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What Is Your Greatest Fear While Geocaching?


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Over the last couple of years, many have expressed their concerns regarding various factors associated with geocaching. Some geocachers encounter snakes others are concerned with landscape and environmental factors. What is it you fear the most while geocaching. Those of you that aren't afraid of anything, well, we don't believe you. Everyone is afraid of something ... what is it?

PI, PO, PS, maybe P snakes, maybe falling into a "sinkhole", last concern...having my wife yell, "don't go in there" :)

Maybe crossing a Marijuana field...

Edited by Wild Thing 73
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All this talk about snakes reminds me I've been hiking around Arizona for twelve years now and never come across a rattlesnake in the wild. Found one in my neighbor's garage once. And my wife says that twice I ran over snakes on my road bike, but I promise I never saw them.

 

Only rattlesnake problem I ever had was in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Ummm, no, that snake was actually my buddy's problem.

 

All that being said, they're still more prevalent in the desert than some demented serial criminal.

 

About a month ago, I had a new "should I be afraid" experience as I read two large signs explaining that our family was entering Mexican Wolf territory, with one explaining the conditions under which you were or were not allowed to legally kill one.

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Poison Ivy: It is everywhere around here. I am convinced that many caches are placed in the winter when the poison ivy is not leafed out all over the place.

 

Creepy/Dangerous People: Haven't had it happen yet - but there are caches I won't go after by myself because I am unfamiliar with the area. There was a guy a couple of days ago that I thought might be another geocacher waiting his turn - but he was just watching a very large fish a pond.

 

Cops: I'm glad others have this fear...

 

Getting Seriously Hurt: Recently I've been looking for caches between errands or appointments. No one knows when I go searching for a cache or even where I might be.

 

Wet Hen

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My biggest fear is other people. Sometimes my wife can't follow me through the woods so she sits on the trail while I wander through the woods. What if someone starts to bother her when I'm not there? We're studying for our concealed handgun license and plan to pack heat while we cache. Also there have been a lot of shootings in the Houston area lately. Just another good reason to carry protection. How many of you do the same?

 

Carrying a hand gun while you're caching? Thats a good way to kill ur fellow geocachers. That sounds like a really really really stupid thing to do. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And a gun is a sure way to kill someone. If someone starts to bother your wife while you're not with her, she freaks out (you don't know the places your mind takes you when you're in such a position) and kills the person. She or you have to carry that guilt for the rest of your lives. And possibly have to defend yourself's in a murder trial. If you're carring a gun cause thers been allot of shootings, then that means that you're planning on the possibility of meeting someone else with a gun. Well, if you have a gun, and the other person has a gun, you'd better be prepared to use it. Chances are that the other person doesn't have a licence for the gun, so if he or she sees that you have a gun also, he or she is going to shoot to kill.

This brings me to one of my fears: meeting people like you in woods and getting killed.

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My biggest fear is other people. Sometimes my wife can't follow me through the woods so she sits on the trail while I wander through the woods. What if someone starts to bother her when I'm not there? We're studying for our concealed handgun license and plan to pack heat while we cache. Also there have been a lot of shootings in the Houston area lately. Just another good reason to carry protection. How many of you do the same?

 

Carrying a hand gun while you're caching? Thats a good way to kill ur fellow geocachers. That sounds like a really really really stupid thing to do. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And a gun is a sure way to kill someone. If someone starts to bother your wife while you're not with her, she freaks out (you don't know the places your mind takes you when you're in such a position) and kills the person. She or you have to carry that guilt for the rest of your lives. And possibly have to defend yourself's in a murder trial. If you're carring a gun cause thers been allot of shootings, then that means that you're planning on the possibility of meeting someone else with a gun. Well, if you have a gun, and the other person has a gun, you'd better be prepared to use it. Chances are that the other person doesn't have a licence for the gun, so if he or she sees that you have a gun also, he or she is going to shoot to kill.

This brings me to one of my fears: meeting people like you in woods and getting killed.

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That sounds like a really really really stupid thing to do. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.

 

I think it's more of people who are inexperienced with firearms that cause most of the gun related problems, I've had a permit for close to 20 years, Never have had to use it, Drawn it quite a few times, But never fired at a live subject. (We'll not since I was Discharged)....

