Geocaching (More Famous Last Words)
May 13, 2007
There are a lot of parks near the Ontario Science Centre, and there are several caches in those parks, all "close" together. Before we got there, we decided to tie up a loose end at the Oriole GO Station. This time, we were prepared, having looked at satellite pictures of the area, and realizing that we were way off the first time.
We drove into the deserted parking lot, and parked closer to the pedistrian bridge. Then we let the GPS go wild. We got to within 5 meters and Anne was able to spot the container. "Yay! Let's hope the rest of the day is this easy!"
Famous last words.
We parked at Edward Gardens and headed south on the path through Wilket Creek Park. The GPS signal was good, and we were making good progress. The distance to the cache was dropping steadily ... until .. suddenly .. with about 70 metres to go, the numbers started going up.
"Ok, ok. That just means I have to change direction."
And so we did, and we walked in circles for a little bit until the dread hit us, and I was having the following conversation .. mainly with myself:
"It's over there ... We just have to cross the creek .."
"It looks really shallow."
" .. and scale that cliff."
"Oh."
We ended up back tracking almost to the beginning of the trail to find the stairs and try again. (I can't quite remember, but I think we ended up leaving the park and roaming around slightly aimlessly until we found another entrance, but at least we were on the right side of the creek and cliff now).
We finally got to the general area, already tired, and climbed around up and down a steep slope, but to no avail. The GPS had us within a few meters, but absolutely nothing. The clue didn't make sense either. Frustrated, we sat down to have a snack of Chinese pancakes that my parents had given us the night before. I ate, but I was still on edge. We were so close, so I left Anne with the remaining pancakes.
I had a purpose, a mission to find that cache, and I would go about it by roaming aimlessly in an area not that close to where the GPS signal said it was. Then I saw something not quite right. There was a clump of leaves and bark at the bottom of a tree. Being on the side of a hill, I wasn't surprised to see that, but there was this huge piece of birch bark, like a white beacon. Beneath this clump was indeed the cache.
I'm glad that we found it. It was the size of a small suitcase, and we would have felt like idiots for missing it. Of course, after all that hard work, I was feeling like a dick, and discarded the birch bark when re-covering it.
Great. Off to the next cache. I didn't think it at the time, but this is probably where ptowferret would be making remarks about how great her topo maps are. The next cache required us to go back to where we had back tracked from (and then some), so that we could climb more hills again. (Or was it the cache after this one?)
Anyways, it wasn't a easy hike to this cache either. We eventually got to the general area, and were thinking, "This'll be an easy find. There aren't that many hiding places here."
Famous last words.
We found .. nothing. Well, we found a great hiding place, but no cache. Then we found a blue tupperware lip out in the open, but still no cache. The tupperware lid had "www.geocaching.com" written on it. It even had "Spiderkid and Granny's cache" written on it, but no cache. We eventually decide that this was indeed the cache, at least what was left of it. We threw the lid into the hole where it would have gone, covered it up, and took a picture of it.
Now, onto one of our first "Unknown" caches, where we had to solve a puzzle to get the co-ordinates. Anne solved this puzzle in 10 seconds and then just as quickly decided that it couldn't be right.
Frank - Of course, it's right.
Anne - But the difficulty level seems too high for such an easy solution.
Frank - It's by IBM. How could it be wrong?
Famous last words.
The next day, I am told by ptowferret that "The difficulty level is too high for such an easy solution". Well, it saved me a trip to IBM. The clue? It's within 5km of the original co-ordinates, and this is just over that distance. The right answer is the only answer that is within 5km.
We ended up spending an evening with the calculator tools on www.gpsvisualizer.com, on two different computers, with an Excel spreadsheet, and lots of skepticism from Anne, before we finally got an answer that looked right. Now, we finally had a chance to look for it. How hard could it be? It's on a train bridge. Probably a magnetic box painted the same colour as the bridge.
Famous last words.
First, at this point, we weren't even in the right park. The parks only looked connected, but there was Leslie Street in between. We ended up having to trek out of the park we were in, and across Leslie, then down a steep, giant flight of stairs. "We'll find another way back" are the famous last words uttered by Anne. (We find out later that the parks indeed are connected, and it wasn't necessary to climb down and, yes, up those stairs).
Second, while we didn't know it at the time, the train bridge was playing havoc with the GPS signal. It was bouncing everywhere, so we weren't getting any readings that would put us close to the actual location of the container.
Third, which we find out later as well, it wasn't a magnetic box at all. It was just plain ol' tupperware.
Anne and I ended up climbing all over the bridge for what seemed like forever, but was probably close to about 30 - 45 minutes. Absolutely no luck. We don't even see anything that resembles a container, except for the plastic pop bottles all over the ground.
We finally give up, and head for the next cache. Suddenly, my GPS starts to complain that it's low on batteries. Suddenly, I am power walking towards the next cache. I am walking so fast that I go right by the cache, and keep going, and turn around, cursing, because any moment now, the battery would be dead.
I meet up with Anne, who was calmly walking and checking out possible hiding spots. We finally do find the container behind a log, but decide that we were done for the day.
No more famous last words. At least not for that day.
There are a lot of parks near the Ontario Science Centre, and there are several caches in those parks, all "close" together. Before we got there, we decided to tie up a loose end at the Oriole GO Station. This time, we were prepared, having looked at satellite pictures of the area, and realizing that we were way off the first time.
We drove into the deserted parking lot, and parked closer to the pedistrian bridge. Then we let the GPS go wild. We got to within 5 meters and Anne was able to spot the container. "Yay! Let's hope the rest of the day is this easy!"
Famous last words.
We parked at Edward Gardens and headed south on the path through Wilket Creek Park. The GPS signal was good, and we were making good progress. The distance to the cache was dropping steadily ... until .. suddenly .. with about 70 metres to go, the numbers started going up.
"Ok, ok. That just means I have to change direction."
And so we did, and we walked in circles for a little bit until the dread hit us, and I was having the following conversation .. mainly with myself:
"It's over there ... We just have to cross the creek .."
"It looks really shallow."
" .. and scale that cliff."
"Oh."
We ended up back tracking almost to the beginning of the trail to find the stairs and try again. (I can't quite remember, but I think we ended up leaving the park and roaming around slightly aimlessly until we found another entrance, but at least we were on the right side of the creek and cliff now).
We finally got to the general area, already tired, and climbed around up and down a steep slope, but to no avail. The GPS had us within a few meters, but absolutely nothing. The clue didn't make sense either. Frustrated, we sat down to have a snack of Chinese pancakes that my parents had given us the night before. I ate, but I was still on edge. We were so close, so I left Anne with the remaining pancakes.
I had a purpose, a mission to find that cache, and I would go about it by roaming aimlessly in an area not that close to where the GPS signal said it was. Then I saw something not quite right. There was a clump of leaves and bark at the bottom of a tree. Being on the side of a hill, I wasn't surprised to see that, but there was this huge piece of birch bark, like a white beacon. Beneath this clump was indeed the cache.
I'm glad that we found it. It was the size of a small suitcase, and we would have felt like idiots for missing it. Of course, after all that hard work, I was feeling like a dick, and discarded the birch bark when re-covering it.
Great. Off to the next cache. I didn't think it at the time, but this is probably where ptowferret would be making remarks about how great her topo maps are. The next cache required us to go back to where we had back tracked from (and then some), so that we could climb more hills again. (Or was it the cache after this one?)
Anyways, it wasn't a easy hike to this cache either. We eventually got to the general area, and were thinking, "This'll be an easy find. There aren't that many hiding places here."
Famous last words.
We found .. nothing. Well, we found a great hiding place, but no cache. Then we found a blue tupperware lip out in the open, but still no cache. The tupperware lid had "www.geocaching.com" written on it. It even had "Spiderkid and Granny's cache" written on it, but no cache. We eventually decide that this was indeed the cache, at least what was left of it. We threw the lid into the hole where it would have gone, covered it up, and took a picture of it.
Now, onto one of our first "Unknown" caches, where we had to solve a puzzle to get the co-ordinates. Anne solved this puzzle in 10 seconds and then just as quickly decided that it couldn't be right.
Frank - Of course, it's right.
Anne - But the difficulty level seems too high for such an easy solution.
Frank - It's by IBM. How could it be wrong?
Famous last words.
The next day, I am told by ptowferret that "The difficulty level is too high for such an easy solution". Well, it saved me a trip to IBM. The clue? It's within 5km of the original co-ordinates, and this is just over that distance. The right answer is the only answer that is within 5km.
We ended up spending an evening with the calculator tools on www.gpsvisualizer.com, on two different computers, with an Excel spreadsheet, and lots of skepticism from Anne, before we finally got an answer that looked right. Now, we finally had a chance to look for it. How hard could it be? It's on a train bridge. Probably a magnetic box painted the same colour as the bridge.
Famous last words.
First, at this point, we weren't even in the right park. The parks only looked connected, but there was Leslie Street in between. We ended up having to trek out of the park we were in, and across Leslie, then down a steep, giant flight of stairs. "We'll find another way back" are the famous last words uttered by Anne. (We find out later that the parks indeed are connected, and it wasn't necessary to climb down and, yes, up those stairs).
Second, while we didn't know it at the time, the train bridge was playing havoc with the GPS signal. It was bouncing everywhere, so we weren't getting any readings that would put us close to the actual location of the container.
Third, which we find out later as well, it wasn't a magnetic box at all. It was just plain ol' tupperware.
Anne and I ended up climbing all over the bridge for what seemed like forever, but was probably close to about 30 - 45 minutes. Absolutely no luck. We don't even see anything that resembles a container, except for the plastic pop bottles all over the ground.
We finally give up, and head for the next cache. Suddenly, my GPS starts to complain that it's low on batteries. Suddenly, I am power walking towards the next cache. I am walking so fast that I go right by the cache, and keep going, and turn around, cursing, because any moment now, the battery would be dead.
I meet up with Anne, who was calmly walking and checking out possible hiding spots. We finally do find the container behind a log, but decide that we were done for the day.
No more famous last words. At least not for that day.
Labels: geocaching
posted by Frank Yao | 10:35 PM
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