Geocaching; The New Contact Sport?
It’s happened to all of us at some point although some may never admit to it. You know what I mean, when you carefully place a foot on the bank of the ditch to have it slip from under you and you fall on your fanny sliding on your back all the way to the bottom of the ditch. Speaking of ditches, have you ever miss calculated the width of a ditch versus your ability to jump. We’ve all failed miserably at that one. What about the soggy area with a patch of grass that looks like it should hold the weight of an elephant to see yourself sink to your knees while wearing mid calf high boots. You then pull your foot out of the swamp mud but the boot stays stuck.
Or how about when you think your foot is high enough to clear the underbrush only to get fetched up on a tree branch and stumble to your knees. Speaking of branches, have you ever been bushwhacking on a cold day and have a frozen birch twig slap you across the face with such force that it brings tears to your eyes.
This one’s happen to me a couple times, you spot a cache 12 or 15 meters away, head high, grinning ear to ear and practically running to get to it when out of nowhere, the rusted fence grabs you at the ankle causing the dreaded face plant (face meets ground at 40 miles per hour). Only worse than the fence is that dreaded barbed wire variation of the same fence that will pierce through rubber boots, your best pair of Levis as well as skin (Tetanus shots are only good for five years). Kind of like running through a thorn bush wearing shorts and sandals.
We can all relate to the hazards of Geocaching as most of us have experienced some if not all of the mentioned situations. Scraps and bumps heal but battle scars last forever. And to think, we do it all for a couple smiley’s and a load of laughs.
I received an e-mail from Freedom Five a couple days ago that takes the hazards of Geocaching to a whole new level. Perhaps you want to share some of your own mishaps while out on the trail.
Funny and Sad End to a Wonderful Day
After doing your series we went and found some of the Jim52 puzzles before heading home. The last cache we tried to find was the Ma & Pa’s Micro Pro Challenge around 8 pm in the dark.
While we were busy with flashlights looking in the trees two RCMP officers and another vehicle stopped to inspect our vehicle which my husband had parked at an angle in order to shine the lights into the field.
We did not find that cache as we felt obligated to return to the vehicle before the officers came in after us.
That was the funny part. The sad part is that we hit a deer on the highway shortly after that on Route 11 between Boutouche and the St. Anne exit. We were not injured (nor was the driver of the vehicle behind us who hit the second deer) but unfortunately we think our van is on the critical list. The insurance adjuster will make a verdict in the next few days.
According to my husband I am now ‘The Great White Hunter’.
For some reason I keep going out wearing shorts and crocs, not the best choice. My chins are just starting to look normal again and I got a thorn from a Hawthorn tree up through my crocs last summer, that hurt.
I don’t have anything that compares to the above story from Freedom Five.
I have taken a few headers and been scratched to the point that blood was running down my legs (yes I had shorts and sandals on), but the most memorable occasion (for all of the wrong reasons) was the time this summer that I jumped a ditch full of water and landed directly on a half full container of 500 ml chocolate milk. The disgusting curdled milk splashed up all over my pants then the smell hit me – I almost puked. Had to drive the rest of the day with the window down as I was just starting a 15 cache run in Oromocto.
You forgot to add walking on snow and falling through to find water underneath. Brrrrrrrr!!!!!
That happened to a friend of ours who ended up waist deep in water, Luckily a snomobiler came by and picked him up
There’s also the story of the guy who broke his ankle trying to do my Wherigo that takes you to the island in Centennial Park. I don’t think he ever completed it.
I may not have broken my ankle, but I did swim to that island through a morass of goose poop to do your Wherigo. I had to hose down outside in my boxers before I could go back into my house. Oh, and I needed a tetanus shot.
Cableguy1 also got stung by wasps at my Stumpy cache and had to go to emerg for an allergic reaction. Cache has since been moved. 😛
My brother shattered his ankle in Freddy a while back doing a cache right in the city.
Sorry about the deer and your vehicle, the rest of the post is quite laughable.
While Mr.CD always remains unscathed I do not seem to be so lucky. I cracked an ankle bone on the Dobson, thankfully we were almost at the end of our hike. I once managed to tie myself completely in a knot, falling with snowshoes and poles. I think it took at least 2 people to get me undone. I’ve lost jewelry, but Mr. CD has lost glasses. Now that gets a bit expensive.
I’m not sure what it says about us all that we keep going back. Dedicated or nuts, not a lot of difference sometimes.
I scraped my leg against some gypsum stone the first time Spidey86 and I went up to look for The Labyrinth in Hillsborough (Wicked terrain there!!) Got a whole bunch of cuts on the side of my leg. Hiked to a nearby brook to wash off the worst of it, then bandaged myself up (had a first aid kit) before hiking 1km back to our bikes and biking another 5km to the car. The leg was pretty tender for a good 2 weeks.
One time we pulled over to find a cache in Memramcook and my dear wife parked with one wheel partly in a steep ditch. I examined it and determined that if I tried driving forward out (we were facing uphill) I would have lost traction and the wheel would have slipped further in. So I told everyone to put their seatbelts on and be VERY QUIET while I VERY SLOWLY and CAREFULLY straightened out the wheels and backed out of it. I knew if I didn’t get it on the first try I was screwed.
Other than that, lots of minor cuts and scrapes…
CARRY A FIRST AID KIT, PEOPLE. Better safe than sorry. 🙂
This past fall I managed to get 8+ stings at the same time from wasps while trying to locate a cache. GPS put me away from the cache by about 10m, and as I got better coordinates and started to zero in on the hide, I felt something on my arm which I first took to be a rose thorn bush. Nope, two of the buggers got me right on the left wrist. I hightailed it out, still being stung, and then circled back to where the actual cache was. Turned out, I still had some hitchhikers on me, and one decided to make his presence known by crawling into the backside of my pants just as I signed the log. Wanna know how high a 6’6″, 280 pound man can jump?
God tell me about the wire fence, on the way to a cache yesterday I spotted one and told myself I better be carefull on the way back. The camo on it was so nice I forgot about it and ripped my legs pretty bad. To make matters worst, it was in the middle of the woods and it was only about 2-3 feet high. Talk about efficient fencing…
I have never managed to hurt myself while searching for a cache but putting caches out is another story… Let’s start with GC33103, White Trash. The description says to beware of the killer ants and that is no joke. While setting the cache I must have stepped on an ant hill and by the time I got back to the truck the little beasties were in my pants and crawling up past my knees. They would each crawl a few inches, take a bite then start the process all over again. Due to the direction in which they were heading the only course of action was to remove the pants and beat the little buggers to death. Thankfully there is not a lot of traffic at this location for it would be very hard to explain why I was running around on the road with no pants on… A bit further along this same road we have GC306WQ, Wipe Your Feet. Now the water in the ditch appeared to be only an inch or so deep, WRONG… Use your imagination to figure out how the cache got its name. Most of my cache containers are created in my shop and all have their fair share of blood on them from scrapped knuckles, puncture wounds, etc.
I broke three ribs after sustaining a fall looking for a cache two weeks ago. It was not in a particularly hazardous area, I was just being a little too careless and trusting of a branch to support my weight.
saw your name on some logs the other night, glad to see your doing better and back at it
Where to start. Forgetting the multiple run-ins with police and just focusing on bad situations and injuries. The more I think, the more I remember, and I’m sure I will still miss a few. Probably the worst was once, while finding a multi, I was at the second stage. I was having some trouble finding finding it, so Jim52, who was waiting on the trail as he had already done the multi came in to help. In the course of the search he snagged his foot on some barbed wire and went nose first into a log, breaking his nose… of course we still went on caching.
