Two weeks ago Laerok and I attended our first event cache, hosted by Parks Canada and Landsharkz, to launch the Gulf Islands National Park’s geocaching program. This program celebrates the centennial of the world’s first national park service. There are two challenge ‘passports’; one is a family friendly multi-cache series, the other a more adventurous 10 part traditional cache series. Both challenges will take you to the beautiful islands of Saturna, Pender, and Sidney (aka Sidney Spit), as well as one in Sidney itself. More information and ‘passports’ can be found here:
We decided to start with Sidney Spit, being that we had a prior engagement to attend on Sunday evening, we went with the closest island to home. We caught the tiny ferry over to Sidney Island first thing on Sunday morning. Not many people were on the boat, and none of them looked like fellow cachersFTF. No such luck! Someone had been there the day before. Oh well, there were still two more islands. We started off easy with the multi-cache. Laerok must have some sort of homing device when it comes cache containers, because he found both stages of the multi while I was walking around. The last stage of the multi was located close to a cliff with a beautiful view over the town of Sidney. While walking to the tree which we thought the cache was in, Laerok froze with fear after spying a garter snake in the grass. We have known each other for a long time, but I didn't know he had such a depilating fear of snakes. He isn't afraid of bear or cougars, but snakes, no dice! It turned out that the cache was located in the stump just behind us. I (for fear of more snakes) reached in the stump for the cache. I was rummaging through my daypack for a pen when Laerok just about threw the cache and all it's contents to the ground; inside was snake skin!
We made our way along the trails to the 'Top Ten' portion of caches. Along the path were some informative signs describing the brick production that took place on Sidney Island during WWII. Amazing to think over 2 million bricks were produced! Not too far from these signs is a beach that is made almost entirely made up of some of these leftover bricks! This beach was the location of our next cache. This one had us going for a few minutes, mostly due to our snake encounter, but we did find it in the end. There are a few camping spot right on the beach that we hope to come stay at for a night or two this summer. Along the way to the next one, in a meadow there are a few more camp sites. We cut across the meadow in what we could only determine to be a deer path, and right we were! I looked up to see a herd of about a dozen deer running off into the woods.
In a large pasture at the park boundary we made the find. We had a bit of a break in this tranquil space. There was no one but the two of us, a few deer, and the wind blowing through the tall grasses. It's too bad there aren't more places like this. After a rest and some water we were off again. The last one we had to get was at the very end of the spit! We made it back to the main part of the island where we refuelled with some lunch. It's quite the walk out to the spit made even longer that you can see the lighthouse in the distance, but no matter how far you walk it doesn't seem like you have made any progress! After a half hour walk we had the cache in hand. The sand at the lighthouse was so inviting. Had it not been for the hum of planes at the airport you could have imagined it was your own island paradise. Napping on the warm, fine white sand was a perfect end to our first island. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=GINPR_geocache. On display at the event were the limited edition geocoins that will be given when the ‘passports’ are complete. Neither Laerok or I have any geocoins of TB’s travelling around, so we were on a mission to get our hands on one.
We decided to start with Sidney Spit, being that we had a prior engagement to attend on Sunday evening, we went with the closest island to home. We caught the tiny ferry over to Sidney Island first thing on Sunday morning. Not many people were on the boat, and none of them looked like fellow cachersFTF. No such luck! Someone had been there the day before. Oh well, there were still two more islands. We started off easy with the multi-cache. Laerok must have some sort of homing device when it comes cache containers, because he found both stages of the multi while I was walking around. The last stage of the multi was located close to a cliff with a beautiful view over the town of Sidney. While walking to the tree which we thought the cache was in, Laerok froze with fear after spying a garter snake in the grass. We have known each other for a long time, but I didn't know he had such a depilating fear of snakes. He isn't afraid of bear or cougars, but snakes, no dice! It turned out that the cache was located in the stump just behind us. I (for fear of more snakes) reached in the stump for the cache. I was rummaging through my daypack for a pen when Laerok just about threw the cache and all it's contents to the ground; inside was snake skin!
We made our way along the trails to the 'Top Ten' portion of caches. Along the path were some informative signs describing the brick production that took place on Sidney Island during WWII. Amazing to think over 2 million bricks were produced! Not too far from these signs is a beach that is made almost entirely made up of some of these leftover bricks! This beach was the location of our next cache. This one had us going for a few minutes, mostly due to our snake encounter, but we did find it in the end. There are a few camping spot right on the beach that we hope to come stay at for a night or two this summer. Along the way to the next one, in a meadow there are a few more camp sites. We cut across the meadow in what we could only determine to be a deer path, and right we were! I looked up to see a herd of about a dozen deer running off into the woods.
In a large pasture at the park boundary we made the find. We had a bit of a break in this tranquil space. There was no one but the two of us, a few deer, and the wind blowing through the tall grasses. It's too bad there aren't more places like this. After a rest and some water we were off again. The last one we had to get was at the very end of the spit! We made it back to the main part of the island where we refuelled with some lunch. It's quite the walk out to the spit made even longer that you can see the lighthouse in the distance, but no matter how far you walk it doesn't seem like you have made any progress! After a half hour walk we had the cache in hand. The sand at the lighthouse was so inviting. Had it not been for the hum of planes at the airport you could have imagined it was your own island paradise. Napping on the warm, fine white sand was a perfect end to our first island. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=GINPR_geocache. On display at the event were the limited edition geocoins that will be given when the ‘passports’ are complete. Neither Laerok or I have any geocoins of TB’s travelling around, so we were on a mission to get our hands on one.
