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Ever find somebody lost..


team lagonda

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I found a couple geocachers who were lost, sort of. They had just bought their 1st GPSr, took it out of the box, threw some batteries in it & printed out one of my caches.

 

I found them as I was approaching stage one, which I was replacing the container for, wandering about the woods, trying to make the coords on the screen match the coords on the cache page. I showed them how to enter the coords into the unit so they could follow the arrow.

 

Working in a family campground & conference center, I've found a few kids who had wandered away from their parents. One was pretty far back on one of the trails on the property. Come to think of it, they were about where I found that couple... :blink:

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Last Labor Day we found a few lost hikers. They were going up and down a 4wd road looking for the trail back to their car, which they had walked right past several times thinking the trail looked 'suspicious'. We finally convinced them that the trail was the right one, but it took some work. They were a little green at the whole hiking thing and were terribly impressed by our GPS and our map. Crazy things to bring along...

Around the same area we've also been asked how far it is to such and such a place (lake, parking lot, whatever) and we always enjoy the look on people's faces when we tell them their destination is a half mile away.

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I have always thought local cacher groups could offer to help the authorities to search for lost children or adults. With the use of GPSrs the cachers could cover more area in an organized fashion. This would maximize the search area, instead of hit and miss searches the authorities currently run.

 

Cachers could search in mostly straight lines 500 yards apart (just a random number, so I could do the math). With 10 cachers (again a random number of cachers) walking an average of 1 mile an hour (slow enough to occasionally search and traverse sporadic rough terrain), they could cover over 1,800 acres and hour. (Do the math! I know you will because you're probably a nerd like me. What am I saying, you look for used, dirty, Tupperware with the aid of high tech electronics, of course you are a nerd.)

 

10 cachers each covering 500 yards (15,000 feet)

X

1 mile (5,280 feet)

___________

79,200,000 square feet

 

Divided by 43,560 square feet per acre

 

1,818.18 acres

 

The current searches are like throwing darts and hoping to get lucky. Using cachers to search is like using a mile long net, to sift through the wilderness. This would be a great way of getting a lot of positive press for our hobby, if we offered to help in times of crisis. Besides, if I can find a woods micro, finding a person who screams "over here", should be a bit easier.

 

edited for spellin

Edited by casey97
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Well-SAR teams make use of GPSrs as it is. And around here, at least, they have no lack of volunteers.

 

I missed the pet part last time! I have a great pet finding story. The day before this last Easter we were trying to start on a tought multi and having a rough go. The coords were taking us all over the place. One of the places it had me looking was under a bridge where-crazy!-there were three little albino bunnies. The poor little things probably didn't sell in time for Easter so somebody dumped them. Never mind caching-we spent the rest of the afternoon chasing the rabbits down. One was an easy catch, the second gave up as soon as we had it cornered, but the third was acting like we were foxes. We spent well over an hour trying to rescue it from whatever fate (jaws or starvation) it would've met on its own, and it never even said thank you. When we finally got it, I had to grab its hind leg and it screamed like a little kid.

 

They were cute. Found a girl who likes rabbits and gave them to her-you wouldn't believe how hard it was to find somebody willing to take a rabbit.

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once i was in the woods and found a group of boyscouts that were lost when i was a kid ..anyone ever out in the woods geocaching ever able rescue someone or pets ..

No, but it has often occurred to me, since Steve Fossett went missing in his small Citabria Super Decathlon over the wilds of Nevada, that if there had been some sort of large and organized Geocache Search Team in that region, the team likely could have done ground work and found the crash site! Of course, as in any flight of fantasy, reality intrudes here rather quickly, and my little hypothetical scenario falls apart rather fast in light of the following hard facts:

  • that region contains some very harsh wilderness, some of it desert and some of it rugged mountain desert very far from any access roads.
  • there is very low population density in that region, and of course, even far fewer geocachers!

Of course, last but not least, it is only fair to point out that my hasty hypothetical scenario recited above ignores the fact that Steve Fossett's and his Citabria Super Decathlon aircraft really did not crash at all, and that his "disappearance" was an elaborate ruse on his part to disguise the fact that he landed the craft in a desert canyon so that he could rendezvous with an alien spaceship, and that he and the aliens camouflaged the abandoned aircraft before and he left the planet aboard their starship.

Edited by Vinny & Sue Team
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I have always thought local cacher groups could offer to help the authorities to search for lost children or adults. With the use of GPSrs the cachers could cover more area in an organized fashion. This would maximize the search area, instead of hit and miss searches the authorities currently run.

 

Cachers could search in mostly straight lines 500 yards apart (just a random number, so I could do the math). With 10 cachers (again a random number of cachers) walking an average of 1 mile an hour (slow enough to occasionally search and traverse sporadic rough terrain), they could cover over 1,800 acres and hour. (Do the math! I know you will because you're probably a nerd like me. What am I saying, you look for used, dirty, Tupperware with the aid of high tech electronics, of course you are a nerd.)

