Worst Geocaching Injury

[funinthealps]

This may be an old topic but the last couple days made me wonder how other geo-cachers may have hurt themselves.

 

My wife and I have been pretty fortunate until this morning (I'll get to that in a minute) but the dog had taken a few hits. Saturday we were hiking up to the Lair (a nice cache located in a cave on the bluffs of the Mississippi) and as we were cutting across a farm field we watched Seamus (our dog) go face first into a barb wire fence at nearly full speed. It shook him up a bit and gave him a small cut above his eye but no real harm done. In the past we've seen him do cartwheels, amass loads of pickers, and a few slip and falls but unbelieveably no broken bones or serious lacerations.

 

I, on the other hand, woke up this morning and thought that I got a good jab from a stick when I was doing some bushwacking yesterday morning. Didn't remember any sharp pokes so upon further inspection I discovered I had a tick lodged deep into my torso. So I grabbed the rubbing alcohol and caught the wife before she left for work. Sure enough there was a bright red ring around the bite and the tick was quite small. As it turns out I was bitten by a female deertick and am now on antibiotics for the next 3 weeks. Not a huge deal but a story worth mentioning. If you get bit by a tick and notice a bright red ring I cannot stress enough that you should immediatly see your doctor and get some meds. I'll be fine but the complications of leaving Lyme Disease untreated would be far worse.

 

Anyhow, I'm just curious if there are other stories of carnage on the trail.

 

Funinthealps

[+HugoBear]

This may be an old topic but the last couple days made me wonder how other geo-cachers may have hurt themselves.

...

Anyhow, I'm just curious if there are other stories of carnage on the trail.

 

Funinthealps

 

Since you asked...

 

I distinctly remember telling the kids "Long pants and socks, no sandals! You don't want prickers or poison ivy!" Too bad I didn't listen. We set out bushwhacking to a cache, tall weeds and the whole nine. Success was had, logs were written, we went back to the truck. My legs started to itch (socks and shoes, but shorts not pants). I wrote it off to sweat and dirt. Showwered good and thought nothing of it until the next morning. Still itchy. Stayed itchy for a few days, then REALLY itchy. Scratched too much and doctored too little.

 

Fast forward a week (or two) and between the open sores, swelling and general pain I could just barely walk.

 

I saw the doctor (who sort-of congratulated me on my pain tolerances) and he said how fortunate I was to have the absolute minimum intelligence to keep from having my legs amputated. I had turned poison oak/ivy into cellulitis and a major infection. I had weeks of antibiotics and steroids afterwards. I still have scars on my legs (kinda like leopard spots) and I still cache in shorts.

 

But I can spell 911.

Edited April 10, 2006 by HugoBear

[+Nerves]

Broke my leg in four places on a 1.5 terrain, by golly! Wheelchair for two months, three different casts, crutches and now, 6 months later with physical therapy twice a week I can walk with a cane.

[funinthealps]

Broke my leg in four places on a 1.5 terrain, by golly! Wheelchair for two months, three different casts, crutches and now, 6 months later with physical therapy twice a week I can walk with a cane.

 

Dang! Were you sober? I feel for you regardless. Snapped my achillies playing wallyball (years before geocachings inception). 3 months in 2 different casts. Fret not, you'll heal. Pins might make metal detectors a pain in the arse though.

 

Best of luck to you.

 

Funinthealps

[+Miragee]

I dislocated my kneecap shortly after placing a cache last year. It could have been much worse, because that day I was caching with a friend instead of caching by myself.

 

. . . As it turns out I was bitten by a female deertick and am now on antibiotics for the next 3 weeks. Not a huge deal but a story worth mentioning. If you get bit by a tick and notice a bright red ring I cannot stress enough that you should immediatly see your doctor and get some meds. I'll be fine but the complications of leaving Lyme Disease untreated would be far worse. . . .

What you say about Lyme disease is very true. I developed chronic Lyme disease because it was undiagnosed and untreated for many years. I have been taking antibiotics for almost nine years now. I'm sure glad your doctor prescribed the antibiotics for you right away. Lyme disease is very debilitating, yet some doctors are hesitant to diagnose and treat it . . .

[+WolfTrekker]

This may be an old topic but the last couple days made me wonder how other geo-cachers may have hurt themselves.

 

My wife and I have been pretty fortunate until this morning (I'll get to that in a minute) but the dog had taken a few hits. Saturday we were hiking up to the Lair (a nice cache located in a cave on the bluffs of the Mississippi) and as we were cutting across a farm field we watched Seamus (our dog) go face first into a barb wire fence at nearly full speed. It shook him up a bit and gave him a small cut above his eye but no real harm done. In the past we've seen him do cartwheels, amass loads of pickers, and a few slip and falls but unbelieveably no broken bones or serious lacerations.

 

I, on the other hand, woke up this morning and thought that I got a good jab from a stick when I was doing some bushwacking yesterday morning. Didn't remember any sharp pokes so upon further inspection I discovered I had a tick lodged deep into my torso. So I grabbed the rubbing alcohol and caught the wife before she left for work. Sure enough there was a bright red ring around the bite and the tick was quite small. As it turns out I was bitten by a female deertick and am now on antibiotics for the next 3 weeks. Not a huge deal but a story worth mentioning. If you get bit by a tick and notice a bright red ring I cannot stress enough that you should immediatly see your doctor and get some meds. I'll be fine but the complications of leaving Lyme Disease untreated would be far worse.

 

Anyhow, I'm just curious if there are other stories of carnage on the trail.

 

Funinthealps

 

I've had the same thing happen to me, only it took 2 days for me to notice the tick I'd picked up. Thank goodness for antibiotics, that tell-tale red ring is a scary sight

[+Maclir]

I got really, really hurt the other day when all of the other local geocachers called me a lame loser for not being able to find a micro hidden in a lamp post at the local WalMart car park.

[JesterQuester]

I haven't been geocaching very long, 5 finds and 2 DNFs so far, but I got a sprained ankle while out scouting an area for a possible future cache hiding spot. Does that count? lol

 

 

why am I laughing, it still hurts -

[+Cladius]

My black and white male Springer Beau has been treated for lyme and just last week stepped on an old wine bottle 1.5 miles from the truck and almost blead out. He is still with stiches and no caching for a while. The bottle was in a very old dump site 30's or so. Will get back and police it. Oh yah I had to take off one of stockings and make a turnicate and carry him out of the woods. I never knew 46lbs was so heavy. Cladius.

[funinthealps]

My black and white male Springer Beau has been treated for lyme and just last week stepped on an old wine bottle 1.5 miles from the truck and almost blead out. He is still with stiches and no caching for a while. The bottle was in a very old dump site 30's or so. Will get back and police it. Oh yah I had to take off one of stockings and make a turnicate and carry him out of the woods. I never knew 46lbs was so heavy. Cladius.

 

My Springer Seamus is such an out of control nut that I dread the day I'm going to have to carry him out. He has no concept of danger and nearly creases himself each time we go out in the woods (basically daily). He'll be 2 next month and pushing close to 60 pounds.

[+Lighteye]

From feet to mid chest looked like what shows in these pics from my log at :

Rough Cache

 

The shoes and clothes got tossed, and as the geo-pup was carried, he got not a scratch.

[+Henki]

I have a lovely 2" scar near my elbow from injecting myself with a tree branch that I didn't see in my quest to find one of my first caches, and I gored myself on a palm frond (or something like that) yesterday and bled like a stuck pig. Oh, and I bent back 3 fingernails trying to open a really tight PVC cache last month.

 

I feel like such a wimp compared to you guys!

[+Doc-Dean]

One time while caching.....

 

[+Kryten]

Went to the doc with what I thought was only a bruised foot. Plantar Fasciitis, no caching for 6 months and I dont even remember actually injuring myself, it just snuck up on me.

[+Henki]

One time while caching.....

 

 

That's funny!

[+Miragee]

Went to the doc with what I thought was only a bruised foot. Plantar Fasciitis, no caching for 6 months and I dont even remember actually injuring myself, it just snuck up on me.

This is exactly why "urban micros" should be allowed to exist and flourish. When we can't hunt the ammo cans at the end of a long hike, at least the urban micros will feed the addiction.

 

(Z-coil shoes might also help the healing process so you can hike sooner.)

[+kent1915]

Fell walking out of woods, landed on wood across my shin. Immediate swelling, (2+" off my shin), pain when walking. Took 2 weeks to be able to bear weight easily, but apparently that was outdone by bucket handel tear to MCL. My caching partner will be my PT from now on!!!

[Lopezman]

Man I was out getting a cache in an old rotten boat and one of the boards came loose I fell through.

[+Tallahassee Lassie]

My son and I were out hiking around a lake, and were about 1 mile from the car. It was a lovely lake, with fishermen, people with dogs on leashes, etc. We're headed to the third of 3 caches when I hear him scream (he's behind me). Turns out, a very large dog ON A LEASH bit him on the side. Nick had just gone up and petted him and turned around. It left a very bad taste for that lake, and my poor son had to walk out, since he weighs WAY too much to carry.

[+DiamondDuste]

I've had two:

 

I was at one that was by a historical marker. When I was replacing the cache, I forgot the sign was there, stood up too quickly, and banged the back of my head on the sign. Blood started to flow, and I quickly drove to the doctor. Turned out to be nothing but a small cut... didn't even need stitches. I could see the doctor wanted to laugh, and I probably would have let him.

 

The other was at a simple cache, and as I was leaving, I slipped off a curb and twisted my ankle pretty badly... the same one I had twisted a little under a year ago. After a few moments of blinding pain and knowing it was going to swell, I was able to walk on it and drive home. I had a limp for the rest of the day, and a rock on my ankle for the next week or so. It's just now stopped hurting, but the bruise is still there.

[funinthealps]

I've had two:

 

I was at one that was by a historical marker. When I was replacing the cache, I forgot the sign was there, stood up too quickly, and banged the back of my head on the sign. Blood started to flow, and I quickly drove to the doctor. Turned out to be nothing but a small cut... didn't even need stitches. I could see the doctor wanted to laugh, and I probably would have let him.

 

The other was at a simple cache, and as I was leaving, I slipped off a curb and twisted my ankle pretty badly... the same one I had twisted a little under a year ago. After a few moments of blinding pain and knowing it was going to swell, I was able to walk on it and drive home. I had a limp for the rest of the day, and a rock on my ankle for the next week or so. It's just now stopped hurting, but the bruise is still there.

 

You'll get rid of the bruising quicker if you get some potassium in you. Two fruits that are high in potassium are kewi and bananas.

[Lopezman]

Ouch...

[+DiamondDuste]

I've had two:

 

I was at one that was by a historical marker. When I was replacing the cache, I forgot the sign was there, stood up too quickly, and banged the back of my head on the sign. Blood started to flow, and I quickly drove to the doctor. Turned out to be nothing but a small cut... didn't even need stitches. I could see the doctor wanted to laugh, and I probably would have let him.

 

The other was at a simple cache, and as I was leaving, I slipped off a curb and twisted my ankle pretty badly... the same one I had twisted a little under a year ago. After a few moments of blinding pain and knowing it was going to swell, I was able to walk on it and drive home. I had a limp for the rest of the day, and a rock on my ankle for the next week or so. It's just now stopped hurting, but the bruise is still there.

 

You'll get rid of the bruising quicker if you get some potassium in you. Two fruits that are high in potassium are kewi and bananas.

 

Thanks for the tip!

[+Mr Lost]

[+Mr Lost]

and also here. This mess was caused by one of those stickers getting me in th eleg. Read the log and look at the photos... Shelby Farms Scramble Par 5

[+Kryten]

This is exactly why "urban micros" should be allowed to exist and flourish. When we can't hunt the ammo cans at the end of a long hike, at least the urban micros will feed the addiction.

 

(Z-coil shoes might also help the healing process so you can hike sooner.)

 

Thanks for the tip, those are exactly what I need

[+Tsegi Mike and Desert Viking]

Tsegi Mike broke a tooth today at an event cache. I had an accident a month ago in the car while hunting for caches. My leg is still quite sore. The little geodoglet lost some hearing from the explosion of the air bags. Those are our worst injuries so far.

[+What rock?]

First case of poison ivy I have had in 40 years. At least it isn't bad but I had forgotten how it itches! And my first sprained ankle ever. My own fault. Was too busy talking and not watching where I walked. Has slowed me down but not stopped me.

[+The Fantasmic Four]

I got really, really hurt the other day when all of the other local geocachers called me a lame loser for not being able to find a micro hidden in a lamp post at the local WalMart car park.

 

It's not usually my friends for me, but my wife... Ouch!

[AZcachemeister]

Worst PHYSICAL injury is a cholla-ball to the right calf. I spent about 15 minutes getting all the spines out, and the bruising/puncture wounds took a while to go away. All the experienced desert cachers carry wide-tooth combs and hemostats for this situation, and sooner or later you will need to use them.

 

I still have EMOTIONAL injuries from those uber-micro nano cache DNFs.

[+rock&crystal]

Worst caching injury for us was when Crystal slipped off a huge driftwood log on a cache hunt in a central Oregon coastal area. Combination of salt, salt grass and tennis shoes (like ballbearings) and she went from standing on the 5 foot diameter log to on her butt in the blink of an eye. She whacked the back of her head on another log as she came down. One broken (bent?) tail bone and a mild concusion later we managed to get her to the car. But she refused to head for the ER until the cache was found. Her comment when I told her it was an emergency... "yeah, but did you find the cache?" Thus the inspiration for our Rock&Crystal Camo Heart. After four hours in the hospital, and some pain meds she insisted we head back out caching, now that's devotion! BTW as a result of the Camo Heart we have received many unsolicited and descriptive (some times with pictures) injuries suffered by others (none related here), it's a tough job this caching!!

[+cary1952]

My worst injury occured just 10 days ago. I was caching in Northeastern Iowa. One of the caches had some barb wire just a couple of feet from the cache, which was under a bridge. I sat down for about 2-3 minutes, because I was reading the log. I totally forgot about the barbed wire. When I stood up, I got nailed. To make a long story short, I had a 4 inch gash on the top of my skull, that required emergency medical treatment. It is pretty much healed up now. The longer version of the story is quite amusing now, but I will leave that to another post maybe in the future!

[wandat24]

Boy, I think I've been VERY lucky so far.... The worse I've had is an arm full of scratches (because I haven't figured out to look around to see if there's a different way through instead of walking in the middle of a thorn "forest".....) Funny thing is, I usually don't wear pants when it's warm, and last year my arms where still the only thing that got bad.

I've also screwed up my leg and back a couple times, I have a problem with arthritus <sp?> and tend to stemp on rocks in the oddest of ways, but for that all i have to do is take about 5 ibuprophine <sp, again?> and am good to go (200 mg each, and I've had the 800 mg suckers so many times that just one or two of the 200 ones don't do the job at all, and if I can take 2 of the 800's 3-4 times aday, I'm not worried about getting too much....)

Oh and last weekend I was coming back up from between a road bridge and a walking one and hit the sign right there and got a BAD bruise on my shoulder....

Edited April 19, 2006 by wandat24

[+CheshireFrog]

Last Saturday I stumbled on a climb and laid my left hand into a cactus bed. Only picked up a couple of big needles, but my palm looked to be fur covered with all the little hair-like quills.

[+supertbone]

I punctured my foot on a huge rusty nail.

[+Mule Ears]

Worst PHYSICAL injury is a cholla-ball to the right calf. I spent about 15 minutes getting all the spines out, and the bruising/puncture wounds took a while to go away. All the experienced desert cachers carry wide-tooth combs and hemostats for this situation, and sooner or later you will need to use them.

 

I still have EMOTIONAL injuries from those uber-micro nano cache DNFs.

 

No visit to Tucson Mountain Park is complete without one of those cholla traumas! The way it happens is bizarre; the cholla pod attaches lightly to your boot when you step on/near it. On the next step, the pod is flung upward with the motion, detaches from the boot, and forcefully embeds itself in the meatiest part of the calf.

 

How a cactus evolved such an attack mechanism aimed at humans is another example of the wondrous nature of the universe

 

I've got a 3/8-inch-long shin-dagger spine, roughly the diameter of a pencil lead, embedded in my right thumb flexor. Feels weird. They tell me it will eventually migrate out, but I think that's just to stop me trying to cut it out with an X-acto knife.

[+foreman450]

Was on my way home from a cache last fall. Deer jumped over the guard rail right in front of me. Hit it head on at 65 MPH. Intestins on road, guardrail, Jeep, legs missing. On the deer that is. Had to get towed. Bumper cover, $500. Radiator, $300. Headlight assembly, $300. Finding the geocache - priceless. I have a scroll of the repairs. Initial repair of $4,500 but accumulated to over $6,000 over the next few months as "accident related" problems arised. Had hit one the week before, causing less damage.

 

Hurt:

1 - Wallet

2 - Jeep

3 - Deer

4 - Insurance Company

[Jake - Team A.I.]

