I listed as part of my winter avoid-cabin-fever goals I wanted to do a bit more geocaching and I actually did better than I thought. I got out on 5 different days finding 8 different caches. Not bad since I had taken a long post knee injury break from caching (according to my caching stats program I went 1274 days because of my knee injury – man that injury fucked up all things physical in my life).
This summer I’ve decided as part of my desire to get more active I’m going to pursue a very ambitious caching goal. In the months of July and August I want to DOUBLE the number of caches under my belt. I ended June sitting at 36 so I’m hoping to hit 72 by the end of summer. Ambitious you say? Nay nay. This weekend I got things started off and clocked 7 caches. That ties the month to date with March 2004 when I first started caching.
My geocaching goals for the summer:
- Find 36 caches
- Place 2 caches (one up north and one here in the city)
- Launch 1 travel bug
- Design my own geocoin for placing in caches
I’ll post back as I progress… Looking forward to it!
For my complete caching stats check out my geocaching.com profile page.
September 26th, 2009
Ryan
I know what you are thinking – after two months of neglecting this blog I have the nerve to open with a bitch fest about the weather? Stick with me…
The summer has come and gone and in many ways it feels like it was in reality a series of false starts. Yes there is the obvious weather let down with this summer (by and large if you like warm weather and you live in the north east region of North America you are a little disappointed with what we got this year) but the whole thing just felt “off” outside of that.
For me since time immemorial summer has looked like this – Monday to Friday go to work. Friday evening get in the car drive up north. Saturday to Sunday family heavy days often fully planned with shit.to.do. up north. Sunday afternoon get in the car drive home. Do laundry. Bat clean up on the Tivo. Go to bed. This year I just wasn’t feelin’ it. I love going up north and I love spending time with my parents and grandparents but this year it just felt like I was going through the motions.
Mid summer I posted about the weekend we spent in the city and it is probably my favorite memory of this summer. That was one of the few times I can recall in recent years where I’ve really controlled the agenda for a summer weekend and did something different. The end result was a great weekend that Tammy, Paige and I really enjoyed together.
So for me, this summer was about hitting some sort of summer-rock-bottom. I look back and I cannot recall much at all. Really only my ATV trip (which was another highlight) and that weekend in the city really stick out… the rest is a bit of a haze. There are many reasons for it I imagine; I’ve been insanely busy at work and I’ve been working hard to focus on Paige and Tammy outside of office hours – I haven’t had much left in the tank after that.
All I know is next year it is time to mix it up a bit. There is a possibility we’ll be having a baby late spring/early summer (we are planning for it) so that might mix it up on its own but it is time for Tammy and I to start planning our own activities and not spending so much time up north.
September 15th, 2007
Ryan
This post is a little late but I had a busy back-to-work week… my apologies on the delay.
For most people who go out of town on the weekends in North America the labour day weekend is seen as a bit of depressing weekend. Despite the weekend being a long weekend its met with regret as it marks the beginning of a very quick end to the cottage season.
The weather is quickly cooling down (night times are often dropping near frost levels now) and its quite easy to tell that fall is just around the corner.
I find it hard to complain that the season is essentially over after having such a killer summer. This was our second season with the ATVs and put on probably around 1500 kilometers taking in all kinds of trails. My dad and I have now traveled all of the major trails within the Eastern Ontario Trail Alliance trail system and we had a blast doing it this year.
Outside of ATVing we had a blast hanging out around the fire and spending time together with the family.
Last year you will remember my father and I went out for a week long ATV trip at the end of September. To deal with some work scheduling issues this year my Dad and I planned on going earlier and we decided to use the week following the labour day long weekend as our go date this year.
This year we spent three solid days on our ATVs. We were worried that we would not be able to cover the 500 kilometers we were planning on riding with just four days for the ride. We were also worried we would be fatigued beyond usefulness by the last days. Well we headed out of Coe Hill on Tuesday morning and headed east to Ompah (~150 Kilometers). Wednesday we headed north out of Ompah towards Barysvale. From Barysvale we headed south along the K&P trail to Sharbot Lake. From Sharbot Lake it was 2 hours west to Tweed under cloudy skies. We decided to stay at the Tweed Motel like we did last year and that brought Wednesday to a close (~300 kilometers). We got up on Thursday morning and headed west and then north along the 212 trail in to Madoc where we stopped for some breakfast. From Madoc it was a few hours north back home to Coe Hill bringing Thursday’s riding time to around 80 kilometers.
Some of the highlights of the trip: Seeing the $700,000 worth of fence around the dam in Barysvale (put up resulting from a tragic incident at the Barrett Chute Dam (read more), finally reaching the extreme east of the EOTA trail system, seeing the beautiful county maintained camp sites in North Frontenac, the trails north of Ompah which in many instances were just breath taking, getting a true appreciation for the men who in many cases gave their lives to build the Ontario rail system (which now makes up most of the trail networks in the province) and just coming closer to terms with the fact that I live in the most beautiful province in the most beautiful country in the entire world.
I will have pictures, etc to follow… It’s sad to see summer go but I have so much to look forward to with Paige coming this winter it is easy to move forward…
