GeoWoodstock XVIII (or, you know, 18)

It's possible you haven't heard yet.
It's more likely you've heard the news, but have lots of questions.

Either way, you've come to a great place to get started on the topic of GeoWoodstock XVIII!

The reason for that is I am one of the four lead planners who have been working on this since summer 2018. We have been growing a super team of volunteers (PS: we will be calling for MORE volunteers shortly), and are extremely excited to be welcoming Geocachers from around the world to the first GeoWoodstock hosted in Canada.

Why is it in August?

Traditionally, GeoWoodstock events have occurred primarily in May or July, on US long-weekends. This time, GeoWoodstock XVIII will be hosted on August 22, 2020, exactly one week after the August 15 "20th Anniversary Celebration" event in Seattle.

It's pretty cool to consider that the Pacific NorthWest will be hosting a week-long GeoExtravaganza unlike anything that has occurred here before. 

Geocachers can travel to Seattle for an unprecedented party at Seattle Center (home of the Space Needle!) and then the next day head east to the Going APE mega event and enjoy the cool summer walk through the 2 mile long Tunnel of Light to claim the APE cache there!

If that isn't enough, detour south on Monday and stake your claim on the Original Stash (don't forget to ask the GPS spirits for increased battery life!) and then make your way northwards for the events leading up to GeoWoodstock XVIII on Saturday, August 22.

Why is it in Canada?

The honour and responsibility of hosting a GeoWoodstock event is sought out by those interested in taking that on through a bid process, which is well defined on the GeoWoodstock.org website. 

Our team decided we would take the chance of putting our "hat in the ring" and put together a bid, following the processes. Being Canadians, our intention was to host it at home, and we built a working relationship with TRADEX, a fantastic event venue in Abbotsford, BC.

At the end of the bid review process, our team was awarded the opportunity to host, on the date and in the location we had proposed.

As mentioned earlier, the location also makes this a fantastic opportunity for geocachers to experience the GeoExtravaganza week of events and possibly make their first visit to British Columbia, Canada (that's 2 souvenirs if you haven't been here before!). This is made really easy by our venue proximity to Seattle, Vancouver, and several international airports.

OK, So How Do I Find Out More?

This blog was intended to give you a taste of what's coming and some key info, but what I really want to do is point you to the key resources that will give you timely information on-going for GeoWoodstock XVIII.

Here's the four "pro tips" I can offer you!

1. Are you thinking you'll come? Start by logging your "will attend" at GC86VDF.
2. Want to make sure you don't miss ANY important info? Sign up for the newsletter!
3. Looking for a comprehensive source of all event, travel, regional, and geocaching information? Visit the GeoWoodstock website (active starting June 20, 2019)
4. Want to get regular audio updates? Follow the Caching in the NorthWest podcast; the official podcast of GeoWoodstock XVIII!

Want to get exclusive inside scoops on geocaching in the Fraser Valley and the Pacific NorthWest? All kinds of amazing perks are available to LANMonkey patrons - check it out on our Patreon site.

New Geotour in the Northwest

City of Richmond Announces New Geotour!

Word is out - on the City of Richmond website, as well as the BCGA and MetroVan Geocacher's social media channels. The City of Richmond, in partnership with the Government of Canada, is launching a brand new Geotour on May 6, 2017.



The Canada 150 Geotour will feature 17 traditional caches, 2 multis, and 1 earthcache. The geocaches will have fun, creative hides at each of the 19 physical cache locations, many courtesy of local geocachers layzee_bones and GeoNavPros.  

If finding 20 great geocaches isn't reward enough, be one of the first 150 geocachers to collect all 20 clues  and you will be rewarded with a limited edition trackable geocoin!

For more information about the Canada150 Geotour, and getting started with geocaching in general, click here to listen to yours truly talking to Janice & Cory about it on Roundhouse Radio this past Monday.

 
The launch of this fantastic new geotour will take place during the 3rd Annual Richmond Geocaching Extravaganza. Make sure you sign up for this event by logging your "will attend" on the event page. 

If you've never attended a geocaching event, download the official Geocaching.com app for your phone, create your free account, and come out to the Richmond Nature Park between 11:00am and 3:00pm Saturday May 6 2017 to have some local experts help you learn all about it in a family friendly environment.

