Nerves

Here's the before pic:

Ya know, I think they got their tools on sale at Sears that day.

Here's my ankle hardware. The midshin fracture isn't on this xray.

lotsa testing

oho

I forgot to mention when I visited Washington Allanon, Recdiver, Anonymous & Dad, andrewrj & his wife, and Talkstoanimals were my tour guides for the APE cache. Allanon gave me a WA geocoin and Mtn10Bike one of his pins as mementoes.

I broke my right leg while geocaching back in October and have been laid up in the house unable to drive or walk since then. Somehow, word got around the geocaching community and I received lots and lots of "get well" emails even from people I'd never met! I've had geocachers offer to bring me on wheelchair accessible geocaching runs or to transport me to an event. Bugeye59 drove over 2 hours to my house to pick up travel bugs I brought from the west coast to New England so they could get to an event. BomberJohn ~ whom I've never met ~ did all the graphics and weblinks for a geocacher's medical ID card I designed. One of the most endearing things for me was seeing this: Travel Bug I think geocachers are truly wonderful!

While out caching I decided to get a Dunkin Donuts coffee and use their bathroom. I dropped my PDA in the toilet and had to fish it out. Heck, I needed those cache pages in the PDA! Gad. It was sooooo gross!! The PDA still works though.

Thanks for spreading the word about the Medical ID Card.

Experience is a harsh teacher and we each develop our own set of rules accordingly.

edited for double post

You're welcome. I hope you never has to use it but just in case, it's there if you do need it. You can download two - laminate both and put one in your wallet and hang one around your neck or put it in your car? I've seen "Geocacher at Work" cards that are put on dashboards. That's all they say though. Maybe you could let someone know where you are and when you expect to return especially for those areas without cell phone coverage.

Try this: Emergency Medical ID card

Sounds good to me but I've emailed BomberJohn and asked him to answer your question. OK - here I go with a seemingly inane question...what is the web address for the geocaching livejournal community?

This is the original question. I think this discussion needs to get back on topic.

Thanks for the good ideas. I'll have to wait for BomberJohn to do this since he's the techno savvy one. It may have to wait until he gets back from China.

Yes, why is that? There are loads of studies with statistics that show criminal gun use is far more common than self defense gun use. It's just a delusion to think that a woman is going to be able to whip out a gun and defend herself. Additionally, most perps look pretty normal when you pass them on the trail. They may then double back and follow you for a distance catching you unaware i.e. while signing the logbook or just looking at the birds and trees. Yes, we must remain vigilant at all times but perps will pick the times when you are least vigilant. It's part of the "hunt" and the "fun" for them. Or, they may just lie in wait on the trail while you walk back to your car. You won't be able to get your gun, release the safety and shoot them. They will overpower you before you can even scream. Some like the slow seduction to death in which they use the "get her to trust me" technique to make you think they're safe to talk to. Remember that charmer Ted Bundy?

Yep, that was me. In the past, I've been a whacko magnet accosted in a variety of ways over the years by assorted mutant humanoids. Although the fella on this cache trip didn't accost me he was a weirdo and did leave me in the dirt to fend for myself. I doubt that I will cache alone in the woods again because accidents do happen and ya know what? I think it's alot more stressful when it happens and you're all alone. Gee whiz...it sure would've been nice to cry on someone's shoulder while waiting for the EMTs or they could've listened to me kvetching in the ambulance or driven my car home. Besides, if I had fainted they could've directed the EMTs to me otherwise I might still have been there till the next day when another cacher came along. Another thought - I'm not sure that anyone who was raped or molested while caching would post that in the forums. They might, but for the most part, when that happens women are usually too traumatized to publicize it. (OK everyone - time to print out the Emergency Medical ID card. Heck, I hope I did this link correctly...) Emergency Medical ID Card)

All the office supply stores carry the laminating sheets. They're great for alot of different things.

Got another non-geocaching friend to use this ID card. She doesn't hike but after hearing of my accident decided this might be good "insurance" to have.

Count me in! If this leg of mine is all better by then I'll be there.

That is a GREAT idea! If I could get out and geocache I would do the same. Once this doggone broken leg heals I'll be back out and I'll use your idea. Thanks!

My sincerest condolences to you and your family Trail Angel. I think a memorial cache is a wonderful idea.

I used to geocache with someone who was very obsessive/compulsive about "documentation". He would keep oodles of records on his GPSr, computer, PDA and on paper. At each cache, he would take a foto of the trail entrance, near the cache site, at the cache site, the cache itself, opening the cache, the contents of the cache, his geo-card with the cache, the log with the cache, his GPS with the cache and would mark the coordinates three times on his GPS at the cache site to confirm the webpage cache coordinates. He would stamp the log with his own stamp, sign the log, stamp his geo-card, sign the geo-card. This might take upwards of 20 minutes or more at each cache site. He would do only a few caches a day so he could get home and record everything on his computer, load the fotos and coordinates into various software including Nat'l Geographic mapping software, a journal and logs. He had records of EVERYTHING. I'm sure I've forgotten some other steps he took. Anyway, after awhile this got REAL tiresome for me. Me? I want to have fun when I cache. When I decide on an area I'll visit I just do pocket queries and ask for only caches that are active and that I haven't found. This info goes into my GPSr and PDA and I'm good to go. Simple and straight forward.