Focussed On The Future

I went back to "The Pool" today, which is the cache which defeated me on Sunday. This time, rather than trying to keep up with a vigourous teenager, I took it at my own pace. It took me 25 minutes to make the 400m journey to the top, with 15 rest breaks along the way, but I did it and without really exhausting myself like the last time. Found the cache, signed the log, took in the view, then headed back down.

From the trail head at the base of the ridge to the cache on top was a difference in elevation of 114 meters, roughly equivalent to walking to the top of a 32-storey building and back down again.

I picked up one other cache while I was there, bringing my total to 278.

I consider this pretty much the perfect time of year. The snow has melted, the cold weather is over, it's not yet too hot, and the days are looong.

Rain is still a bit of a problem, though. The weather forecast was showing rain for the entire weekend so after work today I went to Neck Point Park and did some geocaching while the sky was still clear. I found five of the six caches that searched for, bringing my total to 264. One of the finds was a cache which had eluded the paramour and I almost exactly a year ago. I was just about to give up on it this time as well but decided to try one more spot and finally found it.

Even the cache that I couldn't find was not a complete loss as along the way I encountered a small herd of seven deer who let me take pictures of them and found a perfect bird's nest nestled (as it were) in the crook of a tree.

Caches, that is.

During my stay in Hamilton the weather was mostly overcast and drizzly, punctuated with the occasional downpour. On one of the drier days I was able to get a pretty good GPS signal despite the overcast so I went out and did a bit of geocaching. I picked up two new caches bringing my total to 252.

Nothing particularly interesting about either of the caches except that one was my first graveyard cache. It was a small, metallic green bison tube, hanging in a cedar tree between a couple of graves. Even if muggles had spotted it they would probably have taken it for some kind of decoration.

April was a fairly dismal month for me in terms of caches found, due primarily to my being absorbed in work. I'll have to see if I can't do a bit better in May. The weather forecast shows rain on Saturday but mostly sunny on Sunday, so hopefully I'll be able to get out then.

Picking my caching location the night before is working out well for me. Today I got up, had breakfast and was out the door shortly after 10:30, which is yawningly early for me.

For the next four hours I bounced around on unpaved back roads, eventually picking up another six caches, which brings my total to 243. None of the caches were themselves particularly interesting, but they were all in the woods just south of the Nanaimo River, in areas I've never been to before. So it was nice just being out and wandering around.

I was happy to get back onto paved road at the end, though. Cracked and pitted though it may have been, it still felt smooth as silk after the logging roads and part-time stream beds I'd been driving on.

The most memorable part of the outing was falling into a large mud puddle. Coming back to the truck after finding the fifth cache, I was skirting the edge when my right foot slipped out from underneath me, pitching me face forward into the puddle. I managed to catch myself before going in all the way, but the splash from my foot and hand going into the water soaked the front of my t-shirt, my jacket and my sweatpants with muddy water. Ah well, they were in need of a washing anyway. After that I was tempted to call it a day, but the weather was warm enough that the wet clothes weren't very bothersome, so I went on to find one more cache before heading home.

I very rarely call people up and ask if I can come for a visit because I always feel like it's an imposition. No one is ever going to say, "No, piss off!", so they're pretty much obliged to say yes, even if they've got better things to do. At least that's how it plays out in my internal world model. In my saner moments I realize that there are gentler ways to turn someone down other than telling them to piss off. And who knows, it's just possible that they might really enjoy a visit from me!

It's a weird combination of insecurity and arrogance on my part. Insecurity because there's the fear of rejection, and arrogance because I'm making decisions for others without their permission or even knowledge. It should be their choice whether to accept my visit. I shouldn't take that choice away from them.

It's a bad habit which has contributed mightily to a dramatic shrinking of my social circle. I'm trying to unlearn it, but the going is slow.

Last night I was planning where I would go geocaching today. My Mom had mentioned that my aunt, who lives up-island from me, had expressed interest in my geocaching activities. I hadn't been to see her and my uncle for at least half a year, so I seized the initiative and gave them a call. We chatted for a bit and arranged to go out geocaching this afternoon.

My aunt seemed to really enjoy herself. I'd only planned on taking them to two caches but after we'd nabbed those she asked if there were more nearby and we eventually ended up finding six (bringing my total to 232). I doubt that it's an activity that she'll take up on her own, but I think she'd be keen to join me in future outings when I'm in the area. My uncle wasn't too interested in the geocaching itself but did seem to enjoy just being out and tramping around in the bush.

They invited me to join them for dinner afterward and we chatted for a while. I think that I may have left a bit too abruptly, but then I've never been particularly graceful with my exits. Lack of practice, no doubt.

So that's two weekends in a row that I've managed to get out and socialize. I wonder what I'll do next weekend.

A combination of crappy weather and a heavy workload have conspired to keep me from geocaching for almost two weeks. But today the conspiracy fell apart and I was able get out and find four caches.

If I'm lucky I'll find one interesting cache on an outing, but today there were two.

WARNING: There are spoilers below so don't read on if you ever plan on visiting these caches.