One winter while out back of a church in Irishtown, I climbed up on a log, lost my footing, and went over backwards, only to snag my foot on a branch and ending up hanging head first.
When I first started caching, I drove a Sunfire, which I put more backroad kilometres on than most Jeeps have in Moncton. I thought I was being smart, finding a back way into a cache. I came across a puddle, got out, checked it with a stick, and then proceeded to drive the car through it… unfortunately I didn’t make it through, buried the car, and had to hike out 6kms and found a nice man who drove in and pulled me out.
In my Jeep, I was driving by a series of caches I had already done, and thought I spotted a caching, so I drove down the highway and up the narrow dirt road with snowbanks and ice. I pulled into the snowbank to let a car go by, and then couldn’t get the Jeep back out because of ice under the snow. Unfortunately I was supposed to be on my way to work and my cell phone was dead. After close to an hour of cutting spruce branches to put under the wheels, I finally got out.
When I was up in Quebec for the mega, we jumped a ditch to get a cache. On the jump back, the foot O pushed off with got stuck and my outstretched leg went straight into the opposite bank… couldn’t walk on it for the rest of the night and only very gingerly for some time after.
A few bee and a Mahagany wasp stings. A tree I was just about to put my hand into when I spotted the Racoon peeking out who was currently inhabiting the tree. Two dog attacks. Several bear encounters. A fall on a bridge on Canada Mountain where I was sure I had broken something. A swarm of thousands of Bees in Florida. A scorpion under a cache in Nevada. Several times of locking myself out of the car while getting a quick cache. And a nail through the foot… nothing like lifting your foot and a 2×4 comes up with it.
It’s a good thing I love caching.
I have had it all except a broken limb. Really bad falls off my mountain bike, fell down a waterfall, & sliced my knee open on a rock (still have the scar!). However, yesterday was a first. I got slapped so badly on the face by a tree branch, my nose bled! And it was the second cache on a twenty-three cache run! It bleed on & off the whole trek. But I wouldn’t swap it for Monday Night Football or NASCAR on Sundays! Real men get hurt! ranger out
Aside from the sinking in mud, triping on barb wire and getting snaped in the face with a branch, one particular morning sticks in my mind. We had gotten up early to get that infamous FTF in our pygamas and sneakers…not even realizing where we were heading for. I had to walk on snow that had an ice crust on top only to break through it. Both my ankles were scrached and bloody and cold. My pride was hurt even more when I saw Mr. savarda doubled over laughing at me.
Are you sure that tetanus shots are only good for 5 years? I was always told 10 years.
Well we have had our share of poked eyes and ears while bushwacking to a cache. And like all of you, we have been whipped by branches, and we have slid down steep hills, tripped over wire, been caught on barbed wire, got burrs all over our clothes, stepped in puddles deeper than our boots. We have torn our jackets, ruined socks in mud, stepped out of boots in a swamp, had water in our boots turn to ice in winter, etc.
A number of years ago, we were caching a few days before leaving on a trip to UK, when a branch grabbed my glasses and threw them somewhere into the woods and I had to order a new pair quickly. Two years later the same thing happened two days before leaving on a nother trip. Another quick pair had to be ordered.
I used to wear a hearing aid. A branch grabbed the first one I had and threw it somewhere in the woods. I had it less than a year so it was warranteed and I got a new one. I wore it more than a year in my right ear, and I decided to get one for the left ear. But then a branch grabbed the one in my right ear and it disappeared. It was no longer warranteed. So I was again left with only one hearing aid. That didnt last long because, I sweated so much from hiking that I short circuited it. I returned it and I was told my life style did not go well with hearing aids. They gave me a refund for that one.
Twice we went caching in California. Both times we saw signs warning of many dangers including poison oak. Both times I got poison oak. The last time it covered my legs and itched like crazy and lasted a month. But I am hoping to go back again this Spring.
A few years ago we were caching in Ottawa and we bumped into a poor guy who had died with a cache on his body
While hiking on the appalachian Trail in Georgia a few years ago, we went for a few caches. I forgot that I was wearing shorts and I scratched myself on thorns and got bit by a big spider.
spider and thorns
Speaking of spiders, We were caching in a protected area in Florida when i had to break through a spider web to get to the cache. It was a big spider.
But spiders were the least of our worries in that protected area. There was a sign next to a pond warning about alligators. We had to go around the pond to get a cache but we decided to not bother.
Here are two more of mine.
In the spring in CA I was walking on a trail, staring down at my gps when my head ran into a tree limb at forehead level. As I lay on the ground, MA ran back, thinking I had a heart atteck.
The exact same thing happened to me in the UK this September. Friends ran back to me as I lay on the ground dazed. An hour or so later, I was again staring at my gps as we were making a descent along a soft trail. To the right of the trail was a steep slope. I lost my footing and tumbled to the ground and was starting to roll down the steep slope when I was lucky to be stopped by my head hitting a tree. There was blood and a bruise and a cut but I survived.
December 9, 2007 (I remember the date as my nephew was born that day). Before going to meet the fellow, I decided to grab a few caches. Before I even left the yard I tore the aerial off the roof of the car, after hooking it on some low spruce branches. Grabbed the ACGA cache outside of Fredericton and on the way back, managed to put such a tear in the decking of my brand new, $200 pair of snowshoes that they were beyond repair (I had only wore them twice at that point). One the way home, grabbed a cache hidden at the Thistles restaurant, and while climbing back down off the brick enclosed flowerbed, tore the knee out of my knew snowpants. It was an expensive day.
One for ranger170. This past winter, I went to grab his cache “Swamp Smells Like a Rose” with my wife. We were on our way out to lunch (one of the few times without kids in tow), and I decided to grab this cache on the way. I had no idea there were so many thorn bushes guarding the cache site. I managed to avoid them all while wearing my good coat, but as I lifted my head from signing the log, a torn ripped across the tip of my nose, spraying blood everywhere. I beat it back to the car, and saw the frightened look on my wife’s face when I knocked on the window asking for a kleenex. all the blood vessels that are in the nose meant that it took forever for cut to close. I actually think that I still have a scar as a result of it. The red trail I left certainly made it easier for the next cachers to find that cache.
Belladan, thanks for writting this. it made my day. We have all been there: the barbed wire fence, the branch snap in the face on a cold day, the cannon dust in the eye, the fall down an icy slope. Why do we do this again?
Reading some of these stories, I guess I have been lucky. The worst of my injuries is a one inch scar on my arm that i still have from when i got attached by a hawthorne while hunting down one of Zor’s storyteller caches. Although i must say, I did get some pretty strange looks while wearing a dress at a summer wedding one time. Geocaching in shorts does not a pretty leg make!
I have colitis and bowel problems, does pooping my pants while on the trail counts? http://youtu.be/aG87dLGrjG4 Between 0:40 & 1:20
This should be called the fun of Geocaching.
Where to start.
Broken and bloodied nose when I tripped over barb wire and landed on a stump while caching with incepit.
Several wasp stings and pokes in the eyes by branches.
Not to mention fire ants in Halifax.
Lost 2 pair of glasses. ( One my dog got back for me – he dug them out of 6 inches of snow ). Lost a pair of Sunglasses 2 days ago in PEI.
Destroyed a Palm PDA in deep wet snow in Fredericton.
Car Problems:
Wrote off 2 cars while Geocaching.
1 in O’dell Park in Fredericton. After comming back from caching in the park, I saw my cars front end smashed. There was a note on the window with the pickup truck owner name and phone number.
I first thought it was a hit and run.
2 on returning from a caching trip to Saint John with ScouterKevin,
I ran into a large Coyote. Hard to believe but the car was written off.
Lost my car keys in a sawdust pile in the NewCastle area.
Had my car’s alternator fail on me on my way home from Fredericton on a rainy night.
