Monday, May 5, 2008

Geocaching

One of the goals I set for myself in January was to have found between 900 and 1000 geocaches. This past week I was able to go geocaching on three occasions. (current tall 886) I set a new weekly record by finding 18 geocaches. Yesterday my geocaching got off to a rough start as I spent much of the afternoon searching for geocaches underneath light standards at shopping malls. I don’t really enjoy this sort of urban caching. By mid-afternoon, I stopped in a Starbucks to log my finds using my iPod touch and to see what other caches were in the area. I copied down the coordinate for six caches which would take me into some of the wooded areas and parks in Kanata. As dusk was starting to descend the forest drew cooler and quieter and the wildlife started to appear. From a distance, I could see a furry black blob walking towards me at a slow and steady pace. It could either be a skunk or a raccoon. As we got closer the raccoon decided that I was a larger animal and headed off the trail while keeping a watchful eye on me. My next animal encounter was will a flock of deer. I was headed down a railway bed that has been converted into a jogging trail. To my right, I heard a branch break and I stopped dead in my tracks. The wind was blowing towards me. It was a family of deer that were planning to cut across the trail. I stood still, held my breath as they came with ten feet of me. They were suspicious but quickly headed into the woods without flapping their tails (a warning sign of problems).