By now, most cachers should have spotted both of the formation puzzle series that are located off the shores of Bell Island. One series is called NL Heroes by Gilligan and Maryjane and the other one is the Music Is Life: Mega Series by, yours truly, Jewel&Gem. Both of these series have become quite popular and have received several compliments, as the puzzles are quite informative.
After seeing several formation series, made out of puzzle caches, and creating one of my own, I began wondering how hard it would be to create a formation series made out of traditional (physical) caches. And if I did create one, what formation would I choose? As I began looking for a suitable location for a series on Google Earth, I quickly realized the formation I was going to create. Most people who really know my wife and I know how much our faith plays a role in our lives. Everyday we go caching, we give thanks to our Lord and Saviour for keeping us safe and for helping us. That is just who we are. So I decided I was going to make a cross formation using physically placed caches.
The cross formation is inside the red box. (click to enlarge)
A pole line in the area would provide an easy way to place most of the caches. Three or four of the caches would involve a bit of trekking through the woods. To ensure the straightest possible formation, I started by creating the cross on Google Earth. After creating the formation, I inputted the coordinates of all twelve caches into my GPS as waypoints. Now, I needed twelve cache containers. I decided that the center of the cross would be a regular-sized cache containing trinkets. All others would be micro containers. Magicdog graciously donated eleven micro containers for the cause. I wish to thank him for his kind gesture. Once the caches were ready, I headed out to place them. Although I knew I may not get the caches placed at the exact coordinates I got from Google Earth, it was important to get them as close as possible. This involved a bit of trailblazing for three caches and some serious bushwhacking on one (#10). After all the caches were placed, it was time for a name. There could only be one name for me. I decided to call the series “The Way” after one of my favorite Bible scriptures.
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." John 14:6
The write-ups for each cache also had to be done right. Geocaching.com has no objections to caches containing religious content, as long as there is no solicitation. Therefore, since this series was a celebration of our faith, and not us preaching to everyone, I ensured my text did not contain any content that would be construed as solicitation. I must have done everything right because the caches were approved just 30 minutes after I had submitted them. That was, indeed, a record for us. The result is the formation you see in the included image. We realize that this formation could be compromised if cachers decide to add other caches next to it. We would hope, though, that cachers would respect us enough to place them at least 400 meters away from any end of the formation. If that doesn’t happen, it is no bother. We will always be able to see the cross, no matter how obscured it becomes.
Here is a list of the caches, with links to get to them.
We realize that not everyone is a believer. We totally respect every form of faith, including those that don’t believe. We certainly hope, however, that any lack of beliefs will not stop cachers from heading out to get the caches. Afterall, they are caches, first and foremost, and are a celebration of our faith, not necessarily anyone elses.
Twenty caches form a musical note. (click to enlarge)
By now, most local cachers have become familiar with our Music Is Life caching series. They are a series of five caches that are located near five music stores around the St. John’s and Mount Pearl area. Most cachers that know me, know that I love music. As an amateur drummer and, more importantly, percussionist, music is definitely life for me. Therefore, it was only a matter of time that I would create a mega series devoted to music. After a lot of work and a lot of waiting (the approval process was really slow on this one), we are very excited to present the Music Is Life: Mega Series!
Two series in New Brunswick. (click to enlarge)
It all started a few months ago when I was looking at the power trail on Prince Edward Island and wishing (drooling over it is a better phrase) I could go and get all of them. It was then I noticed the letters PEI written on the water in puzzle caches. Cool! As I zoomed out, my eyes fixated on a spot in New Brunswick. I remembered our friends Diego and Dora mentioning this formation to me. It was a series of puzzle caches in the shape of a dog’s head with a multicache as the dog’s eye. That was it for me. I just had to create one of my own. I couldn’t, however, figure out what to do or find the time to do it. Eventually, I set my mind to it and prepared 20 caches and placed them along a trail near Paradise. That was the easy part. The hardest and most time-consuming part was creating 20 puzzle caches about music. With my wife and son’s help, we came up with 20 topics and came up with respective dates and numbers to use as clues. After preparing all of the caches, which took a fair bit of time, I submitted them and waited over a week for publishing. The caches are located over the water between Bell Island and C.B.S and create the image of a musical note. The physical caches are located on a 4km trail near Paradise. Since you will be working hard to find the answers to the clues, we made the physical caches easy finds. We hope you enjoy them! If you haven’t had a chance yet, be sure to check out the NL formation above Bell Island, which is Gilligan and Maryjane‘s NL Heroes series. You will have a lot of fun with that one, too!
Here are a list of the caches and the aspects of music they highlight:
Life! Good or bad, it is something we can’t escape. It is something we must enjoy and endure until we we reach the end of our term in this world. I tend to think of life like a baseball pitcher. Sometimes the pitcher will throw curve balls and change-ups causing us to strikeout. Other times, the pitcher throws a pitch that allows us to get a line drive and get ourselves on base. Occasionally, we might even get the ball to pass through our “sweet spot” where we drive it clear out of the park. In a nutshell, life throws all kinds of surprises at you. Some are bad and some are quite good. There is no set ratio of good to bad and that ratio differs from person to person. Geocaching is the same. As geocachers, we are sometimes thrown a curve ball when we have trouble finding a cache everyone else found easy. Other times we luck into finding a hard cache with minimal effort. Rarely, we are even blessed with a trackable actually sitting in a cache! Whatever the type of pitch, I generally swing at them all, preferring to live life completely with the ups and downs. Life threw me four pleasant surprises just a week ago when I was in the last week of my two week vacation. Here is the story. Don’t worry, there are some caches listed as well.
Cupid’s Haven Tea Room. The carrot cake was scrumptious! (click to enlarge)
Denise and I, along with our son Zachary (aka tinyseeker), were heading on over to the event being held in Gander. The event was on a Saturday but we left on a Thursday so that we could get a couple days of caching in. The plan was to drive as far as Clarenville that evening and do a bit of caching on the way. Friends of ours had been considering putting off an event and wanted us to get some coordinates for them. Therefore, on the way, we dropped down into North River and retrieved the coordinates. Since we were down this way, we decided to go get the new park and grabs that were released in Cupids a week before. As we got to the first cache called Millbrook Garden (GC3R67M) by scrunchions, I notice that a familiar cacher had signed the log on the current date. It was, none other than, magicdog. We wondered if he could still be here in Cupids so I decided to text him. I believe my text read “Still in Cupids?”. One cache later, we got a reply which read “Yes. How did u know?” We exchanged a couple more texts and finally met up with him at Cupids Harbour View #2 (GC3R69M), also by scrunchions. After chatting a bit and listening to some home-grown newfie (accordion) music from a nearby residence, we reluctantly continued on to the remaining two caches together. The last cache for the area was Is That King Lear I Hear (GC3R6CG) by scrunchions. After retrieving the cache, we all decided to drop in to the Cupid’s Haven Tea Room for a piece of dessert and a cold beverage. This was our first time here and the food was delicious. All of us had the carrot cake while tinyseeker had a fudge sundae. We chatted a little while, mostly about non-geocaching things. As we were about to leave and pay our bills, magicdog picked up the tab. Wow! What a pleasant surprise. We wish to thank him for his great company and kind gesture. Hopefully we can return the favor sometime.
What a view! Tinyseeker posing by the Inukshuk. (click to enlarge)
After leaving Cupids, we continued on our journey to Clarenville. Again, as we traveled, we stopped for park and grabs along the way. As most of you are aware, highway park and grabs rarely provide an abundance of excitement. They are usually hidden on road signs or in trees along the side of the road. As we started to get closer to the Dough Hills, we came upon a cache called The View of Two Bays (GC3QMWV) by guyfox68. This cache wasn’t easy to get to as you need to climb up on top of a rock-cut. No matter which side you attack it from, it can be a bit treacherous. As I got out of the car to make a go for it, I noticed that tinyseeker was right on my heels. Gem wasn’t too happy about him going but I told her he would be alright. As we climbed, it got easier except for one spot where I smashed my knee into a rock. I dealt with the pain by telling myself it would hurt a lot worse later on. When we got to ground zero, we found the cache easily. After I signed the log, I took a look around. What a beautiful view from up here. As I took a picture of tinyseeker next to the an Inukshuk someone had placed here, I had to make sure he didn’t pop his head up to far. Even though he is not close to the edge in the picture, if his Mom would have seen his head pop up, she would fear the worse. As my son and I seemed to be standing on top of the world (relatively speaking), I kept thinking “what a pleasant surprise this cache turned out to be.”
