Bushwacking

[+bigdog999]

Now that it's summertime and with the numerous rain we've had, a lot of the trails and woods are extremly overgrown. Is it a good idea to cut your own path, like with a machete, or is this not considered proper. I realize there might be restrictions in state forests.

[+Team Cotati]

Now that it's summertime and with the numerous rain we've had, a lot of the trails and woods are extremly overgrown. Is it a good idea to cut your own path, like with a machete, or is this not considered proper. I realize there might be restrictions in state forests.

Who are the land managers of these trails and woods?

[+reveritt]

It's generally considered poor form to make an obvious trail to a cache. Sometimes (like in snow) it is impossible not to leave footprints, but I have never heard of anyone hacking their way into a cache with a machete.

[+Team Cotati]

It's generally considered poor form to make an obvious trail to a cache. Sometimes (like in snow) it is impossible not to leave footprints, but I have never heard of anyone hacking their way into a cache with a machete.

Just sit back and watch.

[+briansnat]

Now that it's summertime and with the numerous rain we've had, a lot of the trails and woods are extremly overgrown. Is it a good idea to cut your own path, like with a machete, or is this not considered proper. I realize there might be restrictions in state forests.

Its a very, very bad idea. If land managers even thought we were doing that they's shut down our sport faster than mercury on Teflon.

[+Pork King]

... faster than mercury on Teflon.

What does mercury do on teflon?

 

I agree...a machete is a bad idea. Just do like the rest of us and crash through the briars like a bull elephant (those of us of elephant size, anyway).

[+Renegade Knight]

I'm sure you could hack your way thorugh this stuff and people will only thank you.

 

http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/lands/weeds/pho...udzu_impact.jpg

 

For the most part though, bushwacking with a machette is a bad idea for geocachers to do.

[+Renegade Knight]

... faster than mercury on Teflon.

What does mercury do on teflon?...

Something like instant coffee in a microwave?

[+Pork King]

Something like instant coffee in a microwave?

What does instant coffee do in a microwave?

 

Geez, I live a sheltered life...

[JohnX]

Something like instant coffee in a microwave?

What does instant coffee do in a microwave?

 

Geez, I live a sheltered life...

I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time.

-- Steven Wright

 

Steven Wright is a comedian with an almost cult following, know for his bizzare one line comments.

[+bigdog999]

Thanks everyone. kinda what I thought, but was curious what others do. This is my first summer geocaching.

[+Jhwk]

grasshopper, similar to stepping between the rain drops, you must learn to pass unmarked through the poisons (Oak, Ivy, Sumac, etc) and nettles, and vines, and weeds, and thorns, and pricker bushes, and - oh well - you get the idea.

[Liber-T]

Well shoot...does that mean I have to take the weed eater out of my caching bag?

[+welch]

Well shoot...does that mean I have to take the weed eater out of my caching bag?

yes, and the chain saw too

[+Pork King]

I guess it's ok to take a blade to any kudzu you might come across (it runs rampant here in the South, growing up to a foot a day). As you hack through it, that stuff grows back in behind you!

 

Edited July 12, 2005 by Pork King

[Liber-T]

wow this stuff would be great if you don't wanna clean the junk out of your yard. It would be covered in a few days

[+DaveA]

wow this stuff would be great if you don't wanna clean the junk out of your yard. It would be covered in a few days

yes, it is fantistic. Until it isn't happy covering just your junk pile and it set's it's sites on your house. I kid you not, in some parts there are vine plants that actually pull down telephone polls and can crush houses given enough time.

 

In most cases, no, you shouldn't harm the vegetation any more than absolutely necessary when caching or any other time for that matter, but there is some vegetation you can whack at with impunity (and futility).

[+Right Wing Wacko]

... faster than mercury on Teflon.

What does mercury do on teflon?

 

I agree...a machete is a bad idea. Just do like the rest of us and crash through the briars like a bull elephant (those of us of elephant size, anyway).

Hey! I resemble that remark!