 

Anywho there is a lot of places that you can't carry, even with a permit. Unless your a sworn Officer.

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All that being said, they're still more prevalent in the desert than some demented serial criminal.

 

And yet, they are out there.

 

True...

 

Carrying a hand gun while you're caching? Thats a good way to kill ur fellow geocachers. That sounds like a really really really stupid thing to do. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And a gun is a sure way to kill someone. If someone starts to bother your wife while you're not with her, she freaks out (you don't know the places your mind takes you when you're in such a position) and kills the person. She or you have to carry that guilt for the rest of your lives. And possibly have to defend yourself's in a murder trial. If you're carring a gun cause thers been allot of shootings, then that means that you're planning on the possibility of meeting someone else with a gun. Well, if you have a gun, and the other person has a gun, you'd better be prepared to use it. Chances are that the other person doesn't have a licence for the gun, so if he or she sees that you have a gun also, he or she is going to shoot to kill.

This brings me to one of my fears: meeting people like you in woods and getting killed.

 

If you're not a threat to a person I know, there's absolutely no need to be concerned. If someone presents you with a real threat, they're going to do it whether you can protect yourself or not. What options would you rather have?

 

If my wife shoots someone, I know she saw a real threat and dealt with it. That's a much easier to deal with than the alternative, and yes, we've been trained, and we understand the preparation part. Boils down to your choice, and that's fine. Fortunately, we still have the Bill of Rights so there's still the choice, and for that we can all be thankful.

 

.....

 

I still worry more about finding a cache and not having trade items for the kids. :anibad:

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i was out today and i had a really really steep decline to skid down in order to avoid going way way out of my way, and i ended up kicking a fair sized rock down the decline which lead onto an area with cars. i was terrified that i had kicked a rock into a lane of traffic. then when i got near the bottow, i was terrified that other rocks were going to be falling and that i was about to be crushed! worst of all, after all this, i had to log a DNF...

 

I guess these are the only two fears i've ever had when i went out. and both in one outing...

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things i fear:

 

- those freaking huge furry beasts that makes lots of noise at night in the crackly leaves and twigs, and then they turn out to be field mice. :anibad::blink:

 

- walking thru a grow op or meth lab (common in BC, Canada). Stave Lake area has some SERIOUSLY scary vibes deep in the woods and down some of those backroads.....bad vibes like big angry leather vest wearing, handgun toting scary people, telling you to get moving and stay moving and forget you saw us kinda bad vibes. :lol:

 

- civilization in general....

 

:huh:

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things i fear:

- walking thru a grow op or meth lab (common in BC, Canada). Stave Lake area has some SERIOUSLY scary vibes deep in the woods and down some of those backroads.....bad vibes like big angry leather vest wearing, handgun toting scary people, telling you to get moving and stay moving and forget you saw us kinda bad vibes.

 

I bet my backwoods, leather clad, handgun toting, drug manufacturing bad guys are scarier than yours ... I live on the KS/MO border and own property in MO. Last time I checked, MO was the meth producing capitol of the world, by far. We have rednecks in MO that have transcended to the higher plateau of purplenecks. There are only a handful of purplenecks on the planet and they live in parts of MO, AR and GA.

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I read this and was trying to figure out if I had any real fears and then I checked my e-mail and I had one from a geocacher that is in Iraq right now. So I checked, and yes friends, there are 82 caches in Iraq (I actually made the ridiculous suggestion that he set one up, but those guys are as insane as I was when I was in..) So I figure there isn't anything that could possibly be as bad as caching in a combat zone...

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When I'm caching with my hubby nothing scares me except big spiders!! BUT when I go to a cache alone the minute my hubby is out of sight I would almost swear there is a big beasty or person out there stalking me!!! Oh yeah and the sound of the coytes in the distance (I know there are not much bigger than my cat but ever since I was little they scared the crap out of me!!!

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I have two fears that weigh-in equally. One is founded in the fear that I may be out caching in a remote area and that my 60# dog might be disabled by a snake or other natural "hazard." I might not be able to carry my friend to a safe and helpful place. My second fear is that there might be mean people that would lie-in-wait for the vulnerable, in order to do harm.

 

I cache alone most of the time because I don't want to hear, "Are we done?"

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I thought caching is a family thing. Why if there have already been shooting in the area would you want to add more to the tally. :laughing:

My biggest fear is other people. Sometimes my wife can't follow me through the woods so she sits on the trail while I wander through the woods. What if someone starts to bother her when I'm not there? We're studying for our concealed handgun license and plan to pack heat while we cache. Also there have been a lot of shootings in the Houston area lately. Just another good reason to carry protection. How many of you do the same?

 

Carrying a hand gun while you're caching? Thats a good way to kill ur fellow geocachers. That sounds like a really really really stupid thing to do. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And a gun is a sure way to kill someone. If someone starts to bother your wife while you're not with her, she freaks out (you don't know the places your mind takes you when you're in such a position) and kills the person. She or you have to carry that guilt for the rest of your lives. And possibly have to defend yourself's in a murder trial. If you're carring a gun cause thers been allot of shootings, then that means that you're planning on the possibility of meeting someone else with a gun. Well, if you have a gun, and the other person has a gun, you'd better be prepared to use it. Chances are that the other person doesn't have a licence for the gun, so if he or she sees that you have a gun also, he or she is going to shoot to kill.

This brings me to one of my fears: meeting people like you in woods and getting killed.

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Lindsy's answer:

 

ANIMALS

 

Most people around here would tell you that my answer is snakes, but the broader answer is just animals in general. I've never been the outdoorsy type, and I'm still amazed what I do/where I go to cache. However, I do not like the animals: snakes, bugs, deer, bears, dogs, mice, etc. You name it, I'm afraid of it!

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I have two fears that weigh-in equally. One is founded in the fear that I may be out caching in a remote area and that my 60# dog might be disabled by a snake or other natural "hazard." I might not be able to carry my friend to a safe and helpful place. My second fear is that there might be mean people that would lie-in-wait for the vulnerable, in order to do harm.

 

I cache alone most of the time because I don't want to hear, "Are we done?"

 

I have to second this one. I really don't have any fears for myself. I've thought about the what if's... what if I break a leg, fall in a hole, etc... and it really doesn't bother me much. I'll deal with it if it happens. But back in the spring I was out hiking near a frozen lake. It was spring, so the lake wasn't as solid as it could have been. Some parts were thawed a bit. My dogs (170#, 110#, and 50#) kept running out onto the ice. They thought it was fun to slip and slide on the ice.

 

The 50# dog is a Basset Hound and if she broke through would probably sink pretty quickly. If I could get to her, I could probably carry her out. But the other two are just too big... if they couldn't get out on their own, there would be little to nothing I could do to help them. If I did get them out, there's no way I could carry them back to the car.

 

I was plannin on doing about 7 caches around the lake that day... I stopped at three for fear that the dogs would fall through the ice. Even thinking about it now sends chills up my spine. So that's my #1 fear.

 

It's been a while since I've run across a marijuana field, but if I found myself in one again, I'd be pretty afraid. Last time I did I was too young to know to be afraid... well at least until my friends dad got in touch with the police and the assault team came out. Then I knew how serious it was. 10 min response time to have a helicopter assault team on site, 5minutes after arriving there was a short shootout. There was a bad guy in a tree with a sniper rifle about 150yards from where we were hiking. So yeah... I'd be pretty afraid and hightail it out of there if I ran into something like that again.

Edited by BRTango
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Meeting ... Mormons, and Jehovahs while caching or otherwise.

 

:ph34r: Yes better fear the religious types. Wouldn't want to be... ?

 

Shall we add ethnic groups to the list too? (very sarcastic)

 

I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and their interpretation of those rules.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist. :)

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Meeting ... Mormons, and Jehovahs while caching or otherwise.

 

:mad: Yes better fear the religious types. Wouldn't want to be... ?

 

Shall we add ethnic groups to the list too? (very sarcastic)

 

I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and their interpretation of those rules.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist. :ph34r:

 

I got the joke. :ph34r:

 

On that same note, I'm afraid of meeting heathens and non-believers on the trail... :ph34r:

 

Oh, wait a minute, I'm supposed to look forward to that so I can hand out tracts and help them find their path! :mad::)

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On another note...I'm afraid of the emabarrassment of doing something stupid, and having to call in a rescue team to pull me out!

 

Almost happened too! Luckily, I was able to reach a fellow cahcer on the cell, and he made the 1.5 mile hike, after dark, in mountain lion country to help me get down off the cliff I got stuck on!

 

True story! They even made a geocoin out of the ordeal!

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Meeting ... Mormons, and Jehovahs while caching or otherwise.

 

:) Yes better fear the religious types. Wouldn't want to be... ?

 

Shall we add ethnic groups to the list too? (very sarcastic)

 

I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and their interpretation of those rules.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist. :ph34r:

 

My greatest fear is meeting bald headed Geeks, Germans, and 15k cache overachievers for an impromtu breakfast cache and forgetting my wallet. :ph34r::ph34r:

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I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and their interpretation of those rules.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist. :ph34r:

 

Let me rephrase this... :)

 

I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and how they play the game.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist and my other mother is Methodist...

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I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and their interpretation of those rules.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist. :ph34r:

 

Let me rephrase this... :)

 

I was being sarcastic as well.. it was a light jab towards cachers who complain about other cachers breaking the rules around here and how they play the game.

 

For what its worth my mother is Mormon married to a Baptist and my other mother is Methodist...

 

Ahhh... In that case, I'll add my real fear: Amyway salesmen. The woods are crawling with them around here.

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On another note...I'm afraid of the emabarrassment of doing something stupid, and having to call in a rescue team to pull me out!

 

Almost happened too! Luckily, I was able to reach a fellow cahcer on the cell, and he made the 1.5 mile hike, after dark, in mountain lion country to help me get down off the cliff I got stuck on!

 

True story! They even made a geocoin out of the ordeal!

 

That's a good one....

 

When I was rock climbing my friends told me the one thing you always wanted to avoid was winding up as an entry in "Accidents In North American Mountaineering" (known by most climbers as the "Mountain Death Book" :) ). The book is published yearly and the stories are reported by park rangers and rescue teams to illustrate "what not to do" if you'd like to return alive and un-injured.

 

It's a lot like reading the Darwin Awards... natural selection at it's best!

 

You can find it at just about any outdoors supply store that carries books.

 

Mike

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My biggest fear is coming upon a dead body while out in the woods somewhere.

My second biggest fear is running across a meth lab or my daughter unknowingly picking up something drug-related. I always try to keep her informed about such things but you know how kids are when they see things they don't know what they are, they just pick it right up. Heck, even I still do it sometimes.

It's a dang shame that we even have to fear such things in the great outdoors.

 

you got that right. being from southeast MO. they seems to be meth every were. be carefull

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Hmmm, I don't really have any fears per say. I wouldn't CARE to run into a grizzly, a real possibility here, nor would I CARE to get a bad sprain or broken bone. But I really don't think if either of those situations happened, that I would come out the worse for wear. More of an inconvienance or a double dose of adrenaline being dumped into my system. Been through that before lol. And yea, if I still had my guns I would be carrying to some of the caches around here, no permit neccessary. Unfortunatly I sold them all when I came up here and haven't been able to afford to replace them as it is so low on my priority list.

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Crocodiles, Tsunami, Yeti, Bears and Cougars are the biggest concerns I have, and living in central Canada, the first two aren't very likely. And Thinking Dog is pretty good with bears. So really Yeti and Cougars are my biggest concerns here. I read that if you encounter a Yeti, you are supposed to point and yell "Look, there's a dead Yak!", and when he looks away to see it, you run in the other direction. Haven't had a chance to try it yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how it goes.

Edited by Thinking
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My biggest fear is coming upon a dead body while out in the woods somewhere.

 

This happened to a fellow geocacher just a while ago, went out to place a cache or two, and while he has setting up camp his girlfriend was went up for a walk and came across a body in the woods. This guy was missing since Feb. I'm guessing suicide. I never found what really happened. Very traumatic.

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