Sheesh695 How to end a year of caching!

It was 0640 hours when Shees695 & MFF picked me up in Ladysmith for a day of caching in the Trent River area. We all piled into my Geomobile and off we went. The sky was full of stars and such a beautiful distance color. The drive up was great and chatting about our holidays and how we would approch our caching day. We arrived just before 0800 hours and noticed that there was a little snow on the ground, hard crusted and a bit of ice here and there. We got our kit together and set out staying on the trail/road to the east toward the power lines. A very cool morning it was.
The trail had hard crusted snow so the hiking was easy. We had to cross over two stream areas but that was no problem. Until we reached the power lines, there was only 6 caches. We managed to find three and had three DNF's. The ground was frozen where the caches were and it impossible to find them. We decided at the point we would continue but the possiblity of more DNF's was a certainty.
We now reached the power lines, turned east towards the river. The trail was not visible due to snow so we were on our way down to the opening, a flat area to see if we could find the trail.
It was at this point that Sheesh695 hooked her foot on a frozen branch in the snow/ice and bent her foot/leg the wrong way and down she went. She felt that she had broken her foot/ leg or both. As we started to try and help her, it became apparent the we could not move her and that she did break something.
As MFF had some mdical supplies, she lossen her shoe slightly and applied a tenson and hiking spats to the broken area. As she was laying on ice and movement was not possible, we covered her with a emg. blanket.
I called 911, relaying the info and Search and Rescue was alearted to our sisitution. They had our position via my phone and I informed them the quickest and fastest way to our position. This was around 1100 hours. But the info I had given was not relayed properly and SARS were not sure on how the best way was to get to us. They finally called me and almost 2 hours later, they arrived.
During this time, Sheesh695 was getting cold so we took off our jackets and touques to help keep her warm.
Then we started taking turns in cutting cedar branches to cover her up more. Each step we did helped in keeping her warm. We did try to lift her upper body to get some of the branches under her as the ice kept cooling her down.
Several hikers came by but had no supplies and they moved on. By the time the Search and Rescue arrived, we were begining to get a little cold as well but certainly nothing to worry about but would have been a different story if it was later in the day and the sun went down.

At this point, Search & Rescue took over and got her into a streacher and began to warm her up but we still had to wait for a different Quad in order to properly transport her to the Highway for a waiting ambulance. Once it arive about 15 minutes later, they got her in the Quad and we began the walkout as they had to move slower that a walking pace. Over all it took about 3 1/2 hours from the time I called 911.

We followed the ambulance to the Comox hospital and after about an hour she had xrays, drugs (not sure what came first) and it was confirmed that she had a serious break and surgary was required. They decided that they would either send her to Campbell River or Duncan via ambulance so MFF and I began our drive back to Ladysmith.

Now for ther fun part, we were at Qualicum beach turn off when we got a call asking that we come back to get her and bring her home for surgary in the morning, They had put on a plastic type cast, more meds, so we turned around and back to Comox.
She was certainly in good spirts on the way home a but a little mad at having broken some bones.  

I guess there are some lessons to learn from this, proper first aid supplies, extra to keep you warm in the cold times. Hiking alone would have been a very serious problem in the snow and cold season. We were lucky that we had cell reception other wise one of would have had to go for help once we got her stable and warm. But in the end, all is good for now and I will inform you of her results once I know.
Safe caching. Geocaching My Way of Life  Paulboy

Hiking and travel

Over the past few months Landchatch, Islander54 and I have been doing sections of the Juan de Fuca Trail system, mostly in the rain. These trails are wonderful and some spots were certainly not for the faint of heart. On some of of our hikes we parked the car, hiked to the trail and back to the parked car for a distance of 15 to 21KM's depending on what day. We have now completed about 2/3 of the trail and look forward of completing the rest of the trail in the spring.
We also hiked some of the Alberni Inlet trail three weeks ago and did a total of 19.2 KM's that day. The weather was a little damp in the morning but it cleared up and in late morning the sun started to show it's face. Some of the was trail was a little muddy and will certainly hinder our efforts to finish it off until late spring. The views were breath taking and would recommend this trail system for everyone to try out, keeping in mind that some parts are a difficultly of 4.
On November 4, Princess! and I flew to Campbellton NB to visit family and have been doing caching on some of the trails in Campbellton NB and Cross Point in Quebec. The weather was certainly cold, reaching 0. The caching is a lot different, not only weather wise but their way of hiding and type of containers the use. After 7 days in this area we moved on the Moncton NB for one night, caching along the way and then drove to Halifax, NS today and did one cache on the trip. We did a few caches in Halifax this afternoon. We pland to do some tourist things, visit a few old friends and do caching as much as possible. My goal is to find the first cache in Canada which is about 30 minutes from my hotel. I will write a short blog once I find the oldest cache. Paulboy

2nd trip to the Juan de Fuca Trail

On October 01, 2016, Landchatch and I arrived at our start point for the Juan de Fuca Trail to continue on our quest of completing the trail. The weather was good and it was not raining to start with. It was near 0800 hours when we started down and our first caches was https://coord.info/GC3QBPB, which is an earth cache. The trail down was good and we hiked in to complete 7 caches ending up at Chin 2 China 4. The trails were not too bad in this section except one small area of mud. We then hiked back up to the truck and and moved the truck down the highway about 2.5 KM's and proceeded down to get back on the trail as well as doing the caches on the way down. This way down took us on a old logging road and then to a goat trail to the beach, this was very steep and one would have to be very careful on this section.
We hiked the trail to Plantman_Geocache #7. The trail over this section was extreamly muddy in sections and can see this being very difficult in the winter months as the rains build as it does in this area. From here we decided to take the trail up to the road doing the two caches along the way. The trail up was in good shape and we ended up on the highway 1.1 KM's from the truck, so it was a lot better than two weeks ago where it was 6.5 KM's back.
Our total hike was 19 KM's, 18 of them on the trails. The views were wonderful and we saw 5 people running the trail and 4 women hiking the trails. We did get some rain a few time through the day but over all it was a great day weather wise.
I bought a pair of Solomon Quest boots at MEC in Victoria and for the first time in a long time, my feet were completely dry. I would recommond these for any kind of hiking. The cost with taxes was about $300.00. We have one more section to do on the Juan de Fuca trail left and plan to complete it in the near future or when the weather will allow. At least that is our goal but it may take us two more visits to this area to complete it. What a wonderful area with great caches.

