Wednesday, September 21, 2011 Lethbridge

5:20 am

The temperature is +7 C, with a high predicted of +24 C. From the Environment Canada website: Today Sunny. Wind south 20 km/h becoming west 20 this afternoon. High 24. UV index 4 or moderate. Tonight Clear. Wind west 20 km/h becoming light overnight. Low 7. Normals Max: 18°C Min: 4°C.

7:30 am Morning Musings

I am restless this morning.

Already I have loaded 8 geocache coordinates into my Montana 600 and will soon head east to look for these caches that are along highway 3 between Lethbridge and Taber. Another goal for this trip is to check on one of my caches that I placed near Taber. There is a possibility that it needs to be replaced.

But the deeper restlessness has to do with me and my understanding of the universe. I need to do some serious reading and rereading of some of my books. Here is where I am at the moment.

• Cosmology: I want to get a firm sense of the current thinking about the beginning of the universe (i.e. the big bang) and the formation of the elements and then the formation of stars and galaxies.
• Earth Geology: This involves plate tectonics and the formation of the continents.
• Life: How did life originate on this planet? I am particularly interested in Lynn Margulis's emphasis on bacteria.

These three topics deal with time on three different scales. The big bang occurred about 15 billion years ago. Our planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Life on earth first appeared about 3.9 billion years ago. Once the earliest forms of life appeared there was an ongoing interaction between these life forms and the evolution of the planet. The Paleozoic Era began about 580 million years ago with the Cambrian Period. This is when multi-cellular life forms first appeared.

12:30 PM Geocaching

• GC2VG9G - L.A. Hilton: Travelbug Hotel

This was my first find of the morning. I was able to park the truck directly in front of the location. I was particularly impressed with the inside of the container which contained separate sections depending on which direction the Travel Bug is hoping to move.



Cache location

 



GeeCee with container

 



View of inside the "hotel"

 

• GC2X788 - Stop and Smell the Roses CARL3

This was only a short drive from the previous cache. The hide itself was quite easy as there were few alternatives near the cache site.





• GC2XNR2 - My home made Brass Cap Cache East. CARL3

  This was just a few kilometres east of the previous cache as I left Lethbridge heading east. This was the third of Joci's home made brass cap caches. They are a delight. The trick is to first find the brass cap which is not easy as it is a small brown disc flush with the ground. The cap has a set of coordinates stamped into it which gives the actual coordinates for the container.



Brass cap is near the far end of the guardrail

 







• GC2WCPG - Open for business Carl3

  I was now a few more kilometres east of the previous cache and travelling on highway 3. There were a few "obvious" places for the cache but it turned out to be a short distance from the industrial park in a pile of rubbish.







 

• GC2XD0T - Prairie Winds - Birds of Prey

  There were 2 geocaches in the town of Coaldale. I had planned the sequence to look for this one first, but there was construction on the road over the railway tracks and I ended up having to take about a 3 kilometre detour before I could approach the cache site. The find itself was straight forward.

  

  

• GC33JHH - The Numismatist

This was the second Coaldale cache. I liked this one, not so much for the actual hide as for the idea of adding coins that tell a story.

Here is my post to the website: "Nice idea. Dropped off an Australian 2005 coin commemorating the 60th anniversary of the troops coming home from the war. SL."





• GC2WCRB - Prairie Winds - Barnwell

This my 7th search of the morning and all were successful.

Here is my post to the website: "My GPS found a route that put the vehicle within a few feet of the cache. Unfortunately it used a private road. The directions given in the hint should be followed. SL. TFTC."





I then drove out to one of "my" caches south of Taber where the previous searcher had indicated that the container might be missing. True enough. I replaced the container and posted a note on the website indicating that the cache was now operational again.

Once I returned to Lethbridge I finally got around to creating a new cache in a park near where we live to replace one that had repeatedly gone "missing". Hopefully the new cache will last a bit longer. I then "archived" the missing cache which means that it no longer exists although the web site will still display the information that was attached to that site.