There are three government wharfs here. (click to enlarge)
Continuing on to Clarenville, we came up on the turnoff to Southern Harbour, which is a small community near Arnold’s Cove. I told magicdog that I was going to visit Southern Harbour to get the 9 caches that were placed there, all by guyfox68. He told me that Southern Harbour would be a surprise because it wouldn’t be what I was expecting. Southern Harbour is a scenic community characterized by its rocky coastline, marshlands and inland woodlands. Butler’s Head is a well known place in Southern Harbour and overlooks the community. It is considered to be a lookout by the residents. There is also a spot called Bottom Pond where they hold their annual summer celebrations. The mainstay of the community continues to be the fishery which is evident by the three government-maintained wharves that are located here.
View from the cache called “The Old Stump.” (click to enlarge)
When I originally put the Southern Harbour geocaches into my GPSr, I wasn’t expecting much in the way of a vibrant community. With the fishery in turmoil, I was expecting to see a run down community with only a dirt road being its connection to the rest of the world. As I drove down the road, picking up the first four caches in the series, it seemed like my expectations were going to be dead on, minus the dirt road. As I went for the fifth cache, titled The old stump (GC3Q8YN), I finally seen a vibrant, beautiful communuity. The remaining four caches brought us to various different vantage points in the community. The last cache, They no longer play here (GC3Q8XP), is located on a hill near a playground. From here, two items really stood out. First, was the view of the oil refinery in a the distance. The second was how clean the playground was. It was in pristine shape with no grafitti anywhere. In St. John’s, there is hardly one playground that could tout the same claim to fame. Wow! Three pleasant surprises in one day! This was shaping up to be a great trip! We finally made it to Clarenville for our nightly rest stop.
Not many caches in that tub. (click to enlarge)
The next day, I had it all planned out. I had 41 caches put in the GPSr and we were going to travel two separate routes – one down to Little Heart’s Eease and one to St. Jone’s Within. Well, my plan didn’t quite work out. Out of 41 caches in the area, we got a total of 5 that day. We had driven all the way to Little Heart’s Ease and were working our way back. Well, my wife’s only uncle lives there. We dropped in for a visit and he wanted us to go out in boat for an hour or two. Now, for those that don’t know me, I am always reluctant to go fishing or camping. Don’t get me wrong, I am fine when I get there and I have a great time. Getting me to go is always the tough part. I figured, however, that two hours wasn’t a bad thing. It would still leave us time to get some caching in. So we went. We were gone for 4 hours. We couldn’t seem to find the right spot for fish. In the end, I caught 2, tinyseeker caught 2 and everyone else caught 3. I did have a great time, though and didn’t even notice that I was missing out on caching. They gave all of the fish to me so I walked away with 7 filleted cod fish. That evening, back in Clarenville, I cooked my supper – fresh, pan-fried cod fillet. It was delicious! Again, another pleasant surprise! The only drawback to the day was realizing I missed out on a unique first to find. Apparently, there is a cache in the bay that nobody has gotten yet, despite being released a year ago. It is called Out in the Bay (GC33VRD) by tsnook. Apparently, we were fishing very close to that area. Had I known, I would have had my wife’s uncle bring me there. Oh well! Did I say that the fish was delicious? We ended up getting all of the caches we missed down to St. Jone’s Within the day after the event. That was a definite bonus.
We went to the event and had a great time caching with some new and veteran cachers. In all, we found 38 caches the day of the event. the only drawback to the event was that it rained the whole time we were caching. Tinyseeker and I were soaked from head to toe. Normally, being wet is not a good feeling. That day, however, we didn’t seem to mind being wet. That, itself, turned out to be the biggest (and pleasant) surprise of all!
Here are a couple more pictures of Southern Harbour.
Beautiful place. (click to enlarge)
A neat way to dry the fish. (click to enlarge)
How about you? Do you have any real pleasant surprises to tell us about? Well, here is your chance. Let us know by commenting below. If you would like to comment on this post or any other post, please do so using the comment box below each post. We would love to hear from you! You can also let us know how we are doing!
As the second last day of my two-week vacation draws to a close, I sit here wondering where all of the time went. Surely it can’t be over yet! Why are vacations always so short? We had planned to do a fair bit of caching but never got nearly the number of caches we were hoping for. We did, however, manage to accomplish one of the items on our vacation list and attend the geocaching event in Gander. That, coupled with a cod jigging trip yesterday, brought a little bit of geocaching redemption to my vacation.
