At the Head of the Nation

We had a lovely lunch with number one son in Brockville today, followed by a little shopping and then off to the boonies to hunt for treasure. Two new spots had popped up in my e-mail this week, down in the area of Carpenters Tomb. We decided to go take a look on the way home.

One was quite similar to Carpenters Tomb, though much smaller in size. I’d love to show you but that would spoil the discovery for other geocachers reading this. (the rest of you can contact me and I’ll send you a picture, if you like). Anyway, it wasn’t hard to find and I didn’t have to feed any bugs to get to the site.

The other cache was another matter. Luckily we came well equipped with bug spray and made good use of it before venturing into the woods. It was feeding time by then, you can be sure. The land is posted as "no trespassing, and no hunting" but I’ve now seen another geocacher post a picture standing near that sign saying "Oh, there WILL be hunting here today!" Actually, it didn’t take much hunting, but it was a lovely walk. The cache posting tells us about this sign, but also says that’s to keep others out. Apparently they don’t mind having the geocachers as we are a good bunch for cleaning up any trash found along the trail, and not
leaving any of our own.

The trail is well maintained, and leads to a couple of wooden bridges across Fern bank Creek that is apparently the headwaters of the Nation River. There is a mystery to be found and identified at the cache. I was so busy looking for, and then at, the cache that I almost missed the mysterious thing we were supposed to identify. Well, it’s not too mysterious once you find it, but it is the biggest one I’ve ever seen. Once again, I’m not about to spoil the fun for any geocachers by spilling the beans here.

All in all, it was a very nice day, especially since it didn’t rain and the sun actually came out for most of the day.

Father's Day

On Fathers Day we were invited to the cottage belonging to my daughter-in-law’s family. We had a lovely time there, as usual, and then went over to Bedford Mills to pick up the easy cache there. I had wanted to take my grandson, but left it too late, so I just grabbed something for him and ran it back over to the cottage before heading home. We’ll take him there to pick his own treasure someday, unless his parents decide to give it a try. I left them with the cache listing since they now have a GPS of their own.

I chose a little frog because he was wearing a shirt with frogs on it that day. What I really wanted to choose was the football whistle. That would have driven his parents nuts on the way home so I left it there. His family better feel thankful for that!

The Manotick caches

As I mentioned in the previous post, we also went to Manotick that day. The first stop took us to a really nice park. The cache wasn’t hard to find though I imagine that during the busy season one would have to use a bit of stealth. This cache is all about pins, and I certainly found a pretty one.


GC1CK80















On the way home we took in one more, on the outskirts of Manotick. Actually, the listing said to catch it while you can before the area becomes Mintoized. The people of Manotick aren’t happy about the rapid rate of development in the area. It will certainly change the nature of the place.
First we had to locate a 4 digit number and then do some calculations to come up with the waypoint. The cache was supposedly "kid friendly" but we waded through a lot of really tall grass, and trampled down a lot of clover and really began to wonder if we had used the right number to do our calculations. But then we found it. I guess we came in the long way, but were rewarded with a well stocked amunition box type of cache.

GC1C6JD

Osgoode Area Caches

On Thursday, June 12, we decided we had time to go exploring the Osgoode, Manotick region. I printed off a few cache listings and off we went.
Our first stop took us on a long walk down a trail that had many large animal prints. They had definite claw marks and were too big to be dogs. It was obvious there were several animals roaming this trail, and I admit I kept looking back over my shoulder. There are all kinds of coyotes and bears around these parts, but since there were so many prints, I’m more inclined to think it was the coyotes. I have some pictures to show a friend who works for the Ministry of Natural Resources so maybe I’ll know what we were looking at soon. My own online search pretty well confirms the coyote idea though.

Anyway, it was a nice walk through the woods, with wildflowers growing here and there. The first path we followed ran along the side of a big field. Further back into the woods I noticed that the trees had actually been planted in straight rows in some areas.
As usual, in such areas, bug repellent was a definite necessity.