[ImpalaBob]

Hey ... I do not condone outright trailblazing ..... but a pair of garden shears on a belt clip to snip some nasty picker branches in your way is OK by me! I agree to leave the last 50 feet alone but many trails her in PA get severly overgrown and a bit of conservative pruning does them no more harm than deer who eat 5 lbs of "Browse" a day each. What we definitly do not want are errosion issues on the trails! ImpalaBob Hunter Trapper Education Instructor for the PA Game Commission.

[+Night Stalker]

Looks to me like the perfect difficult cache would be in the middle of some of that KUDZA stuff. Just delay getting it approved for a couple of weeks and then let someone try and find it.

 

[+Pork King]

Looks to me like the perfect difficult cache would be in the middle of some of that KUDZA stuff. Just delay getting it approved for a couple of weeks and then let someone try and find it.

 

There is actually a cache around here that is IN that stuff (River Pirates, too lazy for a link, but it was discussed on the 1st episode of GeoRadio). In the winter, the stuff dies out and become brown, leafless and and brittle. But in the summertime...LOOK OUT!

 

And its KUDZU, not KUDZA...

 

Like the old Jeff Foxworthy 'You might be a Redneck if...'

"You've ever lost a loved one to kudzu"

[+AuntieWeasel]

The only time I ever saw my step-father vein-bulging mad was when somebody brought a clipping of kudzu onto our land and advocated it as a ground cover. He ran the fellow off like Black Death.

 

Did you see where some dadgum fool might've found a use for it? Seems something in it works against alcoholism.

 

See? How evil can a plant get?

[+deltadawg]

actually durring the summer there is a trail to the river throught the kudzu at river pirates. i bring my swingblade out there sometimes and help keep that trail clean. but then again thats a long way away from the actual cache and lots of people use that trail to go swimming.

[+Gecko1]

Rent a bulldozer and make your own path.

[+Gecko1]

I guess it's ok to take a blade to any kudzu you might come across (it runs rampant here in the South, growing up to a foot a day). As you hack through it, that stuff grows back in behind you!

 

In Florida, we use goats.

[helluvaengr]

I'm new to geocaching, but having grown up in Georgia, I know all about Kudzu...

 

This thread has really inspired me. I've been thinking about where to locate my first cache. I now know. There is a park nearby with trails through a kudzu field

 

Boy, did this thread get hijacked

[+TeamZebra]

I was scoping out a spot for a hide today and stood for quite some time looking at a big patch of kudzu. I kept thinking... man that would make some excellent cover for the cache... but then I decided against it. Didn't want people losing kids and pets... and possibly even my cache... to the vine from heck. That stuff is MEAN!

[dsandbro]

Does this mean I should not use my Caterpillar D-9 Bulldozer as a caching vehicle????

[+The Bookends]

I always tell my son this, and I still believe it to be true. When hiking in the woods, a straight line is not always the fastest, or easiest way to get where you are going. Unless there is already a trail, it is usually the most painful way.

[Ellylidan]

Now that it's summertime and with the numerous rain we've had, a lot of the trails and woods are extremly overgrown. Is it a good idea to cut your own path, like with a machete, or is this not considered proper. I realize there might be restrictions in state forests.

If you make a trail to my cache, I will kill you. But then, I’m likely to kill you anyway.

[+bigdog999]

Well Ellylidan, next time I'm in Washington I'll bring my riding lawnmower and garlic wreath.

[+Pork King]

I always tell my son this, and I still believe it to be true. When hiking in the woods, a straight line is not always the fastest, or easiest way to get where you are going. Unless there is already a trail, it is usually the most painful way.

I know this...I have experienced this...I TELL people this...And yet, I never seem to remember it when the cache is .2mile THATAWAY!

[+Team Snoopy]

Is carrying a machete even legal?

[+beopots]

One of the fen dwellers caches was meant to be hard to get to, I believe it was the 'belt of the victim' or something... (if i had a minute I'd look it up). Basically it ruined the cache because someone hacked their way in, made a trail for others to follow right to the cache, what a shame. I vote for no machete, even though I wish I had one a time or two.

Everybody say BEO

[+edscott]

If you think about it.. the guy who hid the cache got in there without a machette, or a bulldozer etc... and most likely without a lot of personal pain. Use your brain and go to it the same way he did.