Why I don't like Geocaching in Toronto

Hi everybody! WARNING - THIS STORY IS CONTAINS GRAPHIC CONTENT

Well here is a story, that you may not be inclined to believe, as it just seems absolutely ludicrous. It is noon on Sunday, and I am writing this down because my weekend is over. I am just going to lye on the couch now, and hope nothing more happens.

As some of you may know, I am the type of geocacher who goes for territory. I try and clear a distance as wide as possible between myself and the nearest caches. My Cache-free bubble now extends into Toronto. This sometimes takes me to places that I am not fond of. Jane and Finch area for example.. but it must be done.

Anyway, the story. Saturday I decided to clear a swath of caches in Brampton. Brampton is actually a nice place for an urban centre. The people on the paths actually return your greetings, unlike in Toronto where nine times out of ten I am responded to by an awkward look. One cache in Brampton has right downtown at the Art Gallery. A peice of art in front held a suprisingly large tin cache inside of it. After spotting the cache I went to grab it and just as I was pulling it out the Museum Archivist pulls in and starts the usual interrogation.

"Hi there, Can I ask what your doing?"
"Looking for this" I replied, showing him the container.
"Do you work with the museum?" He asked, still with a hint of accusation.
"Nope, just in town doing a little tour"
"Can I ask what that is?"

"A geocache" I responded, begining my speil on what a geocache is, showing him the log book, contents, container. He was ecstatic, as I pointed out names from Toronto, Hamilton, and Isquba and Nawtys signature from Barrie. He said he would like to discuss it more over lunch, and I should return in an hour or so. Giving my just enough time to do the nearby Multi.

I did the multi, and bought a steak and kidney pie at a nearby bakery (yum!). After all, I didn't want to impose. I went into the museum, and took a tour, and eventually found the archivists office. Knocked on the door, and began talking. He showed me around, gave me a ride in the elevator, took me to some of the lesser known rooms of the museum.

His eyes kept checking me out, and his questions were begining to become a little uncomfortable. It was then that I realized I was on a date with this 50-something year old man. He began wanting to know about the "unconventional" things I did in my life, and I had to start pulling the wife card out, making sure to point out that I wasn't into that particular ball game.. After that I made a few remarks about not letting the weekend pass by with such a low geocaching score, and bailed as fast as I could.

I made it home as the sun was setting, and went to bed for a late night at work. Woke up early (early is midnight, early as can be) and set out to work. Got out of work around 3:30 and decided to cache my way over to Oshawa where I was meeting a friend for breakfast and beers (They were working a night shift too, so its not really beer at 9am.. thats what I tell myself).

Anyway, night cache, night cache, night cache, then a group of 3 on the same bridge. The Lawrence street bridge goes over a ravine. Each side of the bridge has a res2100 cache on it, and there is a cache in the middle by Geofellas. Around 5am, I did the two ends of the bridge, and walked to where the coordinates were telling me to go for the cache in the middle. There was no virtual waymark at that point, so I deduced it must be under the bridge. Down the slope I went, and under the bridge. I looked at the concrete pillars under the bridge and heard a voice from down near the river. I decided to keep quiet, as not to disturb them. The voice eventually passed me, It was a lady talking on her cell phone. I couldn't make out what she was saying, but didn't much care at the time either.

Eventually I made it all the way to the river, and still couldn't find the virtual waymark. As I reached the riverside concrete path I noticed what seemed to be a man who was lying face down in vomit. Not suprising, that is the way some people look after Saturday night! I stepped around him, careful not to wake him up, and began walking the path out from under the bridge, so I could see if I could get better reception to find out where this waymark was. I looked up for birds, and saw the red swirly lights of a police cruiser. A womans head looked over the railing, and I called up to her "He's Down here" suspecting that they were looking for the drunk man.

Two officers eventually came running down the path, I flashed them with my headlamp. They arrived and took a look at the man.. That wasn't vomit... it was blood. YIKES. I hadn't actually used my flashlight on him so i wouldn't wake him up, but obviously that wouldn't have mattered.

After a while, about 10 more officers arrived, a crew of medics, and about 5 firefighters. CPR and other methods didn't work. The lady who was on the phone earlier also showed up, she was calling 911 and meeting the officers at the trailhead. I was interogated for about an hour and a half, met the detectives on the case, and was let go, depite the fact I was a SERIOUSLY suspicious character; hanging around in black clothes under a bridge, at 5am, a good hour and a bit from home. One of the questions on my statement was "What is geocaching".

After that was done, I was escorted back to my car (I accept the DNF when escorted by police). The Officer says it looked like a suicide - The same bridge that attracts 3 geocaches, also apparently attracts jumpers.

So the lesson folks - Always make sure you keep your tracking on! It may just be an electronic Alibi, but its an alibi none the less.. Oh, and they asked for my paper caching sheet, leaving me with nothing to do for the next hour or so... Oh well, guess it could be worse, right?