The success of a road trip isn’t only measured by reaching the final destination, it is about the overall experience.
I first heard the term Geocaching back in about 2003, when a bunch of my off-roading buddies, who were all giant techie nerds, began babbling about the activity during a trail ride. The concept was that you used your handy dandy handheld GPS unit (because everyone had one of those. Or not!) to locate hidden caches which had been secretly placed by other nerds.
Admittedly a bit of a geek myself, having done the full tour of Boy Scouts while growing up, the concept intrigued me, except for the part about spending a small fortune on gadget that I had no other use for.
Fast forward a decade and a bit and there have been more than 3 million geocaches hidden in close to 200 countries.
Of course just about everybody has a GPS enabled cell phone these days, which means that anybody can download the Geocaching app and start hunting without buying a special tool.
As we were about to make another road trip to Mont Tremblant, it occurred to me that there might be an opportunity to have a bit of fun along the way, so I downloaded the app.
We had a new Mazda CX-9 for the trip, with a U-Haul trailer loaded full of catering gear for three days at the iconic Le Circuit Mont Tremblant. Despite being powered by a four cylinder gasoline engine, the CX-9 is rated to tow 1,588 kg (3,500 lbs). That engine is a 2.5L unit which generates 250 horsepower when using premium fuel or 227 when fueled with regular as we did. More importantly for our task, it also churns out 310 lb-ft of torque, which is the grunt needed for towing. Our tester was equipped with all-wheel-drive, which would be much appreciated if our late Autumn trip included any snow. It was going to be interesting to see how the stylish crossover handled the steep climbs in the Laurentians with a load.
Our first stop was in the cute little town of Norwood, on Highway 7 just east of Peterborough. We have driven through many times, but have never had reason to stop. Geocaching gave us one. Actually, there are no fewer than 14 caches in the hamlet, but we set our sights on a pair right near the main road, where a lovely little man-made waterfall flows next to traffic. We parked safely on a little side road and began our GPS guided search, which led to a group of trees on the shore of the small lake. The cache itself was a plastic tub wrapped in camo tape, which was well hidden and contained a neat selection of trinkets left by other searchers. Our second target, around the other side of the lake, was not so easy to find. It turns out that, according to a note logged in the app by another user, that some local kid had taken it as his own treasure.
This was a reminder that a certain level of stealth is required, to prevent muggles (not geocaching people) from finding and removing a cache.
While this stop was only half a success, it forced us to get out and stretch our legs, while exploring a part of the province that we wouldn’t have really seen otherwise.
When the trailer was loaded and we were heading out, the trailer height looked a bit lower in the front than I usually would like, but it seemed fine. It wasn’t until our obligatory photo stop with a CP Rail caboose in Havelock that we noticed just how low the trailer was actually riding. We hadn’t had any issues with the hitch skid plate doing its job, so I suspected that all would be fine.
It was also at this point that we went hunting for our next Geocache. Using the GPS feature within the app, we navigated to within 1 meter of the cache’s location and then began the real search, which truly only took a few minutes. I can’t tell you anything about the location, as that would spoil the fun, but I can tell you that it is somewhere within the photo!
It was later in the day than we had hoped, so from here, we decided to drive straight through without any more stops. Almost immediately upon crossing over into Gatineau from Ottawa, we learned that the height of the trailer draw bar was now an issue as the pavement condition deteriorated.
As we made our way east from Gatineau towards the Laurentians, occasional roller coaster style undulations in the road caused our low hanging draw bar to touch the road, lighting up the darkness with a shower of sparks. We were going to have to correct this situation.
As the hills got steeper, the CX-9 hauled the load upwards into ski country like a champ. You would never know that nothing more than a four pot engine was beneath the hood. The only excitement we encountered was when a large black lump appeared out of the shadows, in the middle of the road. The CX-9 responded with confidence as I carefully avoided the impact with what I assumed was a porcupine. The U-Haul trailer however was wider than the crossover and we heard a large thump as the trailer’s left wheels clipped the mass. Daylight the next morning would show us evidence that it was indeed a porker.
