The Calgary Area Cachers have officially adopted a 3km stretch of
Highway 1A just outside city limits, near Cochrane! We have
committed to a 3-year contract with the only requirement being that
we do at least one clean a year. This is our third year.
We will be cleaning the northside of the highway. Look for the
Calgary Area Cachers road sign and banner!
The Province provides some basic insurance and suggests that
this location is suitable for children 9 years of age and older and
all adults. If you bring children, please make sure you have
discussed safety-related issues with them before you start the
clean.
The event coordinates take you to a nearby, off-highway lane
that can be used for parking. Garbage bags, litter sticks, safety
vests, gloves etc. will be provided. Refreshments and snacks will
also be on hand at the beginning of the cleanup. There will not be
a BBQ or pot-luck lunch. Nor will there be elephant rides. Sorry.
However, due to our proximity to Cochrane and the chance of sunny
weather (sorry, I just jinxed it!), at the end of the cleanup we
can all partake of an icecream or three at McKay's Icecream Shop
which is only a 5 minute drive away. The coordinates are at the end
of this listing.
This event will be held, come rain or shine, cold or heat, snow
or tornado, so bring appropriate clothing and perhaps a change of
clothes if the forecast is particularly bad! I plan to check the
weather forecast about 5 days out and will update this page as
necessary.
We will meet at 1pm and work until 3pm at the latest, with a
general get-together afterwards.
Here's a map of the cleanup area:
There will be an awesome prize draw at the end for some goodies
that have been donated.
A Grand Door Prize of a Magellan Triton 400 GPSr,
including a 1Gb SD card and a pair of AA's (lightly used but in new
condition and updated with latest firmware!) very, very generously
donated by everlan!! That's a sweet prize and anyone that is just
starting out Geocaching or knows someone that is keen to get their
hands on a personal GPSr will be very glad to win this
prize!
There will also be an "Early Bird" door prize for anyone that
has logged a "Will Attend" log here, and is at the CITO by 1:00pm.
(The draw for the Early Bird prize will be made at 1:00pm). Get
your logs in!
The Early Bird door prize will be a custom-painted ammo can with
contents, a ready-to-go cache, if you like, designed to your
specifications. I'll provide everything, you provide the idea! (It
may take a few weeks to deliver actual prize, but that's because
I'll dedicate myself to creating a one-of-a-kind beaut for ya!)
If you'd like to donate a prize for the CITO, please contact me
privately. I'll accept anything, but if it is alive I'll need a
supply of feed. Shiny things are best!
Thanks so far to:
PrairieSwan for a Geocaching T shirt made by Sask_girl &
Novy;
Lady Katka for an unactivated Geocoin
RuffsRanger for donating two, new, unactivated GeoCoins
gardengorilla for a new gardengorilla goes bush Geocoin
DanOCan for organizing, TethysC for input and the cachers that
donated OakBucks so that a GWVII coin could be donated as a
prize!
The Homann Hunters for donating A Man Plant(!)
Mr Canoehead and Count Smiley for donating two prize packs
of a SIGG water bottle, an unactivated Geocoin and a CITO pin.
Awesome!
Tethys C for "a couple of shiny things"! Woo-hoo!!
Ricky's Restaurant (North Hill mall) for a hamburger meal for
two!
Sears Tower for "some prizes - don't know what yet" ;)
Road Rage donating Junior Forest Warden water bottle
and k5cents donating an ammo can!
Thanks all of you!
Also looking for the following snack items (let me know if
you can help out, and I'll keep this list updated):
Potato chips - snagged by everlan
Cookies snagged by PrairieSwan
Fruit snagged by Stone and Thunder Wolf
Cereal Bars snagged by peanutbutterbreadandjam
Juices snagged by Mr Canoehead224 and Mrs.K
Water snagged by RedRouge
Pop snagged by Mrs.K
Coffee/Tea/Timbits snagged by Mr Canoehead and Count
Smiley
See y'all there!!
This will be the last Calgary Area CITO that I'll organize - if
anyone is interested in organizing similar events in the future I
am more than willing to share my (limited) knowledge. Call me.
***UPDATE***
This year I will be organizing two cleanup teams. Each team will
start at one end of our 3km stretch (volunteers will car-pool
team-members to the ends and park the cars off the highway on the
side roads). The teams will walk and clean towards each other and
meet in the middle (opposite the rendezvous location). Carefully
crossing the highway, new volunteers will shuttle the original car
drivers back to their vehicles and all will meet back at the posted
coordinates for the wrap-up talk and prizes. Alternative to the
driving legs, you could just walk - it is 1,500 metres from the
posted coordinates to either end.
We will do a group photograph at 1:00pm at the rendezvous
location and a second one at the end, at about 3:00pm. Full garbage
bags should be deposited at the side of the highway for the hwy
maintenance crew to collect on Monday, so we will not be able to do
a group photograph in front of a big pile of collected trash, I am
afraid. Likewise, having a safe group photo in front of our CAC
roadside sign is not practical.
One final note - please do NOT park on the highway or on the
shoulder - the rendezvous location is the nearest safe parking
location. We will stash a smaller number of cars along the edges of
Lochend Road and Meskanaw Road when we start the cleanup.