The Un-Birthday Cake. (click to enlarge)
The Gander event was called My Unbirthday Event (GC3NZ9W) and was hosted by YQX52.The full details on why the event was called “un”birthday is contained in the event description. In a nutshell, everyone has one birthday and 364 unbirthdays. Last year, several cachers from the Gander area threw a surprise birthday for YQX52, the event host. The only snag in their plan was that they missed his birthday by 7-8 days. Therefore, they threw him an unbirthday party. This unbirthday was the inspiration for this event.
There was a fair turnout! Missing from photo is me! (click to enlarge)
The event started with everyone meeting at the Subway on Airport Blvd at 9AM in Gander for a bit of breakfast. Since we had driven in from Clarenville that morning, we had already had breakfast. The event had a pretty rocky start, with the host showing up late, and seemed somewhat unorganized. It regained its composure as the event went on. There were approximately 35 cachers in attendance. Most were from the local area. On the eastern side, cachers came from as far as St. John’s while the western-most cacher resides in Saskatchewan.
Inside Subway. (click to enlarge)
After the introductions, the cache sheets were handed out. In all, there were 22 caches placed out for this event. Thanks to GOTNL, HannahMar, Snik&Jane, and YQX52 for placing caches for this event. Due to YQX52 having Internet problems, however, we were unable to get the coordinates for three of the caches. We will have to wait until another visit to get those. While everyone was inputting the coordinates of the new caches into their GPS units, the cake was cut and served to anyone who wanted a piece.
Inside Subway. (click to enlarge)
Then, it was off to the races. For the first time in a long time, we did the team-up scenario. We teamed up with two veteran and two semi-new cachers and headed out to Little Harbour to get the new caches that were placed out there. We managed to get first to find (FTF) on 7 of 8 in that series. In all, we managed to find all 19 of the caches for which we had coordinates. Upon completion of the event caches, we parted ways with our team mates and went on to find 18 more already-existing caches in the area. Because of the rain, we were soaked from head to toe. Despite being wet, however, we had a great time!
The host of the event, YQX52, in the center. (click to enlarge)
After an afternoon of caching, all cachers were invited back to have supper at Subway. Once everyone had a bit of grub, YQX52, with the help of Heyou, drew for prizes. The event had really great prizes that ranged from micro cache containers to an actual Garmin GPS. Pretty cool! Congratulations to Snik&Jane on winning the first to find (FTF) for the event. After the prizes, we had to leave as we were driving back to Clarenville and didn’t want to be running into moose in the dark. Many of the cachers stayed for awhile chatting about the day. Thanks go out to YQX52 for hosting this event. A special thanks goes out to all who helped in this event’s success. We don’t get a chance to cache out this way very often and we were happy we had a great reason to make the trip. Now we must make the trek back so that I can get into some dry clothes. Brrr! Air conditioning is a bad idea when you are wet!
Have you ever been to a real sporting event? I am not talking about your local softball game or your child’s soccer game. I mean an NHL game or a Blue Jays baseball game. If you answered yes, I consider you very lucky! If you said no, I share your sentiment. I haven’t been to the big leagues either. I do, however, remember growing up in Corner Brook and attending Corner Brook Royals hockey games with my Dad. One of the most vivid memories I have of those times, aside from spending quality time with my Dad, is a group of Royals fans that all sat in Section A of the old Humber Gardens. The group were called the A-team and were known to be extremists as fans went. They would paint their faces, do the ritual dances at every goal, and throw opposing players off their game by shouting insults. They were so tight as a group that they would travel together to opposing communities, such as Stephenville and Port aux Basques, and upset a lot of opposing fans and players with their crazy antics. You might say that they were die hard, down to the core, fans that truly loved the game. Over the last year, I have learned that Geocaching is no different than many sporting events. Geocaching has its own die-hard fanatics that truly love the game!
Now don’t get me wrong. Everyone who geocaches loves the sport. Yes, I do consider geocaching a sport. It involves physical activity, a bit of brain power and a bit of strategy. Sounds like a sport to me! So, like I just said, every geocacher loves the sport. There are, however, certain people who go that extra distance to show their undying love for such a great activity. I have heard many stories and even seen many actions that prove just how far people will go for the sport of geocaching. Even though my wife and I do not cache as feverishly as we used to, we still consider ourselves geocaching fanatics. While there are numerous examples of geocaching fanatics, this post will attempt to highlight just a fraction of those, starting with the mild and moving to the more extreme.
