Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Air Mail by OHMIC (1.5/1) N50° 10.296  W97° 08.231 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 633023  N 5559371 Use waypoint: GC1T4Q6 Size: Small    Hidden on 6/1/2009 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                         Small cache located near the entrance to the Oak Hammock Marsh. This is a Letterbox Hybrid cache and a stamp is provided to stamp your logbook. Please do not remove the stamp! Messenger pigeons were used as early as 1150 in Baghdad and also later by Genghis Khan. The Republic of Genoa equipped their system of watch towers in the Mediterranean Sea with pigeon posts. In 1860, Paul Reuter, who later founded Reuters press agency, used a fleet of over 45 pigeons to deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, the terminals of early telegraph lines. The outcome of the Battle of Waterloo was also first delivered by a pigeon to England. During the Franco-Prussian War pigeons were used to carry mail between besieged Paris and the French unoccupied territory. Possibly the first regular air mail service in the world was Mr. Howie's Pigeon-Post service from the Auckland New Zealand suburb of Newton to Great Barrier Island, starting in 1896. Certainly the world’s first 'airmail' stamps were issued for the Great Barrier Pigeon-Gram Service from 1898 to 1908. They were used extensively during World War I, and one messenger pigeon, Cher Ami, was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his heroic service in delivering 12 important messages, despite having been very badly injured. During World War II, the Irish Paddy and the American G.I. Joe both received the Dickin Medal, and were among 32 pigeons to receive this medallion, for their gallantry and bravery in saving human lives with their actions. Eighty-two messenger pigeons were dropped into Holland with the First Airborne Division Signals as part of Operation Market Garden in World War II. The pigeons' loft was located in London which would have required them to fly 240 miles to deliver their messages. Also in World War II, hundreds of messenger pigeons with the Confidential Pigeon Service were airdropped into northwest Europe to serve as intelligence vectors for local resistance agents. Messenger pigeons were still employed in the 21st century by certain remote police departments in Orissa state in eastern India to provide emergency communication services following natural disasters. In March 2002, it was announced that India's Police Pigeon Service messenger system in Orissa was to be retired, due to the expanded use of the Internet.

Additional Hints (There are no hints for this cache)

8/1/2011 by Kabuthunk
Bit of a delay logging the second half of these caches. In either case, ye olde voice recorder is here to help me fill in what gaps my mind miss. After the 'Duck Head' cache, I was thinking I'd begin to wrap it up for the day... leave some stuff for the next time. However, the prevalent thought in my mind was that I should REALLY take advantage of the fact that it's super ridiculously quiet here today. So what does my mind come up with in just such an opportunity? I'm thinking I'll go find that letterbox cache right at the entrance to this place. If anything is going to be difficult to find the time to search between traffic, it'll be that one.

So hopping in my bike, I head in that direction. As I pass by the main parking lot, it looks like two of the vehicles have left, leaving only me and the RV that was parked there before I showed up (and even with them, it looked like people were inside, getting ready to split). Not hearing the slightest bit of traffic on the road, I smiled at the opportunity and headed West. A scant few seconds later, I found myself at ground zero... which is exactly where I figured it'd be hidden. Now, to find the cache container itself.

My first few glances during my 'not move anything unnecessarily' stage of hunting turned up nothing. But despite how small the structure is, it definitely has a lot of potential hiding spots regardless. It's at times like this I kinda wish I had gone to the letterboxing webpage (I actually did create an account there years ago) and see what instructions they gave. I don't know if they'd toss more of a hint or not, but I figured it probably would have. Even though it was still quiet here, I still felt a bit conspicuous, and wanted to vacate the area as soon as I could. My next searching location which took me to 3 of the 4 corners of the structure also ended up being fruitless, since nothing seemed to want to move or open, and thus it's pretty safe to assume some parts of this are actually meant to do exactly what they appear to be fore. A few more prodding at things here and there, and I was still left cache-less.

Standing around for a moment, I pondered one other spot which I had initially discarded near the beginning of the hunt. A spot that I was thinking of (or two spots, rather) definitely had potential, but certain aspects of it made me think that on a regular basis, such a hiding spot would become inaccessible. But... what do I know? Checked the first half of said type of hide... nothing. Checked the second half... well whaddya know, there's the cache container staring up at me. Course, it'll be in the absolute last possible spot anything is even physically cable of hiding here .

So opening it up, thankful that not a single vehicle has entered, exited, or passed by through this entire time. I signed the logbook, and tossed in a chainmail ball. At this point, I was a bit disappointed that I didn't think to grab my stamp from home... and I actually have a wooden stamp I carved myself... but oh well. Perhaps I'll find a way to get that into my geocaching kit. Don't know about the ink pad though... having that tightly crammed into a caching bag might end up disastrous. Well, the letterbox hybrids all tend to have an inkpad inside, so I could run with that. In either case, I hand-drew approximately what the stamp looks like .

The cache found and pseudo-stamped, I closed it back up and slid it back from whence it came. I was hurrying up a bit at this point, since I could hear a vehicle of some sort heading up the road towards Oak Hammock marsh. After I slid the container back and picked up my bike, the car whipped past, clearly not meaning to turn into here. Oh well, rushed for almost nothing. At least they didn't see me hunting around, just hopping onto my bike.

Thanks for the cache here, and subtle reminder to put my wooden stamp into my caching kit .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball