About 4 years ago (before I discovered geocaching) I still "tromped" through the woods. No problems. Lying on the concrete basement floor, putting a new belt on the clothes drier, I found a new friend - actually, didn't find him until the next morning when I thought I felt a zit.........
zits aren't black with a red mark.
My local physician is up on Lyme. He advised that I was not at any great risk and started a regimen of antibiotics for about 10 days or so. He assured me that would knock out anything of the Lyme...even if I had been bitten in the past year.
After the regimen, I opted for the Lymerix shot sequence. I know of a couple of people who have had a problem with it (aches, arthritis, other), but it worked for me without any problem. It is an option.
Ticks are the one "cache guardian" you can find at almost every cache site.
Klizich