The first one said in its description that it was "two meters from the edge of the parking lot". That put it on the slightly raised berm that separated the lot from the woods beyond. But there was nothing there except dirt, small rocks and the occasional tuft of grass.

Stumped, I read the hint, which was "Reddish/Orange". The only thing which matched that description was a small rock about half the size of a computer mouse. It wasn't nearly big enough to hide a cache inside but I grabbed it anyway and sure enough, attached to the rock's underside was a metal tube, about 10cm long, which slotted into a hole in the ground beneath the rock. The metal tube screwed off to reveal the log tightly rolled up inside. Very nice.

The second interesting cache was named "The Friendly Giant", which was the name of a children's TV show when I was growing up. The description said, "There is no need to remove the cache from its hiding place. The log and the cache contents can be accessed by taking the plunge."

My GPS brought me to the edge of a duck pond, still partially frozen over. I was concerned that the comment about "taking the plunge" meant that one had actually to go in the water to retrieve the cache. If that was the case then I was going to have to pass.

The hint for the cache was, "What the Friendly Giant Says", which I took to be a reference to the start of the show, where the camera would initially be pointed at Friendly's feet and he would say, "Look up, waaaay up". So I started scanning the trees and eventually spotted, waaay up, one of those plastic owls that people buy to keep birds from shitting on their patios.

I made my way over to the base of the tree and found a loop of rope clipped to a lanyard, which could be used to lower the owl. The base of the owl was plugged with the end of a plunger. Removing that (thus the reference to "taking the plunge") revealed the log book and other goodies. I couldn't help but smile.

So while it was a short outing, it was quite an enjoyable one.

My cache count is now 224.

After last week's disturbing outing I knew that I had to get out there again soon before it permanently marred the pleasure I take in geocaching. Today it was sunny and nearly cloudless. A perfect opportunity!

I faffed the morning away. I started to faff the afternoon away as well but took myself by the scruff of the neck, threw myself into the shower, and by 15:30 I was finally out of the house and on my way to McKay Lake. Thank god the days are getting longer again!

There's a section of the Trans-Canada Trail which runs past McKay, from the suspension bridge across Haslam Creek, up to the Nanaimo River, where a bridge has been pending for several years now. The first cache was located right at the trail head. I'd tried to find it once before, but to no avail. Today, rather than waste more time on it, I headed off down the trail to the second cache.

When I got to the cache my cellphone was having a hard time getting a getting a good fix. First it told me that the cache was at the bottom of the hill, so I climbed down. Then it told me the cache was 20 meters to the west, so I went there. Then it told me, no, it was 44 meters to the east, so I went back there. Then it told me that the cache was up on the top of the hill, more or less where I'd started out. Despite the runaround, I did eventually manage to find the cache. The log was wet so I dried it before signing it and dried the inside of its container while I was at it.

For the third cache I was unable to find a trail which would take me to it. Again I found myself climbing up and down hills, but each path I tried started out strong only to peter out into the bush. I backtracked almost all the way to the second cache and spotted a promising side trail that I'd missed earlier. It soon started to curve back toward the road, though, taking me ever further from where I wanted to go.

I was pretty tired by that point so I decided to give up on the third cache and continued along the trail to the road then followed that back to the trail head, where I'd parked the truck. At least it made for a nice loop and my legs were telling me that I'd gotten a dandy workout in the process.

When I got back to the trail head I pulled out my cellphone and reread the description for the first cache. The cache owner had posted an update, saying that the original cache had disappeared so he'd replaced it. Not only did that explain my earlier failure, but it also meant that I had a good shot of finding it now. And indeed it only took a couple of minutes to make my second find of the day.

Despite the frustration of not being able to get a good fix at the second cache and being unable to find a trail to the third, I ended up feeling pretty good about the outing. I know that that is strongly influenced by the fact that I still managed to find two caches (bringing my total to 215). Had I found none or even just one, I'd probably be viewing the day in a considerably dimmer light.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I should be happy just be out in the fresh air, amidst beautiful scenery. Alas, I am not yet sufficiently evolved for that. Maybe in another 20 years or so.

The paramour and I were out doing a bit of shopping yesterday afternoon. At the final store I forgot to turn off the lights on the truck and when we got back to it the battery was dead. We were only in the store for 30 to 40 minutes, which shouldn't be enough to drain a fully charged battery, but that battery is at least five years old so it's not a surprise if it's no longer able to hold much of a charge.

We tried to get a boost from someone else in the parking lot but the way our truck was positioned meant that our battery cables simply weren't long enough. Rather than continue accosting other drivers we called for a tow truck. 20 minutes later and $55 poorer we were up and running again.

While we were waiting for the tow truck the paramour tried to open the driver's side door of our truck when the entire mechanism suddenly seized up. We tried pulling up on the inside handle, to no effect. I got out a pair of pliers and used them to pull up on the door's lock button, but it wouldn't budge. I even gave the edge of the door a kick to see if I could dislodge it, but no luck.

They say that bad things come in threes so as we drove home I was half expecting us to get a flat tire as well, but we managed to make it back without any further problems.

Today the weather was good, for the first time in weeks, so rather than waste it trying to fix the lock I headed out to do some geocaching along the logging roads which crisscross Mount Hayes. Because of the stuck door on the driver's side I had to climb across the passenger seat to get in and out of the truck at each cache. If nothing else, it gave me a bit of a workout.

It was a very successful outing. I found all of the 12 caches that I searched for, although the find on the second cache was somewhat tainted. It was a two stage cache. In the first stage you had to find a key and in the second you had to find the cache and use the key to unlock it. I couldn't find the key or the cache. I was about to give up when the cache owner showed up. Several people had reported being unable to find the key so he wanted to check to make sure it was still there. He showed me where it was hidden, which was about 10 meters from where the GPS coords said it should be. So although I needed help to find it, I still logged the find since the GPS coords were off.

The icing on the cake was that I got to claim the coveted FTF (First To Find) on one of the caches. There was no FTF prize in the cache, just bragging rights, but it still felt nice. Given my penchant for sleeping late and being slow to get started in the morning, I'm rarely able to get to a newly posted cache before the early birds. I got lucky with this one, though. There was a batch of 11 new caches on Mount Hayes which were all published together about three days ago. Geographically they were in two more or less distinct groups. My FTF cache was a 12th one, published just yesterday, and located on a separate side road from all the others. So I think that all the other cachers we were out doing Mount Hayes today first headed for the two large groups of caches. I did it the other way around, picking up the outliers first before heading up the mountain to the largest group. It must have been a close thing, though, because by the time I got home two other geocachers had found the cache after me.

Even if I ignore the one tainted find, 11 caches in a single outing is still a new personal best for me.

Apparently I wasn't the only local geocacher suffering from a touch of cabin fever after the recent run of bad weather, because I ran into four other cachers during the course of the afternoon, none of whom I'd met before, which is also a personal best of sorts. I joined up with two of them for a while and we did four caches together before parting ways, which was nice.

Today was the last day of my holidays and the last day of sunshine before the rains return tomorrow, so I went out geocaching again today. It was a short outing, just under two hours, but a sweet one. My head was in the game today and I found all seven of the caches that I searched for, bringing my total to 196. Barring acts of god I should have no difficulty making it to 200 by my anniversary date of Feb 28th.

The return of the rain may put a bit of a damper on my geocaching (a damper, get it? DAMPer. I'm such a card) but it also means warmer temperatures, which will be welcome. This past week has been cold enough that any morning frost which sits in shade all day never dissipates, with the result that in some areas the frost has built up enough that it looks a thin blanket of snow.

Tomorrow it's back to work, though I may get a head start tonight by starting the setup of my new Linux box.

I didn't sleep well last night. Seven hours of tossing and turning without a lot of Zs. Despite that, I felt sufficiently rested to get up by 11:00 and was out of house just shortly after noon. It was a glorious day, with not a cloud in the sky. The lack of overcast meant cooler temperatures but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected and once I'd been walking for a few minutes I'd warmed up enough to unzip my jacket.

My goal was to do the caches along the Cable Bay trail, all the way out to Dodd's Narrows. When I'm just walking the trail normally, without any stops, it's about an hour and 45 minutes round trip. There are 11 caches along the trail or near it. Assuming an average of 15 minutes to find each cache meant that I was looking at a four and a half hour outing, plus some extra time on the side trails needed to access a couple of the caches. I only had four hours of daylight so something was going to have to give.

As it turned out, most of the caches took less than 10 minutes to find. Subtract a complex letterbox cache which I decided to skip altogether and I was able get back to the truck with 15 minutes to spare. I even found time to spend a couple of minutes watching the tidal currents roar through the narrows before heading off to find the final cache.

The batteries on my cellphone turned out to be more of a concern than the daylight. The last three caches were all found after the phone had already started flashing the red light which meant that it was about to die. To save on power I read all three descriptions, committing them to memory as best I could, then shut off the phone, only turning it on to get GPS fixes whenever I thought I was near a cache. Each time I turned it on I was expecting it to die, but it didn't and by the time I got back to the truck it still had a 1% charge.

None of the cache containers or their hiding places was particularly interesting, but one did have a nice clue:


I counted paces (again, to save battery power) until I was in roughly the right location, then started looking for large cedar trees with lots of branches (which is what I assume the "monkeys" part meant). But there were too many possibilities. Then I thought about the word "board" in the description. Assuming that it wasn't just a typo, it had to be a clue. A few meters back there was a muddy patch in the trail which someone had spanned by nailing a plank between a stump and a fallen tree. Could that be the "board" referred to? I retraced my steps to that point and spotted a large cedar with little foliage left on its many lower branches, but its crown still intact. That could be "king cedar". Right beside it, a bit closer to the ocean, was a smaller cedar which could be its "offspring". I checked out the smaller tree and, sure enough, that's where I found the cache.

Of the ten caches that I searched for I was able to find eight, bringing my total to 187. So much for the power of 3!