Old Copper Mine At East Sooke Park

Chad, Kevin, and I went to East Sooke Park for a day of geocaching at the end of August. We found a loop we could do – about 12.5km round trip, and around 30 caches. It was a good day. I kept hearing about this abandoned mine there, so we decided to check it out today. Here’s the few pictures I took.

Unfortunately the cave wasn’t as deep as we thought it would be. It was about 35ft… It was still cool though.

Chad and I decided to drop off a couple of Travel Bugs at the cache site.

More Rock Climbing At Nanaimo River

On Aug 25th, Bethany, Lauren, Chrissy and I decided to go rock climbing for a day in Nanaimo River (Dion and Marilee were going to meet up with us later on). Chrissy has never climbed outdoors before, and Bethany and Lauren were always itching to do more rock climbing outside. We finally were able to arrange a day where all of us weren’t busy. So off we went!

The awesome part about Nanaimo River (Sunny Side) is, it’s a short hike to the crag. And once you get there, it’s an amazing view from up top, and then you get to rappel down. It’s always a great time!

Lead climbing a route called “Green (5.8)” (Thanks Lauren for taking some pics of me!)

Now that a top rope has been set up, it’s Bethany’s turn.

Lauren’s turn!

And this is Chrissy’s first outdoor climbing experience.

After this, we moved over to a really interesting corner climb. So after I set up the top rope, I stayed up at the top so I could take some pictures from up top. I’ve never done this kind of photography before, so it was new to me (which was really cool!). This route is called “Jamaica Jerk Off (5.7)”. Lauren was first to go on top rope!

Bethany’s turn on the route.

And Chrissy is next…

And look who finally showed up! Dion and Marilee!

Afterwards, we did a few more climbs… Lauren found a frog in a hole in the wall. It was an awesome day! Great to see Chrissy climb so well on her first time! As well as seeing the progress on Bethany and Lauren! Sooo proud of you all. It makes me super stoked seeing you all stoked on climbing and just getting better and better each time. Can’t wait for our next outdoor adventure!

Geocaching Block Party 2013

Shannon and I decided to go to Seattle on Aug 17th for the day to check out the Geocaching Block Party 2013. Before we got down there, we had to pick up a few caches so the block party would be Shannon’s 1000th find. We also did a little shopping as well. Sooooo we were just a little late, but caught the tail end of it and still had a great time!

Blue Moon Burgers… We’ll be back for you later! Great food!

Signed the board to prove I was there!

Like I’ve said earlier, Shannon and I arrived really late, but it was still cool wandering around the area. They had different booths, free swag, and a bunch of food trucks.

Now that the huge crowds have cleared out, it’s time to do some caching/sightseeing! First stop was the Aurora Bridge. They’re always great to photograph.

A really awesome geocache. You had to find the combination to be able to get into it and sign the log. Throughout the night we were impressed at how much time and thought were put into these caches.

We also found the troll that lives under the bridge. There was also a new type of “test” cache they released. It’s called Lab Caches. You go to the area and find a secret geocaching code or phrase somewhere… And you type in the phrase/code on the website to log it. Interesting idea, but not sure if it’ll catch on.

Random awesome artwork we found! Love it!

Thank you Groundspeak for hosting such an awesome party and all the time/effort put into setting up the caches, venue, etc etc. Will definitely try to be back next year! And hopefully I’ll be there earlier next time.