Nova Scotia Parks Geocaching Challenge Series
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Series Summary
ACGA & Nova Scotia Parks are releasing on an annual basis, geocaching series within select provincial parks. As incentive, there is a reward item upon completion of the series.
You will need a passport and the geocaches for each series, click on the following links to download the listings and where to download the passport and Info Sheet.
- 2010 Series - theme: Trees
- 2011 Series - theme: Aboriginal Culture & History
- 2012 Series - theme: Climate Change in NS Parks
2012 Summary
June 13 2012
The caches will be published on the 15th on geocaching.com, if you are in the Truro area, an event is being planned on site where one of the caches can be found.
May 30 2012
Caches have been in place for a few weeks and the listing on geocaching.com is set to publish on June 15th. The listings will also appear on opencaching.com.
The 2012 passport will be available either on ACGA or on the NS Parks website
Note that the caches are placed off established trails, there is no need to bushwack to reach the caches. The reward item is again a newly designed trackable wooden geocoin.
Note: The theme this year will require you to measure the Duff Layer at the cache location, make sure you read the information on the listing page & at the cache in order to fill out the passport properly. Consult this PDF to learn more about the theme.
- Mickey Hill - GC3JXZN or OX3JXZN
- McElmons Pond - GC3JXZE or OX3JXZE
- Monks Head - Pomquet Acadian Trails - GC3JXZY or OX3JXZY
- Dollar Lake - GC3JXXY or OX3JXXY
- Taylor Head - GC3JXYD or OX3JXYD
April 20 2012
Work has begun this year to produce the third series with Nova Scotia parks. An additional 5 parks will be selected around theprovince. A few changes will be in place this year, to address some issues encountered last year.
2011 Event Summary
The weather forecast wasn't looking good for this launch, however 63 geocachers from as far away as Digby traveled to Five Islands Provincial Park to attend the launch event.
The event started on time with many people waiting to sign in the logbook and get going. As many hot the trails, some took advantage of a park staff for a guided tour of the ocean floor. Low tide was at the perfect time as geocachers followed the tour and learned about the geological playground that was at our feet. A few geocachers, left the park at lunch time and headed towards the other Provincial Parks as part of the series to try to get the First to Find prize - hard carved agate arrowhead and/or geocoin from last year.
The weather held off until the very end of the event, geocachers spent the day inside & out of the park, exploring the community of Five Islands. As a parting gift, Red Spruce seedling trees were available for geocachers to take home.
2011 Challenge & Event - June 18 - Five Islands - 10:30am to 3pm
Nova Scotia Provincial Parks and ACGA have partnered to provide a new geocaching challenge for the 2010 season. The inaugural launch event will be held at Five Islands Provincial Park on June 18th 2010 (GC2R507).
Five official park sanctioned geocaches will be part of the geocaching challenge, which will be spread across five (5) provincial parks in Nova Scotia. The geocaches will be published on June 17th 2011.
June 14
The geocaches will be published during the evening of June 17 after 8pm. The passport will be available to download on ACGA & NS Parks shortly after. Check our downloads section.
The Event base will be at the group site, just look for the few pop-up tents that will be on-site to check in. We'll have some extra passports on hand in case you don't have time to print them out Friday night.
Activities
Here are some of the activities that you can do during the event:
- Guided Tour of the beach at low-tide (starts at 10:45am for 60 min)
- Explore the ocean floor during low tide (10-2pm)
- Hike the loop around the park starting at campsite #68 (Economy Mountain Trail and connect to Estuary Trail)
- Log the geocache as part of the 2011 series
- Log the geocaches that are outside of the park
- Examine a Rock display at the group site
- Intro to geocaching sessions for newbies
Note: that the Red Trail Head is Closed
How to Play
You will be required to use a passport provided at participating provincial parks or download from ACGA or Nova Scotia Parks. Each passport will list out the rules, disclaimers and more importantly the list of geocaches that are part of the challenge.
As part of the challenge, each of the five geocaches have a central theme; Glooscap Legends & Travel Routes.
Once you find the geocache, use the supplied punch to your passport to keep track of your finds. After completing all five geocaches, simply mail in your passport to the address supplied to Nova Scotia Parks and you will receive a limited edition trackable geocoin along with another item thanking you for participating.
About the Geocaches
Each geocache as part of the program is a traditional geocache. The final location is located within the park.
The geocaches that are part of the passport program are:
The Passport
You can donwload the passport from ACGA or NS Parks. (NOTE: the 2011 passport won't be available until June 17 2011). The 2010 passport is still available to participate.
Where to Play
As mentioned, you will be required to visit five provincial parks in order to complete the challenge. The parks involved are the following:
2010 Event
Nova Scotia Provincial Parks and ACGA have partnered to provide a new geocaching challenge for the 2010 season. The inaugural launch event will be held at Smiley's Provincial Park on June 19th 2010 (GC25MQ2).