The Havre des Légendes chalet in Mont Tremblant, which we would use as our home base for a few days feature a long and winding uphill driveway, which we knew from history can make for a challenging turn-around, so I usually make an effort to back in. I actually hadn’t backed this rig up yet and was blown away to discover that the CX-9 was quite simply the easiest tow vehicle to maneuver a trailer that I have driven. Period.
The following morning, a quick stop at the local Canadian Tire provided a taller draw bar for the trailer hitch, on sale no less, which solved our ride height issues.
After a few days spent feeding a hoard of hungry lapping day enthusiasts, it was time to head back to Ontario, Geocaching along the way.
To start the adventure, we sought out a cache that was on a fairly exclusive residential street right in the ski village. The property where the cache was supposed to be had recently been sold. The next door neighbour was watching us and actually asked if we were the buyers! Strike one for the day!
Next up was a cache just outside of town, along La rivière du Diable, which winds its way throughout the region. We expected this cache to be an easy find, but whether it was because of the fallen leaves or our inability to read the French description effectively, we couldn’t find the cache. What we did find however was a beautiful trailhead area, overlooking the river. While beautiful, it was also strike two for the day!
Strike three occurred a few klicks away, near a sign post for a local golf course which sits atop a roadside ridge. We found lots of deer scat and maybe even a bear dropping, but no Geocache. We were having a fun adventure, but not a lot of success!
Strike four came just a bit south east of Mont Tremblant on route 323, in a small town named Brebeuf, which is home to a number of little antique shops. We decided to search for a cache called, aptly enough, Brebeuf Rapids which lies across the river from a popular beach although in late Fall, there were no families cavorting on the sand. What there was however, was a gruesome discovery which led us to abandon our search. The rapids are at the base of a water level control dam and clearly the Fall rains had caused a rapid rise of the water level, trapping a poor cat in the rocks by the access point. We made a hasty retreat to the Mazda and bugged out in an attempt to blow off the heebie jeebies which had already taken hold!
We’re not easily discouraged, but the lack of success was becoming a bit of a bummer, even though the exploration of new, random places was fun.
Our next stop was another tiny town, named Amherst, at the heart of which is a fresh water spring, with a cache located somewhere nearby. While we struck out yet again, we did happen to have a chat with a local who told us that the spring had been closed to the public for a couple of years when the government stuck their nose in to check and monitor the water quality. Now that it has been reopened, he said that most locals stop in regularly to fill jugs for drinking water. Of course we filled a couple of bottles too!
A half hour or so down the road, we decided to check out a cache called Namur International. The community was so small that you couldn’t even call it a four corners, the cache was located in the bushes next to some sort of construction yard. It was easy to find and bolstered our spirits. Victory at last!
Our next stop was in Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix, a small farming community, known for the annual Festival de la Patate. A celebration of potatoes sounds like a pretty good event to me, but the day of our visit, the only activity was a bunch of kids in the park tormenting a neighbour’s dog. Oh, and a couple of people wandering around a ball diamond in search of some hidden container. Once again, no joy for us!
The time for us to get a move on had come, so we pointed the CX-9 southbound towards Highway 50 on our way home. With a somewhat lighter load, the Mazda continued soldiering on in quiet confidence, coddling the human cargo with comfort. In fact, during the whole trip, there was only one indication that the vehicle’s motivation was coming from a four cylinder engine: fuel economy. The official economy numbers for the AWD CX-9 are listed as 11.5 L/100 KM around town and 8.9 on the highway. Most of our towing was on the highway, or rural sideroads with an 80 km/h limit and we experienced around 12.5 L/100 KM. Our drives without a load were more in line with the published numbers.
As for the adventuring aspect of our trip, there was more to it than just stopping here and there to look for hidden goodies. We actually stopped and explored places that we have driven past for years but have never thought about exploring. We met local people and learned small things about their communities. The success of a road trip isn’t only measured by reaching the final destination, it is about the overall experience. While stopping to hunt for geocaches definitely increased our drive time, we actually experienced the country we were driving through instead of just watching it pass by the car window. In the future, geocaching will be a part of all of our road trips, whether they be short ones close to home or true cross country jaunts.
Keyword: Turn Your Next Road Trip into an Adventure by Geocaching