Meeting on the Street

The other day there was a woman and a small group of girls of assorted ages coming down my street. This got my attention as I didn't know any of them and they kept stopping and doing something.  Little girls were running up onto doorsteps, but didn't seem to be knocking on doors, so that also seemed curious. 

When they got in front of my place, I saw that they had a spray can, and a stencil.  They put the stencil on the road and sprayed it, then carried on to another spot near the end of my driveway.  That was all I could take. I decided to go out and see what they were doing. 

The stencil was that of a fish with the words, "Fresh Water Only" on it, and the woman seemed quite pleased that I had come to find out what they were up to. She directed one of the girls to try to explain it to me.  Basically, they were putting these signs next to the storm sewer drains to alert people not to pour toxic substances down them as the water flows into the river and my kill the fish.  I gathered that they were Brownies, Guides and Venturers.

I asked if it was the Guides or the Scouts that placed the Geocache just down the road. The oldest girl beamed and said it was the Venturers, and she was one of them.  I told her about my Christmas Eve first to find expedition and she was trilled as she remembered reading my comments. She asked if I took and left something, or just signed the book. I said I usually take and leave things, but since there were travel bugs in that cache at the time, and I wasn't going caching again until the weather was more cooperative (like lately) I decided not to take anything that time.  I didn't want new travel bugs to stall right off the bat. 

I told her that I have shown other local people how to find this cache, so that they may become interested in geocaching too.  She liked that idea.  I didn't happen to mention that I blogged about it, but I'm sure she'd have loved that. 

Nice to meet someone on the other side of the fence.  I really must place a cache myself one of these days. I know just the place too.

Off and Running

It was a lovely day on Sunday so we decided to go treasure hunting again. With the current price of gas we didn’t really want to go too far though, and by the time we actually left, it was just as well that I had picked out a few nearby geocaches.

We started out in Oxford Mills. There is a little dam there and the cache was in that area. There were some guys launching canoes into the fast flowing water so we watched that for a while before proceeding to hunt for the cache. It’s always a good idea not to have extra people around watching what you are doing when searching for a cache, but it didn’t take long for them to be swept off down the river.




That cache ( GC1YXVZ ) wasn’t difficult to find at all, and we picked up a handy dandy tool that will now live in my geocaching bag. It is built like a jack knife, but with screw drivers and other tools on board instead of just knives. I’m sure it will come in handy sooner or later.

The second geocache ( GC2G52Y ) took us to an area we had never explored before, just on the edge of Kemptville. The Agroforestry Education Center, which is part of the Kemptville Campus of the University of Guelph has a Maple Sugar Shack which is open to the public during sugaring season. We were, of course too late for that this year, but the sap lines are still in place. We may make a point of going there next year to purchase some syrup. The trails through the woods are well maintained and there are several different loops to follow.

Currently both Trillium and Dog Tooth Violets are blanketing the forest floor. This cache was also easy enough to find, though it was off the trail a bit.

The third cache ( GC2HCX3 ) we looked for was not so easy. There were some obvious places to look, but we didn't find anything. We eventually gave up as I was getting tired. We decided we could go back some other time. I took a few photos of that area which I won’t show you. When I looked at them at home I knew exactly where the cache was. Funny thing was, I actually looked at that spot while I was there, thought it strange, and then didn’t actually investigate it as well as I should have. I’m now sure I know exactly where the cache is hidden, but I will have to go back to figure out how to get at it.

Another New Beginning

I have an old blog at http://www.georambling.blogspot.com/ but I have not been able to link it to my other one at http://www.otherrambles.blogspot.com/  so I have decided that now that I'm into a new season of geocaching, I will start fresh here.  Do go have a look at the other two and see what's there. 
Now, lets begin this year's adventures......