As fun as geocaching is, please remember to be as cautious as possible. Many parks can lull you into a false sense of security as I recently discovered.
It was a bright and sunny sunday afternoon, about 1:30pm. We were at Silver Lake Park in Wisconsin. It's a beautiful park, with miles of trails and a beach. I pulled into one of the lots with my family. Wife, kids, my brother and his wife...
My wife lingered near the parking lot to look for a micro. The rest of us went up ahead on the trail. We were searching for a cache when she caught up with us. She hadn't realized it, but about 30 seconds behind her were four guys walking two pitbulls. It's difficult for me to describe just how out of place these guys looked, it was just wrong. They were very quiet too. When they saw the larger group, they looked around at us and moved on down the trail.
It could be that I was just imagining their intent, but they were so far out of place that it stuck in my head. Their shoes were wrong for the woods. Their clothes were completely out of place. Their demeanor, their look, was just completely wrong. Nobody dresses or acts like that on a hike. My wife was upset when she saw them. She hadn't heard them behind her when she was on the trail.
Anyway, we cached for about an hour more. When we returned to our van, the drivers side window was smashed in with a rock and we had a bunch of stuff stolen. I'm not saying that the window and the guys with the pitbulls were connected. Just nothing the strangeness of it all.
I know this is a common sense warning, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Geocaching often takes you far away from civilization. Use caution. Don't leave your group. Be wary. Watch where you park, etc. I almost feel lucky that all we got was a busted up van that day.
You can see pics and read the story from the cache here under the cache log for teamfinch GC127BH