The second stop was at a town park. Of course, in such cases you have to be careful that people don’t see what you are doing. There were several very small children playing in the park. We pulled the car over by the side of the road to get our bearings on the GPS and at that point, I’m thinking that the woman with the little kids is wondering what we’re up to. We drove around the block and came back, and then parked someplace more logical. We did some walking around and then found the cache in a very clever and unexpected hiding place. A couple of the kids, by this time, were headed in our direction, so we actually took the cache back to the car to do the trade. Luckily the woman decided to gather the kids up and take them out of the park about that time, so we were able to put the cache back in it’s hiding place without anyone seeing anything. I think this one would have been impossible during the evening, as there would likely have been a lot of older kids around then.

Geocaching From the Other Side

Last year, while on a Car Rally, I discovered there is an ancient cemetery near my place, that I never knew about. It’s actually not only the oldest cemetery along the Rideau system, it’s likely the oldest in Eastern Ontario. It’s called McGuigan Cemetery.

Anyway, on Wednesday, June 11, we decided to go explore it, and see if there was some place we could hide a cache of our own. We located a good spot, and now have a container, so it’s a matter of learning the correct way to do things. Hopefully I can get this cache published in time for the next Go and Get Em event which I believe is the 28th of this month! Well, maybe I won’t get it done by then, but I’ll try.

Tip to .....well, not quite Tip

On Tuesday, June 10, we decided to try the Burritts Rapids Tip to Tip cache again. Last time we didn’t get very far as there was a sign missing, but we have since discovered that the information is still available, sign or not, so we were able to do the calculations to get to the next waypoint. Unfortunately, that one seems to have been vandalized also. I’ll be watching the logs closely, and if and when it sounds like it’s been fixed, we will pick up where we left off and finish the hunt.
On the last attempt I spotted a red trillium. This time we saw a turtle that seemed a little different from others we’re used to. I’ll have to look this one up.

Lower and Upper Brewers Locks

The next lock along the way is Lower Brewers Lock. It was a great place to stop for a picnic, which is just what we did before searching out the cache. There is some sort of art studio on the far side of the bridge but we didn’t stop in there this time. This was the first time I’ve ever been to this lock, though I’ve lived on the Rideau Canal System for the past 34 years.

GC11VT7

We followed the road up a big hill and went looking for Upper Brewers Lock. Just as we were about to give up, we came upon the sign. We got there just as the lock man was shutting down for the night. It must have been 4pm. Of course, they would stay open later during the summer.

This is also a pretty site, and there were two families of geese there. We had to pass where they were to get to the cache, so they moved into the water. They are likely used to such disturbances, as they didn’t go far or fast.

GC11Z0D

Kingston Mills

On the way home, on Monday June 9th, we decided to check out some of the locks we had never been to. Well, actually, we
accidentally found ourselves driving by the first one last year, but didn’t have time to stop. It looked pretty interesting though, so we wanted to go there this year, to check it out properly.

Kingston Mills must be very busy in the summer as there are long docks at the upper and lower ends of the locks, as well as a basin below the top lock. The drop is significant at this site and I was surprised to see how shallow the water would be, going from one stage to the other. You sure wouldn’t want a very deep hull if you were planning to pass this way.

To find the cache we had to correctly answer a series of questions about the various fish found in the Rideau. There is a sign that holds all the answers, if you read it correctly. Once you have those answers, you have to plug all the correct numbers into the right places to build the waypoint where the cache is. We apparently did a great job as we found the cache without further problems. I do think it was good that there were two of us working on this puzzle though, as we corrected each others mistakes as we worked through it.

We took the time to explore the locks, from top to bottom but didn’t have time to do a second cache in the area which may have had us doing some rock climbing . I’m all for trying that though. Maybe next year.

GC13ZTD

While in Kingston, I thought we’d visit with a long lost cousin. I actually met her on Facebook, but we’ve gotten together a few times since then. I looked up her postal code and discovered there were geocaches right in her neighbourhood, so we thought we would pick up a cache or two while we were at it. But the closest one was in the Cataraqui Woods and the bugs were out, so we just visited instead.

