Plan Ahead

Had a blast in Montreal - cached each morning before the conference started and the first night got together with another Manitoba cacher that was there at the same time. Over the 4 days I managed to log 40 finds. There were a couple of puzzle caches that I had solved but didn't find. That was a little disappointing. The weather for the last couple of days was miserable too, but overall, I was quite happy.

What I learned about caching on this time out was the importance of a map when in unfamiliar areas. I had looked up a collection of caches that were in a park and within a reasonable distance of each other. All was going well until I came to a point where there was a large lake/swamp. No bridge in sight, and the cache is on the other side. Or is it...

With an actual paper map, or a printout from a mapping program, I could have plotted out a route around it, and a more logical sequence of finds than simply moving from East to West, or North to South. As a result, I spent a bunch of time working my way around this swamp; another time I had to backtrack to find a bridge, then determined I was on the wrong side so backtracked again, then realizing I was right the first time, had to get across to the other side. I walked across a log jam. Fairly successfully, I thought... only slipped once nd dunked my right boot into the water.

Lesson learned: map it out!