Current at 11/6/2011 (Online waypoint URL) You have already found this cache! Master Index    Nearest Caches SNOWTREK 2011 by glacier_ice for the MBGA (1/1.5) (Archived) N49° 52.405  W97° 13.937 (WGS84) UTM  14U   E 627016  N 5526055 Use waypoint: GC2M11C Size: Not chosen    Hidden on 1/16/2011 In Manitoba, Canada Difficulty:     Terrain:                           Join the MBGA at Snowtrek 2011. What: What is Snowtrek? It is Winnipeg in Motion's winter activity showcase. This is where various outdoors winter activities are showcased to show Winnipeggers the types of things they can do to stay active. The MBGA was approached by the Snowtrek organizers to have a booth at this event. http://www.winnipeginmotion.ca/snow_trek_2011/ What is Winnipeg in motion? Winnipeg in motion is a community-wide collaboration that supports Winnipeggers to be physically active for health benefits. Where: The Assiniboine Park Duck Pond. The pond expansion is complete! Come check out this newly expanded skating pond. Bring your skates too! When: Sunday, January 16th. Time: 12-4pm Who: You and your family. Come check out the different activities, there are skiing and snowshoeing clinics along with free rentals. Bring your skates for the pond, bring your toboggans for the ice slides and, of course, bring your GPS units to go caching! Cost: FREE! Why: Come and be a part of the "in motion" community. Chat with people curious about Geocaching and share with them what it is all about and how much fun it is! Enthusiastic Geocachers are the best ambassadors for our sport! We will have some temporary caches set up that you can show to people. What else? There are plenty of Geocaches in Assiniboine Park and Assiniboine Forest that you can go find. After stopping by the booth, Join with a group and go for a walk in the snow. Winter is a great time to hike through the Forest... no mosquitoes!

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1/16/2011 by Kabuthunk
Well, this was probably one of the most fun events I've gone to. Such a statement would probably come as a surprise to many, since there's been far more events that have been more social or more entertaining, etc, etc. But I've always been more of a low-key type person, so going to an event that combined one of the most fun outdoor activities that I partake in (snowshoeing), and generally hanging out was quite fun for me. I however showed up a little bit late, due to having had an obligation of sorts to correctly log the Remember #67 cache further to the South at Assiniboine Forest. The last time I had apparently not logged the cache correctly to claim the find, and so wanted to do just that before heading to another cache (or event) to keep finds in order.

And so, after quickly clearing up that detail, I headed over towards this event, which by coincidence happens to also be my 666th cache find. There wasn't anything particularly evil about the event (except maybe Starbucks, but that's more of a cult ), but the weather outside wasn't exactly the most angelic .

At first when I came and tromped up, I noticed that there seemed to be two primary outdoor-trekking type stations set up. Since I'm not a cross-country-skier type, I snowshoed my way over to the snowshoeing section. I spent a nice few minutes chatting it up with the people running the snowshoe area, where they were vaguely impressed with the amount of effort I put into my snowshoeing. Being fully decked out with my ski-goggles, ski-poles, snowshoes, heavy jacket and ski-pants, I must have been quite the sight. I imagine I probably looked significantly more like a cross-country skier, with the single exception of the footwear . But what can I say... using ski-poles while snowshoeing is far easier on the back, and I find that it's a lot easier to go further when you're putting all of your limbs into your movement.

So soon after that, I worked my way inside towards the geocaching table. I'm not sure if anyone recognized me when I was all decked out, but after I had de-goggled and was beginning to look a bit more human, grnbrg came up and welcomed me. After leaning all of my gear up in a conveniently empty corner, I chatted it up with everyone for a while, and generally relaxed with the group there. I also signed the logbook and dropped a chainmail ball there.

After much chatting, I helped a group find the nearby Monster Mash Cache since I'd found it previously, and we all took it back to give it some TLC. Soon after, I went off and found all three of the 'sample' geocaches that were placed here for the event. It took a good several minutes of circling around before I spotted the first one, but the others fell to my hunting skills a lot faster. After that, I went back and chatted it up some more, and got me some hot chocolate or coffee to warm me up. Once 4:00pm rolled around, everything closed up shop, and I helped carry stuff out. All in all, a really fun time . I had a lot of fun just... chilling with other geocachers, and even talking a bit with the Starbucks staff, snowshoe staff, and a few random snowshoers who were asking me about my gear. I'm generally very... adverse to strange environments where I know very few or no people, but today I actually found myself enjoying talking with strangers. Arguably one of the first events where I was actually the one to start a conversation with people I don't know! Heck, one of the first settings, geocaching or otherwise!

Thanks for bringing me out here. I hadn't heard of this Snowtrek thing until this event, so I'll have to check it out next year. It was definitely awesome to see more people trying out snowshoes... needs to be more snowshoers kicking around in my opinion.

Took: Nothing
Left: 4 logbook entries and 4 chainmail balls, due to the sample caches there

1/12/2011 by Kabuthunk
I'll be trying to show up for this, and as of right now don't foresee anything coming up that will stop me from being at this event. You'll know it's me when you see the guy with ski-poles and ski-goggles snowshoeing over :P

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Dress warm!