Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek - DarrylW4

Welcome to our very first Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek feature!

Today's #GeekoftheWeek is darrylW4, host of the GeoGeardHeads podcast.

Darryl is acknowledged as an authority on Geocaching and geo-location technologies, and shares his insights on these topics weekly on the Thursday evening GeoGearHeads podcast with his co-host Chris of the Northwest and various guests.

What may be lesser known is that Darryl also loves cycling, and started in the podcasting world talking about cycling. His love of photography has also brought him to be at the leading edge of 360 video and photography, as well as real-time video social media technologies like Periscope for sharing his geocaching adventures.

Through the GeoGearHeads podcast listeners are introduced to great ideas in the geekier side of Geocaching including 3D printing, caching in education, puzzle caching, and many other topics.

In 2016, Darryl & Chris interviewed the hosts of several other Geocaching related podcasts to provide a "behind the scenes" look at how the podcasts came to be, and are made. You can check out the Geocaching Podcast Profiles at this link.  


Perhaps lesser known outside of the geocaching podcaster community is how much Darryl has helped other podcasters get started and tune their shows through his own knowlege and experience. 

Check out GeoGearHeads live every Thursday at 9:10pm Eastern or 6:10pm Pacific on YouTube. You can subscribe to the audio version of the podcast through iTunes, Play, RSS, or Stitcher, watch the shows on YouTube, and check them out on FaceBook, Google+, and Twitter.

Do you know someone who deserves being recognized as a Geocaching #GeekoftheWeek? Let us know by commenting on this post or tweeting your nominee to @LANMonkeyGC #GeekoftheWeek

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!




Hey Geocachers, it’s LANMonkey, I want to let you in on a little secret! Tomorrow we’ll be at the Geocaching Block Party along with the entire cast of Caching in the Northwest! If you’re going to be there, we really want you to come by and say "hi."

In addition, make sure to follow our upcoming episodes as we’re going to be spending the day getting exclusive interviews with Geoaching.com Lackeys and even a little tour of the changes to the offices at Geocaching.com. We’ll take you on some of the Geocaching Adventures available only at this event, and learn what the future holds for those much discussed “lab caches”, the GIFF event, and more.

If you're interested in what Geocaching Adventures (lab cache) caches will be at the Block Party this year, check this link.

So if you want to see more than just what happened, but get some inside scoop and meet the people behind this great hobby/sport of ours, keep your eyes on LANMonkey’s Geocaching Adventures, and your ears on Caching in the Northwest. 

Geolocation Gaming Bonanza Day

A bonanza day for LANMonkey and geolocation games for certain! Today Piggy the Geohound (A.K.A. Jasper) took me to Delta Watershed Park to find a couple of Geocaching.com geocaches we hadn't found there yet.

After a quick 400+ metres through the interconnecting trails, we managed the finds for both those caches, and were off to a great start to our caching day.


Next up was to switch listing sites as OpenCaching.US has one of only three listed caches in the Lower Mainland in this very same park. So after WetCoaster's virtual we went, which we could be FTF on. After a minor struggle with coordinates our knowledge of the park and common sense took over and we headed straight for where GZ simply must be!


Arriving at ground zero we filled up with nice, fresh cold water and then searched a bit to find the information. At this point I learned a couple of interesting things about OpenCaching.

•  First, I thought that C:Geo on my Blackberry would allow me to use OpenCaching.US as an alternate listing site but it's not an option - only OpenCaching.DE and OpenCaching.PL; I tried to connect to .DE on the chance that it's all the same data with simply different URLs, but I couldn't authenticate my OpenCaching.US account so I'm assuming that's a no. I'd be curious to hear from OpenCaching.US user or moderators if I'm off on the wrong tangent here?

• Second, when completing a virtual on the OpenCaching listing service, you use the "keyword or phrase" that the C/O has you looking for at ground zero as the "password" you need to submit the log. So really, no need to submit an email to the C/O before logging your find. Fascinating. In fact, much more like the newer Geocaching Adventures Lab Caches from Geocaching.com as opposed to how the grandfathered virtual caches at GC.com work.

 With our first OpenCaching.US find ever under our belt, and a FTF on it to boot, we decided to check and see if there were any Munzees in the park - yup, two and neither far from where we were. "Well Piggy, let's get ourselves some Munzees."
We honestly don't play Munzee much so it was a great opportunity to get a couple of those found. So while we tracked down the Munzee locations, we took the opportunity to use Sighter and place four new sights in the park for the others in the Lower Mainland who've started playing that fun game.

Soon enough we had located those sneaky QR codes and had the first captures on those Munzees - Wow, FTFs in two different geolocation games on one day... sweet!

Time to head back to the car and head home. But wait! Just as we got to the car the phone buzzed a Geocaching.com alert for a newly published traditional cache in Crescent Beach. Well... it's not *that* far and Piggy and I do have the day off... why not? So in we hopped, loaded the coords in the GPSr and off to Crescent Beach.

When we arrived, we started searching and only moments later hear familiar voices on the other side of the hedge - it was Adroit Seeker and Rain Willowsnap, local cachers I'd crossed paths with earlier this morning. LOL. The three of us searched for a bit when Adroit Seeker came up with the find for a shared FTF. Nice!

After a brief but pleasant chat at ground zero, we all headed off, and Piggy and I headed home to go fire up that BBQ and cook some steak.

"3 FTFs in three different games, and four new sights uploaded. Piggy, do you feel like you earned some steak tonight?"

Frostier - An Epic FTF at 2408 metres

A couple of weeks ago we were camping in E.C. Manning Park and had a ton of excitement, so much so we wanted to make sure we shared it with you all. No, no bear encounters (this time) but not only did we get FTF on an entire geo-art series (The Twisted Chocolate Bar Series - GC574V2) but we managed a 22 km return hike to the summit of Frosty Mountain (2408 m elevation) and found a cache placed very nearly a year before that had yet to be found.

A big goal for the camping trip was to make the hike up to Frosty and try for the FTF on that cache, as we'd had our eyes on it for a while, but with a late melt this year we really weren't sure when we'd be able to get there. We hit the Frosty Loop Trail at 07:10.

There was certainly no shortage of snow, and we started hitting larger and larger patches of it as we were only about half-way to the summit from the trailhead. I was beginning to get a little dubious about what the conditions would be like for the final push to the summit, recalling that it is a very open summit - this photo here is the actual summit where the cache is.

But Mrs. LANMonkey was ever optimistic and onwards and upwards we trekked through the forests. At points we had some amazing aerial views of Lightning and Flash Lakes. Eventually we hit the wilderness campsite at the head of one of the tributaries into Frosty Creek. The camp was FULL of young hikers hanging out under a tarp as it was lightly drizzling by this point.

"Uh oh" we thought, "did they already go find the cache?"

We passed through the camp and kept heading up. By the time we reached the Larch Meadows the ground was completely covered by about 1 - 2 m of snow. It was warm out and the snow was soft in lots of spots so hiking was tough work! Next we searched for "Frosty Mountain Larches" (GCQXNX) and made a quick find of that cache.

The view was spectacular here as we were nearly standing at the top of a rainbow! Next it was the scramble up the last rocky parts to the summit itself, and the path was surprisingly clear of snow which was great since had it been covered in snow this would've been impassable without crampons and an ice-pick.

Right near the summit we found a little pocket of hardy alpine flowers - a neat little "surprise garden." Finally we had reached the summit, and then began our search for the cache...

...it wasn't too long at all before Mrs. LANMonkey had the cache in hand, and we suspensfully opened it to check the logbook for any other signatures.

And at 11:04 on 6/28/2014 we found "Frostier" (GC3M7D3) which had been placed 7/15/2013 and unfound until our climb & search! What an exciting adventure, and we've captured it all for you (including Mrs. LANMonkey's version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow") in episode 56 of LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventure.

If you'd like to follow our adventures regularly, eat lots of bran, then follow us on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter (@LANMonkeyGC).

And remember to always cache safely, and cache often!

The LANMonkeys.

Backroads Mapbook Geotour Adventure

The silence has been deafening! But the LANMonkeys are back on the Interwebs after another brief hiatus. The good news is that we have been busy caching & filming so there's a bunch of great adventures coming, starting with our recent trip to the Interior of BC.

One of the goals of this trip was to collect the three Backroad Mapbook geotour caches for the Thompson Okanagan region, and the bonus cache north of Shuswap.

This was tied in with a MVGeocacher trip to Penticton BC where a group of us got together to walk a section of the Kettle Valley Railway trail in Naramata, and find the caches that make up the "Wine Glass" geoart. But more about that trip in a near-future blog entry. For this posting, we'll talk about our adventure in finding those BRMB caches.


The first one we found was west of Hedley, BC, on Old Hedley Road. As we pulled up to the logical place to park and hike to ground zero, we saw another car there and thought "perhaps other cachers?" Our thoughts were confirmed as we headed up the trail and met the nonchalant acting Maya Bee and Red Alert, just coming back from making that find themselves. We stopped for a brief chat, and knew we'd be seeing them the next day on the Wine Glass hike.

That was our Good Friday, and a really good Friday it was. The weather was beautiful, and we truly enjoyed the magnificence of God's creation along Hwy 3, as we made our way through Manning Park (with active snow at Allison Pass), stopped to cache in Princeton, stopped for more caching in and around Hedley then made our way (with several more caching stops) to Penticton for the evening.

Saturday, after a morning meet & greet event in Penticton, then the "Wine Glass" hike in Naramata, we headed off up the west side of Lake Okanagan stopping for only a couple of caches on our way to
the next cache in the series - BRMB - Thompson Okanagan  BC - On the Water (GC4KJQK) at the Everly Recreation Site.

On our way to that cache we passed a herd of Big Horn Sheep on the road - very cool!

After that steep little hike & find, we were off again to try and get to BRMB TOBC - 20th Anniversary Bonus Cache (GC4KKAA) on the north side of Shuswap Lake, past the little town of Celista, BC.

That's where we had one of the bigger adventures of the trip!

When we finally got to the trail head, we knew it wasn't long until dusk. So we armed ourselves with headlamps & flashlights, and off we went along the trail. Well, very quickly the trail disappeared on us. There's an exceptional amount of blowdown on the trail, and while our Northwest Trails actually did have the Onyx Falls Trail on it, it was a challenge to find that trail. So we kept trying to stay as close as we safely could to the trail as noted on the GPSr, and kept finding/losing the trail.

At one point, we ended up working our way through snow up to our hips (on April 20th), but pressed on regardless, with our daylight fading on us. By the time we got ourselves through the bush and to the last 100m, we faced a steep decent down what seemed about a 10m embankment. The top part was muddy and a bit slippery, but the last couple of metres was a sheet of ice! Surprise!

Safely at the bottom, we found that it was completely dark at this point. Using the cache hint, our geosenses, and the GPSr (which was wandering  bit in the deep tree cover along the creekside) Mrs. LANMonkey eventually made the find. At this point, we took a breather and recorded a bit of content for our vlog. Of course, we still had to get back to the truck, and it was completely dark now.

We made our way up the embankment, and bushwacked our way to where Northwest trails said there should be a trail. And what do you know, we found the trail. On our way back, we did lose it a couple of times, but actually found better luck following the trail out than in - I know, typical cachers!

Once back to the truck, we strapped in and headed our way back to Kamloops to spend the night before searching for the last of the BRMB caches for this trip, at Duffy Lake.

As we cleared Celista, the RCMP had a roadblock, and we had a nice chat with a constable who had been based in Walnut Grove (Langley, BC) not long ago. She had no problem with our story that we weren't drinking but actually heading out after finding a geocache. We looked pretty tired and "bushed." Literally!

