Another fine Geocaching day in Mississauga

What a fantastic February day for Geocaching in Canada with little winter snow on the ground. This, of course, makes it a lot easier to find those caches as they are are not covered up by the snow. Geocaching in the winter does have its advantages in that it keeps that bush wacking to a minimum. First stop on today's adventure was a small urban forest squashed between a large pharmaceutical plant of GSK and new housing development. There was a small frozen creek that had to be jumped over and strange mushrooms to avoid. This cache was labeled "Small" but had the larger size of a "Regular" geocache.

Next stop a short drive away was a nice neighourhood forest behind a housing development. Sometimes I wonder if the locals that live here every take a walk in the beautiful forests behind their houses. This geocache proved tricky as the Triton 400 GPS had us walking in circles. I must have walked past the cache about 5 times as it took a lucky view to find it after all. This one was nestled underneath the strangest looking tree lying on the ground with a "Y" shape that looked manufactured.

After spending some time with a quick picnic snack it was time for a hike to the next geocache. This time we hustled down a small hill and off the path of the muggles. As we escaped the other side of the very tall bushes (~over 6 feet tall!) we stumbled across a baby forest that looks like it was recently planted. The hint for this cache was a willow tree and we found the creepiest and oldest willow tree I have ever seen. It was a good 4 feet in diameter and split 3 ways in a manner I have not witnessed before. Plenty of evidence that this a spawning ground for young muggles and their alcholic beverages. After much searching it became apparent that this one was not to be found so we had to log this geocache as DNF (did not find) and move on to the next one.

The next geocache was purposely choosen as it had not been logged (SL) in over 90 days so it was felt that it needed some Geocaching TLC. Nestled in behind what look like very new homes this cache required some fancy footwork to get through the wonderful forest that had no man-made paths. I must have tripped 10 times over the glorious roots that popped up from the ground of very old trees. As we got close to ground zero (GZ) it became apparent that it necessary to crawl through some very thick bushes to get the geocache. The Triton 400 GPS was pointing to a spot that was heavily guarded with bramble bushes hence the name for this cache "Bramble Path". After pulling all the loose twigs from pants, shirts, shoes, and pockets we come across the largest white geocache I have ever seen tucked in amongst the bramble bushes. From this vantage point it became clear that there was a much more direct way to get to the cache that did not require the "crawling" or the "cleaning of twigs" so we used it on the way out.

The last stop for the day was a public park known as Meadowvale Conservation Area and as we approached in our vehicles we started to get worried about all the muggles parked in the lot as it was full of cars. In fact, a couple of young gentlemen were enjoying some smoke that smelled funny in their vehicles at the trailhead for this geocache. We did enjoy getting off the public path and climbing amongst the large rocks that ran parallel to the public path. Waving at the muggles and with a degree of stealth with came across GZ and gently lifted the rocks that were hiding the cache and signed the log (SL). There were some other caches nearby but we decided to call it a day and leave the other ones for another day.

Enjoy more great Geocaching photos of today's adventures: