A couple of days ago, I wrote about the imminent archiving of about 300 geocaches in Gatineau Park. Based on the information being provided by one of the geocache reviewers based in/near Quebec City who is responsible for caches in western Quebec, it appeared that the NCC had requested the removal of all geocaches in Gatineau Park before the end of June. The reviewer in question sent an email to all owners of geocaches in Gatineau Park that contained the following:

The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to control Geocaching in the Gatineau Park.  Therefore, it is currently setting a procedure for caches within its territory, and is asking geocachers to archive all caches in the park.  They are requesting the cooperation of concerned geocachers to pick up all the containers.

Since then it has been determined that the National Capital Commission has contacted neither Groundspeak (the company that runs geocaching.com) nor the reviewer in question. Rather, the reviewer apparently took it upon himself to issue the email, without actually reading the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan.

The local geocache community is, to say the least, extremely unimpressed. The actions of the reviewer have seriously undermined the confidence some cachers have in the reviewer system in general, and in the reviewer in question specifically. Especially in the reviewer.

There have been some calls to have Gatineau Park removed from the area of responsibility of the reviewer in question and given to a reviewer who lives closer to the national capital region. Personally, I think there’s merit to this suggestion and hope that this is what happens. There two or three reviewers who are closer to the national capital region who would be good fits, though one is active in the local geocaching community so they might be too close. But either of the other two would be good choices.

I’m glad that the NCC isn’t the culprit in all this. Regardless, they’ve probably taken some flack that they don’t deserve. I tried to be fairly restrained in my previous blog entry about this topic, but I still pointed the finger at them and for that I apologize.

There are still some geocaches that are going to have to be removed because they’re in integral compensation zone (ICZ), but the number of affected geocaches is around 40, and nowhere near 300.

Hopefully, the local geocaching community and the NCC can work together with respect to geocaching in Gatineau Park. I know that I, for one, am interested in this and I’m almost certain that other members of the geocaching community are, too.

The last couple of days I’ve felt kind of crummy. The kind of crummy that often precedes a change in the weather.

If you’re in Ottawa, then you know that we’ve had unsettled weather since Wednesday morning, which corresponds to when I started feeling crummy.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve commented on this phenomenon. The last time was in October 2008 when a big low-pressure zone blasted through Ottawa.

The graph shows the pressure in Ottawa for the last day or so. And during this times I’ve felt varying degrees of crummy.

When the weather was clear sky and warm earlier this week, I was feeling great (and not just because of the sunshine).

Do you feel the weather?

As things like pesticides are being legislated out of existence, landscaping becoming an increasingly important part of construction projects and sustainability being on the minds of planners everywhere, all of which lead to an increased demand for horticulture technicians, one can be forgiven for wondering why Algonquin College is looking to cancel their horticulture technician program.

Obviously, Algonquin probably feels the need to cut their budget and identified the horticulture program as a low-profile program. Who cares? They’re just gardeners, right?

Wrong.

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A couple of days ago a number of geocachers who own caches that are in Gatineau Park received the following message:

You are receiving this message because one of your caches is located within the territory of Gatineau Park.

The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to control Geocaching in the Gatineau Park.  Therefore, it is currently setting a procedure for caches within its territory, and is asking geocachers to archive all caches in the park.  They are requesting the cooperation of concerned geocachers to pick up all the containers.

We are asking for your cooperation in collecting your cache and in archiving the listing. Note that on June 20, 2010, all remaining caches within the territory of the park will be archived.

All new requests for publication at this location will be denied until permission of the NCC and the new procedure are received. We apologize for this inconvenience, which is beyond our control, and solicit the patience and cooperation of all geocachers.

Thank you

The Quebec Reviewers

About 300 geocaches are affected by this mass archiving. Needless to say, the local geocaching community is not impressed.

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I started off the day in a bad mood and as the day progressed it seemed like things were deliberately conspiring to put me in an even worse mood at almost any turn. The final straw was a phone call I had this afternoon from someone who, aside from being very rude, disrespectful and close minded, actually said “you don’t want to get into it with me!”

This stunned me. I really hadn’t done anything to warrant this, so I said…

“Are you threatening me? Why don’t I want to?”

“Because I’m always right. Always.”

Seriously, the guy actually said that and he genuinely believed it.

Our conversation, such as it was, really didn’t improve from that point and I shortly decided I’d had enough, hung up and stomped off to a meeting, which fortunately didn’t aggravate me further.

But I brooded about it for the rest of the afternoon until I got home just a few minutes ago.

I bumped into someone who offered do something productive related to the topic of the conversation that got me so pissed off and I even got to vent a tiny bit about the person from the phone call.

And now I’m feeling much less pissed off. It’s amazing what one person basically saying “how can I help you?” can do to improve one’s mood, eh?

The Algonquin College Singapore Slings held their first practice of the year yesterday evening. The weather was great and from the first strokes leaving the dock to the last strokes coming back in an hour or so later it was as though we had been paddling through the winter instead of taking almost eight months off.

We’re a good 400m team, meaning that we usually do quite well in 200m sprints and the 400m races at the Fall 400 in Carleton Place, but when it comes to the 500m races in Ottawa we’re not as consistent. To rectify this, we’re stepping up the endurance training, which means they’re going to be doing more drills involving paddling for longer runs. (I say “they” because I’m the steersman, so my job is relatively unchanged. 🙂 )

We actually made it to the railway bridge, which we haven’t done in quite some time. Getting to the bridge is a good target to aim for, so hopefully we’ll be back there often. From the Rideau Canoe Club to the bridge and back is about 6km, but I’m sure it felt even longer because the wind was in our faces most of the way back.

Our next practice is Saturday morning and I, for one, am looking forward to it.

I was out for a walk along the canal earlier today. As I approached Pretoria Bridge I noticed there was something floating on the water. Getting closer, it became clear that this part of the canal is the Rideau Canal’s equivalent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, except for pond scum (mostly).

Now, I know that the canal workers will be clearing this out as they do every year, but I was surprised at just how much there was. And I wasn’t alone in this – I heard a number of people talking about it as they walked along.

Not exactly the best thing, perhaps, for tourism, but at least the ducks seemed happy as they munched on it.