When I joined Geocaching on 20 Nov 01 there were only 9 caches within 50 kilometers of my house, and only 151 in all of Ontario. How things have changed!

Today there are over 7000 listings in Ontario (although 1500 are Archived). With plenty of variety in types and challenges to keep most everyone going for quite a long time, Geocaching has grown to be a very popular activity.

So to celebrate my first five years of Geocaching, I am hosting an Event to continue on some of the best parts of the activity. Those would be getting together with the Geocachers that have shared time, adventures and stories with me, as well as hopefully meeting some new Geocachers that are either new to the activity or have not attended an event that I’ve been at.

Like often happens for Event Cache listings, there is the mandatory meeting location where everyone gets together. But there is also an optional activity for those that are interested to participate in during the day. Please refer to both sections listed below to find out about each of these items.

For those that live out of town, why not consider a weekend in Niagara! You can spend your entire Saturday searching out some of the great caches or enjoy some of the local attractions. Bring the stories of your weekend to the Event on Sunday evening and share!

PLEASE NOTE: This is a SUNDAY Evening Event , the date listed is NOT a mistake!

The Event was held in The Seymour-Hannah Sports and Entertainment Centre which is located at 240 St. Paul Street West, in St. Catharines. The location of this area matches the coordinates listed for this Event.

We filled up half of the restaurant and made a lot of noise. Everyone was eating and drinking and seemed to be having a great time. The evening ended around 930pm with the last group heading out at 10pm.

Big thanks to the Look Out Sports Bar and Restaurant, the two waitresses, "Jen" and "Timbit", for the great service, as well as the kitchen staff for the delicious food. "George" the assistant manager was a great asset and helped out a lot, as well as kept the sound system down low enough so we could all talk and carry on as we often do.

And of course no event is a success without all of the good Geocachers that attend. There was a great amount of socializing and laughing at every table. You guys really helped make this Event the success I hoped it would be. Thanks for sharing my fifth anniversary of Geocaching with me.

The winners of the Travel Bug door prizes were

• Dirty Girl - Monopoly: Standard Edition
• RockHarder - Monopoly: The Card Game
• I of JWID - Johnny Lightning: Luxury Tax car
• Tylor2100 - Johnny Lightning: Chance car

Evening Attendees: Those listed in the Optional Activity + Dex (1), Analyse (1), Wren2ca (1), Dex4 (1), Rideau Rangers (4), Cache Lizzie Cache (1), King Canuck (2), JWID (3), Dierdre's Explorers (2), Isquba&Nawty (2), Dory the Explorer (1), Waynescout (1), Luc & Sweety (2), Warlord (5), Canadian Dude (1), Rideau Rangers (5 to 8), Nozzletime (1), Lugnuts (1), Logger & Trail (2)

While it is true that Niagara has many caches for people to find, I will be putting out over 25 temporary caches for people or teams to find.

This activity is NOT a race, nor is it timed in any fashion. It is however an activity that can be done by individuals or teams. Basically it operates as a large scale multi-cache that can be started at any one of eight locations, with some bonus locations along the way. Once you start the activity you can progress at you own pace and there is no need to check in anywhere, you are free to find as many as you like. In fact, the hides will be very easy and the math is straight forward stuff that is common to most multi-caches (like multiply numbers then divide by 1000). The idea is not to be challenging, just to have some fun.

The activity is based around the game of MONOPOLY, with the Properties being used as caches. Each individual or team will be assigned a token just for the fun of it. I will need you to register your team, even if you are participating alone, in advance so that there are enough printouts for everyone. For simplicity sake, only one vehicle per team is allowed but you can have as many people as your vehicle can safely accommodate. To register, please send an email to The Blue Quasar and include the Geocaching Names of all Members of your team, as well as Team Name for yourselves.

This activity will require you to arrive at the same above coordinates at 9am on the day of the Event so that everyone can receive their starting package at the same time. It is recommended that you bring a calculator to make your participation easier.

Teams:

The Die Hards - TOMTEC, Outdoors Nut, Spike, Telly
Boardwalk Bunnies - res2100, Tylor2100, Ellesche
Community Chests - Buttons & Beaux, Capjap, Rogue Monkey & 'Friend'
FTN - Amazon Annie, GeoDog, Algonquin Bound
The Electric Company - Scratch-n-Win (2)
GO! - Dyverdown & DirtyGirl
Water Works - WildWilly, Wogga
Chance Cachers - NorthernPenguin, Kitten on the Hunt
Just Visiting - RockHarder (2)
Rangitikei Raptors - Canadian & Kiwi, Tae Kwon Dude
The Ham-sters - The Ham-sters (2)

Current weather conditions are:

Last Maintenance Performed: 19 NOV 06
Details of Maintenance: Original Placement

The Blue Quasar