Bruce Park

18/01/2009 By Kabutroid
Last cache of the day! And quite a long day it's been. After zig-zagging around Assinaboine Park for several hours, I wandered my way across the river, found a few other caches in a nearby park, and eventually found myself at this one. The coffee seems to have still been running strong through, since the upcoming hill posed very little of a problem for me Smile .

Besides, this time of year made it PERFECT to go after caches on this side of the river! I can park at Assinaboine Park, find caches there, and then casually stroll across the river to tackle some of the ones on THIS side . So with that mentality, across the river I did stroll.

Onwards to the cache! An added bonus of finding the cache at this time of year is that I just walked along the stream (tributary, whatever that little offshoot of water is from the river) until I got near the coordinates. I was lucky in that working my way up the hill to the cache coordinates was fairly easy. It looks like a few people in the past have taken the same route, and made for a few steps here and there to keep me from sliding down again. I suppose the terrain level could be seen as easier, since you can't slip and fall in the water... however I'm sure slipping and slamming into the ice would probably be worse .

Thankfully, I didn't slip (well, until the amusing ride back down later). I managed to locate the cache about a minute after having gotten to ground zero. I may have actually found it a bit faster, but had to manoever around a little bit to get around the branches that were in the way. Nonetheless, the cache was indeed found! Not exactly where I expected it, but it works. I'm actually a bit lucky... after a snowstorm or two, the cache could be a little bit more of a challange to retrieve. As long as it has a steady stream of finders every so often though, it shouldn't be a problem. Also, I don't anticipate much drifting to occur, what with a massive trench for the snow to blow into instead of pile up there.

But... the cache found, signed, and chainmail-balled, I contemplated taking the same path back to the river/stream/thing. But what fun would that be? Crouching down in a position familiar to my childhood hill-sliding days (one foot under me, one stuck out in front to guide me), I slurped my way down a nice, steep part of the hill that looks like it's been used for a similar purpose in the past. Probably best I didn't just sit down flat and go for full-speed... it's not like there was a gentle curve at the end... and the last thing I need today is broken legs ToungeOut . But one scoot later, and I was back at the bottom, on the way to the car. I momentarily contemplated taking a second swing at the 'Rame! Rame!' cache a little to the West, but my energy reserves were officially running on low at this point, and I needed to sit somewhere other than in a snowbank soon ToungeOut . One more trek across the river, a quick trip through the trees, and into the car I go!

Thanks for the amusing cache, and chance to have me some sliding fun BigSmile .

Took: Nothing
Left: Logbook entry and chainmail ball