Wet slushy snowy Geocaching in Brampton, Ontario

At times when Geocaching it seems as if no one is around for kilometres. I wonder if people are tied up in their homes and can't escape into the beautiful nature that their homes are amongst. When it comes to city planning I know that Peel Region takes great pride in placing homes in areas with natural habitats that can be kept and enjoyed. But when I spend hours upon hours and do not see a second adult, child, or animal it feels very alone. Of course, this does not stop me from enjoying another fantastic day geocaching in the winter on that last day of February.

First stop was this large park along Credit River called Eldorado Park in the fine city of Brampton, Ontario. We had tried to grab a cache called Copperwoods on the way and when we stopped for it the car got very close to being stuff in the wet mud at the side of the road. Once we left the car to pursue two "Regular" sized caches hidden in Eldorado Park it became clear that today was going to be a slushy day for Geocaching.
As we got very close to ground zero (GZ) we could see plenty of evidence of muggle travels along the side of the creek, but a failure to prepare had revealed our biggest fear for the day... we were on the wrong side of the river! Whoops we messed up. After an hour or so walking to see if we could find a bridge to cross we turned around and headed back to the car. Once we got close to the car it became clear that we went in the wrong direction as the bridge was about 5 minute walk from car... too bad it was not the direction that we went in the first place.

Off to the next cache as we had to declare the previous three geocaches as did not find (DNF), but more appropriately we should have logged them as "very close except for the river". Next up was what is know as Multi-cache where the first cache you find has the coordinates for the second and so on. This time we were in a very old cemetery in an "lost" village called Churchville. We did find the first grave that was dated from September 7th, 1831 and the wooden grave marker of Amaziah Church for whom the area is named after. However, the additional hints were not enough for us to crack this one and we notched another DNF to our poor Geocaching start today.

Trying to keep our spirits high we venture forward to the Churchville park were we have 4 geocache targets on our radar (i.e. Triton 400 GPS). Nice park here in this village within a city as it had a outdoor community ice rink and a smaller area to park the care for awhile. First up was a nearby cache hidden inside an interestingly split tree with a wonderful view of Credit River. This geocache was a "small" one and I was happy to have found my first cache of the day! TFTC and SL. As we walked further along towards the next cache it was becoming clear that this park was a gem hidden within the city of Brampton. Where else can you see evidence of woodpeckers and beavers while enjoying the stench of nearby skunks that have sprayed someone or something.

From here we began to work our way deeper into the forest and off the beaten track as there was plenty of evidence of muggle activity in this area with the footprints in the slushy wet snow. The next cache targetted was a multi-cache that had two parts and we had no problem with the first part, however, the second part was very difficult. If not for the fact that the Triton 400 GPS had us spinning in circles, but once we saw the geocache it took 10 minutes to dislodge it from its frozen hiding spot. We were careful to not break the stubborn container and it eventually came free with plenty of planned force.

Once we tackled the previous geocache we had a few more to go as we worked our way further day the river and slipped down a muddy wet hill. As we picked ourselves off the ground at the bottom of the hill we began to wonder how we'll get back up it. Navigating towards the geocache we come across this odd looking tree that could not decide on which direction to grow: up, down, sideways, and up again. What another awesome natural find to add to the collection!

Working our way toward the highway bridge which we have to cross under we stop at a geocache hidden beyond a fence with the picturesque tree in the foreground. The geocache looked like an electrical box attached to some bark. Wow what an interesting cache TFTC SL.

The last of this stop was beyond the highway bridge and along a very watery slushy path with plenty of muggle footprints. I wonder who we will find on our journey. What we did find was what looked like someone putting together some makeshift structure right at ground zero (GZ) for this geocache. With this distraction it tooks us a bit of time to locate the final cache of this stop and once we did we recognized it as being exactly the same container as the cache on the other side of the highway.

With a few successes under our belt it was time for us to call it a day and get back home to watch Team Canada hockey win the gold medal on the last day of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Here are some more great geocaching photos of today's journey: