Scariest moment while geocaching

[+aw_snap]

Found a cache...signed the log...returned to the trail (within a few hundred feet)...and within 1 minute heard and saw a very large tree fall towards the vicinity of the cache (or close enough in my book).

[+tdf26]

What really is the scariest moment you've ever had in geocaching?

 

(Pretty straightforward,isn't it?)

 

Well, I geocache with my two small kids (aged 2 and 4). We go during the day when Dad is at work so now I always take either one or both Boxers with us. We have had 3 scary caches. The scariest was we were caching in a wooded area about 2 km into the woods along atv trails thru a "trespasser will die" sign when out of the bush come at A FULL SPEED RUN a LARGE (over 100 pounds) PITBULL. Of course it is wearing a prong collar with NO owner in sight. This day I had both of our 70 lbs Boxers on leashes. I Stepped in front of my son, my daughter was on my back in a sling. I slowly unclipped both leashes as the Dogs are posturing and we all step back... Luckily my female boxers took charge and would not let that dog near us. Also it turns out HE was an immature, nutured male and was just happy to be near our dogs... I thank God that nothing happened as we were far from help. (There had been two pitbull type dog attaches in our city in the last month).

 

The next scary cache we needed to cross a small deep stagnant beaver creek ,on a 2x6 piece of wood, to find the cache. We climbed the clay hill to not find the cache but then had to slip down on our bums. The dog was pulling us down and my daughter was on my back and so scared... My son was behind so I would have to stop and help him slip a little while trying to hold the dog from slipping down. Logged as DNF. It was scary for the kids, my daughter still says " 'Member beaver dam...so 'cary."

 

Just last week we walked to find a cache only 3 km away. I took the wagon, two dogs and the kids. On the way back there was a big showhome sign and some kids had moved two big sidewalk blocks off the bottom onto the sidewalk. We could barely get by with the wagon so I stopped to move them back onto the sign (They keep it from blowing over in the wind). Well, the kids had balanced a big chunk of block on the top so when I dropped the blocks on the bottom the chunk bounced off and smashed me on top of my head. Thankfully it fell flat, not on one of the three pointed corners (triangle chunk) and it did not hit one of the kids or dogs. I also did not pass out 1.2 km away from home on a busy street side and only got a second degree concussion.

 

Not as scary as most but still eventful for only finding 30 caches.

[+Taoiseach]

Walking on that abandoned Railway bridge yesterday, high over the Ottawa River, then having to walk to the other side on the narrow ties, then having to crawl down under the ties down on to one of the support pillars to get the cache

 

I loved the cache (GCA846) but it still scared me quite a bit - Heights aren't really my favourite things

 

A recent DNF in which I got lost in the Mer Bleue Bog after dark was kinda scary too

 

I think I found a very possible GZ (and this past Saturday I told my story to another local cacher, and he said that this sounded like the spot - Good thing that I'm greedy enough to have (tried) to waypoint the spot), but seeing as how I couldn't see three feet in front of my face it was so dark, I naturally didn't search.

 

Anyway, Dense canopy, so I kept losing satellite, and when I did have it it was poor at best. To give the gist of what happened, I couldn't figure out the last bit of the puzzle, so I only knew the second to last stage and the bearing along which the final was. I just projected myself several waypoints, every 50' or so and followed along for a while - Started getting dark, I just kept thinking 'I'll go one more' 'I'll go one more'...

 

Finally gave up, turned around (I thought) set my GPS to goto the waypoint I had made on the trail. Walk along for a while - GPS tells me I'm going the wrong way - So I turn. The arrow kept moving slightly, telling me that I was going the right way. Naturally the distance wasn't changing... At least I had a compass though.

 

I kept losing signal, so I'd just go to a clearing and wait for it to come back. It was because one of these clearings looked to be difficult to go straight through that I took a slightly different path that resulted in my finding what I think is the GZ. This process kept repeating until I finally reached a clearing and my GPS told me all of a sudden to make a hard left - This worried me, but I figured 'My GPS knows where it is better than I do' so I trusted my only lifeline. About 50 yards later, my accuracy improved significantly, my distance dropped like a stone - Another 20 yards, and I saw lights!

 

I finally made it out after quite some time - I'm still planning to go back and correct my DNF, but I'm doing it at about 8 in the morning next time

 

I guess you shouldn't trust a place called the Blue Sea (well, Mer Bleue but translated to English...) Bog at night

[+rjw661]

I was doing a cache called Icy Mountain Cave. It was one of the first caches I did. On the first attempt I lost the trail up and noticing the cache was only 250 ft. away I started to bushwhack.

Then I ran into the boulders and blow downs and my progress became slowed. It this point I tripped and with all good fortune I caught myself just before I impaled myself on a foot long branch on a blow down. The jagged sharp point did poke me just under the rib cage but didn't break the skin.

It probable would have been awhile before they had found my body if I had not gotten so lucky. I did go home after that to try again another day.

[+andreibtz]

It happened today, on my second geocache hide... While I was struggling to fit the cache under a concrete fence, an helicopter from the romanian intelligence agency showed up from nowhere, and flew over my head at about 200-300 feet (of course, it got nothing to do with me, but it was creepy I felt like James Bond ). After the helicopter had flown away, and I had managed to hide the cache, my GPS misteriously stopped working (it was on but without sattelite reception, although 5 minutes ago sattelite reception was perfect). I think those secret service guys have something to do with this Anyway, I didn't know that this game can be so interesting and fun Now I'm thinking about some serious geocaching!

Edited September 26, 2008 by andreibtz

[+Unkle Fester]

I tend to cache at 3 in the morning, before work and drive through a lot of rural areas in the process. A few weeks ago I was on the old highway 99 and pulled over into a center triange at a three way split. Figuring I knew right where the cache was I simply threw the car in park, jumped out and ran over to the only spot the cache could have been.

 

First a skunk came out of the bushes from the north, moving quickly towards me making some little irritated noise with it's tail in the air. I turn around to run back to the car and a second skunk is coming out from under my open drivers door. A third skunk is moving in from the south. I never ran so hard in my life (i'm way out of shape) dodging this way, avoiding that, trying to lead them away from my car.

 

Two hours later I finally got back to the georig, and quickly checked for intruders, hoping none had decided to lay in wait. Keep in mind the georig has been idling the whole time with the door open. The bugs flitting around the light were many and nasty.

 

I returned an my way home to find that the skunks had made a burrow 3 feet from the cache. Needless to say I snagged the cache in the daylight and put a warning in my log.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

What really is the scariest moment you've ever had in geocaching?

 

(Pretty straightforward,isn't it?)

None. Ever. Ever. The closest I have come was a wee bit of social anxiety while emplacing a magnetic container 24 feet up a lamp post at a busy intersection in my city, but I was wearing a hardhat, tool belt and safety vest, and carrying a clipboard, and so I was not overly concerned.

[+barondriver]

I was geocaching in Branson,MO..early morning..sun was just coming up. I was in a city park..walking along the edge of some woods and as I walked toward the cache I heard noises in the woods nearby..probably deer or some animal..I think. I kick at the bushes and make a little noise and then make the turn in the woods to look for the geocache. After looking for abit..I hear a grunt noise and turn around to see a Deer Bowhunter in his camo attire and paint holding his bow. I had scared off the deer that he had been working. I question that he was legal to be hunting so close to a park in town. We talked a little about the sport..he was interested. He did make a comment that a good deer hunter would never shoot without having the deer in his sights...but still quite a surprise. Edited October 5, 2008 by barondriver

[+nicjordanvet]

What really is the scariest moment you've ever had in geocaching?

 

(Pretty straightforward,isn't it?)

 

living in northern MN and caching in the wintery woods well below zero degrees...and walking upon the back side of a wolf (not cyote) den with fresh tracks going into the den, I made my own quickly away!

[+cache_and_dash]

I was looking for a cache today in a small patch of woods. I was about 150' from it. There was garbage all over the place. I didn't pay attention to the blue tarps until I realized i was in the middle of a homeless tent city. Just freaked me out. DNF

[DA Cachers]

Sorry! Double post.

Edited November 8, 2008 by DA Cachers

[DA Cachers]

Our group of five were out caching near the family cabin, headed for "Masonic Overlook" (GC5F82). On the way up the long dirt road we passed by an American Gothic (you know, the pitchfork painting) looking couple target shooting near the Chemung Mine. We waved as we drove by, but they either didn't see us or weren't friendly.

 

It took us about 45 minutes to park, hike up the hill, climb the rock, sign the log and enjoy the amazing view! We had just reached the base of the rocks and were started the half mile walk back to the car when the distant sound of gun shots weren't so distant anymore. We all hit the ground when the rocks around us started jumping. We stayed on the ground and quickly decided what to do.... we all started screaming, "HEY WE'RE UP HERE! STOP SHOOTING!!! HEEEEEEEYYY!!!!!" The shots stopped long enough for us to stand up and start walking again..... then they resumed. $&*%!! We stayed as low as we could while running for the car.

 

We couldn't see them, so it's possible they didn't see us. But our voices echoed off the mountains and rocks when we yelled they had to have heard us, even wearing ear protection. We wearily drove back down the road (the only way to get out), but they were gone when we drove past where they had been before.

[trollcacher]

The scariest moment has to be when I came by a human foot as the cache. Although not real it was still creepy especially when soon after there was a real person who had been found dead in that park a couple months later.

[JustinFlamingo]

Well actually today, we were going to do a cache over by the Santee River. We were doing the long route today, and when we were going to the cache we walked by 4-5 containers covered by tarps, they werent even close to a rural area meaning they werent ment to be found. We got out of there quickly.

[+Team CeDo]

Walking through the deep woods along a river, When suddenly I start to hear a faint BANJO playing in the distance. I see no animals but seem to hear something squealing like a pig.

 

[greenworldfeather]

I've had the cops called on me twice, both within the last week... once a paranoid old couple saw me park down the road, at least 50 yards from anyone's property, and walk through a pedestrian walkway, and they immediately assumed I was a drug dealer. Very angry and confrontational, they were. The other time a woman saw me alternately standing still and pacing in a cemetery and, according to the officer, wanted to make sure I wasn't depressed. (I'm pretty sure the lady from that second one just thought I was some kind of vandal, and the cop was just trying not to hurt my feelings in case I wasn't.) I know that no amount of stealth could have saved me from alarmist muggles in public, but it still rattled me.

 

I, too can share my experiences. I was searching for a cache and I had the wrong coord's. Not only that, but I was still on my first few caches. After 3-4 times of searching, I finally went and did a more extensive search, and was removing fence post caps, when this elderly lady told me through the window in her garage that if I didn't get out of her yard, she would call the cops on me. Well, I explained to her that I was looking for a cache, but she didn't listen, told me again, so I turned and started walking out of the yard when I saw an officer. I then thought, "Wow, that was fast", and found out that someone else had called them on me. Over the next few minutes, 2 more officers showed up. Fortunatly, the first one was a geocacher, so i didn't get in as much trouble as I could have. A few days later, I was going by my old high school, Timpanogos High School, to put one there and met another one who works there. So, there you have it, 4 officers in a week and a half. Quite fun, huh? Sometimes, like religion and politics, there is someone doing something in some organizarion or other, who does it too, and therefore can explain to everybody else what's going on. So thank you, all of geocachers out there, who stick up for each other and support us and other people. Thank you.

[greenworldfeather]

I've had the cops called on me twice, both within the last week... once a paranoid old couple saw me park down the road, at least 50 yards from anyone's property, and walk through a pedestrian walkway, and they immediately assumed I was a drug dealer. Very angry and confrontational, they were. The other time a woman saw me alternately standing still and pacing in a cemetery and, according to the officer, wanted to make sure I wasn't depressed. (I'm pretty sure the lady from that second one just thought I was some kind of vandal, and the cop was just trying not to hurt my feelings in case I wasn't.) I know that no amount of stealth could have saved me from alarmist muggles in public, but it still rattled me.

 

I, too can share my experiences. I was searching for a cache and I had the wrong coord's. Not only that, but I was still on my first few caches. After 3-4 times of searching, I finally went and did a more extensive search, and was removing fence post caps, when this elderly lady told me through the window in her garage that if I didn't get out of her yard, she would call the cops on me. Well, I explained to her that I was looking for a cache, but she didn't listen, told me again, so I turned and started walking out of the yard when I saw an officer. I then thought, "Wow, that was fast", and found out that someone else had called them on me. Over the next few minutes, 2 more officers showed up. Fortunatly, the first one was a geocacher, so i didn't get in as much trouble as I could have. A few days later, I was going by my old high school, Timpanogos High School, to put one there and met another one who works there. So, there you have it, 4 officers in a week and a half. Quite fun, huh? Sometimes, like religion and politics, there is someone doing something in some organizarion or other, who does it too, and therefore can explain to everybody else what's going on. So thank you, all of geocachers out there, who stick up for each other and support us and other people. Thank you.

[+DCNatsFan]

Ah yes...scariest moment. Here's mine.

 

I remember when the Entropy's Wash House cache in Byrnseville PA was still active, and I was maintaining it. I got on the road at around 3pm and showed up at the cache after dark. Now for those of you who aren't familiar, EWH was in an abandoned building which is SPOOKY AS HELL at night. There's no way to visit now, as the place has since been posted NO TRESPASSING, but I will probably never forget the interior of that old wash house illumined by the moon and nothing else.

 

But what made me jump out of my skin - when I got into the wash house, only to see someone had spraypainted GET OUT on the wall in BIG letters. I got out superquick, and went back the next week for maintenance only to see newly erected NO TRESPASSING signs. So I went in, snagged the cache fast, then hightailed it back to Virginia.

[+rosebud55112]

My scariest geocaching moment took place yesterday, when I learned that the ice on the drainage ditch wasn't as strong as I had thought it would be. Temps had been in the +10 to -10 range for quite a while, so I thought I was good. I went through to my waist, then again when I tried getting out. I eventually pulled myself out of the water and up the hill. My car was parked nearby, so I hopped in and turned the heater up high. Drove home, stripped and threw everything in the washer as I went to take a shower to clean up/heat up.

 

My wife had no idea where I was, and nobody was around, so I was on my own. Dumb idea.

 

The scariest part was when I learned I had entered the wrong coordinates in my GPS, so I wasn't even in the right area!

[+Paganmen]

I go geocaching on my own because my partner isn't into it. A few weeks ago I was at a location that was remote and had a few summer cabins along a private road. The cache was at the last place and it took about 30 minutes to walk back to the property. The cache was a large blue barrel (about 10 gallon) which was hidden in a child's play house. It was up in the "rafter" area and you had to kneel on the porch while reaching inside the door and up in order to get the barrel down. Unknown to me, there was a huge rock on top of it. When I say huge, I mean that it was about eight inches in diameter and very heavy. It fell off the top of the barrel and nearly hit me on the head. I could have easily been knocked unconscious or severly wounded and NOBODY knew I was up there. Chances are these people would not have been back until next spring.

I wrote a private email to the cache owner letting him know how dangerous that was. I don't know if he put the rock there or someone else did as a "joke" or whatever but I could have been severly injured.

The bottom line is......LET SOMEONE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING if you are alone! I now inform my partner what caches I am going after or what towns or locations I will be in.

[+andGuest]

I have 2 and not sure which one was scarier. The first happened when I was over 1 mile in the woods following a trail. The trail skirted this large clump of bushes and was on an incline. As I got around the bushes I slipped and fell. I did not think anything of it until I felt something stinging my back. I realized I had disturbed a yellow jacket nest somehow. I take off running down the trail trying to simultaneously remove my pack and t-shirt, swat the bees off me and my dog, and no kill myself on the trail. I am not a small person so it was not small task. I literally had to run over .25 miles to get away. I got stung about 6 times and had welts on my trunk. One stung my pinky and it swelled bigger then my thumb in a matter of a few minutes. I initially got worried about going into shock even though I never had a problem with bee stings before. However, as fast as it swelled it started returning to normal.

 

The second happened this past summer while returning to the car after a cache. My dog all of a sudden took off crazy running down the trail. I thought he had taken off after a squirrel or something. I then realized he had stopped and was rubbing his face on the ground. By the time we returned to the car his whole face had swollen up. I am guessing he got into some stinging nettle or something similar. He continued getting worse to the point that his one eye was almost swollen shut and his breathing became a little labored. I could not remember whether dogs were able to have benedryl or not but my mother knows a vet so I gave her a call. I was told to give him Benedryl and it worked like a charm. Within 30 minutes the swelling was gone and we went on to finish up the caching day.

[kwalsh554]

My scariest moment while caching was getting home after 6 or so caches in the woods and finding a deer tick stuck to my ankle. Lucky for me I did not get that lemon limes thing. Nothing really scary other than that though. Maybe getting a DNF may come close......

 

I'm completely new to geocaching. I actually just got my first GPS for Christmas, so today was my first attempt. I took along my brother, but unfortunately we got rained out after about ten minutes, so it was kind of a bust.

 

However, I work outdoors doing environmental survey's, so I'm VERY experienced with the downside of hiking in the woods. One of my biggest concerns is Lymes disease, but fortunately you might be relieved to know that it takes a deer tick anywhere from two to three days to transmit the disease to a human. If you found one after a hike and plucked it off before it burrowed under your skin, the chances of catching that particular illness from it are very small.

 

I do have a scary moment, but it's from my job, not geocaching (so far the fear of rain ruining my brand new toy would be the scariest). I was in Mississippi, my very first job out of college. I was fighting my way through the most awful dense thorny underbrush I've ever been in. The woods where we were surveying was so thick you really couldn't see more than five feet away. I stumbled into a clearing and stuck one foot into a pile of leaves without thinking (I always carry a stick and normally poke around at things before I step in them, but I was hurrying because I just wanted to get out of there). Suddenly I hear movement in the leaves that is not coming from me, and the sound of a soft rattle going off. I looked down and sure enough...HUGE FREAKING RATTLESNAKE!!!

 

I never ran so fast in my entire life...

 

Also, same job but not as scary, I nearly face planted into a black widow spider's web. The spider just sort of looked at me indifferently.

[+linuxxpert]

A few weeks ago I did a 6.5 Mile Multi Cache in an area that is full of old coal mines. I love to check out these "holes" so while we went from one stage to another we checked out every mine that we spotted... at least until this happened: I spotted a mine entrance down in a gully, I was very intrigued because I could see one of those old wooden pillars supporting the entrance's ceiling. The height of the mine was only about 4 feet so I crouched down and turned my flashlight on... just to shine into the eyes of a HUGE BEAR!!! I know you are not suppose to run but I ran like I never ran before. My friend who was with me at the time thought I was joking when I yelled "BEAR!" and ran off... He followed me when I was halfway up the hill and realized I was serious . Luckily the bear did not follow us and we continued on our cache a bit shaking but stayed away from any new "holes". (At least for that cache. )

[kwalsh554]

Awww... I love bears. I'm not going to lie though. If I came face to face with one, and it wasn't behind a wall at the zoo, I'd probably need to change my pants after that. I've heard, though, that black bears (unlike grizzly bears) are scarred out of their minds by people. They're big wimps unless they're starving or you provoke them, so chances are he saw you coming up the trail and hid to avoid you.

Edited December 28, 2008 by kwalsh554

[Geo_Bird]

What really is the scariest moment you've ever had in geocaching?

 

(Pretty straightforward,isn't it?)

 

I've been geocaching for about a month. My second find was on a road trip to Fort Myers. Parked on grass at side of road, (no No Parking signs) headed into woods. Sheriff's deputy pulls up behind car, gets out. Uh-oh. I hadn't found that one yet, so I had exactly one find to my credit, and here I am, trying to explain geocaching to this cop. Not scary, but it shows how little experience is required to be an expert in postmodern times.

 

Since then I've been limiting my searches to more-or-less remote areas in state parks, away from the eyes of the uninitiated.

 

Jim

[Geo_Bird]

HUGE FREAKING RATTLESNAKE!!!

 

I had a similar experience with an Eastern Diamondback rattler. The rule is, look where you're putting your foot, but that's often easier said than done. On a birding trip to Loxahatchee NWR, my friend almost stepped on a cottonmouth, warming up on the road. I won't even get into the alligator encounters!

 

Jim

[Geo_Bird]

HUGE FREAKING RATTLESNAKE!!!

 

I had a similar experience with an Eastern Diamondback rattler. The rule is, look where you're putting your foot, but that's often easier said than done. On a birding trip to Loxahatchee NWR, my friend almost stepped on a cottonmouth, warming up on the road. I won't even get into the alligator encounters!

 

Jim

[Geo_Bird]

HUGE FREAKING RATTLESNAKE!!!

 

I had a similar experience with an Eastern Diamondback rattler. The rule is, look where you're putting your foot, but that's often easier said than done. On a birding trip to Loxahatchee NWR, my friend almost stepped on a cottonmouth, warming up on the road. I won't even get into the alligator encounters!

 

Jim

[Guardella2011]

Well im fifteen so im old enough to mind my own but not old enough to drive

 

I learned about geocaching at a camp which i've been going to since i was six every single summer. Well since i was pretty handy doing it with a partner and on my own and i even tried it at a different camp.So i said okay well ill just do some city ones near my house. Well i live on the outskirts of town and its pretty rural here with a fair amount of traffic and its pretty safe but i decide ill take my dog with me. So its just me and my fraidy cat dog.Well i went around to the backside of the park which is a big field about the size of two soccer fields and my GPS is telling me that the cache is along the fence. Well my back is turned to a pavilion and the sandbox. Im hunting along the weedy fence line when my fraidy cat dog backs up against my leg and starts growling to my surprise a little girl comes up on her bike admiring my dog. I chalked it up to a bored seven year old with a short attention span following a nice looking dog.

 

Since the cache appeared to muggled or DNF'ed i went my way and started walking toward my ride's house. Along through the park the pavilion has seemed to be filled with some "Shady" looking characters. Complete with sideways hats and wayy too baggy pants they were yelling hey little mama! and BABY GIRL at me so i just went to the front of the park where some parents and some small children were playing they continued to yell at me until my ride came but i felt okay as long as the dads (even though they were strangers its a one stop light town) were there keeping an eye on their kids.

 

Not as scary as some of these tales but pretty freaky for my first trek by myself.

[Guardella2011]

Well im fifteen so im old enough to mind my own but not old enough to drive

 

I learned about geocaching at a camp which i've been going to since i was six every single summer. Well since i was pretty handy doing it with a partner and on my own and i even tried it at a different camp.So i said okay well ill just do some city ones near my house. Well i live on the outskirts of town and its pretty rural here with a fair amount of traffic and its pretty safe but i decide ill take my dog with me. So its just me and my fraidy cat dog.Well i went around to the backside of the park which is a big field about the size of two soccer fields and my GPS is telling me that the cache is along the fence. Well my back is turned to a pavilion and the sandbox. Im hunting along the weedy fence line when my fraidy cat dog backs up against my leg and starts growling to my surprise a little girl comes up on her bike admiring my dog. I chalked it up to a bored seven year old with a short attention span following a nice looking dog.

 

Since the cache appeared to muggled or DNF'ed i went my way and started walking toward my ride's house. Along through the park the pavilion has seemed to be filled with some "Shady" looking characters. Complete with sideways hats and wayy too baggy pants they were yelling hey little mama! and BABY GIRL at me so i just went to the front of the park where some parents and some small children were playing they continued to yell at me until my ride came but i felt okay as long as the dads (even though they were strangers its a one stop light town) were there keeping an eye on their kids.

 

Not as scary as some of these tales but pretty freaky for my first trek by myself.

[billwedg]

Sometimes I hate to admit that as I get older, I have to calm down a bit on 4+ rated terrain , unless CJ's with me...

 

Was doing a 4+ series (multi) just as Winter ceased. Until the rains in Spring end, I usually carry a snowscopic (trekking ice axe) instead of a hiking stick.

One of the hides was on top of a very large slopeing flat rock about 30' up, with smaller rocks/boulders underneath.

Slipped on the wet rock at GZ and started sliding towards what may have been the end for me. Luckily the axe dug in 4" from the edge.

So now this old fart's hangin' by one hand, trying to figure how to get back up top (sure not dropping down !)

Finally got my wits (?) back. Knew I had only one option (and one chance) and swung myself up.

Took almost a month to heal the muscle tear.

[billwedg]

Sometimes I hate to admit that as I get older, I have to calm down a bit on 4+ rated terrain , unless CJ's with me...

 

Was doing a 4+ series (multi) just as Winter ceased. Until the rains in Spring end, I usually carry a snowscopic (trekking ice axe) instead of a hiking stick.

One of the hides was on top of a very large slopeing flat rock about 30' up, with smaller rocks/boulders underneath.

Slipped on the wet rock at GZ and started sliding towards what may have been the end for me. Luckily the axe dug in 4" from the edge.

So now this old fart's hangin' by one hand, trying to figure how to get back up top (sure not dropping down !)

Finally got my wits (?) back. Knew I had only one option (and one chance) and swung myself up.

Took almost a month to heal the muscle tear.

Wow- 4th class ice - hope you were roped up.

[+501_Gang]

I was caching in Illinois near the rock quarry on a multi a couple of years ago. The 1st stage took you to a spot along the upper edge of the quarry where you could see a good portion of it and the 2nd phase was nearby in a wooded section. I parked the car and headed off into the woods. As I neared GZ I saw a piece of pipe hanging out of a hole in a tree and new this was the cache. As I reached for the cache I heard a voice say “What the – do you think your doing?” I turned around to see a guy step out from behind a big tree.

 

I quickly told him about geocaching and that this was the cache. I opened it to show him what was in it and a small bag of pot was sitting on top of the items inside the cache. I pulled it out and told him that “This isn’t normally in a cache” and that I don’t use it so if he wanted it he could have it. He said he didn’t want it either so I placed it on the ground and then grabbed the logbook out of the cache.

