Geocaching!

what is it? ..i wondered for so many years when i heard the word.. i wonder what it's all about. and i wish i would have looked into it sooner say, back in the day of cross country journeys! i'm still happy no less to have made the discovery. if you like to hike, and play videogames involving a mini map and a mission.. this game is for you!

all you need is access to the internet, a GPS device, and a sense of adventure. Geocaching is basically a global GPS treasure hunt. you log on to Geocaching.com to make a profile, pick a cache you'd like to find, log the coordinates into your GPS unit [or smartphone app], and go! when you find the geocache, you use stealth to retrieve it, sign the log book and maybe swap out a trinket. then you re-hide it exactly where you found it for the next person to find. when you go back home, log back on to the website and record your find. once you start to see the smileys pile up on your map, it's hard to stop.. this game is highly addicting!


these little treasures could be hiding anywhere, if there's a trail i can almost guarantee there's a cache to be found. and many, many urban caches as well. hanging in a bush, or in a stump or hollow tree, magnetized to the underside of something.. the hiding places and containers can get pretty creative. there's always a difficulty and terrain rating, so you can decide your route based on the weather, or how far you're willing to hike to make a find. also, this is a family game, kids love to seek the treasures and make a trade for something inside.


one awesome thing i noticed, a gloomy day with a bit of drizzle or occasional bouts of rain are the perfect days to geocache. days we wouldn't otherwise dream of taking a walk around the neighbourhood or even a hike.. and for just that reason, there's rarely anyone else around. which makes for quicker finds, and less of a need for extreme stealth. i spent 6 hours tromping around with an umbrella in hand, til i was covered to my knees in mud, and smiled the whole time. it's amazing how a simple game of hide and seek can make a rainy day outside so much more enjoyable.


once you've made a few finds to get the hang of what exactly a geocache is, and how they're put together, you can then make a successful hide. when you hide a cache, you are responsible for keeping it maintained, which is yet another excuse to get outside and revisit your favourite park or path or neighbourhood. pick a place you would want others to discover, that is my favourite part about geocaching. many times i have found a path or place or a view i would have never otherwise found.. even in my hometown!


it's been a busy year this time around, full time work, gardening, and learning about Permaculture. i haven't had the time i would have liked to hit the trails and camp out, so geocaching has been the perfect excuse i needed to take a hike. there are sections of trail i have been meaning to get to for months, and i'm so glad i went out geo hunting, as i may not have made it to these particular trails at all this year. now that i'm into the game, i've been planning hikes, camping trips and even speculating the possibility of taking a 'vacachen'!



...GEOCACHING! [lol] <3

Walkin' Yellowstone

As I was laid up on the couch sick these last few days I had nothing but time to think. I didn't have the energy to get to the computer to do any writing, but I sure did do a lot of thinking. I was watching a documentary on the wolves of Yellowstone and it got me to thinking about the trip I made out there a few years ago. I have to say it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I haven't seen much mind you, but I can assure you that it is a sight to behold. Everywhere I looked was a picture perfect snapshot waiting to be taken. It was the first week of June and we had 6 days of nearly cloudless, blue skies with temps around 75 degrees. Couldn't have asked for anything better. It really was perfect in every way.

Yellowstone and it's neighbor Grand Teton National Park are an outdoorsman's/woman's paradise. Now, having grown up in suburban life never seeing anything like this I was absolutely amazed with the vastness of it all. This was my first time seeing snow capped mountains or anything even close to the scale of those mountains. I probably looked like a kid in a candy store, really. I must have stopped at almost every cut out they had for vehicles to pull over. There are two things you can definitely count on doing a lot of there at Yellowstone, walking and driving. Everything is so spread out and big that a lot of driving is the only way to really get around. It is definitely well worth it, I assure you.

So, on to the walkin'. That's what this is all about, right? We did as much hiking as we could considering we had our 4 year old son with us who, by the way, I was exceptionally proud of. We hiked up a mountain, which was probably just a big hill. He and my wife made it halfway up which was probably the equivalent of a 2 mile hike, or 4 miles both ways. Granted, I carried him on my shoulders for as long as I could, but I was proud of the boy none the less. There were a couple other people with us so we pressed on to the top. I couldn't tell you exactly how high up it was, but it was high enough that when we got near the top there was still snow on the ground. I was wearing shorts and there were spots where the snow was soft enough for a leg to go in knee high. I kept on carefully, however, and made it to the top in a few hours time. It was an awesome experience. The sense of accomplishment was great, and the silent peace at the top was deep. At one point I slipped on the snow/ice and landed on my tail bone.......ouch! I was sore for about a week. But it was all worth it, let me tell you. I envy anyone who gets to live out amongst the wilderness like this.

I would encourage anyone with the opportunity to venture off into the wilderness that is Yellowstone National Park to do so. You will not be disappointed. With todays plastic and steel fabricated world, natural wonders such as this are that much more special. It's one of those things that can really only be experienced for yourself. Yes the pictures are beautiful, but they've got nothing on the real thing.

Keep Walkin'

The Bruce

i'm a firm believer that we're all born in our place and time for a reason. it happens to be so that i live in a city that is surrounded and dissected by the longest complete footpath in Canada, the Bruce Trail. the day i was born i lived in a house right on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment... as if hiking the trail was etched into my destiny.

the Bruce Trail is over 800km long, starting in Niagara Falls Ontario and ending in Tobermory, with over 200km of side trails through parks and nature reserves. it is here that i fell in love with the forest at a very young age. it was all too convenient that every house i moved to since was within walking distance of the trail.

when i was 8 my father built a log house out in a place which at that time and age, seemed like the middle of nowhere. nothing but trees, a trail and the highway. our bi-weekly visits were most usually spent doing something in the outdoors. i was introduced then to the Bruce, which just so happened to cross the end of our driveway where it came into town. fifty paces in, and the sound of the road disappeared in the background. soon your ears pick up the subtle sounds of the birds and the bugs and the breeze in the trees, broken up by the occasional babbling stream or raging river.

it was here that i learned the appreciation for the feeling of fresh mud beneath my feet, and the smell of the forest after an autumn rain,.. where my whole little world was blown wide open when i realized the ease and simplicity of traveling to the next town by foot. i wondered why we we don't have more paths and less roads. it seemed to me to be the preferred method of travel.

to this day it's still one of my favourite places.. and i hope to some day cover the trail from end to end in one solid go. but for now i'll savour all the tastes i can get, and you can expect more words and photographs from my journeys along it so far. every journey begins with but a single step, and a heartbeat♥