GC1M57B 2009 ICE WALK (Event Cache) in New Brunswick, Canada created by Ma & Pa

This cache has been archived.

Ma & Pa: Time to archive the listing.

Was a great evetn. Thanks to everyone. See you all next year.

GC1M57B ▼

A cache by Ma & Pa Message this owner

Hidden : Sunday, March 1, 2009

Difficulty:

Terrain:

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER ICE WALK THIS YEAR.
This year the walk to the island will be on a Sunday. You will again have the opportunity to walk to shediac Island or to Cocagne Island or to grab other caches in the Shediac to Cocagne area.
The walk will begin at Ma & Pa's place at 9:00 am. The event will be going on all day so feel free to start later if that suits you better or if you have many of the caches. You can park in the driveway or on the street, but please leave room for our neighbours to get by. Please check in with Ma & Pa before going out on the ice. Those going to Cocagne Island may be able to carpool to Cocagne.
When you get back from the walk, come in, relax and enjoy the company of fellow cachers and trade stories of your day. We will have hot drinks, treats and sweets waiting for everyone.
The following link will get you to the cache pages for the previous walks

EQUIPMENT AND ICE SAFETY
The walk across the ice to Shediac Island may take up to 45 minutes and you will not be protected from the elements. The walk across to Cocagne Island will take a bit less time. You will spend quite a bit of time looking for caches on the island and then you will have that same walk back. You should pace yourself and start back if you feel tired. After all, it is a long walk back. Please dress accordingly and bring additional clothing items that you may need. Extra mitts or hand warmers could be helpful as you will be exposing hands to open caches and signing logs. Because of the length of the walk, you should bring a lunch with you and also bring plenty of liquids. Snow is usually not deep on the ice so snowshoes are often not necessary to get over there. Once you are on the islands, snowshoes are very helpful.
The conditions are always changing but we will keep everyone informed. We never venture out on the ice without being as positive as we can about safety. We base it on the activity on the ice and the weather and we also venture over ourselves before the event. We will cancel if there is any doubt. This year, trucks have been out on the ice on and off since early January.

If heading to Shediac Island, cross to the North side from Ma & Pa's place or to the west side.Travel from the North to the South along the trail on the West side of the Island. When you have done the caches on the South, return the way you came. DO NOT GO ON THE ICE ON THE SOUTH AND EAST SIDE OF THE ISLAND..

If heading to Cocagne Island, you will have to go back to highway 11 as the bridge across the cocagne river on highway 134 is being repaired. We have provided a parking spot for those going to cocagne island.

UPDATES.

February 1: Two PEI cachers (El Nimrod and escaperr) went over to Cocagne Island this weekend. Snow was very deep. They found 14 of the 15 caches that they went for. We will be checking on caches before the event. Belladan ventured out on the Ice on Shediac Bay and said the snow is deep on the ice. I spoke to a person with a fishing shack and was told the ice was 16 inches thick.

February 2: From incepit: . I went to the North side of Cocagne Island Yesterday from the wharf just north of the sandbar. About 4-6 inches of crusty snow on the ice that I broke through with each step, making for a tiring walk. The Island itself had about 6-8 inches with some spots up to 18 inches on the north side, but I didn't venture far from the snowmobile trail that crosses the island at that point as there were only a few caches I needed. I would definately recommend snowshoes if conditions don't get better.

February 8: The last storm deposited more snow on the bay so snowshoes seem to be a requirement to cross the ice. CRLYL has placed 8 new micro caches just north of us arond Bouctouche. That may be an extra incentive for those staying for more than a day and for those who have alll of the caches on the two islands. br />

February 17 : Spent more than 5 hours on Shediac Island with Belladan checking 18 of the caches. We replaced missing caches, replaced some damp log sheets and dried some out.
We decided to go without snowshoes. There is lots of snow on the ice but the recent rain created a crust so the walking was pretty good. On the island the going was great once we got on the snowmobile trails but we worked up a sweat going through the deep snow to get to the trails.
CRLYL now has new 15 caches placed within the past few weeks in the Cocagne and Bouctouche area.

February 20: The last storm deposited a ton of snow around our place, so snowshoes may be a requirement to cross the ice. If you want an accurate map to get to our place, click on mapquest next to the map on this page.

February 22:Based on my experience today, it may be a tough ice walk to Shediac Island this year. I thought I was in good shape because of all the xcountry skiing that we do. Well I was wrong. I went over to fix 6 caches and it tired me out. This year there is a thicker layer of snow on the ice so snowshoes are really needed to get to the island. So if you are not in good shape, you can be pretty tired by the time you get to the island (2 km walk). You then have to spend a few hours looking for the caches. Energy food, water and rest stops would be very helpful in these conditions. Tonight's forecasted storm (35 cms) will not make things any easier.
Geocaching is supposed to be fun. So I recommend that cachers pace themselves and turn around when they are getting tired because after all they have the long walk back across the ice. And if they don't get all the caches, well they can come back again next year and have more fun. I promise I will go over there again next year and make sure the caches are all available.
Shepody went over to Cocagne Island yesterday and here is his comment:
A beautiful day for snowshoeing on the island, a little windy crossing the ice but once on the island it was a nice day out of the wind. It was easy going with snowshoes and would not recommend trying these caches without them. It took me 5 hours to snowshoe about 12k and find 22 caches and 1 DNF. All the caches that I found are in good shape and were easy to find. Thanks.
Note : we will be going over this week to replace the DNF cache.

February 25: We have put out 5 new caches around here yesterday and a new one on Shediac Island. We went over to Cocagne Island today and checked on the last of the caches. The snow was deep on the ice and on the island.

Belladan went over to Shediac Island on skis today. Here is his report
On the bay, a couple times my pole sank about 18 inches into the snow and there was water under the snow. I poked to the bottom and the ice was still solid at approximately 2 ft. This happened maybe a couple times on the way across and a couple times on the way back. From the northern tip of the island, it took me 35-40 minutes to get back to where we left from the other day. Snowshoes will be a must as in some places on the island; I was sinking to mid calf even on skis. The beauty of it all is that I didn’t have to remove the skis to get to the 6 caches on the north side of the island although I thought about it for the sneaky thorny old man.

Here are a couple of pictures from the last events. .