For more in-depth information about the Geotour and geocaching in the City of Richmond, check out the April 6th episode of the Caching in the Northwest podcast.


And remember to always cache safely, and cache often!
The LANMonkeys.

How to Get a Canadian TB Contest in 4 Easy Steps

How many of my fellow Geocachers are also tired of “residents of the USA only” Geocaching trackable promotions? Well, I’ve tried the route of complaining until I’m blue in the face and that didn’t work. But here’s an idea that will.

If all of us follow these four simple steps, we’ll get the attention of Canadian outdoors & activity retailers and soon have our very own Canadian Geocaching Trackable promotion. 

An important point to understand is that it is not Geocaching.com who decides where a trackable promotion will be active - that decision is primarily made by the marketing (and legal?) teams from the company sponsoring the promotion. So let's motivate some marketing teams to get on board with this!

1. Share the Message on Facebook and Twitter

Sample Twitter Messages:

Hey @MEC want a deep reach to 30k #Canadian #outdoor enthusiasts? Try a #geocaching TB promotion! https://www.geocaching.com/promotions/

@CanadianTire DYK there’s 30,000 active #outdoor enthusiasts across #Canada you could get to promote your message? https://www.geocaching.com/promotions/

Sample Facebook Messages:

There’s a huge marketing success secret that @TimHortons doesn’t know! Like and share if you agree they could get 30,000 Canadians passionately sharing their message if they launched a #Geocaching Trackable promotion! https://www.geocaching.com/promotions/

Like and share if you think @CanadianTire should launch a #Canadian #Geocaching trackable promotion for us 30,000+ awesome Canuck geocachers, eh! https://www.geocaching.com/promotions/

2. Make Sure to Attach a Picture

It’s a proven fact that photos add “stickiness” to tweets and posts, and attract more attention. Check through this post for some pictures you can use, but don’t let me limit your awesome creativity!

3.  Support Each Other!

If you see one of these posts or tweets from a fellow Geocacher, make sure to like, repost, retweet, etc. the message. The more activity these messages have the more the target companies will pay attention.

4. Share Your Awesome Ideas

I KNOW you’re smarter than I am, so if you can think of other companies we could all be targeting these messages to, share your ideas with all of us Canadian Geocachers by using the hashtags #Geocaching and #TrackableCanada on Twitter, and posting to Facebook groups like “You Might be a Geocacher if…” and the other various Geocaching online groups.

The more of us that get active posting these messages, and the more likely sponsors we target, the better our odds of getting a CANADIAN trackable promotion launched!

Alaskan Caching Cruise - Day 4: All Aboard!

Having enjoyed our brief visit to the Yukon town of Carcross, it was almost time to climb aboard the White Pass & Yukon Railway train and head back to Skagway.

But before we get to that, a little bit of trivia for you. The town of Carcross was originally called "Cariboo Crossing" but because too many other towns were similarly named the residents elected to rename their community since the name confusion seemed to result in a lot of lost mail on it's way to them. 

One of the (many) great stories from this cruise was hearing from cacher IndigoDave from Ontario about how he and his new bride spent a summer in the 70's working in Whitehorse - and that Dave's job was as brakeman on the White Pass & Yukon Railway! So not only did he have experience with this line, but he was allowed to ride the engine all the way from Carcross to Bennet, BC. 

To hear that full story from IndigoDave himself, take a listen to this episode of the Caching in the Northwest podcast where we played the audio interview I conducted with Dave. Get it? Conducted? Train pun. Dave would appreciate that.

Well, at this point it was time to board the train, and as we got underway to our first stop of Bennett and rolled along the narrow gauge railway along the iconic mountain and lake scenery of the north, there were opportunities for the classic "comin' 'round the corner" train shots and many other amazing photos by all aboard.

We even had the opportunity to complete another Earthcache from aboard the train which was pretty amazing.

Soon enough we had arrived at the stop of Bennett BC - last stop before crossing the international border back into the USA, but more importantly from a historic standpoint, Bennett marks the NW end of the famous Chilkoot Trail - the only passage available through the mountains to Gold Rush prospectors.

Prospectors would need to amass one tonne of supplies here, as inspected by the North West Mounted Police (predecessors of the famous RCMP), to ensure they had enough supplies to last a full winter in the harsh conditions of the Yukon.







We toured what remains of the gold rush tent-town along the shores of the lake, then headed back to our train for the final and amazingly scenic ride back into Skagway.


If you ever find yourself in Skagway - geocaching or not - we highly recommend the White Pass and Yukon Railway experience from Carcross to Skagway.

Having completed some more touring about the town and a few more geocache finds, we headed back aboard ship. Tonight our ship pulls out and heads for Glacier Bay - tune in for the next blog highlighting that amazing part of our trip.   

The GPSr versus Smartphone Geocaching Debate

Have you ever wondered:

• Are GPSrs or Smartphones the better tool for Geocaching?
• Do Geocaching podcasters know anything about the technology they use?
• Are Canadians better debaters than Americans?

Well wonder no longer!

Last week Scott Berks of the "What's Up Internet" and "Geocaching Podcast" shows battled it out with yours truly (so for the record, that's LANMonkey of "Caching in the Northwest" and I'm always right) to debate which device is superior for the purposes of Geocaching.

We had the debate live on the Geogearheads podcast. If you don't regularly listen to that podcast you probably should - it's on my "must listen" rotation. 

And yeah, (spoiler alert) I won the debate. But in the end, the reality and main point is that both devices have their important uses and your best case scenario is to go geocaching with a GPSr AND a Smartphone.

So tell us what YOU think  - tweet or FB your opinion with #GPSvsPhone

But if you are curious what our key arguments were, and how Canada once again triumphed in the international forum, take a listen to the whole podcast!




Geocaching Beyond Hope

I know, that joke is beyond old, but I'm having a hard time letting it go - I guess it's just too easy. Geocaching in Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park however, wasn't too easy. The range of challenge on the terrain & difficulty of the caches in and near this park made for a great visit. From "Othello Entrance" (GC1RPBC), a quick park and grab in the parking lot you can grab caches along or near the trails and then challenge yourself to a serious inclined hike to go for "Hope Nicola Trail - Between Two Conicals" (GC150A5).


We hope you enjoyed the video, and would love to hear back from you on your experiences caching in this park, or other tunnels or railbed trails.

Thanks for joining us, and remember to cache safely, and cache often!
Team LANMonkey.

Manning Park FTF Adventure

Thanks for your patience between blog posts - we had a major technology melt-down about a month ago and lost all our upcoming content. :(  In the meantime, we've been having some amazing geocaching adventures and recording new content that we'll start sharing again now.
First up is our recent overnight to E.C. Manning Provincial Park where the LANMonkey's and Manta Rayz decided to try a 21km return hike in an attempt to get a First to Find (FTF) on a cache (Oh Brother) at the summit of First Brother mountain.


 Manta Rayz, Piggy, and the LANMonkeys headed along the trails with LOTS of water and bug spray - both mandatory for this hike. Up at just over 2,000m we enjoyed the views from N49 09.166 W120 46.034 and then continued along to where Fat Dog Creek/Fat Dog Trail connect. We hadn't really heard of Fat Dog Trail before in our years of hiking the area, but it's apparently a cross-country ski trail, without a trailhead marker at the junction, but it was marked on our GPSr maps. There is also an alpine pond nearby at N49 09.413 W120 46.381 that likely has a name but we just call it "Fat Dog Alpine Pond."

So we made it to the trail junction for First Brother, and Manta Rayz was not impressed by the last kilometer ahead of us. At this point we were at about 2,100m and had at least another 100m vertical to go. Up we slowly pushed amidst some nasty horseflies and deer/blackflies, along the ridge with an amazing view down to a small lake, and then some tricky rock scrambles in the last bit; we had to push Piggy up one or two spots and assist him down, as these bits weren't really dog-friendly territory. Piggy is accustomed to some climbing though.

Soon we were upon the summit post, but not yet at the cache location - "another 30m to go" Mrs. LANMonkey announced. Out came the video camera to capture the moment of truth for YouTube, as Manta Rayz searched about at ground zero and made the find. We held our breath as the log book was removed from the cache...

West Van Geocaching

Last weekend Mrs. LANMonkey & I spent some time geocaching in West Vancouver - or more accurately, a couple of parks in the West Vancouver area.  We had beautiful weather and some amazing views and fun geocaches.  If you haven't hit up these areas yet, read on for some insights and tips on how to make this a very enjoyable geocaching experience - you may even be able to convince your muggle friends and family to join you!

The first stop was somewhere where I've spent A LOT of time over the past several years (most notably 2008-2010) and always enjoy visiting - Cypress Provincial Park.  As many likely already know, the Cypress Bowl Recreation Area is often mistakenly referred to as "Cypress Mountain" but there actually is no Cypress Mountain - two mountains make up the ski/recreation area. Black Mountain and Mount Strachan form either side of this amazing recreation area. Those aren't the only mountains involved in the area, but they are the primary ones.

Our trip up into Cypress was a brief one on this visit as we had to get Manta Rayz to the Nanaimo-bound ferry, so we stopped for three caches - jearsy's EarthCache at the lookout (GC3YFBG), "Hollyburn Chairlift 1951" (GC4D9MN), and just a little further uphill near the picnic area, a rare large traditional, "On Top of the World" (GCMYAG).

As always on a beautiful day the view from the lookout was absolutely amazing - and I've seen this view all four seasons! Honestly, I never tire of it and the variety it provides year 'round.

Once caution for anyone who hasn't visited this park in the summer (aside from the usual bear cautions, etc.) is to watch for bicyclists. This is an extremely popular road to ride up and down, and while most cyclists are courteous, cautious, and responsible, it only takes one inattentive driver or rider for things to end poorly.

After some quick cache grabs and a swapping of TBs in GCMYAG, we headed to the ferries, made the mad dash to get Manta Rayz safely off on her own adventures, and then headed for Point Atkinson or "Lighthouse Park" in West Vancouver.

Due to some clever navigation by Mrs. LANMonkey, we were able to walk the entirety of this very well laid out park in only a few short hours and grab all but one of the caches. We were stumped by "Cedar View" (GC1FXHH) but once we got home and read through more of the logs, we realized why we couldn't find it. So that means we'll need to go back again sometime!

Over-all the park was amazing, with more incredible views - at least four of the caches take you right to view points, each with a unique view out onto the water. 

In addition, this park has not only your usual collection of traditional caches in a range of sizes, but one rare virtual cache - Point Atkinson Lighthouse (GC707C) -  and an extremely enjoyable "mystery" cache - The Lost Treasure of the Boundless II (GCNCJJ) that requires a little research before heading to the park or a good data plan to do your research in the field. Once you've solved this puzzle, you'll absolutely love the final - fairly easy to find & creatively fun.

Once we had completed about half the caches we started to find a familiar name in the logs (RumRunner1) and realized that we must've passed each other on the trail at some point and didn't get a chance to meet. Ah well, we hope you & your caching crew enjoyed your visit to the park as well!

So if you haven't visited one or either of these sites before for a geocaching adventure, make sure you do while the weather and views are still as impressive as they were this past weekend!

Thanks for reading our blog!
"Cache safely, and cache often."
Team LANMonkey

LMGA - Ep014 - Parksville's Top 5 Geocaches

Welcome to the show notes for episode 014 of LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventures.

Join our adventure to discover the 5 most popular geocaches in beautiful Parksville/Qualicum British Columbia. Amazing creativity, fun adventures, and everything that makes family geocaching great.

Episode 014 was filmed on location in beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia over the Easter long weekend. 

Just a short drive up the Island Highway from Nanaimo, and a couple hours north of Victoria, you’ll find Parksville BC. Parksville is a tourism and outdoors oriented area where geocaching abounds, as well as many other different recreational activities including hiking, fishing, camping, golf, spas & resorts, and many other options. There are recreational and educational activities for people of all ages from Rathtrevor Beach to Coombs market, and dozens of options in between.

In this episode of LANMonkey’s Geocaching Adventures, we’re going to highlight the top 5 geocaches in the Parksville area, and do our best to not spoil them for you, but hopefully entice you into coming out and enjoying them!

The top 5 cache count-down is:

5. WOOZLER AT THE BEACH GC15QX0

4. the clever cache - by ITWL GC3KZ8P

3. Da Vinci's Cryptex - by ITWL  GC3CVJG

2. the secret vault of "SCRAT the SQUIRREL" - by ITWL  GC3EZ6F

1. Made in Canada, eh!  GC2Y8Q8

 We welcome your feedback on this episode, and your ideas for future episodes. If you enjoyed this one, please be sure to "like" it so that we can continue to provide the content you want!

As always,

Cache safely, and cache often.

Team LANMonkey