3T's&aG

1. How did the initiation rite of passage: 'you're not a member of the MBGA until you've been bopped by Tobey in the chatroom' evolve?

LOL! Nice question to start off with. You know, I don't exactly know how this started. I've been told its because I like bopping but I guess you'll have to visit the chatroom to find out for sure. Don't expect to be bopped right away, either. These things take time.

2. What was it about geocaching that got you hooked?

I first heard about geocaching in an article that was in the Free Press in July of 2004. After reading it, I got hooked on the idea of trying geocaching and then proceeded to do some research to purchase a GPSr that would suit my needs and my budget. When the GPSr finally arrived and I was able to figure out how to enter co-ordinates, Q! and I headed off to find our first cache, Bison Castle cache because we knew the general location of it having worked at the UofM campus for years. We rode our bikes and lo and behold, our arrow kept pointing the other way. Having no idea what I was doing (some say this hasn't changed much), I had no way to confirm my co-ordinates. So we went back home and tried again the next day. We found it fairly quickly and I was instantly hooked. There were so many aspects of it that appealed to me and mostly I felt that it was a great opportunity to get outside, especially as my kids got older.

Congratulations to the following Manitoba MBGA members who have reached milestones during the past month.

---

100 Finds

antihiro bergmannfamily bofamsearchers Chewys glacier_ice icecapper Short Cache somebodybesidesyou Trove Chasers villiam

---

200 Finds

Cache and Cary da6 slippery_1

---

300 Finds

Code Blue

---

400 Finds

Joker Granny

---

500 Finds

skaven Skyhawks spaceman_baz

---

700 Finds

JayPeg Ztirnats

---

800 Finds

burchil Lizardo

---

900 Finds

MLKoop Sam and Lily

---

1100 Finds

bevro

---

1300 Finds

OHMIC

---

1400 Finds

1Queenand4Jokers ertyu

---

1600 Finds

Peter and Gloria

---

2400 Finds

junglehair

---

The South Eastman GPS Treasure Hunt Challenge was an initiative of Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives(MAFRI) to bring people out to this rural area and experience the sights and great attractions in this part of our province – we hope you will visit again! For more information on other GPS initiatives being planned by MAFRI please contact Joy Lorette @ 204-392-7268.

This challenge took place during the month of August and was a huge success! 44 teams participated by hunting for 20 caches hidden throughout the SE Manitoba. At least 12 of the teams found all 20 of the caches.

The official Parks Canada policy has been released and welcomes geocaches in designated areas of Parks Canada sites.

For more information, visit the Parks Canada Geocache page.

Some important points to remember:

• All caches have to be available from trails or other publicly accessible areas and geocachers must stick to those areas.
• Trade items are not permitted in caches.
• Geocachers must pay all regular applicable park fees.
• Geocachers who want to place a cache must meet with a Parks Canada staff person at the chosen site to obtain an authorization seal prior to placing a cache.
• The cache container must be watertight, made of material that will withstand natural elements, as small as possible, neutral-coloured and has never been used for food.
• The Cache Information Form available on the Parks Canada web site must be filled out and submitted to Parks Canada Staff.

Thanks to all Manitoba Geocachers on a successful spring of hiding 170 great new Splashy caches and all the enjoyable finds over the summer.

The final totals are in and the top hiders are OHMIC with 86 points, Granny Lois with 80 points and junglehair with 46 points. Lagavulin had a perfect guess of the number splash caches, while slippery_1 hid the largest cache. OHMIC's Splashen Sie Deutsch? was voted the best splash cache name, while Lizardo's CSI:Winnipeg - SPLASH! was voted the best Splash Cache.

Congrats to everyone.