Early end to day of caching

[Secco]

Just wanted to share. So I'm walking along, keeping an eye on the GPS in my hand. I'm pretty close, but I'm not sure what feature I should be poking around. I want to get on the other side of a log for a different angle of approach, so I get take a big step and hop up on the log. I'm still moving forward, about to hop down, when I notice something isn't right on the ground. There is a large dead animal, and I'm about to land right on top of the decaying corpse. I say something very obscene very loudly, and stop my forward momentum by falling backwards off the log onto my butt, right in a mud puddle. Although it did end the day a bit earlier than I'd hoped, now that I'm showered and changed its pretty funny. And of course, I look now and see a log from a few days before say "Hey, be careful of the dead coyote near the cache"

 

I've attached a picture to my cache note for the morbidly curious. Search for caches by keyword, its called "Prince a Pal's 1000th", by Miles of Smiles and Blues Man, GC16VRJ

Edited April 15, 2008 by Secco

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Too funny - glad that you can now laugh about it!

 

Could have been worse - you could have gone forward instead of back and been up to your shins in rotting coyote goo!

[+Thrak]

I would never blindly step over a log. Far too often there will be a rattlesnake on the other side.

[+otis89]

I would never blindly step over a log. Far too often there will be a rattlesnake on the other side.

 

We don't have rattlesnakes in Illinois.

[+Totem Clan]

I would never blindly step over a log. Far too often there will be a rattlesnake on the other side.

 

We don't have rattlesnakes in Illinois.

Northeast Illinois is the center of the home range of the Eastern Massasauga. It's also home to the Timber Rattlesnake. Southern Illinois has even more poisonous snakes.

[+btgeocacher]

 

We don't have rattlesnakes in Illinois.

 

Not following the current political scene, I take it (grinning, ducking, and running....)

 

-dB

[+spelldog]

I discovered the PennDOT road kill dump on my way to a cache this past weekend. There were at least 30 dead deer thrown into one big pile. Not a pleasant site or smell!

[+Zolgar]

Hey at least you didn't get stuck in the middle of the desert because yer buddy was a dip and got himself high sided on a rock while trying to go four wheeling in 2 wheel drive Ford F150.

 

... We weren't geocaching, but may as well have been. (went past quite a few, and were around a mile from several others.)

[MikeB3542]

You mean to say that you let a little mud stop you? Seriously, nothing is worse than doing a little geocaching during your luch break and coming back with telltale mud or burs stuck to your duds!

[+TeamGumbo]

That mud puddle was probably just putrefying coyote innards.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I would never blindly step over a log. Far too often there will be a rattlesnake on the other side.

 

I was looking for a cache yesterday when a muggle came up behind me and said, "Looking for snakes". Since I was pretty much busted I explained what geocaching was about and then he said, "turn over a few more rocks and you might find a Copperhead or Cottonmouth". Since I was searching for a 35mm film container and there were lots of rocks I gave up the search. While logging the DNF I read a previous log that also had a DNF after *finding* a snake.

[+redtech]

I would never blindly step over a log. Far too often there will be a rattlesnake on the other side.

 

We don't have rattlesnakes in Illinois.

Northeast Illinois is the center of the home range of the Eastern Massasauga. It's also home to the Timber Rattlesnake. Southern Illinois has even more poisonous snakes.

 

What HE said! Around Carlyle Lake there is a pygmy rattle snake. My home coords are about 3 miles from one part of the lake. They were doing some type of renovation in a rocky area near the lake and they found many of these snakes. There was a big push by enviornmentalists to save and protect these snakes. I'd rather they didn't.

[+otis89]

I guess I've just never come across any rattlesnakes in Illinois.

 

*knocks on wood*

[+redtech]

I guess I've just never come across any rattlesnakes in Illinois.

 

*knocks on wood*

 

Actually, I've never seen one either. Hopefully I never will. I didn't even know about the ones in the Northern part of IL. I'm sure they aren't as prominent here as in other states.

 

If we had tarantulas, I would move...

[+Totem Clan]

 

Actually, I've never seen one either. Hopefully I never will. I didn't even know about the ones in the Northern part of IL. I'm sure they aren't as prominent here as in other states.

 

If we had tarantulas, I would move...

Nope! No tarantulas.

 

Just Black Widows and Brown Recluse Spiders (Fiddle-backs).

 

 

 

 

What am I laughing for!!

[drthtater]

Didn't you know?

 

The dead coyote IS the cache...

[+Thrak]

I've encountered rattlesnakes a number of times while caching. I leave them alone and they (so far) have left me alone. I wanted to "slide down" a rock to the next rock - it was only about 3.5 feet or so - but I couldn't be sure there wasn't a snake just out of sight under the edge of the rock. I took the longer way around and discovered that, had I gone ahead and slid down, my feet would have landed right next to, and startled the heck out of, a very large rattlesnake. Caution is your friend in snake country.

[+SassyGingerNinja]

Oh man - coyote goo - yuck!

 

I was on my way last week to place a cache that I finally got approval for and 5 minutes into the hike, I bent low to clear a branch and pinched a nerve in my back. Wound up in the ER two days in a row from the searing pain! Well, now that I've seen the neurologist and an MRI has been done, I have to wait for my back to heal before I can hike back out and finally place the cache! I am counting the days - my family thinks I've lost my mind - maybe so - but I love this game. Goo, mud and all...