With all of my desert caching, I've not yet had a cactus incident, I did manage to dislocate my knee while climbing out of an empty irrigation canal. Luckily it popped back into place and I was able to hobble my way back to my truck.

[+aka Monkey]

I was doing a difficult cache once when I fell down a steep hill and died.

[+BellsRUs]

In 2004, right after daughter and I started geocaching, we went to a local hiking area and found a cache. It was a sunny 60 degree day in February, very unusual for Pittsburgh. After finding the first cache, decided to go for a second that was less than .5 mile away. Found the area, were looking for the cache when we realized it was starting to get dark and we were a ways from the car. Took off running through the woods, up and down over uneven terrain, slipping on snow. Injured my right foot, but I didn't know at the time what I had done.

 

Decided we weren't going to make it if we stayed in the woods, so we left the woods when we neared the backyards of some houses. Out to the road and finally figured out where we were. Started walking back to the car via the roads, which was several miles - GPSr read 1 mile from car, but we were walking parallel to it. When it started to rain, with my foot hurting badly, and we still had another mile to go, I called my husband from my cell phone and asked him to come and get us.

 

I was on crutches for a while - finally went to the doctor who diagnosed plantar fasciitis. I've had physical therapy and 3 shots of cortisone since then and just this past week we started geocaching again. Hoping I won't injure it again!

[+nekom]

Severely bruised hand (never went to the doctor, so this is a crude self-diagnosis). hurt for well over a week (STILL a tad sore over 2 weeks later, but better every day). Missed a day of work. Doesn't stack up to the rest of ya goobers though.

[+az_pistolero]

Worst PHYSICAL injury is a cholla-ball to the right calf. I spent about 15 minutes getting all the spines out, and the bruising/puncture wounds took a while to go away. All the experienced desert cachers carry wide-tooth combs and hemostats for this situation, and sooner or later you will need to use them.

 

I still have EMOTIONAL injuries from those uber-micro nano cache DNFs.

 

I carry a leatherman into the desert. Wasn't on a cache hunt, but our golden retriever came back to us one time with a cholla ball stuck to her nose. That's gotta hurt!

 

There's at least one of AZcachemeister's micros I've not been able to solve yet Now I know why!

[+GeoWomyn_SF_CA]

I don't know if this is bad luck or what...but I created a travel bug called Nurse Hanes.

The goal of Nurse Hanes was to give aid to geocachers who have hurt themselves

in the line of duty. Unfortunately, the first cacher I handed it off to broke her arm within one week

of receiving it.

[+Guitar4Him]

I don't know if this is bad luck or what...but I created a travel bug called Nurse Hanes.

The goal of Nurse Hanes was to give aid to geocachers who have hurt themselves

in the line of duty. Unfortunately, the first cacher I handed it off to broke her arm within one week

of receiving it.

 

That's not a travel bug.....it's a bad-luck charm....

[bandgeek]

I don't know how it happened... but I ended up with a corneal abraison one day while caching... it hurt like hell but I could still see once the pain-killing drops had kicked in... went out and grabbed 2 more caches when I got back from emerg.

[+Midget Izzy]

This didn't happen to me, but when we were at a MIGO event doing the scavenger hunt, we were walking down this steep incline and found some other cachers gatehred around this one guy. He was lying face down in the mud. We asked what happened and he said he was trying to jump the creek and slipped. He said he was in a lot of pain, his hip and leg hurt. My dad and some other cacher guys carried him up the incline while I called 911. I had no idea were we were. I told them I could give them the cords though, but they needed a street name. So I jogged half a block to the cross roads to give them the street we were at. Latter we found out he had dislocated his leg and broke his hip. Poor guy.

[+TheConaways]

 

Hurt:

1 - Wallet

2 - Jeep

3 - Deer

4 - Insurance Company

 

Trust me...your insurance company isn't hurting.

[salmoned]

Through scratches, cuts scrapes and breaks, the worst is... I got older.

[+Hawkeye V&A]

I sliced my head open on a branch two days ago ... and had to get 5 staples.

[+demhackbardt]

Well, it wasn't bodily injury, but while taking a day off work my son and were running some errands and thought we would grab a new urban mirco for a FTF. After leaving the cache site with a DNF and sitting at a stop sign had a new driver crash right into the side of our minivan. It might not have been so bad if we had actually found the cache! Came back days later and finally claimed it...now if we could just get the van back from the shop - one month later now!