She told us her sister used to do that, so I’m going to challenge her sister to find this one next time she goes for a visit. We went the next morning, but like other city caches we looked for, even though this one was in the woods next to a park, there was just too much trash. I don’t enjoy this sort of situation. We didn't find the cache, but I did see a lovely wild rose growing by a fence post.

GC1C2RB

Meadowbrook Mystery

We knew there was another cache right near the Ambassador Hotel, where we were staying. We also knew it was along what may be a another swampy area, somewhere between a major road and a railway line. The trick was to find a way to get to this area.

In the country, that wouldn’t have been a problem. But in a city, most rivers and waterways have houses along them, and no access to what lays behind. Well, there may be access, but finding it might be difficult. And once you do find it, where are you allowed to park?


On Sunday, June 8, 2008 (okay, so I'm a little behind in my blogging, but hey, I have a life), after cruising around in circles a few times, we decided to try from a different angle, and that’s when we found not only access to the trail, but a place to park too. Luckily nobody else had parked there when we needed it. This cache is listed as the Meadowbrook Mystery, though the main mystery is why they named it that. It was well worth the effort to find it though, as we were immediately treated to the sight of ducks turtles sunning themselves on the rocks in the river. Something else was splashing around in the water too, but I wasn’t sure what at that point.
We wandered down the trail, and discovered that the graffiti artists had been busy under the overpass. I’ve never been this close to graffiti before, but certainly didn’t expect to find it in this particular location. About there we saw more thrashing around in the river and it turned out to be some very large carp, that apparently come up the Cataraqui Creek every year to spawn.

The trail wound through some nice countryside, complete with a little stream and lots of wild flowers. The cache itself was off the trail in the woods where the mosquitoes were just waiting for us to arrive. I’ve never seen so much in any one cache before, and would love to have explored it further, but only had so much blood to give, so grabbed the first thing on the top of the pile and replaced it with the biggest thing in my kit (since it was also the easiest thing to grab), and got us out of there as quickly as possible. I was almost back to the car before I realized that what I had picked up there was a fuzzy bald eagle puppet. I know someone who will likely love that :)

On the way out we saw a rabbit sitting on the trail. That was a nice bonus. It was a great evening for geocaching and a great trail to follow, bugs and all.


GCJ91W

City Caching

We spent the weekend in Kingston, for the annual martial arts event known as Kingston
Kicks. As usual, we had a great time. I took a binder full of cache listings, in case we
had any spare time to go exploring and we managed to squeeze in a few during the late
afternoon or evenings each day.

We did our first ever city cache on Saturday. Actually we looked for three caches that
day, but we only succeeded once.

The first one was in a parking lot, so you had to wait for any vehicles that came along to
be empty, and then keep an eye open for new ones arriving. We waited patiently for one
vehicle to leave. The lady in it must have been waiting for someone to finish work as she
sat there for quite a while. When she left we move our car right over in front of where the
cache was supposedly hidden and then had to wait when another woman showed up with
an entire grocery basket full of stuff to load into her vehicle. After all that we looked in
the only place there was to look and found nothing. There simply was no place else to
look. It was a big empty parking lot, with just a couple of well spaced trees for
decoration and one of them was right in front of us.

We did better at the second one. Luckily, by then, the businesses it was near were closed
as I don’t know how you can look for this sort of cache on the sly. In fact, it wouldn’t
surprise me if someone who worked nearby, decided to call the cops if they spotted
people like us prowling around like that. I must say that I really prefer a more wilderness
setting for such activities. As it was, gloves were needed as there were all sorts of other
gross things where this cache was located. There was even a pair of thongs!

I’d had enough of this city type caching so we went looking for something a little more
rural. We found a trail along a swamp and started in on that, but it was too wet and the
mosquitoes were hungry so we decided to give up for the night. It looks like an
interesting area though, so we may try that one again some other time.