The Juan de Fuca Trail and area

On Sat. Sept. 10th, Landchatch and I stared to do most of the caches between Sooke and China Beach Parking site, along the water side. It was a wonderful day both weather wise and in our search of those caches that took us up and down the trails to the beaches.
We started out at 0600 ours in Ladysmith and drove to China Beach via the Island highway. In our quest for the day, we managed to find 35 caches with 4 DNF's. We started at China Beack and cached towards Sooke doing a few caches in Sooke before heading home at 1800 hours. It was a long day and we hike well over 15 km,s.
It is our quest to do all of the Juan de Fuca Trail over the next few months depending the weather.
On Sat. Sept. 17th, we decided to start the trail at China Beach and again left ladysmith at 0600 hours and headed for the parking area via the Sooke way. We arrived just before 0800 hours as we stopped for one cache that we had a DNF on last Sat. and searched until we found it, great way to start off the day. We parked about 350 meters on the road near a bridge past the China Beach parking and it saved us a bit of  hike. The weather was overcast with a lot of fog and rain but still a nice day. As we started out on the trail, 10 woman hikers were coming from hiking the trail and camping. The 11 km hike took us a little over 4 hours to get back to the road and then had to hike back to the truck took over an hour on the road as we only had one truck this time. The hike back to the truck was a little over 7 KM's. We encountered another 8 hikers/campers along the way.
The trails were in good shape and mostly dry and not too many puddles. The views were wonderful but the fog and rain did limit some of the views of the wonderful area we were in. I can see this trail getting a little tough as the rains become more frequent over the winter. We managed to find the nine caches along this portion of the trail, and two of them had DNF's from the last cachers here.
Our quest is to start where we left of in a few weeks and do another section of the trail and hopefully we can get a few more cachers in order to do a longer section.
I will be adding some photos later on to show the area for you.
After our lunch we started for home heading towards Port Renfrew and out to Lake Cowichan caching along the way finding another 7 caches. This brought our total to 17 cache finds for the day and so happy to get some of the trail done. Geocaching My Way of Life  Paulboy

Paulboy & Cougar Kid's Geocaching Adventure Day # 8

This has been a great trip overall, Our adventure has taken us from Calgary to Medcine Hat, down to Montana,  to Lethbridge and back to Calgary for our last day of caching.
Today we did most of the Flames Geo-Art but it was a tough go as a lot of the caches were in need of repairs, many DNF,s and all the caches were little nanos stuck in the ground. One short section we could not drive with our suv. Not what we expected when we got here but not the less we did most of them.
The second section we did was the Dog Pound and it was great series. All the caches were fake rocks with a tube in them and they were all in good shape and dry. We managed to get145 caches today before 1600 hours and heading back to the hotel about an hour away.
In total we travelled over 1000 KM, found about 1300 caches, had two events and got to find/do an amazing cache that was set up for us in Lethbridge. Cougar Kid did all the driving and I did all the runing from the car through the tall grasses avoiding gofer holes. Never did see any rattle snakes and that was a good thing.
This evening we had supper with my good friend, John & Lisa and also my cousin John and his wife Shelley drove from Red Deer to join us.So nice to see everyone.
All that is left is to fly home in a few hours. hope you enjoyed our adventure and thanks for following. Geocahing My Way of Life  Paulboy

Paulboy & Cougar Kid's Geocaching Adventure # Day 7

This is day seven of the adventure and what a ride it has been. We started early this morning and did almost all urban caches in the Lethbridge area. The weather was not as hot as it has been but none the less warm. We even did a few short hikes in parks around town. We managed to find 85 caches in eirht hours.
We had our second travel event at Pizza Hut and ten cachers showed up, even one from medcine Hat.
We are getting ready for the last day doing PQ updates and trying to get the maxium caches we can on our last day. Also having supper with my old friends John & Lisa and my cousin John and his wife Shelley who are coming from Red Deer tomorrow night. So it is a close for this day and will post our last day tomorrow night with a wrap up on Sunday.
My cache find are now at a new level. My goal for the year was 20,000 and today I made the find. Have a great night.

Paulboy & Cougar Kid's Geocachng Adventure Day 6

Well it was time to say goodbye to Medcine Hat and after a breakfast at the hotel, we set our sights for the Canada/USA border to Montana about 0600 hours. We cached along the way finding about 15 roadside caches. We arrived at the border about 1130 hours and had lunch before crossing into more desert. We cached about 5 hours plus driving and managed to find about 125 USA caches. We were driving through more range roads in a 35+ degree weather and it was some hot running back and forth from the car to the fence line. I think I lost another 5 pounds. We saw a few wild animals and not many humans. We had a chat with a few farmers and they were a lot nicer than the physo bitch we ran into a few days ago. At 1700 hours and still well over 1 1/2 hours of driving to get to the hotel, we called it a day and our day is now over. We will cache the city tomorrow and have our event that evening. Off to bed now as a little tired..My finds to date are 19,974, only 26 to go for 20,000.
Geocaching My Way of Life  Paulboy