After Work Caching Thursday Night

The rain held off long enough so that I could sneak in a couple of cache grabs before night fall. Plus I managed to do the legwork on a third cache.

Cache #1 was at the Poirier Social Rec Centre Gronds in Coquitlam across the street from Poirier Rec Complex. The name Poirier is a reminder of the French Canadians that came to work in the Fraser Mills lumber mill in the early 1900's and settled on the south slope of Coquitlam, founding the community called Maillardville.

On the Social Rec Centre Grounds there is a Bocce and Croquet lawn enclosed in a white picket fence; a bit of European civility in the heart of Coquitlam.

The seats are all set up, just waiting for the fair weather to start and the bowlers to come back.

You can't see the cache in the picture, but you can see it's hiding spot; where would YOU hide it?

Here's a hint; the cache name is "Matryoshka in Motion ???"

The second cache I found was in a little used park on Capitol Hill in North Burnaby, this cache was called "Capitol Cache". The cache was an easy find hidden on the forested hillside at the edge of the park. A nice little trail runs through the forest area, a safe walk for parents and little ones. The cache, pictured above, is a typical cache container called a Lock and Lock. All four sides fold down and lock in place to help seal the rubber ring around the lid. These are actually food containers but they work great for our sport.

After finding this cache I stopped on the west flank of Capitol Hill to enjoy the view of Vancouver, Second Narrows Bridge, the North Shore Mountains, and well,..... pretty well all of Vancouver can be seen from here.

Second Narrows Bridge, as us old Vancouverites call it, is pictured here. It's real name is The Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. It is named after the 27 iron workers who lost their lives during construction of the bridge.

Burrard Inlet with Stanley Park in the background.

Downtown Vancouver in the distance; the covered dome in the centre of the picture is BC Place.

The last cache I did not have time to find, but I went to the first stage to gather the clues needed to determine the actual cache location. The cache's name is "The Drunk Skunk Cacher's Cabaret", an original name to be sure. This cache is dedicated to the strip of stores along Hastings Street just east of Boundary Road. This section a few blocks long, has many of the last remaining neon signs in the Vancouver area; none more famous than Helens! Helen Arnold opened her childrens wear store in 1948, and in 1956 added the famous neon sign with the name Helens emblazed above with a girl on a swing that moves back and forth, one of a kind sign to be sure. Ask any long time Burnaby resident and they will tell you a story about shopping here with their parents, or even working there! Sad to say Helen is closing down the store after 50 years of serving the Burnaby children, all good things come to an end.

Right next to Helens is another long time neon sign, Bob's Fishing and Hunting store. Too bad Bob had his signed turned off, would have looked neat in the picture.

Well, that's about all I had time for on this night; the rain was just coming in and the light was fading. A quick drive by of the final cache location as a recon to next time out, and then off home for a late supper.