Recently we had a chance to do a bit of Geocaching at the Dingle. Now, although the word ‘dingle’ means “a small wooded valley, a shady dell, a narrow cleft between hills”, here in Halifax it refers to the Sir Sandford Fleming Park, or simply, Fleming Park.

Locally, the term ‘Dingle’ is also synonymous with the Dingle Tower, the landmark ten-story tower located in the park, which serves as a memorial to the development of parliamentary institutions in the British Empire, now the British Commonwealth.

Situated on Halifax’s North West Arm the 95 acre park has a couple of small beaches, a boat launch, large picnic areas and several walking trails that skirt the water’s edge and meander through second-growth woodlands. The trails are groomed and graveled, for the most part, with lots of interconnecting pine needle covered footpaths.

The Loop Trail takes you around a small drumlin where, in addition to Spruce, White Pine, Red Pine and Hemlock trees, you will find a smattering of Jack Pine, the third of the three native Pines in Nova Scotia. The Jack Pine is not as common as the other two and this is one of the few places in the province where you can view them. You can identify the Jack Pine by their twinned needles and curved cones. Here’s a couple of photos of Jack Pine:

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It’s been a few weeks since we released ‘the news’ so we thought that in this issue we would focus solely on Geocachers in the news, and there’s a few of them! Grab a coffee, settle back and read about what your Geocaching buddies are up to. Read on!

Andy Smith, aka HeadHardHat of GeoCache: I’m NOT Obsessed blog fame is featured in this great article here. (We can say we knew him when )

Another blogger friend, Elin Carlson, from Geocaching with EMC fame along with John Cappi, Jeff Jost and Robb Boyle are mentioned in this article here.

Sally Smith and her husband Jim Leesburg, Virginia are mentioned in this article here.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota resident Dorin Hemmelman and his family are mentioned in this article here.

Donna Wester, Mary Lee Gunn and Bill Davies, Geocachers from New York are mentioned in this article here.

Nate Cushman of Washington is mentioned in this article here.

University of Florida student Will Dueease is featured in this article here.

Springfield, Missouri residents John Curtis and his wife, Jennifer and Paul Kelsay are mentioned in this article here.

Jim Cox and David Kuhn of Evansville, Indiana are mentioned in this article here.

Shawn and Tiffany Goddard from Snow Hill, Maryland are mentioned in this article here.

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After a harrowing winter and a fight with a pack of wild wolves GoGo T. Urtle is on the move again! Although he is a bit banged up, bruised and sore he dragged himself back into the HooHaa GeoChallenge Race as soon as he was able, like the little trooper he is.

We were contacted by cribdonor earlier in the month with this disturbing message:

“I was checking on bugs I moved around and discovered that HooHaa Race – GoGo T. Urtle was in a cache that had been muggled. Since I am not far away I went to check it out and sure enough he has had a hard life and his tag is gone. I brought him along with me to dry him out and see if i can fix him up some. If you can get another tag for him we can try to get him going again, will help all i can. Sure wish I had put him somewhere else. . Anyway just thought i would let you know.”

Then, checking the cache logs we seen an entry on April 25th:

“This one was wide open, very wet and parts were spread out – looks like an animal got to it.”

There it was, a Cache Attack! It was then that it became clear.

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Recently we got a chance to visit the Kiwanis Centre Beach and Park on Morris Lake in Dartmouth, NS and do a bit of Geocaching. This is a small park that was created by volunteers from the local Kiwanis Club. It took them several years to build this fine facility and since it’s creation it has quickly became a popular spot. It is not a large park but it does include several short walking trails, a picnic area and a nice sandy beach with a floating dock.

In addition, there is access from the park to a great woodland trail that runs through a peninsula that splits the lake. The trail is a well-worn footpath that travels over rock and through bog areas culminating in a area that offers some great views.

We had to do a bit of bushwacking to reach the cache at the end of this trail and we were glad that we chose this time of year to visit. It’s likely that once the leaves come out slogging across the boggy areas would slow one down. We were also glad to have our waterproof hikers.

Here are some photos we took of our visit:

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Well, it’s been a few weeks since we did the news so there’s a lot of it! There’s quite a few cachers in the news, several bomb scares and a couple of great events. Grab a coffee, sit back and read on!

Dave Baumchen from Seattle, Washington area, who has 10,126 cache finds, is featured in this article here.

Jeff Zesch, Walter Guertin and Donna Siegel of Massachusetts are mentioned in this article here.

Denise Eickbush from Wichita, Kansas is featured in this article from KSN3 News.

Kathleen Fisher and Bob and Barb Fochtman are mentioned in this article about their caching experiences around Fort Gratiot’s Natural Reserve and Walking Trail in Port Huron, Michigan.

Amy Mills, from Central Iowa, is mention in this article here.

Nate Cushman, from the Everette, Washington area, is featured in this article here.

An introduction to Geocaching was held at The Indiana Dunes State Park recently which was well received. You can read more here.

Geocaching was also the part of the festivities of The No Child Left Inside event held recently in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. You can read more about this event here.

A Kelowna, British Columbia cache was recently mistaken for a bomb and the police are looking for the Geocacher so that they can ‘educate’ him. You can read more here.

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We got a chance to do a bit more caching at the Cole Harbour Heritage Park recently. Although we drop by here for a walk several times throughout the summer this was the first time in over a year that we went there specifically to do some caching. We know that this may sound strange but we often come here just to walk aimlessly. It is one of our favorite spots on a hot day since you can catch the cool breeze coming off the water.

The entrance to the park is not hard to miss since it is fronted by a large red barn. This barn would have been used when the farm was in operation. Now it stands as a testament to another time, another way of life. It also makes a great landmark for finding the park and the parking lot is right beside it.

The seven main trails range from open fields to canopied forest with a couple that skirt the beach. There are many benches available for resting or just taking in the beautiful scenery.

The Main Trails include:

Heritage Trail
Running the length of the park, this trail is accessible from many points. It is the only trail within the park where bikes are permitted. Because it is relatively flat, it is a good choice for wheelchairs or strollers.

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