 

10 cachers each covering 500 yards (15,000 feet)

X

1 mile (5,280 feet)

___________

79,200,000 square feet

 

Divided by 43,560 square feet per acre

 

1,818.18 acres

 

The current searches are like throwing darts and hoping to get lucky. Using cachers to search is like using a mile long net, to sift through the wilderness. This would be a great way of getting a lot of positive press for our hobby, if we offered to help in times of crisis. Besides, if I can find a woods micro, finding a person who screams "over here", should be a bit easier.

 

edited for spellin

 

Yeah we would cover a lot of ground but we would be looking under piles of sticks or rocks for these lost ppl, :blink::huh:;)

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Funny you ask!...The last time I was out cachin after an event I headed to a nearby rather large park, with many trails all over the place. Day worked into night and I was cachin my little heart out. When I walked to the top of a dam I hear from the dark..."HEY, you know where Montgomery is?" I couldnt see anythin but a faint glow and shine my light to someone walkin towards me. It was two lost hikers and all they had was their cell phone on a moonless night, amongst these networks of trails.

 

After a little talk with them I realized I had grabbed a sweet Sig item "Soupercamp" Photon light that was left in one of my caches I had traded for. I explained how I got it and gave it to them to find their way on the dark trails. They were very excited about caching instantly and I gave em one of my Stamped pennies so they would know who they ran into. Havent heard from them yet, but glad I was able to help them, as for it seemed like they had a ways to go, pointing at some distant lights on the other side of the park.

 

So yeah I have run across some lost hikers, and I was able to help them thanksto Geocaching no doubt! :o

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Not while geocaching.. but a funny "I'm Lost" story from some years back. A scout leader left his troop's camp site at dusk to fill a canteen with water. He got lost and couldn't find his troop. He stumbled onto a road near my friend's house and asked for help. The local police called me to figure out where he left his kids, and lead him back to their campsite. They were sleeping peacefully when we arrived at around 1AM.

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Last year a few days before Christmas we were heading north to do some caching. We had the radio on and they mentioned on the news about 2 little boys that were lost, ages 4 and 9. We were just about to the exit and looked at each other. Caching or helping the search & rescue? The choice was easy. WE WENT CACHING! Just kidding! We got off at the next exit, found the resue team gathering site and into the woods we went. We searched for about 6 hours....people walking, helicopters, horseback. When we heard the signal the kids had been found, it was WONDERFUL! They had found an abandoned cabin and spent the night in there with the dogs and were found walking down the road by a sherrif deputy. I am so thankful everything turned out okay!

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I was caching hiking up a hill when a girl came down the path all bloodied. She said she had taken a fall, was knocked out and had just come too. She refused help as she was heading to her friends house at the trailhead (which was only a couple of hundred yards down the hill). I did manage to convince her to take a towel I had to clean herself up, and followed her down the path to make sure she made it to her friends place. LAst I saw of that towel....

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I have always thought local cacher groups could offer to help the authorities to search for lost children or adults. With the use of GPSrs the cachers could cover more area in an organized fashion. This would maximize the search area, instead of hit and miss searches the authorities currently run.

 

Cachers could search in mostly straight lines 500 yards apart (just a random number, so I could do the math). With 10 cachers (again a random number of cachers) walking an average of 1 mile an hour (slow enough to occasionally search and traverse sporadic rough terrain), they could cover over 1,800 acres and hour. (Do the math! I know you will because you're probably a nerd like me. What am I saying, you look for used, dirty, Tupperware with the aid of high tech electronics, of course you are a nerd.)

 

10 cachers each covering 500 yards (15,000 feet)

X

1 mile (5,280 feet)

___________

79,200,000 square feet

 

Divided by 43,560 square feet per acre

 

1,818.18 acres

 

The current searches are like throwing darts and hoping to get lucky. Using cachers to search is like using a mile long net, to sift through the wilderness. This would be a great way of getting a lot of positive press for our hobby, if we offered to help in times of crisis. Besides, if I can find a woods micro, finding a person who screams "over here", should be a bit easier.

 

edited for spellin

 

That's actually not a bad idea at all, but it would take a pretty highly organized caching group with a set hierarchy to really meet peek efficiency. I'd have to think that those rescue groups who train for that type of thing do so in an organized manner, but the local state police and organized citizens heading out in the wood probably do not. Of course more manpower, even in an unorganized manner, is always a good thing. And who wouldn't want to help out if a little kid went missing in the woods. A kid went missing around here not too long ago, and it thankfully had a happy ending. I think she wound up wandering into a town and knocked on somebody's door who alerted the police, and she was ok.

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I have always thought local cacher groups could offer to help the authorities to search for lost children or adults. With the use of GPSrs the cachers could cover more area in an organized fashion. This would maximize the search area, instead of hit and miss searches the authorities currently run.

 

Cachers could search in mostly straight lines 500 yards apart (just a random number, so I could do the math). With 10 cachers (again a random number of cachers) walking an average of 1 mile an hour (slow enough to occasionally search and traverse sporadic rough terrain), they could cover over 1,800 acres and hour. (Do the math! I know you will because you're probably a nerd like me. What am I saying, you look for used, dirty, Tupperware with the aid of high tech electronics, of course you are a nerd.)

 

10 cachers each covering 500 yards (15,000 feet)

X

1 mile (5,280 feet)

___________

79,200,000 square feet

 

Divided by 43,560 square feet per acre

 

1,818.18 acres

 

The current searches are like throwing darts and hoping to get lucky. Using cachers to search is like using a mile long net, to sift through the wilderness. This would be a great way of getting a lot of positive press for our hobby, if we offered to help in times of crisis. Besides, if I can find a woods micro, finding a person who screams "over here", should be a bit easier.

 

edited for spellin

 

Why use three different units for length and two for area when one is enough ?

Ex:

 

10 cachers each covering 500 m

X 1 km

 

equal 500 000 m**2 that is 50 ha :o

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Well I found this fellow once but not geocaching. Thought others might find the story interesting as there are a few lessons that might apply to anyone hiking/working outdoors. It was up on the BC Coast of Canada. No way in except by boat or floatplane. Near a place called Rivers Inlet where I worked logging and beachcombing. Mid November and cold and windy. Was at home in our little float camp which was securely situated in a quiet little bay. Late in the evening we heard on the marine VHF Radio that a Coast guard ship was on route to our area to search for a lost Forestry worker who failed to return to camp after a day of timbercruising in the bush. I thought about this guy who was lost all night in the rain, wind, sleet and snow and made up my mind to take my speedboat out early the next day and search the beach in the area where he went missing. To make a long story short we found him in a creek mouth that ran into the ocean. He was in shock, more or less blind, couldn't walk, and badly hypothermic. His story went like this.

He wasn't feeling well so his forestry crew sent him back alone to camp as he said he could make it no problem (mistake #1) He started bushwacking back... tripped and fell down a hill. Poked a stick in one eye and twisted his knee on the fall. Decided to carry on limping and crawling. He got lost and disoriented and night soon came and a bad night it was. He was soon freezing and soaked. He made his camp which was nothing more than a place to lay and pull his raincoat over his head. Tried to start a fire but the rain kept putting it out so to keep it burning he burned his hard hat. The fumes from the burning hardhat with the raincoat pulled over the fire blinded him in his remaining good eye. He didn't know it but he had stumbled out and made his stand on the ocean shore where we found him the next morning. He thought he was on a lake apparently. Needless to say he was very gratefull to see our boat come by. Funny thing was even though he was in shock and hypothermic all he wanted was a cigarette. We got him as comfortable as we could and headed for camp where he was medivacked out a short time later. He mailed me back some dry clothes I had given him a few weeks later.

He was an experianced Forestry worker with much bush time but he said he was never again going back to that line of work and would return to a job he once held in a supermarket somewhere. :o

Talk about a bad hair day. Lucky he got out of that alive though. Be prepared folks...and be careful! :o

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Not a person...but still a "lost" story..from one of my caches that has been archived "Gone to the Dogs" GC11VEK

 

June 5 by kattrax (2157 found)

At the cache before this one a couple stopped us and asked us if we had seen a brown Doberman. Of course we had not but got the info about the dog and a contact number in case we saw it. Off to your cache we go. We are returning from it and what do we see out in a field "Chevy" the Doberman. Being a lover of dogs I insisted that we try to get her to the truck. I whistled and called her but failed to calculate the barbed wire fence into this. Dusty & I had to seperate the strands of the barbed wires to get her to come to us. Into the back of the truck in onto my lap she went(big dog bigger lap). Up the road we went to reunite dog with owner. Happy ending and this is a true story!

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I have always thought local cacher groups could offer to help the authorities to search for lost children or adults. With the use of GPSrs the cachers could cover more area in an organized fashion. This would maximize the search area, instead of hit and miss searches the authorities currently run.

 

Cachers could search in mostly straight lines 500 yards apart (just a random number, so I could do the math). With 10 cachers (again a random number of cachers) walking an average of 1 mile an hour (slow enough to occasionally search and traverse sporadic rough terrain), they could cover over 1,800 acres and hour. (Do the math! I know you will because you're probably a nerd like me. What am I saying, you look for used, dirty, Tupperware with the aid of high tech electronics, of course you are a nerd.)

 

10 cachers each covering 500 yards (15,000 feet)

X

1 mile (5,280 feet)

___________

79,200,000 square feet

 

Divided by 43,560 square feet per acre

 

1,818.18 acres

 

The current searches are like throwing darts and hoping to get lucky. Using cachers to search is like using a mile long net, to sift through the wilderness. This would be a great way of getting a lot of positive press for our hobby, if we offered to help in times of crisis. Besides, if I can find a woods micro, finding a person who screams "over here", should be a bit easier.

 

edited for spellin

 

That's a LOT of territory. Too much, in fact. Let's re-do the math. :)

 

Maybe I missed something, but the way I learned it, 1 yd. = 3 ft. 500 yds. x 3 ft./yd. = 1,500 ft., not 15,000. Carrying that number through the rest of the calculations shows that 10 cachers could cover 181.8181... acres/hr. (roughly 0.28 square miles/hr.), not 1818.1818... Them zeros really add up, eh? :)

 

Even so, that's a fair amount of 'coverage-per-hour', right?

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