Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Rame, Rame! by Bradgeo (2.5/5) (Archived) N49° 52.520  W97° 13.918 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 627034  N 5526269 Use waypoint: GC1CVVT Size: Large    Hidden on 6/1/2008 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                   Cache is located on land , but you will need to come at this via canoe or kayak. You should approach from up river. This cache was placed when the river was low. Conditions may become dangerous with changing water levels. The current is strong at this point in the river. DO NOT attempt to walk to the cache as the current may be strong even though the water is not that deep. Stealth required as this area has muggles galore! We are setting off a travel bug destined for Quebec city for the 400th aniversary celebrations. We are headed there in July and it would be great if we could meet up with it. Original cache items are a logbook, first to find certificate, pen, 2 travel bugs and a toy canoe.

Additional Hints Hints

1/28/2009 by Kabuthunk
Victory is minezorz! Let's see... half-decent day out? Check. Time available after work? Check. Packed up warmer clothes? Check. Valuable hints from previous finders? Check! Let's do this thing!

There was actually a few snags that almost stopped me from being able to visit the cache this evening. I started the day heading out for work with my usual work bag, my toque and gloves, and a plastic bag full of extra clothes to wear for added warmth. About halfway to work, I was poking around for my toque and gloves, when I unpleasantly discovered that... they weren't there! At the next red light, I proceeded to hastily dig through everything... didn't turn up. Double-checked at work... nothing. I ended up driving home during lunch just PRAYING that I had accidentally left it inside. The toque I could lose for all it mattered, since I had a hoodie and spare toques at home for other days, but the gloves are expensive, extremely hard to find (I've searched dozens of places, and ONLY the M.E.C. store carries them, IF they still carry them), and I simply wouldn't even attempt the cache barehanded today. If those were lost, I would have been pissed. Luck was with me today however. I parked at the apartment and began to go up the stairs to my suite. And what did I see on the way?
On the second floor landing, on the windowsill, was my toque and gloves . Some kind soul not only DIDN'T steal or throw away the gloves to be cruel, but they even took them INSIDE (assuming I dropped it while getting into the car... it was under my arm) and put it in a visible place... AND noone else took it who passed it! The experience has definitely renewed a little bit of my faith in humanity. Or at least in the other apartment-dwellers a bit.

BUT... that aside, I got back to work, and was now fully prepared to tackle the cache. When I got out of work, I hurriedly headed to Assinaboine Park. It was just about full-dark by the time I arrived, but I plunged onwards! I grabbed a dead stick before crossing the river to poke around with, and worked my way to the familiar scene. I only got about 10 pokings before my stick broke in half however . So I trudged my butt back to mainland, found me a stronger stick, and went back to the island yet again. And then... the pokings began. I had opted not to bother digging outright any more, since I wasted most of my energy trying to break the icy crust. Although it looks like someone had shown up after my last attempt, as there appeared to be a lot more excavation attempts than I had left it. Looks like I wasn't the only one stumped .

For a full 20 minutes, I stabbed that damn island (now officially known to me as "pincushion island" after today) so much it should have bled to death . All of my efforts had been in vain so far. But I continued.

And then suddenly...

A 'thunk'. Not of the 'Kabu' variety... but of the audible variety ! A bit of digging later, and SUCCESS!!! Of course, now that I located it, actually RETRIEVING it presented a problem. With it continuing to get darker and colder, I fought for another 10 minutes attempting to retrieve the cache. At long last, it gave way to my efforts! I quickly opened it up and signed the logbook (didn't see any geocoin in there though... but it WAS very dark).

And for all of the insane effort that this cache put me through, it gets a limited edition GIANT chainmail ball, over 2 inches across! Only a cache this stubbornly refusing to found deserves something special . I re-hid the cache as found, and gave it some natural camouflage as it had before. A little bit of neatening up the area, and it looked identical to before I had arrived. Mission accomplished!

Thanks for the challenge! This cache definitely put up a fight !

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and giant chainmail ball

1/25/2009 by Kabuthunk
*sigh* Another attempt, another DNF. This will require a second dinifra. Although in my defense, I didn't have much time to spend there. And by 'not much time', I mean I was on that friggin' island for about 45 minutes. I came today in the blind hope of maybe identifying what was 'different' between my last attempt, and shortly after the last trio found it. As it turns out, there must have been blowing snow last night (god only knows HOW, since it was way too cold to snow to begin with).

After I had noticed that it was found, I emailed off for a hint, since I never heard back from the cache owner as of yet. Unfortunately, my own impulsiveness led me to go after it before hearing back from anyone . I bundled up like I was going to the arctic circle (well, this IS Winnipeg, so I suppose that's not all that far off) and headed out. For the record... driving in winter boots is annoying .

I reached the location a little bit after noon. I was blindly hoping to find another geocacher kicking around there to help with the hunt, but in the entire time I was there, noone approached. Well, at the very end when I was giving up, someone else walked over and was going back and forth along the island, looking at the bridge with binoculars. No clue if it was another geocacher, but since I had given up, and they weren't indicating they were a cacher, I headed out.

I even took a small trowel with me for getting through the surface ice. I must have stabbed that damn island a few hundred times, but didn't hear anything other than ice, and the dull thud of frozen soil. For a decent portion of the time, I walked pretty much cleared the area of the surface snow as best I could. I was hoping to uncover the cache itself, but came up empty-handed .

Well... next time! I'm debating whether to go after (or ridiculously early in the morning before) work tomorrow, but I think with the weather being consistantly -2000 degrees celcius, any snow that's in the area will be solid like concrete.

Speaking of which... that's probably the most annoying part about being there today. All of the slabs of fresh snow I was attempting to shuffle away just fell to the side with a distinctly concretish sound. It was very disheartening, knowing that I'm digging through snow cold enough to damn near build something out of .

Hence... another time!

1/18/2009 by Kabuthunk
Unfortunately, this fella eluded me today. Not just myself actually... but another geocacher happened upon me while I was in the middle of hunting. I had actually already been there for about 10 solid minutes before I was 'caught in the act', so to speak . Thus... both myself and 1purplemonkeydishwasher1 were unsuccessful with locating this fella.

So initially, I worked my way to the island. I imagine the single only chance of me locating this thing will be in winter though. Given I don't have access to a boat, and you couldn't pay me enough to attempt to swim to it, the island would be quite inaccessible in summer for me. Thus, I decided to give it an attempt today. After my initial 10 minutes before being discovered by 1purplemonkeydishwasher1, I began poking and prodding around anywhere that could conceivably hold a large-sized cache. I mean after all... it's a 'large'... there's not THAT many places it could be hidden! When PMD showed up and gave me a few tips from previous logs, I pulled out the palm pilot and read up all of the previous logs (well, from Friday and earlier... a few of the logs from the 17th probably would have helped having read them now). Unfortunately, from what I had to work with, the logs didn't help me. Neither did the hint.

Having checked the hint now, I THINK I may have figured out what it means. If it means what I think it means, them I'm debating whether or not the cache is even still there . Prior to PMD showing up, I had checked one or two possible cache spots that the hint may have been eluding to... but turned up nothing. It could be that I simply looked at them wrong, or was looking at the incorrect spots... but the idea had crossed my mind.

In either case... myself and PMD searched that island for probably a good 30 minutes together and came up empty. I'll have to make another trek out to the island next weekend, or perhaps even after work one day if it's still light enough out (I'd get there at about 6:00pm). One way or another... I shall return. I may however be PMing the cache owner to see if the hint is what I think it means, to possibly get some confirmation on a few thoughts of mine, and maybe get a hint or two .

I SHALL RETURN!

Hints (Back)
The clue is in the name