TAG :: Toronto Area Geocachers » 2010 » August

Aug 25 2010

Opencaching, which has been around in Europe for some time is an alternative to Geocaching.com. The site has launched in the United States as of August 18, 2010. The site, opencaching.us is openly promoting their availability to USA geocachers. Not sure if they are lumping Canada into their USA site, or if they plan an opencaching.ca site in the future (right now that’s domain parked).

Some of the differences on the Opencaching site include non-anonymous reviewers and the ability to post virtual caches. At the time this article was written, the site has 86 active cache listings (versus 1,167,584 on Geocaching.com). It will be interesting to see if the site grows, and how well it scales with no membership fees or other charges to use their service.

Aug 25 2010

Just a few days after a man took a pipe-bomb like geocache into a Timmins police department, Peel Regional Police were dispatched to deal with a film canister in a tree outside the Wal*Mart corporate office in Mississauga.

The geocache was placed in a small spruce tree in the employee parking lot for the office, and this is an area the general public is normally not expected to be. Since the cache was placed without the property owner’s permission, they didn’t realize it was a geocache and called in the authorities.

This is being discussed on the Groundspeak Forums, and the Central Ontario Geocachers forums

Please remember to obtain permission when hiding geocaches, particularly when private property is involved. Also, when hiding a cache in an urban area, you should use a clear container so it is obvious the cache contents are harmless.

From an internal Wal*Mart memo:

11:37 am Subject: IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please Read
Early this morning an Associate reported seeing a suspicious package attached to one of the trees in the East parking lot.. As a precautionary measure the corporate security team contacted Peel Police. The Police have quadrant off a portion of the East parking lot and are requesting that all Associates remain away from this area. If for an emergency reason you need to access your vehicle please contact corporate security or your People Manager. We will let you know when this issue is resolved.

1:35 pm Subject: FW: IMPORTANT NOTICE: Update
Please be advised that the Peel Police have dealt with the suspicious item left in the East parking lot. The item turned out to be a GPS based scavenger hunt game. The item was destroyed by the Police and minor debris may be found in the parking lot. We do not believe any cars were damaged as a result of this action. If you have any concerns relating to your vehicle please contact Corporate Security or your People Manager. We will investigate how the item got to this location. We do not know whether any of our Associates had any connection with this item however, this event is an opportunity to remind all that no one should leave any packages unattended in public areas on Wal-Mart property.

Aug 21 2010

Today the Globe and Mail is running an article in the Toronto Section about Geocaching in the City of Toronto. If you buy the paper, look on Page M5. There’s quite a bit of useful information about caching in our city in the article…. and TAG is featured as well.

Geocachers Find The City’s Hidden Charms – Globe and Mail, 21 August

Aug 12 2010

The first “OGA Day” events are taking place this Saturday. This is a celebration of geocaching in the Province of Ontario hosted by the Ontario Geocaching Association. Several of these events are accessible to geocachers in the Greater Toronto Area.

If you have time on Saturday, August 14 (or August 21), consider making your way to one of these events:

Toronto:
OGA Day – GTA Picnic by OGA and emzernask (GC2CDY6) – August 14

Magnetawan / Huntsville Area:
OGA Day – Near North by OGA and Mag Magician (GC29Q9Y) – August 14

Barrie / Innisfil Area:
OGA Day – The Wrong Coast by OGA and Juicepig (GC23WGH) – August 14

Eastern Ontario:
OGA Day – Kingston Waterfront by Kingston and Area Geocachers (GC2BWV2) – August 14

South Western Ontario:
OGA Day – SWOG Summer Picnic and BBQ by danielwest76 and treasuredtrio (GC2A10A) – August 21