It's hard to believe that it was 10 years ago that Flotsom and Jetsom started geocaching at the zoo. Some things have changed since then; some things haven't. Here is a note from Jetsom (Lynda) regarding their experience as Cache Owners at the zoo:
Jim would have been thrilled (as am I) that this effort is ongoing. We enjoyed being involved with geocaching and especially in thinking up some family friendly caches that highlighted the zoo. Our reasons for thinking of zoo caches were establishing a number of interesting caches in a defined area that would make for a nice “outing”, creating a family-friendly activity, providing an easy way to get started in geocaching and, just as importantly, working with the zoo to present caches that incorporate learning opportunities. In that regard, we could not have had a better partner than Scott Grey. He immediately “got” the idea of geocaching and recognized its potential in this venue. Each year he chose the theme, did the write-ups, and worked with us in finding suitable spots to place caches that would be safe and accessible for people without disturbing the animals. I think the theme of the first year (2008) was endangered animals, 2009 was environment and 2010 was biodiversity. His descriptions reflected the theme.
The caches created for each of those years were:
2008 - Talkin’ to Tigers, Spot the Leopard, Whoo’s Next, Oh Give Me a Home, Losing Lemurs, Lion Down on the Prairies, Croakin’Away and ‘Alp ‘Alp
2009 - Not so (n)ice, Recycle for Fun, Control the Commute, Wearin’the World, Suburban Sprawl, When the Chips are Down, Wonderful Wetlands, and Shine on and Off
2010 - Imaginatively called Cache Diversity 1-8
Jim's favourite was the one that was a water pipe located by the side of the washroom door outside the refreshment building by the bison. He modelled it on an idea he got from a cache at Clearwater Bay, Ontario (Hydro Piccolo North by rekal). You had to put your fingers over the holes along the side of the pipe and pour some water in the pipe to allow the cache to float to the top. The one at the zoo was never very successful as it was often broken (people would get frustrated, get it out of the ground and shake the cache out), but he loved the idea of the puzzle. He also really liked the bird house which was another puzzle cache - you had to disassemble it to gain access to the cache, and then reassemble it. I think he got the idea for that from a cache along highway 23. Then the poison ivy sign (The idea came from something similar in Assiniboine Forest and with all the poison ivy in the zoo it seemed like a good idea.) We also had a stump along the path which, although it looked genuine, was decayed underneath, so you had to turn it over to find the cache. The idea for that came from Xplorer and Ramblin' Rose who have something similar at Star Lake. Jim really liked the puzzle caches. Sadly, Jim passed away in 2014.
My (Lynda’s) favourites were more straightforward. I like the box painted Assiniboine Park Green that had a fake tap on it. It was right next to the door of the water bird enclosure where the pelicans, ducks and other aquatic fowl spent the winter (behind the tropical house). It gave us the luxury of having a large cache with lots of room for kid-friendly swag. I also liked the square wooden box hidden in the struts under the picnic table located by the ditch between the leopard and the goat enclosures. Other favourites were the duck decoy in the pond close to the entrance, the fake bird’s nest in the pine trees along the ditch and the fake cylindrical bird feeder in the same area (The cache container in it was painted black so it looked like bird seed from a distance.)
We had lots of fun creating the caches and it is so nice to hear that others enjoyed finding them.
Thank-you, Lynda! We are all thrilled that you and Jim launched this delightful initiative at the zoo!
A huge thank-you to rekal for his help in construction of this container!
Congratulations to Team Crazy Cachers (Awol, GeoSmart, Bike_4_me, 4elements5senses, Wally_k and MightyStrongValiant) on the FTF!