Today we met some friends at a local nature centre that has many hiking trails, and we set out to go geocaching!! There were nine of us in all. The weather was lovely - sunny and less breezy than it has been lately. It was perfect for a lovely afternoon of walking through the trails!!
We found 4 caches in all. I loved seeing the children find them and all rush to see what was inside - whoever found the cache first got to choose what they wanted to trade first!!
On one trail we came across a HUGE empty egg - it was MUCH bigger than a chicken egg and I am pretty sure it's the egg of a GREAT HORNED OWL as they often lay their eggs and have them hatch before the snow has gone....This is the Provincial bird of Alberta!! Some years we have them nesting in our woods.
There was a Spring Break class taking place at the centre and one of the things they were doing, was using vibrations to make the Ground Squirrels come up to the surface. The Ground Squirrels don't like the vibrations and so come out. this is actually one of the ways many people get them out to kill them (they are seen as pests by many - especially golf courses and horse stables etc). If you look carefully quite close to Sams feet you can just make out the little squirrel poking his head out. There were children stood to the right of us who were spinning pieces of wood tied to rope around VERY fast so it made loud vibrating noises:
We hiked for 3 hours through the trails and found 4 caches - we looked for 5, but one we just could NOT find!! Luckily it was the smallest cache with just a logbook and pen inside, so the children didn't mind that we didn't find it - the ones with all the treasure inside we DID find :)
It was a fun day with good company and lots of exercise - even if I didn't manage to interest anyone in helping me to become rich by making and selling moose poop jewelry ;)
