you have to stop and talk to everyone you know.

You keep fit by swatting mosquitoes in the summer and shivering in the winter.

You understand all these jokes.

 

We just love this little write-up - thought some of you might too!

[+junglehair]

Your classes have been cancelled due to extreme cold.

I don't ever remember them closing the schools in Manitoba due to the cold when I was growing up there. Raging blizzard - maybe, but not for the cold.

 

Last winter, here in Rochester, NY, they closed the schools due to the cold weather. I think it was something like -10°C. Wasn't snowing or anything, just cold.

 

I've gone caching in colder weather than that!

 

WIMPS!!!

Edited December 10, 2004 by junglehair

[Prairie Jeepin]

OMG 1Qa4J that was hillarious. I'm printing that and taking it to work on Monday.

 

As for G-Man.........I like that one too. How are we going to choose now that are TWO MOST EXCELLENT NAMES put forward?

 

Cheers!

 

PJ

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

For my lifetime you are right about the blizzards sutting down schools rather than cold but...now for my kids and hubby

the rule for shuttin' down schools in our postal code is ...a temp of -45 with windchill factored in) and it was shut down for a day last year! (I suppose that one is more rural). I think it is more a fear of lawsuits or bus breakdowns than actual fear of loss of life but...

And Joker 1 is a school teacher so it impacts us immediately. One year we had a glorious 9 storm days - 1997. The Flood followed and well caching would have become impossible in Southern Manitoba- except for scuba equipment.

 

One of my not-so-favorite memories is that we had to play intramurals outside every day if school was open. If the weather was too bad, or so the principal firmly believed, we'd have been kept home. So sometimes the snowdrifts were 6 feet high and we played soccer in and arround and upon the drifts! So caching in winter - Oh Baby - Bring it On!

[+junglehair]

One of my not-so-favorite memories is that we had to play intramurals outside every day if school was open. If the weather was too bad, or so the principal firmly believed, we'd have been kept home. So sometimes the snowdrifts were 6 feet high and we played soccer in and arround and upon the drifts!

Now that reminds me of the stories my mom would tell of having to walk 3 miles to school, barefoot, through the blizzard, uphill both ways... well, I'm sure you know how those stories go!

 

I'll be home in a week and a half Hope there will at least a few good days to get some caching in. There are lots of new caches in Winnipeg since I was there in June.

 

I am 24 caches away from hitting #800. Think I can do it before year end? My goal is to log my 800th cache in Winnipeg - wish me luck!

[+Old Billygoat]

Hey – I started Geocaching last August, but quite for the winter in the middle of October [hey, this is Winnipeg after all]. This year I’m still going strong in December and what I’d like to see is a list of Manitoba winter friendly caches. I have noticed that some of the newer ones are listing being winter friendly, but not all of them. Even if you had to snowshoe or cross country ski to get to them, as long as they are off the ground or in a spot that a geocacher would think to look. That way you’d know you had a fair chance of finding it after all the work of getting there. If you have to dig through the snow in a 25’ radius I think I’d get discouraged. My 2003 finds may have changed since I found them so, caches that I’ve found this year that I feel are winter friendly are:

 

TURKEY CACHE

BRUCE PARK CACHE

TURBO CACHE

MICRO PARK CACHE [questionable, but the park is so small you’ll eventually find it]

SKAVEN’S TOWNHOUSE

SECRET SANTA

MAPLE GROVE [snow may get very deep though]

RIELS SHERWOOD

ENGINEERS NIGHTMARE

ELM PARK BRIDGE

ASSINIBOINE FOREST CACHE

 

All the stages of the HENRY BOUX PARK CACHE are winter friendly, but the final spot where the actual prize is hidden is definitely not. Maybe the owner could tie something to something to help out the hunter.

 

I hope you all will add to this list based on your experiences or I’ll have to pack it up again for the winter and I don’t know if I can do that. I seem to have the hunting itch real bad. Maybe even list ones that are not winter friendly, as that would also help to assess a challenge level to the quest. Put comments against them listing pros or cons for the winter challenge level, anything that will help extend the local Geocaching season. Swaggy and me were out yesterday [sunday] in all that blowing snow and loved it because we found 3 of the 4 caches we were looking for.

 

Thanks, Old Billygoat

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

Speaking for our caches: Quest for the Kingdom and Queen's Mate Hideaway should be fairly easily done in Winter. In fact Quest should be easier to find now. Still need a key though but at least one is available. You just have to do the multi of Master's or know where the 5th (I think) stage is. Not sure if one of the keys is in Where Rivers Collide or not but that is where I would check. We think Riel's Sherwood and Maple Grove should be above snow levels.

I wouldn't recommend our caches near St. Malo (they are geared for spring summer fall caching).

Diamonds are Forever is a good one for winter. Polarbeardiggers caches are almost all good for winter (at least the ones I've done). Blackout should be okay (in fact better without leaves I'd think), Ruzter Tails, Maples Mystery...

In the countryside toward Morris the Supersize It, Seeing Red (you must watch the hours on this one), Endless Horizon, Little Church (might be a little bit of a challenge but not a massive hike)and MHZ's Geo-Kitchen cache can be done in one swoop. Their Bison Castle is good too.

Where River's Collide should be do-able, World Peace, Bur Oak, The Beaver Dam that Was (could be snow-shoeing would be best to these I think), Lockport East, West and Hyland park. We haven't done most of the Bird's Hill ones so we will reserve comment but we do intend to do them this winter yet.

And I'm thinking if people put new ones out now htey should all be winter-friendly...But I guess it does depend how big the drifts are!

[+Peter and Gloria]

Some More Manitoba Winter Caches

The containers should be easily retrievable and there is limited walking off a well beaten path.

Dark Helmut's Winterland, Whitetail Deer, Needle in a Haystack, Demolings, Forget-me-not, Snoopy's Corner Cache, Santa's Purse, Red Wing Trail, The Forks, Lumpy's Treasure Chest

 

May be more off-the-beaten path but container are still easliy retriveable.

Bur Oak, Leroy, Monster Box, Manitoba Minutiae, Courts-the3rd Edition, Wacko Willy's Wicked Hoard.

 

Griffith's Hill Tower - close to Cross Country Ski Trail

[+junglehair]

Looks like I'll be arriving in Winnipeg just in time for the cold weather. The forecast says Low -30°C for Wednesday night. -30!!! Why can't Christmas be in July?

 

Thanks to those that posted the winter accessible cache listings - I plan to go after a few of those while I'm home (cold weather or not - I'm still Canadian after all!)

 

Happy holidays!

[+Old Billygoat]

Be sure to do "Needle in a Haystack" It is most excellent, and winter friendly

[Prairie Jeepin]

Be sure to do "Needle in a Haystack" ....

Or this time of year it is known as "Needle in a Haystack in a Snowpile"

[Prairie Jeepin]

South Western Manitobans now have their very own Moving Cache.

 

I was out today and placed what may be the first MB moving cache!

 

No this is not a GC.com approved or listed cache, this is through Movingcache.com, a Canadian entity out of BC providing an outlet for this alternate caching activity.

 

For those of you interested in seeking this cache please see Caskus134 at MC.com.

 

For general interest in other moving caches, please see MovingCache.com

 

Best wishes for the New Year everyone,

 

PJ

[+Old Billygoat]

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

 

I’ve done most of the caches in and around Winnipeg and a few further off. As the snow gets deeper I’m planning to supplement my caching hikes with some “Locationless” caches. It’s more of a challenge than I thought it would be [that’s a good thing] because “Peter & Gloria, Polarbeardiggers, and Harvester Ants” have already done 198 of the local finds between them. I love this game, there’s something for everyone and next year [2005] I’m going to place some caches of my own. Again; Happy New Year & Best of the Season – Old Billygoat

[+junglehair]

You know, it's not easy finding caches in Winnipeg when it's -23°C (or -32°C with the windchill) and there is over 2' of new fallen snow on the ground! Winnipeg may not have many caches, but I'm always impressed with the quality of caches I find here. They are always clever and creative.

 

I head back to New York tomorrow, but should be back in the summer to find some of those caches that were too buried in snow this time for me to find.

[+1Queenand4Jokers]

We salute Junglehair and her niece geo-kitten for completing the Quest for the Kingdom Cache after our humongous snowfall! Amazing slogging all the way to the cache, posting a DNF, and then returning with ski's and digging it up shows a level of determination we admire. People had some difficulty even in summer with this one.

We were inspired to go caching again by your example but our -40 with windchill stopped us cold these last two days. As soon as it returns to a balmy -20 or so we hope to tackle a number of the caches in Winnipeg and Bird's Hill. Just cannot risk frostbite on our kids.

At least our Junior Hockey team blasted Russia and rules supreme and gave us something to do when not caching this Christmas!

Cache on...

[+dani_carriere]

I'm not sure if anyone knows this yet, but I'd like to extend a hardy Congratulations! to Gumpy and Mrs. Gumpy on the arrival of baby Gumpy on Friday January 14th. Details, and a pic are in his profile if you want to take a gander.

[+junglehair]

Who is the man by the name of Gump(?)

 

You have to love the fact that he's got his GPS in with the pic of the baby!

Gump Jr.

 

Congratulations!

Edited January 18, 2005 by junglehair