And don’t you forget it! (click to enlarge)
A fair number of geocachers are, what I would call, mildly passionate about the sport. Cachers in this class are the ones who dress the part. You will find them wearing shirts, hats and coats that bear the geocaching logo or have some catchy phrase about geocaching written on them. I own a t-shirt (given to me by my good friend Diego) that has the phrase I use multi-million dollar satellites to find tupperware in the woods. I have been tempted to buy the shirt shown in the photo but, with a couple of run-ins with the police while geocaching (don’t worry, I am getting to that), I am not sure it is such a great idea. Other cachers, including us, have turned their vehicles into a trackable. It makes events more fun as you are always looking at all the vehicles for trackable codes.
Check out Nails by Megan. (click to enlarge)
While dressing the part is considered just a mild form being a geocaching fanatic, some people have taken it to the next level and have either had the geocaching logo carved into their hair or have had the the logo put on their fingernails. The latter is the case for a local cacher who goes by the username Adempsey. At this years flash mob event, I got the chance to meet her and her nails were quickly brought to my attention. Each one of her nails were done in true geocaching style. In a later communication with her, I suggested that she get a trackable number and make her hands trackable. I haven’t had the chance to see if she actually did this, yet! If anyone else is interested in getting something like this done, her nails were done by Nails by Megan in Portugal Cove.
While I am not a fan of tattoos, this one is cool! (click to enlarge)
I realize that getting your nails or hair done to display your love of geocaching may not be such a big deal. Afterall, these measures are merely temporary. If you give up geocaching (don’t talk those words), you can grow your hair back or paint over your nails. There is no more evidence that you hunted innocent plastic containers in the woods, for fun! What do you think about geocaching tattoos? Is that fanatical enough? I mean, for the most part, tattoos are permanent. You can’t just rub it off like the stick-on tattoos we all used in our childhood. You are mostly stuck with whatever geocaching related emblem you had inked. While I haven’t run into any cachers bearing geocaching tattoos, I did browse the Internet for some examples of this skin artwork. I found several pictures of artwork depicting geocaching in many forms. I even found tattoos that were done with tracking codes. While I am not a huge fan of tattoos, if I chose to get one, I would want a trackable number on mine. If I ever decide to get one (not very likely), I will be sure to let you know.
I have seen these guys twice since I started caching! (click to enlarge)
So far, I have covered the fanatical aesthetics of geocaching. What about the actual activity of finding geocaches? What about first to finds (FTFs)? How fanatical are you about that? I was told a story about a geocacher I know who wanted an FTF so bad that he forgot to put his car in park and jumped out of the car while it was still moving slightly. Is that fanatical enough for you? My wife and I consider ourselves FTF fanatics. We no longer rush to get FTFs at events as it is impossible to get many unless you are first to get to a series of caches located on a trail. Most big events have the caches scattered all over which makes it tough to get many first to finds. We do, however, rush out to get new caches that are nearby in order to get that FTF. We have gone out as late as 2AM, even on dark woods roads. Since coyotes have been spotted in our area, we don’t do the late night, dark woods road caching anymore. We will still go out to get a new, late night urban cache. Our late night escapades have had us run into the law on two occasions, which leads me to this story. A while ago, we were sitting at home getting ready for bed when an alert went off on both our smart phones. An alert on both our phones meant only one thing – a new cache. I looked it up on Geocaching.com to see where it was. It was near my son’s school. It was 12:10AM but we loved getting late night FTFs so we took off in the car for the cache. Upon arrival, I parked the car on the road and walked down an embankment to the wooded area that contained ground zero. As we were standing there, a police car drove past my car and a female officer shined a flashlight in the window. My wife and I stood still and waited for her to see us. She didn’t. She turned around and drove away. As she was driving away, we ran up in the woods to find the cache. While we were looking, I heard the squeak of vehicle brakes and a car door open and close. Then I heard the car door open and close again. I decided to look and, as I came out of the woods, I seen the cop driving away. I told my wife that if she came back, we would have to let her know what we were doing. Well, she came back. We came out and walked towards the police car and attempted to tell the female officer what we were doing. I even showed her my GPS which showed the cache, its description, hint and how far it was away. She appeared to be upset and didn’t want to hear our explanation. She accused us of drinking in the woods. I actually laughed. I couldn’t help it! Why would two forty-something non-drinkers have to drink in the woods when, if we did, we could do it in the comfort of our home. All of a sudden, more police vehicles showed up. In all, there were three police cruisers and the K9 dog unit at our location. A little bit extreme, wouldn’t you say? Now I know why she was upset. I would be too, if I had called that much backup. A male officer showed up and knew what geocaching was. He looked at his fellow officer and told her to let us get the cache and we would go home. She refused and started arguing with him. Finally, I intervened and told them to not worry. We left and went home empty-handed. I, however, returned that morning before work and still got the FTF! How intense was that? Is that fanatical enough for you?
