Kanaka Creek Geocaching

Had a couple of hours during the weekend to get out and find a few geocaches in the Kanaka Creek area of Maple Ridge. It was more a chance to get out and stretch my legs than gathering finds, so the 3 - 4 caches I found were an added bonus. Breathing in the fresh forest air and taking the time to stop and snap some photos of interesting things was a good way to relax while I enjoyed some "Eddie" time.

Click on any picture to make it full size to enjoy the true nature of the photo......

Second growth forests are still to be found along streams and in parks where developers have not cut down trees to make more houses. I love these wide paths through the green belts as they allow you to enjoy the nature around you rather than having to concentrate on where you are putting your feet so you don't crash and burn..

 Trees are left to rot where they fell - in this case the smooth bottom of the tree matches the round "table top" covered in moss so well that you don't even realize the table top is actually the base of the tree that was felled.

Fallen trees act as nursery logs for new trees and for other flora as well. There are thousands of fungi types in BC, one source quotes numbers between 5,000 - 10,000 

Here macrofungi colonize the open end of a harvested tree; macrofungi are types that can be seen without the aid of a microscope. Mushrooms are actually a fungi as well.....

Why do those gates look funny? Cause they are designed to allow horses to step through! Maple Ridge is a large equestrian centre and many of the trails are shared pathways.Here the urban trail runs between houses as it makes a jump from one green belt to another. This is also part of the Trans-Canada Trail that stretches from coast to coast - guess that means I can tell everyone I've walked the Trans-Canada Trail !  :)

Geocaching in Pitt Meadows

Spent a few hours on the Labour Day weekend geocaching on my bike; I picked the Pitt Meadows area as the views along the Pitt River dike system are wonderful.

The first few caches I did were along the bike path that runs aside the Lougheed Highway through Pitt Meadows. I parked near the Pitt River Bridge and took my time wandering along the bike path as I picked up the 6 remaining caches of the series (I had done the others on a previous trip). There was no rush anyways, as every 0.15 of a mile was a cache, so speeding to the cache hide seemed redundant.

Along the way I passed a bike rider riding one of those stand-up trikes, the ones that "V" out at the back and the rider stands on the boards and has to swing back and forth to create a forward motion.

The picture above is similar to the Trikke I seen, turns out the Trikke rider was none other than the cache owner MiniMan of the geocaching team "MiniMan and Karma". We had a good talk for a few minutes and he asked the basic question "you finding the caches all right"? I say "yeah, no problem", which was true...of course the next cache I go to look for I almost couldn't find.....I thought "yeah, just cursed myself" but it popped up in front of my eyes and the find was made.

I moved the Jeep further south along the edge of the Pitt River to be closer to the access point to the dike trail, less truck traffic that way as well. I unloaded the bike off the back of the Jeep, got myself organized and proceeded to find the first of the Pitt River Regional Greenway series..well actually it was the last one, as I was coming at the series from the back end.

Several Geocachers have gotten together to run a series of 21 geocaches on the dikes from Harris Road west along the Fraser River, then north along the Pitt River ending near the Pitt River Bridge.This provides an excellent series that can easily be done in one day as a long, long walk or as a good bike ride. You can complete a curcuit by heading east along the Lougheed Hwy, doing the caches I mentioned earlier in the article, then heading south on Harris Road through Pitt Meadows picking up caches along the way, eventually returning to your car.

That was a bit far for me today, so I was content on doing a portion of the series, gathering 7 of the dike caches and 6 of the Lougheed Hwy Stroll series. I finished off with a few pick-me-up caches as I headed back home, happy with the bit of bike riding - geocaching - exercise I got to finish off the last weekend of the summer. My timing was perfect as dinner was almost ready when I arrived home....my tummy told me the timing was perfect as well

Have a look at the short video below of the areas I cached in today.....

.