All I Want For Christmas

Dear Santa,

I realize that you're an idea and not a real person, and that I'm 33 years old, not 5, and that by writing you I'm pretty much endorsing the consumerist paradigm of Christmas that I abhor so much. However I feel that I'm left with no alternative.

I don't come from a particularly wealthy family, and that among my siblings, I probably have the most stable career. Money is an issue but won't solve my Christmas woes. I'm not asking for money. What's important is what I need the money for, but I figure I should skip the money part and go strait to what I need.

All I want for Christmas is to have my children with me. In actuality, I'm supposed to have them already. The courts have agreed and given me a court order; the police agreed and the Children's Aid agreed but like everyone else, could only say "It's not our job". It appears that although I have the Right and Authority to see my children, I am at the mercy of a Munchausen psychopath who cares nothing for my feelings or the needs of our children.

I'm home now, after failing to retrieve the kids. Watching my nefews I can't help but be reminded of my loss. I budgeted most of my income for the retrieval and now can't afford even the wrappings of my usual eco-friendly, intelligence-engaging gifts for the rest of the family.

Nick, I need help. Please help me and my children have a proper Christmas.

---
Friar Greg

#42 - #47 An Overdue Update

I realize it has been over a month since my last update. I haven't forgotten all you crazy followers, nor have I been ignoring my cache's. I've simply been lazy when it comes to updates. So here you go, if you don't follow me on Twitter, then the following is news to you. :P

27th June
#42 - GC1ZHZQ The H A U N T E D Cache
This was a nice change of pace, as the kids and I showed "mommy" how to search for caches. It was a bad hair day. :P Took some stickers, left the stamp I found at GC1ZH69 - Drop off.

11th July
#43 - GC1TXMK Cacher's Delight
During the Kingston Buskers Festival, 'Bert and I took Sabenator & the Pirate. I was there for more of a baby-sitter capacity than the 'date' I was lead to believe. But at least the boys and I had some fun after being ditched for some street artists.


25th July
#XX - GC204YN QUINTE CACHE BLITZ #12 - Zwick's Park
#XX - GCJ961 Breeze off the Bay
The boys and I went for a nice bike ride around Zwick's Park but were unable to find any of the cache's before mommy decided to pick them up.

#44 - GC1WD0J Historic Corbyville
Captain Scott and I went out to Corbyville to take a look at some of the property there. We were looking for viable sites to play Airsoft but found that most of it was either too open, too private, or there was too much possible foot traffic. This cache was a fluke and happened to be 10 meters from where we parked anyway.

4th August
#45 - GC1NBGG Stella :Fairy of this Forest
Now with both my bike and the Captain's bike in working order, we decided to hit some caches on the East side of town. I didn't realize there was such a maze of trails out there but the Captain knew them all by heart. So we trekked in the pitch black on bumpy trails with flashlights. Lucky us... no poison ivy. phew!!

#46 - GC1NBH9 Rays' Woods
A little further up the trail.

#XX - GC1NBHT Sam: The Brother of Stella
Unfortunately, even leaving the bikes behind, we couldn't traverse the water hazards this site has to offer. Perhaps another time, with hip-waders & daylight!

#47 - GC1EXF6 trails end
Keep to the trail, you can't miss it. We tried as the crow flies and that just doesn't work. Also, look out for the bugs, not so many 'skeeters, but a real haven for the little buggers that like to fly into your mouth. We had to breath through our teeth for most of this one.

The Captain and I have been planning on dropping some caches around town, but I've been holding off. I think it's mostly because I won't be around much until after Christmas this year. I'm off to my Military Basic Training in September and won't be able to monitor any drops. But I think what I'll do is after my 50th find, give Scotty the go ahead to drop all the caches we've built. If I get that far and still have a few days before I leave, I may even do it myself. I really can't wait to see people finding my hides!!! I've been keeping my eye on GC1CR0Y - 50 Mission Cap for my 50th find. A little cheesy, I know but it's only 3 finds away and looks difficult. Totally worth it if I can pull it off.

Again, I apologise for my lack of updates. I hope the photo's make up for it. I'm glad you all enjoy my adventures and remember to always Cache In - Trash Out and don't be afraid to comment. I do appreciate a little feedback now and again.

--
Friar Greg

#37 - #41 An Unfortunate Incident

Well it started out as any other night of treasure hunting. We started while it was still light and headed out to find the closest cache.  I thought we would go check the Northwest part of town as that was the last high concentration.

#37 - GC1ZD2D The Future is Here

Right out in the open, probably best as a night cache.

#38 - GC13GVX "What's Playin' ?"

I must have passed this one 5 times but the Captain noticed it right away. Tricky little hiders, I'll get you!!! While we were looking, an Ex-Cacher approached us and correctly assumed our purpose. We chatted for a bit and invited him to come out with us some other time but he declined. "I tried that, not my thing" he said.

#39 - GC1E5TH Got Milk?

The Captain had already seen this one so he let me find it. I took pictures... don't know where they are. Very nice collection of items.

#40 - GC1ZM30 Yellow Bags

I found this one while Captain was on the phone.

#XX - GC1ZFRK Three Strikes Your Out

We both crawled on our bellies trying to find this one. It got dark while we were here. No find. Sux.

#41 - GC1QZJ6 Boo-Boo & Bean's Car Trade-In Cache

I can only say, you should always follow the directions. The path is so easy to follow, even in the dark and it's beautiful. However, I thought I could wing it and tried taking the South path instead of the North entrance... yeah... don't do that.

Anyway, we headed back to N.Front St to get something to eat, McDonald's, Burger King, Pita Pit... every one was either closed or wouldn't serve bikers. As we were pulling away from the Micky-D's parking lot my de-railer became entangled in spokes, ripped a couple out and twisted itself into an even stranger pretzel than normal. Really Sux!!!! I just dropped $175 in repairs, that I could ill afford, on this damn thing and now I'm left with no bike!!!

We ate at the Pizza Pizza. Probably the worst pizza I've ever had.  In the past, I have burnt cheap, frozen pizza's in the microwave that tasted better than what these people were trying to sell me. Anyway, it was another terrible walk home as I ended up having the Vesuvius of all bowl movements, had to hold it for 2 blocks while I searched for a safe place to go, walking my bike and pausing every 15 steps. I did eventually find a nice shady spot but a couple days later, I broke out in Poison Ivy. The doc put me on teva-prednisone which made me a paranoid blubbering idiot and embarrassed the hell out of me.

An unfortunate incident. I'm now stuck walking to my caches. Enjoy your summer!

#34 to #36 - The Great Cache Robbery (Epilogue)

Our prior outing "The Great Cache Robbery" looked great on paper, but there were a few unforeseen issues, time constraints mostly.  Because we had missed a few caches, I took a leisurely jaunt today to pick some of them up.

 #34 - GC27Z4F Loyalist's Backyard
Very easy find, I loved the walk around and the location is particularly beautiful. The rain was light and sparse, but the breeze was silky and lightly humid. On a dryer day, I could sit here for hours either reading or meditating. I took a green, braided key chain and left the pumpkin stamp found at Drop Off.

#XX - GC14ET4 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Cache #1
Checking the logs I did notice the plants that most were referring to as poison ivy, but I did not get any reaction from it. Neither did I find the cache. Checking both sides of the road and along the brush and trees of the East side and North of the stream, I found nothing but a couple of places a small cache might be hidden. I managed to convince the jogging parties that I was just reminiscing.

#35 - GC140WM Morris Needs Another
A clever hide, I had no idea of these paths, mostly considering that I've never had reason to see this part of town before. I took a large red marble & left behind a galaxy coin, I think I got it at Chuck E Cheese. The paths were easy to follow and the area  is pleasant to visit. I would also strongly consider bringing a garbage bag for effective CITO.

#36 - GC1XKHP Micro Morris
This park is particularly well groomed and great for children to play in. The cache is cleverly hidden where groomers are not likely to disturb it.

I'm glad that I had the opportunity to pick up these finds. Though I missed out on the RCAC find, I'm sure it will show up again. The Micro Cache #1 doesn't seem to show on my Navigator, so I'll have to find a way to get it into the system or manually enter it into my device. Either way, it can't stay hidden from me for very long.!!!

Safe Caching
Friar Greg

#29 to #33 - Another Night Adventure

Since hitting more than one cache on a given day has become a new habit, and seeing as how it's the odd cache in the bunch, not each one, that has become something memorable, I've decided to continue with grouping the cache descriptions for the ease of story telling. I also apologuise for not having any pictures from the trip, as my phone was low on power to start with, and it was black. I mean, our armoury of flashlights, headlights, bike lights & what ever else we were using, almost wasn't enough just to see the trails in front of us.

It all started when Cpt. Scott msgs me last night:

(edited from logs for length & content)

[9:26:24 PM] Cpt Scott: any plans tonight? feeling active?
[9:26:35 PM] Friar Greg: what do you have in mind?
[9:26:55 PM] Cpt Scott: geocaching
[9:27:20 PM] Friar Greg: which ones or part of town?
[9:27:30 PM] Cpt Scott: no matter. I would think maybe east end...
[9:29:02 PM] Friar Greg: there's trails end (waterfront), stanly park is a multi...
[9:30:16 PM] Cpt Scott: not done one of those yet
[9:31:01 PM] Friar Greg: and there are 3 in the woods east of haig, a little off the beaten track. bayview heights has a multi as well. I still haven't found woof woof or alemite park yet, thats all there is on the east side. north side has a large handful.
[9:32:21 PM] Cpt Scott: ok, I'm good for it. or north. makes little difference
[9:33:34 PM] Friar Greg: we haven't found the timmys one or mcleod yet
[9:34:02 PM] Cpt Scott: I'm game if you'd like to lead the way
[9:35:00 PM] Friar Greg: gimme 15-20 minutes and I'll meet you at timmy's?
[9:36:06 PM] Cpt Scott: how about 25 min?  makes it 10pm
[9:36:13 PM] Friar Greg: perfect. see you there
[9:36:27 PM] Cpt Scott: k

as you can see, in the matter of 10 minutes & 3 seconds, we had decided on a course of action that would lead us to soon be hurtling our way down lit, empty highways normally bursting with heavy traffic or across thunderous river rapids over an incomplete & unstable bridge in the dark or ricocheting off hidden gravel spills in the middle of the blackest bike trail you could ever imagine. But what really got our blood pumping, was the final discovery of the infamous "Buffalo" mystery.

#29 - GC1ZZKE QUINTE CACHE BLITZ # 5 - East Riverside Park

Kenlaur sometimes makes a difficult job of finding his caches. I know I've had most of my failures due to his placements. However, this was not one of them. Now that we know how to search better, his tricky little caches are fun, easy finds. Even in the dark. 

#XX - GC13H1E Kamp Cann - "IF" - Ton

This was an unfortunate bust. The location was perfect for a big cache, hidden away in what should have been a reasonably placed cache. Unfortunately it has been stolen. The bushes are a little difficult and the trash was just intense. We found the cubby and the rocks, but no cache was there. What weighed on my mind was not so much the loss of a large cache, or the amount of litter everywhere, but with the stigma attached to locations such as this. I was sure that if there had been anyone watching, they wouldn't think for a second, that we could possibly believe that two grown men crawling out of the bushes near a car pool parking lot in the dark looked like anything other than late-night treasure hunters. Sorry Scott, but I just don't think of you that way. :p I'm only surprised that we didn't stumble upon anyone reliving their dreams of hiking Brokeback Mt. 

#30 - GC1ZXJA QUINTE CACHE BLITZ # 2 - Ships Ahoy

Initially, the Captain and I realized that the only ways over the river to this cache involved a 400 series highway, a long detour through Corbyville or heading all the way back to our starting point. However, the city saw fit to install a new bridge right at this spot on the river. It wasn't completed yet, there was still lots of reinforcing re-bar waiting to be filled with concrete, piles of steel bars waiting to be cut, fitted and welded into place and I would assume much of the lumps and shadows were hiding tools and power cords. What we couldn't understand was why the street lights on the West bank were all on while the street was completely cordoned off. 

The trails were completely messed up with piles of light gravel just dropped in the middle of the path, waiting for the Bobcat's to come along and smooth the way. Our bike lights were completely useless in pointing these out until we had already been completely knocked off our seats. 

Meanwhile, there were a few young girls in the Pirate Park at nearly midnight gabbing and gossiping all the while and never thinking of the fact that their parents are probably worried sick about them and that predators routinely scan these areas for kids no one will miss until it's too late. 

Oh yeah, and the cache was very nicely hidden. You don't find spots like this very often.

#31 - GCPPJR McLeod Micro Cache

I had originally believed that this cache was on the East bank, but I was wrong. I also very nearly rode my bike right off the rocks into the water. Captain must have thought I was nuts. I just wasn't looking where I was going. We signed this one and "stuck" it back where it belonged.

