About the Lake Simcoe Series of Caches
Lake Simcoe is a
lake in southern Ontario, Canada, the fourth largest lake in the
province. At the time of the first European contact in the 17th
century the lake was called Ouentironk ("Beautiful Water")
by the Huron natives. It was also known as Lake Toronto. Early
French traders named it Lac aux Claies, the "lake of
weirs", after the many fishing weirs found there. It was renamed by
John Graves Simcoe, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada in the
late 18th century for his father. The lake is about 30km long and
25km wide. Its area is roughly 720km².
The caches that will
present themselves throughout this series of caches will outline
the best of this lake. Throughout finding this series, you will
have been exposed to some popular destinations, as well as some
hidden gems. This series will not lead to a final, however, will
give you the reward of experiencing one of Ontario's finest points
like it has not been experienced before!
Find
this text and more on
Wikipedia here
List of Caches in the Series
About the Monument
At the base of
Maple Street on the scenic waterfront sits Barrie's majestic
landmark, the "Spirit Catcher." Ron Baird was one of nine sculptors
asked to submit proposals for EXPO '86 and he was one of the two
sculptors chosen. The theme of EXPO '86 was transportation and
communication. With this in mind the artist thought of his
sculpture as spiritual antennae. The imagery of the "Spirit
Catcher" was influenced by the west coast location and the
Thunderbird of First Nations' mythology. The Thunderbird is a
messenger who carries our dreams and desires to the Creator. The 20
tonne steel sculpture took 6 months to make and was originally
installed at False Creek in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Once EXPO '86
ended, the sculpture was purchased by the Helen McCrea Peacock
Foundation (Toronto) for $230,000 after months of negotiations. The
Foundation donated the sculpture, in memory of Helen McCrea Peacock
and Kenneth Westrup, to the "Barrie Gallery Project" as an
inspiration to create an art gallery in the City of Barrie. The
sculpture came to Barrie on 2 flatbed trucks and was installed with
the assistance of several volunteers and 2 cranes. The installation
took almost 2 full days on the weekend of June 12th and 13th, 1987
and was dedicated on September 12th.
Read
this text and more about the "Spirit Catcher" at The MacLaren Art Centre website
About the Location
Although this cache SHOULD
be hidden well enough to deter the casual "Passer-By" it is MOST
DEFINATELY in a very high traffic and
MUGGLE-INTENSE area. Please do
everything in your power to attempt to be discreet with this
cache. It is always easy in this spot to make like
you are taking a picture of the monument, or feeding the numerous
ducks, or simply just sitting to relax.
Rated difficulty of 3 due
to the need for near-maximum stealth factor.
Rated Terrain of 1.5 because of the actual cache
location.
This
cache was placed by a Central
Ontario Geocacher.