Five official park sanctioned geocaches will be part of the geocaching challenge, which will be spread across five (5) provincial parks in Nova Scotia. The geocaches will be published on June 19th 2010.
The Launch Event
With a daytime high of 30C, 130 (and possibly more) participants gathered at Smiley's Provincial park for the launch event of the geocaching passport program.
The day starting at high noon where after some quick introductions, participants were off within the park. A number of participants had been camping in the park the night before and some were taking their time, eating their lunch at the group site where the event base was located.
The hot weather allowed more people to explore the swimming areas along the Meander river, look for fossils along the river bed. Some took to the refuge of the hardwood forest within the park to explore the hiking trails and log some of the existing geocaches within the park.
The geocache that is part of the passport series was a single stage multi, where after identification of the big pine tree, allowed them to find the final cache location within the park. Wizards of Caching were the FTF on this cache and were given a prize after the event.
At 3pm, a guided walk along the trails was lead by the park supervisor who led a group of over 20 geocachers along the trail to a unique location in the park.
The end of the event had the usual draw for prizes, free night of camping at any provincial park certificates, geocoins, shirts, vests & accessories were handed out, over 20 draws were held.
Prizes were generously donated by NS Parks, ACGA & The North Pace (via The Trail Shop).
Thanks to all of the parks staff at Smiley's and at the head office for their desire to get the program up & running.
How to Play
You will be required to use a passport provided at participating provincial parks or download from ACGA or Nova Scotia Parks. Each passport will list out the rules, disclaimers and more importantly the list of geocaches that are part of the challenge. But before finding the geocaches, you will need to review your knowledge of trees (hardwood, softwood).
As part of the challenge, each of the five geocaches have a central theme; trees.
Once you find the geocache, use the supplied punch to your passport to keep track of your finds. After completing all five geocaches, simply mail in your passport to the address supplied to Nova Scotia Parks and you will receive a limited edition trackable geocoin along with another item thanking you for participating.
About the Geocaches
Each geocache as part of the program is a one stage multi-geocache. When you first get your passport, you will see the starting coordinates of each cache, along with the gc waypoint name. The initial waypoint will lead you to the tree that you will need to identify in order to solve the final stage of the multi. The final location is located within the park and is a winter friendly location.
You will need the geocache listing & the identified tree in order to decrypt the final geocache location. The decryption task should take 2-4 minutes and the only knowledge you need is the correct tree name. The geocache listings won't be published on geocaching.com until June 19th.
The geocaches that are part of the passport program are:
The Passport
You can donwload the passport from ACGA or NS Parks.
Where to Play
As mentioned, you will be required to visit five provincial parks in order to complete the challenge. The parks involved are the following:
- Amherst Shore Provincial Park
- Ellenwood Lake Provincial Park
- Battery Provincial Park
- Smiley's Provincial Park
- Salsman Provincial Park
The Event
The published event (GC25MQ2) will be a great opportunity to visit Smiley's Provincial Park. The event base will be held at the upper group camping site. ACGA will be taking reservations to allow geocachers to pitch their tent at the event base to spend the overnight on the 23rd. Simply send your request to spend the overnight to ACGA via the contact us section of the website with the subject line: Smiley's Group site reservation.
Agenda
12:00pm Event Kick Off Start,Welcome, Meet and Greet
1:00pm - 4:00pm Event Activities
4:15pm Prizes & Closing
The geocache event will be located at the upper group camping site. No entry fee is required. Please park your vehicule next to the Pine Tree.
Activities
- Guided hike along the Maple trail with DNR representative to highlight unique features found only in the park.
- Find the existing geocaches around the park (not part of the passport program).
- Find the first of five geocaches for the passport program.
- Check-out a pan and pan for gold along the Meander River.
Links of Interest
- Facebook event page
- Follow us on twitter @acga
- Youtube channel
- Nova Scotia Parks Downloads (GPX, Newsletter, Park Brochures)
FAQ
- Check often for the latest updates on the passport program as more information will be added prior to the event.
- Are the geocaches available in the off-season? The geocaches that will be part of the challenge will be kid & winter friendly.
- How time do we have to complete the challenge? There is no set time limit to complete the challenge.
- Can you tell me more about the geocoin? There will be a single design/finish for the trackable geocoin. The quantity of geocoins produced will depend on demand as this will hopefully be a long term challenge for geocachers to enjoy.
April 30 2010
Part two of the sneak peek video at Smiley's & Amherst Shore ProvincialPark for some clues.
April 17 2010
Check out this video for a sneak peek at Salsman & Battery Provincial Park for some clues.
May 8 2010
Last sneak peek video where you get to see some clues where the cache is hidden in Ellenwood Provincial Park.