A DIFFERENT KIND OF GEOCACHING DAY

 It was a different type of geocaching day because instead of looking for geocaches, I was placing some.  This is a much slower paced effort because you have to let the GPS coordinates settle down and take at least three reading to try and get them as accurate as possible.  It is suggested at least three minutes between readings.  All the data that must be uploaded later needs to be recorded in a notebook now as well.  Its too hard to remember later!  So, with a bit of time to kill, I tend to wander around looking for photos or other interesting things.  That's where the following photos came to be as I went out and placed twelve caches up a logging road yesterday.  Well I took the first two on the way.

If you remember I posted a photo of White Lake a while back but it is now completely white

This little late blooming Curly-cup Gumweed was at my feet while taking the White Lake photo

Shaggy Manes

Lots of fall colour happening up higher

This daisy type flower is usually much taller but this late and at a higher elevation, it is about four inches tall

Wild Rose

At the last cache of the day there was this neat rock shaped like a chair and it was comfortable to sit and wait for the GPS to settle down

ATV RIDE SATURDAY AND ROAD TRIP SUNDAY

We took the RZR out on Saturday exploring some new areas.  We found bits of fall colour along the way.

Wild Clematis climbing up a Maple tree

I took this a few day ago behind the Oliver Wine Village

Near where we had to turn around due to private property on Saturday.  You might be able to spot the RZR top left.

Just entered some expansive grasslands

Just beyond the gate on the private land

Gate guardian

On Sunday returning from picking up our table and chairs, we stopped at this fruit stand for 40 pounds of pears.  We canned 35 pints of them today and a few need to sit for a couple more days to ripen.

 

A SHORT ROAD TRIP IN THE MOTORHOME

We took the motorhome over to Christina Lake and stayed in the Texas Creek Campground which is a provincial park.  Since BC seniors pay half price after Labour Day, it cost us just $13.50 per night.  It was nice and quiet.

We took the car and day tripped three days in a row doing a long series of geocaches strung out over the length of the Old Cascade Rossland Highway which is all gravel logging road.  Once we got past where the active logging was, there was very little traffic.  We went in from the Christina Lake end the first two days then from Rossland the last day as we were so much closer to that end.  I picked up 215 caches over the three days and had about 19 that we couldn't find,  

We packed up and came home on Friday because we had an email from our furniture supplier who said our table had finally arrived in their warehouse and the salesman thought he would be able to meet us in Princeton Sunday morning saving us driving all the way down to Port Moody near Vancouver.  As it happened, we did meet up in Princeton and we finally have our table and chairs.  So great to give up the folding chairs and folding table we've been using since May!

This Chipmunk greeted me down along the lakeshore our first evening in Texas Creek

I spotted this Sulphu

r Butterfly on a Knapweed flower when we stopped for lunch our first day caching.

Christina Lake in the evening

Lots of these Common Harebells blooming in the mountains where we were caching

The Bracken ferns were starting to put on a colour show up in the mountains

We walked by this tree in the campground our first night and a bear had been digging at the base.  There was a tiny hole about waist high that had wasps coming and going.  When I walked past our last morning, the bear had torn the tree apart and gobbled the nest.  There were a couple of wasps dazedly flying about.

What's left of the nest, shows how powerful those bears are!

After taking delivery of our table and chairs and secured the load for the drive home.

Finally!

 

MOTORHOME TRIP COMING UP

 Aileen came home yesterday ending her house/cat sitting at Karen's so things are back to normal here.  I have been having fun putting out geocaches for others to find.  I take my full array of cameras along in the car and sometimes I find things to use them on.  I had another eight caches become active two days ago and I have another string of eight ready to upload when I get around to it.  I also went out Thursday and placed ten up a new road.  That will be a work in progress as there are lots more I intend to put in that area, I just have to find enough suitable containers.  All but the last two photos were taken on Thursday either on the way to or during my placing caches.

We hope to get away in the motorhome for a few days this week.  Not far, just something a bit different.

Here we have an Early Blue violet who seems to think it must be the start of Spring!

Poplar leaves from a distance with my super zoom camera

Heading up to my selected area

While up in the hills placing caches, I heard several flocks of Sandhill Cranes fly over.  I'm using a full frame digital camera with my 100-400 zoom lens and then heavily cropped.  The birds are so high up that often you can't see them unless the lighting is perfect.

For some reason, they will be blissfully flying along in formation then all of a sudden will start milling about.  It's almost like they suddenly forgot which direction they were going or something.  Perhaps they are changing altitude trying for a better wind current or something.  I have seen this many times.

When getting the coordinates for the geocache on the GPS, you have to let it sit for a few minutes each time and you should take at least three readings so I have time to wander about.  This little chipmunk was curious as to what I was doing in his area.

Later in the day at another location, I heard these two Sandhill Cranes right above me.  They seemed to have gotten separated from a flock and they were just circling and calling for a long time.  They seemed to be in a real panic.

Not far from home that morning, I swung off the highway just beyond Okanagan Falls and took this shot across the bottom of Skaha Lake to the town.

A few days ago I woke early and decided to go south of Oliver and take a photo over the vineyards as the sun first touched them.  When I got to my chosen spot this sunrise greeted me.  As it turned out these were the only shots I got as the clouds just got thicker and the sun didn't appear.