Labour day weekend = Labour full weekend

I have just started my 84 hour work week. Ironically, it begins before labour day, and ends after it. So far it isn't going to well. 8 hours in and I am having chest pains, and 2 very nasty meetings in the next couple of hours. Short blog entry, yes. I am busy.

Geocaching - All Quiet on the Western Front

Yesterday I had completed a milestone that I had my eye on for the last few weeks. I have cleared all the active geocaches within 50km of my home. I am slowing down my march towards 1000 as september looks to be a tricky month to maneuver a four day trip into. Instead it seems like I will be making my 1000th geocache the annual GHAGAFAP event (Golden Horseshoe Area Geocachers And Friends Annual Picnic) being hosted this year near London Ontario. Not quite as much a feat of accomplishment as I had been hoping to brag about (as all I really have to do to claim it is to show up), but I will share the podium with a few friends who will also be celebrating milestones that day. We will be doing some camping in the area that night, and pulling out the BFLs for a little night hunting.

The last cache I needed to conclude my 50km bubble was a series finale cache located around Orangeville, in the Hockley Highlands. Caledon is a really neat spot geologically, as you have both the Bruce trail and the oak ridges morrain intersecting.



This leads to some really neat mountains and hills. I finished off the day 10 points ahead, with one cache that I could not account for. The cache "Bailey's Bridge" has foiled me 6 times so far. This time was probably the most dramatic though. I thought that I had grabbed the cache twice while reaching under the bridge. Both times I pulled out a hand full of hornets and their nests. Good thing I am in shape now, otherwise the next geocacher might just find a stinger-ridden corpse at the site. I gave up after the 2 hornet clans (both of different species) began fighting eachother on the bridge. A really interesting sight, but I wasn't staying to see how it turned out. I will come back in the fall or winter when things have cooled down a bit.

Tommorow I am meeting some folks out on the Bruce trail to attempt a cache called "The Eagles Nest". We have all tried the cache before, and have all failed. The terrain is rated four out of five, and I would agree with that.. Almost saying it would be a four and a half. George and I went out here a while back and made it to the last stage, but were unable to find anything, so hopefully more luck will befall the group tommorow. I will probably try and replace a cache of mine as well tommorow that was stolen as a result of a careless finder being unable to put it back the way the found it.. There is a place for people like that. Pluto.

Pluto - Get out of here. You smell.

Well, After many angry letters (my exclamation key has the paint worn off it), the Astronomers union finally agrees with me:

BBC Article

CBC Article

Pluto isnt a planet. Charon isn't a planet. Ceres isnt a planet. 2003-UB313 (aka Xena, aka the planetoid of the prickoids) isn't a planet. So a big thank you goes out to the tireless astronomers out there, who get to fly all the way around the world to argue the definition of a word. Thank you for getting it right this time..

UPDATE: The TARDS at fox news disagree with me because they shouldn't have to unlearn things, despite the fact they didn't even bother to read the reason why the planet was demoted - see link

UPDATE: Swifteroo has purchased the domain "SavePluto.com" just to spite me. He did this because he is probably just as much a floating space turd as pluto is. YEAH! I am a hater.

Ceres-1, welcome to the solar system

How many planets in our solar system? 12!

After about 150 years of debate, scientists have FINALLY named the Ceres-1 planetiod a member of the Sol system planets. The Sol system now contains the classical 8 planets, and three contested planetoids Ceres-1, Pluto & Charon, and 2003-UB313, as "Planets". The definition of Planet has actually been defined as something that satisfies 2 conditions:

1. The object must be in orbit around a star, but must not itself be a star
2. It must have enough mass for the body's own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape

So, Pluto is a planet, Charon (I thought it was a moon!) is now considered a planet, Ceres is a planet (formerly known as an asteroid), and 2003-UB313 is a planet as well. There will likely be more planets discovered in the solar system from time to time, but the current total is 12.

Am I happy with this news? NO. Am I going to tell you why? NO. I am just going to sulk now. Enjoy your status Ceres-1. ENJOY.

