Sometimes I make things up, but everything that follows is true...
Recently while attending WestCan6 in Cold Lake, AB. I was conversing with a cacher from Alberta. As part of introductions, I told him that we were from Saskatoon. "Oh", he said. "There sure are a lot of mists in Saskatoon."
I reluctantly concurred, but when he went on to say that mists are against the law in Calgary, I commented, with a tinge of skepticism that I thought that was a good idea. "Seriously," he said. It's against the law to hang anything in any tree on public property in Calgary, therefore mists, at least on public property, are against the law. Look it up."
So I did.
And indeed, Calgary Bylaw 23M2002, officially known as the Tree Protection Bylaw, was passed on May 27, 2002. Section 17 states: "No person shall put anything in the branches of a Public Tree or cause anything to be put in the branches of a Public Tree"
MISTS ARE ILLEGAL IN CALGARY?
Well. Sort of...
SkookumBear, who is one very helpful reviewer, drew my attention to another part of this. The City of Calgary also has another great document, "Geocaching in Calgary's Parks", (http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Pages/Locations/Geocaching-in-parks.aspx )which in one place allows that a géocache may be placed in a tree "provided that a concise hint is given, or a piece of natural coloured flagging up to 10 cm long is placed in close proximity to the cache." Okay, that would do away with much of the frustration and misery of looking for these demons, and also the incentive to "hide" them as well.
Think of it. if we had a similar bylaw and guidelines here, the Scourge of Saskatoon could be greatly reduced and controlled.Public parks and byways would only contain cacher friendly hides, not evil nanos buried among the dirty razor sharp needles of a cluster of conifers. Additionally, the trees themselves would also be protected from cachers flailing away and breaking limbs, which is just what the Calgary arborphiles were intending to prevent all along.
Ponder this. This cache is placed in the new community of Evergeen. Can there be a more fitting place to make a tree stand on behalf of our green friends? What if we as cachers declared this community as a mist-free zone? Our city leaders have bridges to build, and swales to swath, and probably don't have the foresight to create an anti-mist bylaw like Calgary, but we can take the conscientious lead.
Friends don't let friends hide mists.