Also locked my keys in the car with the car running in Halifax.
It was the last cache of the day for me and Hillbilly Bob.
It was January with a temp 0f -25 and both of our cell phones were in the car. We borrowed the phone of a person who walked by to call Road side assistance to get the car open. We were there about 45 min in the cold before he arrived. ( With the car warm and running )
While caching with Hillbilly Bob in his car.
His car broke down on a dirt road in the Shippagan Area , his car warrenty towed it and us to the Bathurst Honda dealer who was not open.
We had to hire a taxi to get home.
And the worst of all, after spending the day caching in Edmundston we were driving home and ran into a Moose just before Fredericton.
We were lucky to be alive but the moose wasn’t so lucky.
The moose was hit on it’s hind quarter as Bob swerved to try to miss it.
It landed on the driver side hood and smashed the window in and roll off the side and the car behind us hit it also. No one was hurt but both cars were totaled. We go a drive home from the tow truck driver.
Like I say the Fun Fun sport of geocaching.
Wow, is this what I have to look forward to if I make it to the 10,000’s club? Hahahah!
For what these things cost, the stories are priceless though.
OK Jim
You win
And you didnt even mention that traffic ticket in Fredericton
Or the time caching with you and Ma in the Valley (NS) where I lost my glasses at a cache and we had to go back to the last four caches to find them. ( At least I found them )
Sometimes I wonder why I’m still in this sport.
Bruised hand from taking an unexpected fall near experimental or not.
Punctured my eardrum while trying to make my way around a swamp.
Tons of cuts and bruises from bushwhacking in inappropriate attire (shorts t-shirts etc.)
nothing too serious yet *cross fingers*
Since you are talking about cars;
While caching on the old Shediac road near the golf course, I parked on the side of the road and let a fellow cacher make the grab. He shouted for help so I went like crazy, forgetting the car in neutral and forgetting to pull the handbrake. When I came back from the cache, I couldn’t see my car and there were a few car stopped there, it sudddently hit me. Would you beleive my car went downhill about 150 meters without hitting any car and some people who lived nearby managed to stop it from falling in the ditch ? They called the police and I had to told her why exactly I left my car on the side of the road like that lol. After a brief discussion we were free to go and continued caching and grabbed a few more before calling it a day.
Well you made me laugh
helped push my sister’s gti that teetered on the edge of the ditch while going for the dog series nothing like getting rocks thrown at you while trying to get at least three wheels back on the ground!!
You guys are making me wish that we HAD gone for a series of caches near Pyramid Lake, Alberta last summer that the logs from the few days before stated there was a grizzly in the area!! Then maybe we’d have a story. 🙂
We’ve been lucky, so far. A few scrapes and scratches but that’s it!
I guess I have been pretty lucky to this point. Just a few cuts and bruises to speak of for injuries, although my legs now look as though they have been through a war zone. I have taken some falls that my husband thought he would be taking me to emerg….but I have kept on caching…..after all, that is what I came there for! lol I was more upset about marking up my new GPS than the fact that I lost all the skin on my knee and face planted the pavement.
More slips and falls then you can shake a stick at. Breaking through the ice in a ditch while wearing showshoes and laughing so hard you can’t even get out of the water…..good times!!
I have become known to the Saint John police for losing my car keys or locking them in the trunk. Whenever they see me the tease me about this. They even called in the K9 dog to try to locate my keys uptown. My husband, Andrew, tells me that CAA does not stand for Call Andrew Again when I have locked the keys in the trunk after changing my high heels for sneakers during my lunch hour and after making sure I have my GPS and a pen I close the trunk and realize my phone and keys are still there. (I had the important items in hand!)
I am only at 610 finds, so I imagine there are more injuries waiting for me, but they are like battle wounds. Gives you something to talk about at the next event! lol
Happy New Year!! May 2012 be filled with new and exciting caches!!