The next morning, we headed nice and early west out of Kamloops, and followed the Duffy Lake FSR to Duffy Lake, hitting snow on the road for the last kilometre. Once at Duffy Lake, finding the final cache in the trio of Thompson Okanagan BRMB caches was pretty easy - at least compared to the previous day! That cache was well stocked with swag still!  We considered continuing west on the FSR but found it quickly impassable for anything except a quad or narrow 4x4, so back the way we came.

Well folks, thanks for sticking with me through that story. We sure hope you enjoy the video of the adventure, and trust me, there's lots more to come from that same Easter weekend adventure!

Cache safely, and cache often.
The LANMonkeys.

Cave Caching Along the Chilliwack River

This past week, the LANMonkeys called up their caching friends and said "We've got an idea for an adventure..." After a phone call and a couple of emails plans were set and the first Saturday of 2014 was spent on a caching adventure along the Chilliwack River. So today's blog post is going to be about caches in the Earth, and about the Earth.

In the course of a very full day we discovered four EarthCaches, explored two caves for geocaches, found two of the "Back Roads Map Book GeoTour" caches, enjoyed some amazing scenery along the Chilliwack River, and had a fantastic time with great friends. In the end we made a total of 19 cache finds in an area that you could spend days caching in with all the different spots to go geocaching or just exploring.

Our caching location for the day was primarily the North side of the Chilliwack River, along the Foley Creek Forest Service Road, approximately 25 km's down Chilliwack Lake Road. Almost all of the area is accessible by pretty much any vehicle with decent clearance, but we went in Catapult Jeff & Iron Maiden's 4x4 Jeep, and were thankful we did. Plenty of spots on the roads and especially the wood bridge decks were icy.

Caching in the Caves

As part of our shared goals to try and complete our D/T grids, we were all happy to tackle caches with difficulties of 5 and 4.5 and a terrain of 5 - but mostly the guys were "psyched" to go spelunking in search of geocaches in both Hands and Feet caches (GC2X9HP & GC2X9H1).


As the cache descriptions indicate, it is very important to not go alone when exploring caves, and to bring the proper gear. Catapult Jeff & Mr. LANMonkey ensured we were equipped with coveralls, helmets, headlamps, radios, extra light, a long climbing rope, gloves, and of course, a video camera.

The video in this episode was primarily shot in Hands & Feet #2 as it was a deeper and slightly larger caving experience than #1. Quarters were tight in much of the cave and of course, the only light source was our headlamps, which made it challenging for shooting an episode, but we really wanted you to be able to join the experience of looking for caches in naturally formed, small underground areas.  It was most certainly a unique and awesome caching experience, but it likely wasn't for everyone - consider carefully if you'll be able to do this one both physically and mentally before attempting, and PLEASE do not try it alone!

EarthCaching in 2014

We are also grateful to Catapult Jeff & Iron Maiden for being willing to stop at four different EarthCaches in the area that they had all ready completed so that the LANMonkeys could discover them and learn as well. If you're not familiar with EarthCaches, they are a form of "virtual" geocache where you are not looking for a container with a log sheet to sign, but going to specific coordinates and stepping through a brief field-lesson in geology.  Watch this older episode of LMGA we filmed last fall when we were placing our first EarthCache to get an overview on EarthCaching.

In addition, check out the resources at the Geological Society of America's website EarthCache.org for the most comprehensive source of information about discovering and creating EarthCaches.

Speaking of EarthCaches, did you know that Friday, January 10th is the 10th anniversary of the first EarthCache? Educational and fun events are taking place world-wide to celebrate this anniversary on the 10th, 11th, and 12th. For a complete listing of those events, check here.  If you are in the Greater Vancouver area, it's not too late to sign up and come join us at the MetroVan Geocaching EarthCaching event at 7:30pm on Friday, January 10th.

LANMonkey Down Under?

Recently, the GeoGearHead's podcast (episode GGH093 - The History of Podcasting) featured a list of active podcasts about geocaching.  This prompted me to check out some of these podcasts I'd not listened to before, and I found some real gems in that list.

I thought it would be cool to hear what cachers in Australia & New Zealand talk about, so I downloaded an episode of the GeoTalk podcast. As it turns out, it happened to be the 100th podcast for that show - that's pretty impressive to get to 100 shows. Congrats Darren on 100 episodes!

In listening to the podcast on my drive home from work, I had a huge surprise when the host, Darren Osborne, started talking about lab caches.  The first blog he referenced in his show was LANMonkey's Geocaching Adventures - you know, this one? That was so amazing and appreciated!  Darren was referencing our "Lab Caches - FYI" episode, as well as bringing in some likely more authoritative sources such as NotAboutTheNumbers and the GroundSpeak forums.

So that's about as close as we'll get to traveling to Australia or New Zealand in the next year or so, but it was awesome to get the reference. So in return, I would encourage any & all of my readers to check out Darren's podcast. It's well put together, and gives a great insight into caching activities down-under. Darren clearly has been caching for a very long time and seems to be a pretty active cacher under the handle "The Spindoctors."

I've also added GeoTalk to my list of "Recommended Reading" over there on the right-hand panel.

If you have any geocaching or outdoor technology related podcasts and/or blogs you'd recommend, please comment or email the LANMonkeys with your suggestions. (PS: remove "NOSPAM" before clicking send on your email.) We look forward to hearing from you on what you read & listen to.

Thanks for reading, and remember to cache safely, and cache often!

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.

August Geocaching Highlights

As everyone knows, August was Groundspeak's "31 Days of Geocaching." Love it or hate, a record number (according to Groundspeak) of cachers were out geocaching each day of August. I've read and heard many opinions about the souvenirs, which seem to be a primary focus of discussion, but we shouldn't let that debate distract from the ultimate goal - which was to get out & go geocaching.

One thing we can all agree upon, is that it appears summer is now over.  So in remembrance of a fun summer of geocaching, as we head into the crisp and/or damp autumn caching season, here are some of our highlights of geocaching in August.




BCGA Cache Blitz 2013
This was our first year to participate in the BCGA Cache Blitz, and we had an absolute blast. Obviously, summer is "cache placing" season anyhow, but with the extra incentive of Blitz recognition we got out to some great geocaches. Check out the complete list of the Blitz results and useful "short-list" of some cool caches. We even placed a couple of our own for the Blitz; and amazingly, we wound up with the over-all Blitz-winning cache - Monkey Puzzle Tree!

Event-o-rama
We've never been to so many events in one month! We even got to help host one, which was an exciting first-time event for us. Special thanks go out to Catapult Jeff & Iron Maiden and goaliegirl38 for their tireless work in coming up with ideas for events and all the work that goes on in the background for them to be successful. We also attended a fun night out at the pub hosted by a visiting geocacher (geo-gas-head) from the UK. That event opened our eyes to the idea that you can plan events for when you are visiting different countries, and meet a ton of friendly geocachers who have the low-down on all the local caching.  As a side note, it was great to get a good chat in with tjguy98, and I certainly appreciated your feedback and insight into geocaching social media!

We Went Ape!
On our Geocaching HQ Block Party 2013 road-trip, we also went to the 2013 WSGA "Going Ape" event at Hyak, in Iron Horse State Park, WA. Donner and Manta Rayz came with us, and we met up & cached for the day with walkinbyfaith and l0cus.  Here's our video of that adventure - but beware, it's not for the faint of heart! In the middle of the 2 mile long tunnel we were attacked by the Fen Dweller!

Lab Caches - FYI

There's been a lot of discussion - and frankly, a lot of confusion - around Groundspeak's (geocaching.com) introduction of Lab Cache type.  The Lab Cache type was introduced at this years Block Party (August 17th, Seattle WA) with a lot of fanfare but also a lot of confusion.

Prior to the event, Groundspeak let us all know that a "new cache type" was going to be introduced. Hey, they wanted to amp up the excitement and attendance for the Block Party, and that was successful. Subsequently, folks arrived, but then the confusion kicked in. Depending upon where you were when, and to whom you spoke, different messages (unofficial, of course) made their way around about what the deal was with Lab Caches.

Some more experienced 'cachers who'd attended the Block Party previously made assumptions (reasonable ones) based on their past experiences. New cachers tried to grasp the concept and got pieces of it. Other than the "keynote" at the event and a discussion forum posting, there was little official and consistent communication from Groundspeak on the topic.


For example; while at the event I recorded a LMGA episode on the Lab Caches to try and explain what I currently understood - by the time the video was in post production (1 week later) there was more information that I used to make some corrections in the video. Subsequent to that, deeper "research" into the Lab Caches has provided me enough information to write this blog entry - so the first thing to be cognizant of is that this is an evolving concept.

Here are three key things to help you understand Lab Caches.

1. This is a test - this is only a test. Lab Caches are, in essence, a real-world labratory to test out new ideas for geocache types; and the place(s) Groundspeak has decided to use for their "alpha testing" or lab work, are the Mega Events. This means that if you are jonesin' to get a Lab Caches icon in your profile, you'll need to attend a Mega that has announced it will host Lab Caches.

2. They count (sort of).  Lab Caches give you smilies, and count in your over-all cache finds, but

there's a catch, my statistically oriented friends - there are no logs on geocaching.com associated with these caches as they are intended as tests and aren't available after the events. Therefore applications like GSAK won't be able to add them from your "My Finds" pocket query, or from directly querying your account. The work around is to manually create the caches in your GSAK DB as waypoints, and set them to "found" on the date you found them/attended the Mega Event.

3. They're not my type.  Lab Caches aren't one specific type of cache; this is a category for Groundspeak to use to try out all kinds of different ideas (remember "Challenges?") for what might make a new cache type. So each event that has Lab Caches may have something completely different, and Groundspeak is really looking for your feedback on those caches. Attendees from the 2013 Block Party who tried out the "Adventures" Lab Caches were subsequently sent a link to a survey asking for our feedback on these.

As always, I'm really interested in your thoughts & opinions around Lab Caches, and geocaching topics in general, so feel free to post your comments to this blog or to the Lab Cache FYI video on our YouTube channel.

Cache safely, and cache often.

LMGA FYI - Geocaching International Film Festival 2013

On August 17th under the Aurora Bridge in the Freemont neighbourhood of Seattle, attendees of the 2013 Block Party had the opportunity to be a part of the first Geocaching International Film Festival (GIFF).

We've distilled the event down to a few key moments, and included some of our observations.

 Over-all we had a great time and were absolutely amazed at the quality of the top 16 films that were shown during this event. The films came in from geocachers around the world and featured themes from the comedic to stories of how geocaching has impacted the lives of people in significant ways.



In the end, the experience motivated us to start considering how we might come up with a submission for next year's GIFF. Who knows, maybe with some time, talent, and the support of our local geocaching community we can come up with a group effort that gets onto that giant screen next year!

Groundspeak Geocaching Block Party 2013

This past weekend was "cache your face off" with the LANMonkeys, Donner, and Manta Rayz.
We headed to Seattle to experience our very first (and certainly not our last!) Block Party event and had an amazing time.

We even managed to bump into a handful of cachers from back home including Walkinbyfaith, l0cus, katcogo, Delta Dodger, Sweet Marie, PhilatSea, and probably some others I apologise for forgetting at the moment... there was simply so much to take in we were in event over-load! But we took ample footage to try and give at least some sense of the over-all experience for those who couldn't make it this year.


We tested out the seven "lab caches" from Geocaching Labs (Groundspeak R&D), visited all the newly placed permanent caches, enjoyed the first ever "Geocaching International Film Festival", and met many, many people - including a few "geocaching celebrities."

Check out our video for just a few of the highlights from this beautiful day in the Freemont neighbourhood of Seattle.

We will be releasing two "Special Edition" videos highlighting the GIFF & the lab caches to give you some special insight into those first time events if you weren't able to make it there. Here's our Lab Cache FYI video, just uploaded! Or if you were, you can check out our perspective on those. If you'd like to see those videos, make sure you follow our YouTube channel.

The event planners spun on the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" theme for a few different angles, and did a fine job.  The event itself was smoothly run with more than enough activity and sights to keep cachers busy morning through evening.

By the time the evening came around, we headed back off to our hotel and crashed hard, completed exhausted from the fun, sun, and caching company; we needed our rest because the next morning (Sunday) we were off to the Going Ape 2013 event an hour east of Seattle.

So for our very first Block Party experience, we'd really like to thank not only the folks at GroundSpeak who made the event happen, but the cachers from home who gave us so many tips and ideas of things to see & do when we arrived.

Thanks everyone,
The LANMonkeys.

"Cache safely, and cache often!"

LMGA 24 - Buttle Lake Boat Caching

Geocaching Tuesdays are back with our next adventure - geo-camping with the LANMonkeys and crew aboard the S.S. Tupperware on Vancouver Island. We camped in Strathcona Park and took our boat to "Sometimes Island" & "Buttle Narrows" before we had time for one last "Re: Buttle."

Buttle Lake is an area I used to camp in quite a bit as a kid, so it was really fun to come back and bring my whole extended family for a week of fishing, camping, star-gazing, hiking, and - why yes - even some geocaching!

Th weather was perfect up to the last night when we had just a bit of rain before we had to pack up, but we can't complain. In this episode we share with you the caches we went and grabbed by boat not far from the campground.  In a subsequent episode we'll share our fun family drive down to the south end of the lake where we visited Myra Falls and several other caches on our way there.

Caching in Strathcona Park can be an amazing fun time, but the size of the lake (Buttle is the largest lake on Vancouver Island) and the park in general means you'll need to dedicate a couple of days to it. Fortunately, the weather here is generally fairly moderate as you're immediately east of the mountains.

Thanks for watching. Cache safely, and cache often!
The LANMonkeys.

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 - Surrey Heritage Tour Multicache - Episode 18

Hey geocachers! As it turns out, Mr. LANMonkey can't count above ten, so episodes 18 & 19 are out of order. To make up for that boo boo, I'm providing another Geocaching Two-Fer Tuesday. This  episode was filmed a couple of weeks ago in Cloverdale BC, when Mrs. LANMonkey & I did the "Surrey Centre Heritage Tour."

It was a fun cache, with a fair bit of walking (and some elevation change, for those who don't handle that well).  If it's a nice day out, come with water! In my opinion, this multi *is* stroller friendly, so you can bring the kids, but you *will* be walking alongside some busy roads so use your judgement on that.

Over-all we really enjoyed this, and even though we've spent a LOT of time in that immediate area, we still learned quite a bit about the heritage of that part of Surrey.

Thanks for the cache!

Cache safely, and cache often.
Team LANMonkey

LMGA - Ep 015 - Parksville BC

Welcome to our show notes for Episode 15 - Parksville Caching. In this episode we travel to Vancouver Island on BC Ferries and enjoy some amazing views along the way. Then we catch a quick cache on the way into the town of Parksville.  Next we head further up Island to pick up a power trail that connects the old and new Island Highways (GC3CY8J), and on our way back to Parksville cached some more and saw some sea lions frolicking.

We were later off to Coombs Market to get some caches and visit with the goats.

We hope you enjoy this fun episode with some amazing scenery. The second episode of our trip to Parksville will get released shortly to share with you the rest of our fun caching trip to Vancouver Island.

Thanks for checking this out; please provide us your feedback!

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