Kingston Kicks and Beyond

The weekend of May 23-24 we went on our annual trip to Kingston Kicks, a martial arts weekend, held at the Ambassador Hotel. Saturday was a full day of seminars and Sunday there was a tournament. I love to go to these things as I get to see lots of people I don’t see otherwise. It’s like a big reunion every time. There is even a party on Saturday night, and a good time was had by all.
On Saturday I got to meet a couple of ladies I have only ever talked to online before, and we went off to lunch at East Side Marios. I’m not involved in the seminars, so it was good to have something to occupy my time for part of the day.

Later, after the seminars, we went after our first cache. Kingston has a lot of micro caches, and, I’m sorry, even though the bigger ones don’t have any "real" treasure in them, I still like them better than micros. All that work just to sign a tiny log just isn’t as much fun somehow. I knew there was a micro nearby, and off and on all day, I tried to get the GPS to pick up the satellite signals from inside the building. No such luck. There must be too much steel in the building, or something. But once we got outside, it was obviously not far off. We found it and then went looking for another one, also within walking distance, but even though we found lots of good hiding places, that one eluded us. Perhaps we will have better luck with it next year.


Sunday we stopped in Gananoque on the way home. First we went to a nice park with water running through it. There are boardwalks over the dams there, and lots of art to look at also. That cache was officially missing that day, according to the online log, but we thought we would scope out the area, and maybe figure out where to look next time we go through town, just in case the cache came back, or got replaced by the owner. We have driven over that bridge several times, but this was the first time we had ever stopped to explore the park.






Then we went to visit an old friend who usually is still down south when we are going through. This time we caught him at home and had a nice little visit with him and his new wife. After that we went to find a section of the Gananoque trail. The thing I love most about geocaching is that it points out things like this, that you may never have found any other way. It’s a lovely trail, with lots of big rocks and I would be quite willing to go back and explore more of it, cache or no cache. I don’t know what it is about me, but I do like big rocks! This section of the trail also lets you get a good look at a grand old oak tree. As I often say, it’s not the treasure in the cache that’s important, but the ones you find along the way. Nature certainly provided lots of treasures along this trail.


We went back into town and down to a little park on a bluff. After following the GPS for a few minutes, and getting a general idea of where to find the cache, we discovered a couple of kids poking around in that area. When they saw us, they strolled over to a picnic table on the opposite side of the park. I thought, perhaps they were also looking for the cache, and didn’t want us to know where to look. Well, I didn’t want them watching us either, so I went to the edge of the bluff, and found a set of stone steps to take us down towards the water. By the time we came back up, the kids were just peddling their bikes out of the park. That gave us a chance to look for the cache. The over head trees gave us a bit of trouble, but we found it.

The last cache of the day was called Timmy’s because a Tim Hortons was nearby. We figured that was a good excuse to take a break and have something to eat. After eating big meals all weekend, we decided to get some chicken wrap combos this time. Once fed, went off to feed the bugs. The cache is on another part of the Gananoque Trail, that is within walking distance of Tim Hortons. For some reason the mosquitoes were hungrier here, and we were glad we didn’t have to walk too far in, or hunt for too hard for his cache.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Victoria Day Caching

About 3pm on Victoria Day, we decided we had time to go back to the South Gower park cache we couldn’t find a couple of weeks ago. We were much more prepared this time, and though it took a little while, we finally found the cache. A very clever hide it was too, but if you have your wits about you, and pay attention, it can be found. Now I’m ready to go back to a couple of others this guy has placed, as we might be on to how he thinks a bit better. I spotted where this cache was, walked up to it, and thought, no, it can’t be there, but 15 minutes later, that’s exactly where it was found.

We did notice that someone had gone on a bit of a rampage since we were there last. Various things had been kicked around, or smashed up. But no harm done, thank goodness.
Once again, another family was entering the area here, to hunt for the cache. As we were just about to put it away, I went over and suggested they turn around for a moment or two, so as not to spoil their fun. The log shows that the gentleman we hunted with last time never did find this cache. Hopefully he will come back for another try too.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream at the Red Barn. It seems to me I’ve mentioned that place before. Well, even though it was not a particularly warm day, they certainly were busy!

We took our ice cream and headed for Burritts Rapids. There is a new cache on the Tip to Tip trail. I’m not recommending this one to anybody though. Oh, go for the walk, figure out where the cache is, then go home. Even the sign at the end of the trail mentions calling 911 in case of emergency. No sense in creating one, I say. Even so, I’m sure I aged a few years at this location.

Up the Garden Path

For several years we have gone on various Artist Studio Tours, and last weekend there were two available. I took the brochures and bounced their maps against the maps at geocaching.com and Sunday, May 17th, we decided we would take in part of the one called Up the Garden Path. It was billed as an art and garden tour.

We came off the 401 at the Mallorytown exit, and found a place to park so we could look for the cache there. That one is called Calibrate, as you are instructed to place your GPS on a specific spot and see how close your readings are to the ones listed for the cache. My GPS was dead on, all except for the elevation. My GPS read us 10 feet lower, but since I will likely never have to know how high I am, I guess that’s not too bad. I picked up a geocoin there. It has a dragon prayer on it that reads:
"May you always find what you are looking for; a good life, a good love or a good cache."

This is the first geocoin I’ve ever found, but when I tried to register it, I may have done it wrong as the only one with that number hasn’t been seen in years, and nobody claimed to have left one with that number at this location. Oh well, I tried. I’ll only pass it on once I know for sure I’m logging the correct number.
One other treasure found at that location was a family of Canada geese. They where right beside the road, and didn’t leave when we stopped right beside them. And to think I used to have to go to the Upper Canada Bird sanctuary to see the geese at feeding time, and they never came anywhere near this close!

We left that location and drove into Mallorytown. The next cache was at a little park and was also a quick, easy find. Right around the corner from that there was a building containing art displays. This isn’t the usual venue for this sort of tour. It was obvious that, while this looked like a house, nobody actually lived there. They told us that it had been recently renovated to house various displays throughout the year.

Not far from there was our final cache for the day. It’s listed as being the site of Canada’s first Glass Works, and there is a plaque there to tell you about that.

We went from there to Pond Road, just outside of Lyn, to the studio and garden of Jean Marr. It’s hard for me to go there without bringing something home. She’s a potter who makes beautiful things. There was one little dish that I had to talk myself out of. I really liked it, but have no idea what I would have used it for, and it was too small to just put on display. I’m already regretting leaving it there......

Birthday adventures

Sunday was my birthday, and the sun was out, so what better way to spend it than going for a walk in the woods while searching for treasure. We decided to take our 4 year old grandson with us on this outing. He loved it, and even managed to stay out of all the mud we found along the way. He was quick to point out such things as yellow and red trilliums and butterflies and he enjoyed moving any broken branches or sticks that had landed on the path where we were walking. Going around a bend and discovering a bridge or boardwalk simply thrilled him. He definitely liked being "way far back in the woods" and the chance to choose a treasure from the cache was just icing on the cake.

We actually took in 3 caches that day, though were only successful at two of them. The first was Howard’s Middle #3 at the Ferguson Forestry Centre. (GCH82Z) That’s the one with all the boardwalks and bridges. There are lots of trails in that bit of woods, and I’m sure, without the GPS I might even get lost for a while, or come out at the wrong parking lot. But it’s a lovely walk, well worth the time. My grandson surprised me by passing up various things in the cache and choosing a little hair clip because he thought his mommy would like it. What a nice boy he is!

After that we took him to play at playground at South Grenville Park. There is a cache in the woods there too, (GCYG1C) though I suspected we wouldn’t find, as it was hidden by a cacher named Wareed. He can be rather tricky. We didn’t find the cache but we have not given up, and will go back and try again sometime. While we were there another gentleman came looking for the cache also. He didn’t think it would be too hard to find and held out his hands to indicate how big it was. He was still there when we left, muttering something about how we might find him there in three weeks when we come back. We had to give up the search in order to get the grandson home in time for my birthday dinner. That was a lovely surprise that I didn’t learn about until we arrived to pick him up.

After dinner we went for a little walk to show my daughter-in-law how to read the GPS so their family could go geocaching also. I told the story of how there was a cache within site of her family cottage a while back, but now there is one very close to their home also. (GC1NRY2) By this time even the 4 year old could read the GPS, so he was explaining it to his mommy. It didn’t take long to find the cache (which is really good when you are trying to encourage someone to try this activity), so now she’s all set to take the family adventuring soon. I just hope we get to go with them occasionally. I think that would be great!