Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches Skates Required by The Mad Trekkers (1/2) (Archived) N49° 49.768  W97° 08.670 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 633444  N 5521322 Use waypoint: GC2335E Size: Small    Hidden on 1/17/2010 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                       Established in 1929 St Vital Park remains one of Winnipeg's largest parks and offers numerous trails, picnic areas, boat launch, toboggan slides and a duck pond that doubles as a skating rink in the Winter. This cache will be an easy find in the winter but will require getting wet in the summer.

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3/28/2010 by Kabuthunk
Disabled? Due to thin ice? Pfft, that was like... two weeks ago. SURELY the several weeks of warm weather will have made the situation better, especially so on this particularly warm Sunday . No, no, warm weather wasn't about to keep ME from going after this cache today. After having made up my mind to go for a bike ride today for some general geocaching, I couldn't allow this cache to go another day without resolving my DNF. Hence, off I go!

Several geocaches along the way later, and I eventually find myself at St. Vital Park. There's a fair number of people out, so I'm a tad worried about my prospects of being able to go after the cache without like... a hundred gawkers wondering what the hell that idiot is doing trying to get onto the island . Working my way towards said islands, I and I was greeted with... wait, there's still ice?!? Well... in a rather loose sense of the term, anyway. It looks like there's still an icy surface (yay for the laws of nature in that ice floats), with the edges of said ice being mainly just water. Heading over towards the edge of the island nearest the cache, my hopes begin to rise.

Not that I was particularly worried one way or the other. I specifically brought a spare pair of socks and shoes just for this cache .

However, with the thought of not having to change my socks, I was vaguely hopeful that I could whip across the ice. Locking up my bike nearby, I took a look around. All of the various pedestrians that were in the vicinity seem to have moved on, and there didn't appear to be any others coming to take their place. YES! My luck with bystanders is still holding out today! Testing a few spots of ice... ech... it barely held any weight whatsoever before slurshing under the water. But... what about that whiter area? Going to a patch of ice that seemed a bit thicker maybe, I tested it... and it held! Kinda. Probably for the best that I'm a twig at best . Seeing that it was DEFINITELY thinner on the island-side of the ice, I was hesitant however.

But... I'm here for this cache. And sometimes, you just have to say "screw it, just give 'er". And thus... 'er I did give. Doing a quick sprint, I almost started to slow down when the ice began to creak. Like... LOTS! But then I thought to myself "You're committed to it now, man... just go!", and opened up the throttle again. A hop at the end of my run kept me off of the ridiculously thin ice at the end, and I was on the island! Only the rubber sole of my shoe showed any signs of water .

Still no bystanders around, I quickly made my way to ground zero. And MAN... what a change caching in the daytime does here. 10 seconds after I arrived, I had the cache in hand. Wish it had been that easy the first time . A quick signing and chainmail balling later, and I prepared for the return trip. This time I KNEW it'd be more interesting, since due to the rise at the edge of the island, I'd have to hop down ONTO the ridiculously thin ice to start the run. Full weight plus downward momentum on the thinnest part. Well... no way around it, let's see what happens. GYAH!

Sure enough, my first foot went through, but thankfully I had enough forward momentum to be able to keep going forwards. Only my toes got mildly damp, and the rest of my run went off smooth as silk. Back on the mainland . Grabbing my bike, I decided I can live with that mildly damp set of toes . MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Thanks for placing a cache here... it definitely made for an interesting find . There's a vague chance others can go over the ice at this time, but you have maybe a few days tops... and it'd better be someone that's less than 100 pounds at this point (supposed to be +16 today). All in all though, methinks I'm likely the last person before summer to grab this one by way of ice .

Took: One hell of a chance at tripping/slipping and being soaked
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball

3/4/2010 by Kabuthunk
Unfortunately, this one was not meant to be tonight. On a whim for the most part, my wife and I decided to find her old toboggans from days of yore, and head over to the hill at St. Vital Park to go for some sliding. Me, not having done this at the park before, was quite perplexed as to where any hills even WERE. Apparently near the actual built toboggan slides, I was told.

So after work, we hopped into the car and headed on over. With the light quickly disappearing, we arrived with only the barest hint of light left in the sky, and were mainly going with the lights in the area. Thankfully, there was very few people nearby, so we did our bit of sliding (note: must be getting old... going over the seemingly deliberately made bumps there hurts the tailbone something fierce) and the headed over towards the pond and thus... the cache.

It was full dark by this point... probably about 8:00pm... so I pulled out the flashlight. After working our way across the ice without killing ourselves (I can only assume a zamboni machine goes over this every so often... can't possibly fathom it being that clean and flat naturally), we found ourselves near ground zero and I began the hunt. I very quickly realized I would need to pull out my flashlight, and began hunting around. Nary the base of any tree nor the underside of any... thing that had an underside... was missed by me. However, I have a feeling that the lack of light played a big roll in me having to walk away from this one emptyhanded. Although in my defense, the main reason I left after only about 20-25 minutes of hunting was that my wife was getting cold, and was tired of watching me circle around looking at every nook and cranny . Personally, I'd have probably stuck around another half hour searching around.

So, I dejectedly was forced to turn away, and we headed back to the car. Another day cache... another day. Maybe immediately after work while it's still light, or even this weekend if I get a chance. With the sun on my side, I will not fail again!