30 Before 30: Parc Lafontaine

My friend Charlotte and I decided to go on a geocache at Parc Lafontaine. Parc Lafontaine is in the plateau and has two ponds, "waterfalls", a fountain, an outdoor theater, play areas, baseball diamonds, and loads of ice cream trucks. I had never been geocaching before and I was pretty excited. Geocaching is an outdoor treasure hunt and there are many different geocaches all over the world. A capsule containing various trinkets, maybe a travel bug and a pad of paper that you can sign when you find it, is burried somewhere and it is your job to find it. You look online to get coordinates and then off you go. Once you get to the designated coordinates you have to do a little searching to find the capsule. Throughout this whole treasure hunt you are supposed to act stealthy so you don't draw attention to yourself and ruin the surprise for other people in case they would like to experience the geocahing adventure themselves.

I had never been to Parc Lafontaine and was taking in the sites once we started our geocache. It was a really beautiful and hot day so there were a lot of people enjoying the park. We navigated the park using Charlotte's GPS and found the area where the geocache was located. Charlotte is a seasoned geocacher and she knew where to look so we started digging in the rocks right away. Apparently I wasn't being stealthy enough because two old ladies came up to me and started speaking in French. I kept telling them that I don't speak French and I pointed at Charlotte who does speak French. Since the extent of my French is un baguette s'il vous plait we were at a standstill until Charlotte came over to speak with them.

After Charlotte convinced the ladies that we were ok we continued searching. Charlotte found our capsule which was hidden in the rocks. I can't disclose any more information about the location in case any of you would like to find it (although I am pretty sure my only reader lives in Des Moines, Iowa). She wanted me to experience finding it as well so she hid it again and then I had to go searching for it. While I was doing this, I scraped my knee. I didn't realize that geocaching was an adventure sport and it was at that time that I decided that geocaching might not be a big part of my future.

Finding the box was pretty thrilling and it was neat to see what was inside. Charlotte had brought a travel bug that she found the previous weekend and left it in the capsule. She signed the book and then we tucked the capsule away exactly where we found it.