Tail Of The Gecko Paddler

The navigator..........Gecko Paddler

Gecko Paddler?? Why, you ask? It's pretty simple really...... I like Geckos and they have been part of my outdoors adventures for the past several years. So naturally it makes sense that Gecko Paddler is me and I am him. Confused yet?

Ok....if you have been reading my previous posts I have mentioned Geocaching a few times which Robyn and I started playing back in 2005. Joining the Geocaching community requires a unique username and mine is Gecko Cacher which came about after Robyn and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in the Caribbean. This was also my first exposure to the amazing live Gecko and ever since he has been me and I him. 

What is Geocaching you ask? In a nutshell.... it's hunting for Tupperware in the woods  LOL. No seriously, Geocaching is a game where you use a GPS to hide and search for containers called caches and then share the experience on line. It's a world wide game with over 1.5 million active caches and over 5 million users in play and some are accessed only by water. So what do you get when you merge a Gecko Cacher with a paddler? Gecko Paddler... see quite simple no?

Cooper's Cove on an amazing sunny and calm November day

Today Robyn (a.k.a. RVTraveller) and I went paddling at Cooper's Cove and like always Robyn had the caches in the area loaded on her Garmin Oregon GPS. As we headed out towards the Sooke Basin Robyn said that there was a cache a few hundred feet directly ahead on a small island. So we found a suitable location that I could dry exit my boat and I spotted the round container under a small fir tree. As customary, I  opened the container and checked the trinkets inside to see if there was anything I wanted to trade for (there wasn't) and then signed the log book for both Gecko Cacher and RVTraveller. This was our first Geocache find by water and we were pretty happy as there are lots of them to be found on the west coast.

Back in the boat after finding the Geocache

After yesterday's crazy west coast storm it was amazing to see how calm and warm it was and we took advantage of it by crossing the Basin and headed towards Roche Cove. The tides were perfect for entering the cove with only about a 1 knot current that we had to paddle through under the trestle.

  

Robyn cuts through the "glassy" water of the Sooke Basin

Exiting Roche Cove

The Sooke Basin has so many paddling areas that you could spend several days exploring the all the nooks and cranny's. We will be back for sure..... to enjoy the great paddling and find some of the other water accessible Geocaches.

If you are wondering where I got the Gecko decal on my kayak, I made it myself by using artwork from a local Geocache supplier known as Landsharkz (with permission). It is a trackable item which can be discovered by other Geocachers and I can log it as visiting caches like the one we found today so it will gain miles traveled while Geocaching.

The next storm is coming ashore tonight and the forecast doesn't look great for getting on the water again until next weekend. Oh well..... today was perfect!