Well, if all the previous examples were not fanatical enough for you, what do you think about a geocaching marriage proposal? This example was actually featured on Geocaching.com and involved a real, published cache. Wow! An FTF is imperative here, would you say? A guy had a cache published and set out with his girlfriend to get an FTF. When asked about the camera, he said he wanted to document a real FTF hunt. Well, she found the cache and was first to find. The cache contained a love note to her asking for her hand in marriage. When she turned around, he was on one knee with the ring. Whew! I was relieved to see that he never placed the ring in a live cache. Could you imagine what a great FTF prize a wedding ring would be? The person who posted the video said that a real FTF hound showed up five minutes after the video finished, looking for an FTF. Wow! True fanatics? No? Well, watch the video anyway!
Team Yo Mama’s Wedding (click to enlarge)
Well, if a proposal done geocaching style wasn’t extreme enough for you, how about a geocaching wedding, so to speak? Two local geocachers, Gilligan and Maryjane, got married almost a year ago. While their actual wedding didn’t take place at a geocaching event, friends of theirs did host an event called Gilligan and Mary Jane Get Hitched (GC31VHH). Many local geocachers showed up and the Bride and Groom, dressed in their formal wear, made an appearance long enough to mingle awhile and get some photos done. It turned out to be a fun time and it was great to be able to share a little bit of their happy day with them! If you research on the Internet, there have even been cases of a full-fledged geocaching wedding. Now that is both fantastic and fanatical.
Now, please don’t be upset at my use of the word fanatic. Please know that I use it only as a compliment and testimony to your extreme love of geocaching. I would love to have a geocaching wedding! However, I have already been married for 21 years. At my age, there aren’t too many great events left that I could use to show I am a geocaching fanatic. Maybe, I could be a real fanatic and have a geocaching funeral when I pass on. What do you think?
Seriously, what do you think? What is the most fanatical geocaching thing that you have done? Please tell us by leaving a comment below. You can also leave us a message letting us know how we are doing! We would love to read your feedback.
I start off this blog post with an apology. My main blog posts are always published on a Thursday but, since we are on vacation, I was unable to get it written and published in time. For those of you that were expecting it then, I apologize.
A view back at the lower battery. (click to enlarge)
A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege to finish off all of the caches located around Signal Hill. It was there that I came up with the idea to do a three part blogging series on our beloved and historic Signal Hill. Why three parts, you ask? Well, there is so much to write about when it comes to Signal Hill, the Battery, and all the caches that exist here. Therefore, to do the area justice, I am breaking it up into three parts: The Lower Battery, The Upper Battery and Towards the Valley. I decided to do the Lower Battery first, since it was the place I visited recently and I have some nice pictures to include in the post. Even though I have the rest of Signal Hill done, I will be going back there with my son, tinyseeker, since he doesn’t have them all yet.
Flower Power! (click to enlarge)
Actually, this was my first walk on the Lower Battery. I had been to the top several times and had even walked part way down the stairway, but always walked back up to my car. This time, however, I went with my geocaching buddy, Diego, and we were on a mission to get those last two caches. While I was expecting a long tiresome walk towards the top, I wasn’t expecting the unexpected – a trip back in time to a much simpler and relaxed era. Just like the relaxed times of the sixties (as seen in movies), the atmosphere in the lower Battery is one of calm and worry-free. The houses seem to be clinging on to the rock for dear life while the residents are either sitting outside or doing some gardening. Absent from this area is the rat-race, busy lifestyles that seem to exist just a kilometer away.
These signs are located throughout the lower battery. (click to enlarge)
Upon entering the Lower Battery, we noticed a unique sign called [Here]Say that had a phone number that you could call if you wanted to know information about the area you were standing in. We decided to call it and were greeted with a recording of a lady asking us to enter the code on the sign. After we entered the code, we were presented with an old story about this particular area in the voice of a local resident. How cool is that? The code we seen was 126, meaning that there might be more of these signs around. We couldn’t wait! We ended up finding six more of those signs on our stroll through the area. There is also one cache that almost immediately greets you when you enter the area. It is called A View For A Screw (GC3BEEN) and was placed by jackamo55. The cache definitely lives up to its name on both counts.
The beautiful mural near Waldegrave’s Cache. (click to enlarge)
The second cache in the Lower Battery is Waldegrave’s Cache (GC1YDH3) which was placed by vickyth. The cache description provides the best details about this area, known as Fort Waldegrave. Part of it reads: Located at the Entrance of St. John’s Harbour, Fort Waldegrave is named after Lord Waldegrave who was Governor of Newfoundland during the Napoleanic Wars. This Fort along with others was built for the Protection of the City. Cannons were first mounted at Fort Waldegrave during King William’s War. During Queen Anne’s War, the French captured the gun emplacement and fired the cannon across the harbour at the South Side Castle. A fort was built at the site and it served to protect St. John’s harbour during the American Revolution. Very near to Fort Waldegrave is a beautiful mural that was painted by Derek Holmes and depicts what life was like here, not too long ago. I was so amazed at how he managed to make the faces look so real and capture facial expressions so well. It is definitely worth a look, in person.
A place that makes handcrafted pottery. (click to enlarge)
As you continue to walk through the Lower Battery, there are no more caches to get until you get through to the other side. You are, however, treated to various houses of different styles that seem to be growing out of the rock. Some houses are old and some are newly built and look very expensive. There is a bed and breakfast here, for sale. The asking price for it is over $2 million! Ouch!
An old twine shop for getting nets, traps, and pots made. (click to enlarge)
There are also a few businesses that seem to have been here awhile and have stood the test of time. One such business is a pottery shop that makes handcrafted pottery and souvenirs. We didn’t go inside but managed to look in the window. From what we seen, they are of good quality. The other business located here is an old twine shop. Twine shops were where a fisherman went to get his fishing nets, lobster traps or crab pots made or mended. With the fishery in the state it is in, it is a wonder this business survived. We couldn’t tell if the place was still in business but, if it is, it may be the last twine shop in the area.
Diego starting our journey up the trail. (click to enlarge)
After our pleasant stroll through the little streets of the Lower Battery, we came to the last house. From there the trail up to North Head, and on up to Cabot Tower, starts. The trail seems to start by walking up onto somebody’s patio. How weird is that? As we were heading up onto the trail to get our last two caches, we noticed two ladies cleaning blood from the patio. When we inquired, we were told that a moose had fallen down a cliff in the area. The only way wildlife officials could get the animal out was to cut it up into four quarters and drag each piece out to their truck. The incident seemed to have added some excitement to their, otherwise, peaceful day. Diego and I briefly continued to talk about the animal’s demise as we began our trek up towards North Head.
Next to Piglet’s Bottomless Pit cache. (click to enlarge)
About half the way to North Head, you will arrive at Piglets Bottomless Pit Cache (GCWNRM). The cache was put there by (guess who) Piglet1. This cache is placed near a crack in the rock. If you listen closely, you can here the wave action splashing inside the crack. The cache description asks you to toss a stone down into the crack. A lot of cachers must have already done this because I had problems finding a stone to throw. I managed to find one and threw it down the pit. While the pit is not bottomless, the stone fell a fair distance before I heard a splash. The trail is a busy spot, so watch out for muggles when retrieving the cache.
View near the North Head cache. (click to enlarge)
Our final destination for the day was North Head, which is directly across the narrows from Fort Amherst. The last cache we needed on Signal Hill was in sight – on the GPSr, that is. This cache has a very fitting name and is called North Head (GC1GVJY). Placed by meteorman, it boasts some spectacular scenery with Fort Amherst in front of you and Cabot Tower, overlooking, behind you. The cache, itself, is located near a large boulder which should provide some cover from the view of muggles.
From here, the trail continues up many, many steps until you reach the top of Signal Hill and the Upper Battery. Join us on a future blog post for part two of this series as we explore the Upper Battery including Cabot Tower. For now, we encourage you to pay a visit to the Lower Battery. You won’t be dissapointed.
What about you? How many times have you toured the Lower Battery? Did you notice the [Here]Say signs? Have you called the one in our picture yet? If so, let us know by leaving a comment below. You can also let us know how we are doing!
Caching Heaven 