The summer is winding down and with only 2 more official
weekends left it was great to get out in the sun, act like a tourist and enjoy
the fresh air. I had planned on riding
the Star to Ottawa but was asked to bring my bicycle for a Geo caching
adventure. Although my son tells me he has seen it happen, I haven’t figured
out how to carry a bicycle on the back of a motorcycle, so I headed out by SUV,
bicycle snugly riding in the carrier behind. Things happen for a reason, and
we ended up doing a different series of Geo caches (no bicycle required) but that was okay ‘cause it
meant I could spend the second day shopping, (even teachers can't resist the call of a new pair of shoes for school!) There are some
advantages to having a really big trunk!
The Geo caching started early, at a point where there was a
gathering of ‘cachers’ celebrating Geo cache day with the start of a marathon
cache. We (that would be the ‘royal’ we, as I know nothing about caching and
just follow my friends) decided to head for another series of caches in the
Gatineau area.
We crossed the Gatineau River on a small ferry at Orleans and
headed for the hills. I was thrilled when they provided me with my very own (to
use) hand held GPS (Dan isn’t really good at the off road stuff.)
The first 40
or so caches were park and grabs which meant get in the car, get out of the
car, get in the car, get out of the car. They were thrilled, I was just hungry.
We finally headed to a park in the Gatineau Hills where I spotted this cute little red mushroom. I was
starved, near ready to eat my hiking boots (or my companions) and very thankful that I had picked up a couple of cookies earlier at Tim Hortons. The caches were, if not challenging, at least hidden along picturesque
trails.
(Note to self, next time I join
this Geo caching duo,(they're number 192) I will hide my own secret cache of snacks in my backpack - woman cannot live by cookies alone!)
Amazing work ... and every year they are destroyed by the ice on the river ... and every year he rebuilds them ... And they fed me - a most delicious dinner.
We went out geocaching as well being International Geocaching Day and all. Most of the afternoon was spent at a picnic with other Fairbanks cachers. We did go to the picnic and looking for caches using the sidecar rig. The group here wasn't anywhere near the same size though the focus was on lunch not caches (for a change). There is someone in Anchorage who carries her mountain bike on the back of her DR650 and I was thinking of installing a fork bracket on the sidecar to hold a bicycle.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in seeing the bike rack for the 'bike.'
DeleteHere is a bicycle rack for your motorcycle...
Deletehttp://2x2cycles.com/product/motorcycle-bicycle-rack/
Centre of gravity looks a little high with those bike racks, especially if the bike is a heavy mountain model. Did you notice they didn't feature any cruiser racks? (Is that a statement about cruiser riders do you suppose?)
DeleteI've only heard about one person using one on a regular basis. HayDuchessLives, and inmate from Anchorage on ADVrider, has posted photos of her DR650 with a mountain bike on the back.
DeleteActually, there's a whole thread of folks with bicycles attached to their motorcycles. http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=18749856#post18749856
DeleteThanks for the link Richard, I found HayDutchessLives and saw many of her posts but can't seem to get to the thread above to see the mountain bike photo. I must be doing something the wrong way. I have to admit I don't visit the forums often (at all).
DeleteIt sounds like a lovely day even if you did get hangry. You know when we get hungry we get a little angry.... we just call it hangry.
ReplyDeleteThose rock balancing sculptures are something, but I like the photo of the simple forest mushroom.
I have a picture somewhere of a bicycle on the back of a BMW. It can be done, but it hangs out there a ways.
I was 'hangry' for sure (love that term!) That little mushroom doubled in size from the first time we hiked by to our return. I had to take a picture.
DeleteLooks like a fun day! I have yet to go geocaching, though I admit I was curious about letterboxing. Back in the day, I did some benchmark hunting too. Fun stuff!
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, I'm not an 'official' cacher myself, but being a bit competitive I love beating them to the find when I can (which doesn't happen often!) But like they say, what could be more fun than using billions of dollars of satellite equipment to find Tupperware hidden in the woods?
DeleteAmazing sculptures. I have tried this myself, and it needs a steady arm and a lot of patience. The latter... not really my forte ;-)
ReplyDeleteAnd this fellow does it over and over again, year after year. We watched for some time while he tried to balance one rock - that's perseverance!
DeleteKaren:
ReplyDeleteexcept for having to drive on 4 wheels, it would appear that you had a good weekend and did not go hungry after all.
try replacing those cookies with honey crullers
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Lucky for them ... they fed me, and a spectacular meal of veggies, salads and 'chicken' it was too!
Delete