This is the 3rd cache in a series riffing on attributes. The first one reflected on what is wheelchair accessible and the second played with parking nearby. In this case you'll find yourself near lots of TTC buses, but none of them will give you a lift...and you'll be right by tables where you can't picnic!
Yes, you'll be visiting the TTC's Birchmount Garage. According to the enthusiasts at Transit Toronto, this "89,500 square foot garage has 2 wash racks, 2 fueling stations, 10 40-foot hoists, and 4 inspection pit stations...3 bus storage bays (bay 1 has 3 tracks, bay 2 has 6 tracks and bay 3 has 7 tracks) alongside with the UWE heating system for buses stored outdoors. A charging station with pantographs...to recharge electric buses was installed in April 2023. The garage houses a fleet of 212 NOVA LFS 40102 DSL and 10 NFI X-E40 BEV vehicles."
Contrast this hive of modern infrastructure with the fact that they only just started numbering Birchmount bus routes in 1956:
As noted in the waypoints, there is a bus shelter nearby. This could serve your arrival, your getaway, or as a place to lurk. You'll find the cache has a very familiar container that won't open quite as quickly as usual, so you might want to decamp to the bus shelter or a spot in the nearby plaza for leisurely fiddling and log-signing.
Pick your approach times wisely at GZ to avoid all the TTC employees getting to work, finishing their shift, or just going across the street for coffee. In good weather they may even be sitting at the picnic tables right next to the cache! (I'd have pegged this a D1.5, otherwise.) But unless there is deep snow you should be able to nonchalantly spot the cache just by walking by. You can act natural and keep your dignity rather than get your knees dirty or grope random things in public. (Although it's not like we haven't all done those things.)
Room for log only. Pay attention to orientation--you won't be able to reset the cache if you put the container back in the wrong way. This one isn't as fragile (or as fiddly) as other caches in this series, but you still shouldn't brute force it!
Congrats Spellicity31 😊 FTF 30 Dec 2025 11:05am