COG coin - ready to be minted!

Lately I have been in email negotiations with a minter in BC regarding the minting of a coin for the Central Ontario Geocachers. Below are the options that the minter and myself have generated based on the feedback of the group forums for the coin (click to enlarge):



So far it looks like the majority of votes are going to option B and option 2, which I agree with. What do other people think? Any votes out there?

Coins should go into production later this year. Contact me if you would like one. Members only coins will be Copper, and coins made with silver and gold will be availiable for purchase for approx 10$.

10^4, little buddy

If any of you have been keeping track of the little icon on the right hand side of the page (with the angry frog?), you may have noticed that my number of finds is approaching 1000. This is quite the milestone, as it will likely be the last time that the number will ever grow in character size.


So now the preperation begins. I have picked quite a doozy for the milestone. Silver mountain in killarney provincial park. The third largest mountain in Ontario. My options are either a 20km hike in from the road, or a 2 hour canoe ride with a one hour mountain climb (which seems much more plesant!). One of the mountains I had to climb in Banff after all, took about 4 hours to get up. Elevation of this cache, which is right at the peak, is 539 meters, which again, is a far cry from my record elevation of 2311 meters.

The mountain is made of pure white quartz, and the view from the top encompasses much of the area, including manitoulin island on a clear day.

Links:
Location of Silver Peak
Picture of someone atop the peak

I am not sure of the dates (minimum 3 days) that I will do this one, but if anyone wants to come, please let me know. I will try and arrange it! After all, canoeing is so much easier with 2 people.

Colouring in my map..

I decided that I would go to Ottawa for a few days to enjoy the company of friends, try and get one friend out of a really discusting situation, and try and get caches from all the eastern ontario counties. I am convinced that this adventure will not wow people to my adventures as other articles have, and I feel as though the reason is that there will be no pictures! The reason? My camera is still on one of the barrier islands in Cornwall. Uhgg..

Day one involved mostly driving and picking up a bunch of pre-selected caches along my route. I visited the Peterbourough lift locks, and the Holleford Meteor Impact Crater, and a few other interesting places along the way. I ended up hoping across the border into New york state, as it was kind of on the way! It was the first time I have known the pleasure of explaining to a border guard how I want to go into his country and look for hidden containers. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a huge knife sitting on the front seat which I am quite glad they didnt question me about. I got into Ottawa and got apprised of the current "trouble" situation of my friend (which I am not going to delve into this time! Sorry!) , and ended up late at bridgets without the pizza that I promised. The pizza eventually got there, but an 11pm dinner time is a real bummer. Sorry!



Day 2 I drove along the ottawa river and into quebec picking up caches along the way. In Cornwall I was out on one of the barrier islands and, as stated earlier, lost my camera. It is in the section between the trail and the survay marker on the barrier island, somewhere amongst the 7 foot grass. I ended up running for my life after a rainstorm swooped in, leaving me as the tallest thing around for kilometers. I made it out alive, but *sniff* my camera is still out there somewhere! Shortly afterwards I was called back to Ottawa to deal with "the situation" again.

Day 3 started off in the Gatineau Mountains. I did a few long distance mountain caches and headed back for the appartment. Then I taught a friend how to geocache on the ones I just did. We did about 4km of mountain running in an hour, and then ran into a huge black bear on the way home. It decided to turn tail before we did, but MAN that thing was HUGE. A local quebec geocacher was also offering a reward for the return of his spiffy high-tech walking stick. I took the challenge, and found that too. The reward should be in the mail! Later that evening we met up with some Ottawa area geocachers for dinner in the Byward Market at a place called the blue cactus. I remember this place being considerably less expensive!



Day 4 started off with my trying to close up the situation, or cutting my strings and bailing, depending on how you look at it. I left it in quite a mess, but it is probably in a better place then it would be had I not shown up. Then met some friends for a vietnamese lunch on the way out of town. Ride home was uneventful, but hey! look at my spiffy counties cached list!