Geo accidents

[+Scaber]

Last New Year's Day I was looking for a cache while driving my wife's new van. Missing the cache in a unfamiliar neighborhood I attempted to do a U turn to turn around. Apparently I did not see the car in my 8 o'clock position and one ticket and a deductable later my wife got a new driver side door and paint job. With all of us driving around while having our eyes glued to a GPSr, I can't be the only one involved in a geo accident. What have been your accidents or near misses?

[+TexasGringo]

I once took a short-cut thru the woods at night to a cache (I thought I would save about 1/4 mile hike). Well, I tripped and fell into a marsh. My shoes got stuck in the mud somewhere under water and came off...I dug around for them...but never did retrieve them. I walked back out to my car in my socks. I looked like I just got done MUD Wrestling.

[+TrailGators]

We were out caching in the desert and just got done doing a cool 10 mile hike to Domelands. A buddy of ours drove his rental car out there to join us. There was a two mile dirt road that led to the trailhead. The road was not that bad but it had a few big dips that you needed to drive slowly over otherwise you'd bottom a car. Anyhow, on the way out he didn't drive slowly and he sheered off the oil pan nut. However, none of us knew that he had done that........yet. Anyhow, we stopped for a cache down the road and when we got back to the vehicles, we saw a huge puddle of oil underneath his rental car. He called the rental car company and they picked it up and we gave him and ride back into town. The moral of the story is: Don't ever buy a used rental car!

[+Renegade Knight]

On a multi cache I slashed my tire from the tread to the rim. We were having record heat and changing it with not enough water wasn't fun. That was the day that I came to hate multi caches.

[+Kiwi Nomad]

Was just out hunting recently for hopefully the last waypoint of a multi when I had no success I headed up the dry river bed to check on another cache.

The only mud I saw was try to get back on to a sealed road from the river. Served to the left a little to avoid where I had got stuck in the mud earlier and a branch the thickness of my arm smash through where my left indicator (passenger side) had been on my bumber. Luckily the branch broke of and I was only aware it was there because it went through so far that it was bumping on the ground.

No it was not a 4wd.

[nobby.nobbs]

Caching in Swanage, Dorset, England. lots of lovely stone used for gate posts and walls....

 

did a quick three point turn using someone's drive as I'd gone past the cache. Didn't see the 3 foot high gate post. Set of lovely scratches above my rear wheel.

[+TrailGators]

Caching in Swanage, Dorset, England. lots of lovely stone used for gate posts and walls....

 

did a quick three point turn using someone's drive as I'd gone past the cache. Didn't see the 3 foot high gate post. Set of lovely scratches above my rear wheel.

I have some very nice scratches on my SUV from caching. I've taken it out to the desert several times and driven down narrow stretchs with tall brush. So now my SUV has long "Desert Pinstripes" down both sides.

[+Thrak]

Tried to be FTF on a new multi. Drove up the hill to a nearby small town and when I got to the first stage there was a patch of mud. Mind you the patch of mud was only about 8' x 20' and EVERYTHING else in the entire area was dry. There were large tire tracks in the mud where the local school bus had driven so I figured I was fine in a 4x4 pickup. I did a u-turn that included the mud area and all was well. I then pulled to the side of the road to park since the arrow pointed right there. When I got near to the edge of the road the mud suddenly became DEEP. My truck slid a bit to the side and sank to the frame on the driver's side. GAH! I put it into 4 wheel low and tried to move forward. Nope. Backward. Nope. Now I'm totally buried on that side. Remember, this is the ONLY patch of mud in the area. There's no cell reception at the site. I got a passing car to drive me to the local store. The only store. It closed as we arrived. Now I have somewhere around $15 - $20 in change in my ashtray most of the time but - it was back in the truck. In order to use the pay phone I had to bang on the door of the store until someone finally opened it and then convince them to make change for me so I could use the phone. They were suspicious and it took a while. I was finally able to call my son. I sat down to wait for him to arrive - I knew it would be around an hour before he could get there. When he finally showed up with his 18 year old brother in law they had a good laugh at my expense. My truck has heavy duty metal loops on the front where you can hook a tow chain but I had to dig down a good 2 feet through the mud in order to even find the thing on the driver's side. Like I said, I was in deep. I still get a lot of ribbing about that day and - to top it off - I never did go back and find that cache let alone get the FTF that I was after in the first place.

[+Miragee]

Okay, I haven't had any "Geo-accidents," but I also got stuck once.

 

I was in Yuma on my way back home from Colorado after camping out for several days. I really wanted to get home and take a shower and maybe even take a nap later that day. But, I had to find a cache or two as long as I was there. So, I drove to a cute cache called "Surprise in the Desert." There was another cache nearby, so I followed other tire tracks forward through the big field, not realizing how soft the sand could get. I prudently stopped . . . but not soon enough.

 

I was stuck.

 

It was over 100°, so I took a water bottle with me when I walked to a nearby neighborhood to see if I could find someone who would let me use their phone to call AAA. (I didn't have a cell phone.)

 

The first tow truck arrived and hooked up the cable to my car and got the car out easily, but then he got stuck. More than an hour later, he realized we weren't going to be able to dig out his truck, so he called another tow truck. The flat bed truck arrived and the guy backed up close to the other truck . . . and got stuck.

 

I was there for six hours before I could finally get out of there since the two, very-stuck trucks were blocking the only way back to the nearby, safe-to-drive-on graded road I should have parked on in the first place.

 

 

Edit for typo . . .

Edited August 13, 2007 by Miragee