Geocaching – Chapter 2 (the adventure continues!)

As I had indicated previously I have now taken up Geocaching – the search, using a GPS, for little treasures hidden by others who then have posted the coordinates of their cache on the web.

After taking a break of about two months while I did other things I have finally taken up geocaching again searching for and locating 4 in and around Nipigon. The first is located at a favourite location of mine: Mouseau Mountain, or otherwise know as “Tower Hill” as it is host to several telecommunication towers and at one time had a fire tower as well (now dismantled). What is special about it is the great overview one gets from this vantage point:

I made this trip special by bringing along and introducing to the sport of geocaching Jordan, (on the left) my brother-in-law Hans (on the right), his daughter Mandy, and his good friend Bill. Here is a picture of everyone standing by the cache, a small plastic box hidden amongst the rocks.

To find out more about this site here is the link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b24b6126-76c8-45f9-8e96-dfe5c9af330a

The next cache I located was at “The Bald Spot”, a bare area on the top of a diabase ridge that provides an excellent overview of the town of Nipigon:

Later that same day I located the cache at the “Nipigon Lookout”, a pull off on the Trans-Canada Highway. From here you can gaze down upon Nipigon, the mouth of the Nipigon River where it flows into Nipigon Bay and on to the nearby community of Red Rock. Red Rock is where my dad worked at the paper mil (now closed) and is host to the public and high schools I attended prior to leaving the area to attend university so many years ago.

And the last one I have located just today is on “Pancake Island”, a small island within the embrace of the Nipigon River. This one is actually meant to be accessed by using a canoe or a kayak. As it happens the island is attached to the mainland by a breakwater made of diabase:

What made this one a little “interesting” is that a portion of the breakwater just barely pokes up above the water. Enough to walk over, or at least it was when I crossed to the island. On the return leg the water had risen about 10cm and as a result I had to do some wading through the water such that I ended up with a bit of water in my boots!