#XX - GC12TQY Stand On Guard For Thee

I was pretty much ready to pack it in but Cpt Scott wanted to hit another.  I found a multi cache within range and so we doubled back, all the way through the park and over the gravel piles back to were we had crossed. I hadn't been in this part of the park before, so the Captain took point, leading us through the many, intertwined trails to where the first step should have been. But it wasn't there. In fact, we believe that the public wash-room that stood there (maybe up until a day or two ago) was the site for the first micro, but it had been demolished. I even risked a jaunt through some poison sumac to make sure.

#32 - GC1K9FX Rocky Red Wings!

This one surprised me a bit. I forgot all about the fact that my Geocache account is hooked up to my twitter account. So as the Captain and I were hitting stray micros on our return trip, I received a strange sms "Rocky Red Wings! lol". My brother-in-law apparently thought that was a funny phrase when it was broadcast to all my followers.

#33 - GC1YC1T The Midas Touch at a Prime Time

And now for the final adventure. We landed at this spot just after midnight. I had already tried finding it once with SuzyQ but to no avail. This time we had lots of flash lights so the two of us split up, tossing ideas to each other over the radios and rummaging through brush, around garbage bins, inside tires... you name it. We searched for almost 2 hours. I don't think we would have stayed that long if it were not for the 3/5 difficulty rating. We even looked back at every log posted, trying to find a clue. The only clue posted of course was "Think Buffalo". You have no idea how that TESTED OUR PATIENCE!!!!

We circled both buildings, climbed poles and finally, FINALLY, just as we were going to call it quits... Captain Scott shows me what he found. Our cursing and swearing was enough to curl a stainless steel bar. A cleaner example was "I'd like to line them up, first that ****** that said it only took 10 minutes, then next would be all the ******* ******* loggers who said it was easy and then didn't sign the ******* log. Then the *** ****** ***** who put it here in the first place, and I'd just ******* smack them all!!!!"

We stopped in at the Timmy's for a couple of ice caps, cooled down and laughed at our simultaneous brain freezes. Talked a bit about FanExpo, cool costumes and fond memories. Then we made our separate ways to our homes.  I was nearly attacked by a skunk which ran across the road right in front of me. As I sped up and circled wide he continued to threaten me with a raised tail. "Like I'm coming anywhere near you!!!" I said as I barrelled down the hill... then I heard a bunch of "pphhttss, pssshhhh, psshhhhh" and I had a mild heart attack. I thought I had just ridden into a family of skunks while looking at the first one, but it was actually the automatic sprinkler system starting up in front of the new Maranatha. I nearly died laughing.

Again, another awesome night adventure with my pal Captain Scott as we systematically lined up the caches and knocked 'em down. I hope you continue to enjoy the stories, and remember to always CACHE IN - TRASH OUT!!!

Friar Greg.

#22 to #28 - The Great Cache Robbery

This is a special entry due to the immensity of the event.  I had suggested to Cpt. Scott that maybe he'd be interested in joining me on a long round trip, geocaching, bike ride, extravaganza around the west side of Belleville hitting every cache we could find. Originally there were 12 caches I wanted to hunt (2 being optional due to being on the north side of the tracks). The Captain agreed and on Thursday May 20th, we set out with my youngest son "the Sabenator" in tow for a 9km ride out to Loyalist College.

GC1ZM3E - Rockclimbin'
We couldn't find this cache and the rocks were a bit dangerous for searching so we decided to leave it for another time.

GC2204V - Tennis Anyone?
This was the first find of the day. Sabenator helped out too, crawling in amongst the trees and trying to follow us as we searched the branches.

GC1XYQN - Loyalist College Travel Bug & Geocoin Hotel
After a short meal break and a walk around the college we stopped in here to see the hotel, there was only a single traceable key chain which the Captain took and we both left a couple of single items. There was a week-old carcass of what we think was a raccoon. It most likely got hit on the road and crawled into this little clearing to die. Beware the smell!!!

GC1HM4B - Benny's Booty
This was the craziest cache of the entire adventure. It was marked some distance off the road so we took the first trail access we could find which happened to be directly across the road from the hotel. We began by following the trail North, but when the Captain decided that the trail was moving too far north we bushwacked directly west through the rough grasses and trees. After some extensive scratches pushing our bikes through the cedars (Sabenator just watched from his safe place in the covered bike wagon) we finally found ourselves back on the trail anyway... silly us!! Note, stay on the trail. From here we followed the trail all the way south to the conservation area's parking lot thus skipping most of the highway and missing GC14ET4. It was a beautiful ride with lots to see and mostly down-hill.

GC203YX - QUINTE CACHE BLITZ #11 - Quinte Conservation
An easy find though both of our devices kept pointing us away from the spot. A beautiful little park with a great view of the bay. The Sabenator fell asleep at this point after that bumpy ride all the way down the trail.

GCYRE8 - Restin in Belleville
This is a gorgeous graveyard with lots of paved paths and interesting tombs. We missed GC22TTN getting here as there wasn't really a path that we could see and didn't want to drag Sabenator through another dense brush area.

GCYREB - Restin` in St. James
These two graveyards are connected by paths and are actually quite simple finds.  We saw some old ladies driving around checking what I thought was a GPS and I assumed they were caching.  I was quite embarrassed as I approached them and discovered that they were measuring plots for their recently deceased relatives.

GC12KBV - Meyer's Pier
We realized that my 3-4 hour estimation was way off and as the Sabenator's mother was waiting patiently for me to return him. So the Captain and I skipped GC27Z4F, delivered my excited little boy to his mother and siblings then we came directly here (my find, the Cpt had already been here) to finish off the day. I took a finger puppet and left a marble.

We sat at the Winchester Arms for a pint of stout on the patio as a well deserved reward for our 11.7 km excursion and all our finds. A great day spent with great people in what I am starting to think is one of the coolest activities ever.

I think the next campaign will be to get all the missed caches, perhaps on a solo mission?

CACHE IN / TRASH OUT!
Friar Greg

News Update May 2010

Another great hunt tonight with Captain Scott, we were all bundled up, had all the right tools and with bikes and radios we set out to find some caches.  My recent blight of failures really left me feeling a little useless. I ended up returning the Triton to cover a couple of bills. But at least I was able to afford continued use of the BB software Geocache Navigator.  I like this program, it has a lot of useful little tools and is self updating as opposed to Cacheberry which I had to manually maintain the cache files and in the end became a bit of a headache.

I found an awesome little statuette which will go into my collection of nifty little items. But I can't wait to fix my bike, the left pedal fell right off while on the far side of town hunting down that last cache Drop Off. Captain had a tool kit but the threads were so f&$d up it was useless.

I'm still holding off on the Zwick's adventure until SuzyQ can make another day trip into Belleville. Maybe tomorrow as we both have the day off.

Keep your batteries charged and bikes up to spec.

--
Friar Greg

News Update

So you've been following me the last week or so as I have run down, hunted down, gave up and wrote up every Geocache I could find. You will note, I try to put a photo to each one without giving away too much detail on the hiding places.
I have also been actively recruiting friends and strangers to help me find the sites. I think I have at least 3 converts. My sister Lesley is in the Philippines and she has already downloaded the software and joined the site. I'll be sending my first Travel Bug Sardo there for her to distribute. Today I found my 2nd bug Mater. He's going right into a local cache for the next hunter to claim. A new friend SuzyQ has already accompanied me on 3 finds and says she can't wait to try it again.
I thought I'd talk a bit about some of my failures. Despite not finding them, they were still very interesting hunts.
Round n' Round on the Spinny Thing - This was my first attempt at a multi step cache.  I was able to find the first drop, but the location found there didn't lead me to anything. I'll have to try this one again later.

QUINTE CACHE BLITZ #15 Picton - This was a "happened to be in the neighbourhood" type of hunt that led to a cache, but not the one I was looking for... I think. Instead of the micro cache, I found what I think is a robins egg in it's nest.  I was careful not to touch the nest itself but took a picture for posterity.
Restin' in St Thomas Memorial Garden - This one almost killed me I was so angry I couldn't find it.  I followed the clues and read some of the past field notes, only to get all scratched up with nothing to show for it as the sun was setting and I lost all my light. I did learn to include a flash light in my hunting kit.
Hyde the cache - It appears that this one is missing, not my fault but it did lead me to the Victoria find and my first Travel Bug!
The Dugout - This brought back great memories but I couldn't find it and the second go at it was during a practice, so I couldn't really put that much effort into exposing it.
Fresh Timmys Dundas - I was there at the perfect time of day, little or no traffic, no one around, it's right out in the open... no cache.  Maybe I'm just stupid. But it was fun, and I'll have to try it again soon.

I've also recently upgraded my membership at Geocaching.com so I can get the extra functions their website offers. AND I joined the Ontario Geocaching Association. Lots of cool events and people to meet I'm sure. I'm still looking for a proper GPS unit, perhaps I'll write an article on them in the future but for now, I'll keep it up with my Pearl and Cacheberry.

Thanks for Reading!!
---
Friar Greg