 

He asked if many people come back here. I opened up the logbook and was glad to see there was lots of signatures on the log so I said “Yea, they come back here all the time”. I hurried up and signed the log and put the cache away. I told him I was done and going to head back out. He said he’d follow me out. That really had me scared. I started walking out, trying to keep an eye on him and kept talking to him as we walked. He stayed behind me about 10 feet the whole way with his hands in his coat pockets. When we reached the edge of the woods he said he remembered his friend was going to meet him here and he wasn’t late yet so he was going back in. As soon as he rounded the corner in the woods I high tailed it to my car and got out of there!

 

Not sure what he was up too, but I didn’t want to find out!!

[BAWilliams]

That I must say would truly scare the pants off of me. I don't even know what to say about that.

 

BAWillliams

 

 

 

 

There was a cache on a deactivated railroad line in an industrial zoned part of town that my daughter and I found. While signing the log, I noticed a pair of legs sticking out of a bush, face down, about 50 feet from us. I took her back to the car and called the police - I was a little worried that it was either a dead body or someone on drugs that might freak out with her there. The cops came with 4 squad cars, an ambulance and a fire truck, it was crazy. Apparently the guy was alright, but completely out of his mind and face down in the bushes. He's well known by the cops and had no history of violence, but the police thanked me for reporting it, and told me there was nothing they could do.

 

I felt really silly and chalked up the scare to having watched WAY too many CSI episodes.

[+command Z]

Scariest moment happened a few months ago. We were driving home on the 395 and came across a multi. The first stage was right off the road but the 2nd was about 3 miles off the main road way out in the middle of nowhere. When we got to the coords, it was an old abndoned building all shot up and shot gun shells all over the ground. Also the building was spray-painted with "DEATH" pretty much the whole way around. The topper was when we finally worked up the guts to step out of the car - we get into the building and see a half-eaten hamburger and drink sitting right near a pile of fresh shells.

 

Needless to say, we didn't stick around any longer and booked it back to the main road. Freaked out my girl so bad that it ended up being the end of our caching day and we made the rest of the drive straight home.

 

Cops

[+linuxxpert]

I have another one.... this was weird and scary:

 

A few months ago we just finished hiding my "Impossible" cache , we paddled there by canoe so we decided to float down the river to an unofficial pick-up/launch area that located under a big concrete bridge to be picked up by a buddy of mine.

Now keep in mind that this area is very rough and any vehicle without high clearance should not be there... they actually use the area for off-roading.

 

We arrived a little early and "landed" the canoe, I walked up the bank a bit, noticed 2 men in suits and one in a wife beater having some sort of meeting.... they came in a new Lexus and a new Jaguar... not the off-road kinds of cars! Did I tell you these guys were American-Italian... This was a scene straight out of the Sopranos... Something did not feel right... and I had the feeling I

was witnessing something I was not suppose to.

I quickly walked back to the canoe and was ready to get back in the water to just get out of there, then decided to wait it out a few minutes till my buddy showed up in his truck. He drove past those men and down

the bank to pick us up.. this particular area is even rougher ground. This is where its gets scary..

as soon the truck is done backing up the 3 men jump in the shiny Jaguar and flew down the dirt river bank

and blocked us in... At this point I was like ooohhhh sh%#&, but continued to load the canoe in the back of the truck.. The men stared at us for a few seconds and then they backed up the car and allowed us to leave, maybe because there was a fisherman/witness down by the water...?

 

I still wonder what happened there but I cant figure it out, the whole thing was very strange.

[+waterwitch2]

Mine was during my first weekend Geocaching. I got home after some daytime caching and got an email for a newly published cache 22 miles from home so I jumped back in the truck with the wife and kids and headed out in the dark (no moonlight either) to the middle of nowhere at a little past 8:00 PM. I was able to drive to within .12 miles from it and then set out alone on foot. I found it at 9:30 PM. About 200 feet from my truck before going back down the hill, I sat down on some rocks to rest. I heard some kind of multiple growling nearby. I decided I didn't need to rest all that badly and got out of there in a hurry before I became some ?'s dinner. I don't know which was scarier. The growling or the fact that I was using my old Magellan 310 that was acting up ocassionly to get back out of the wilderness. Shortly after I bought a Garmin.

[+TimeTraveler09]

Ah yes...scariest moment. Here's mine.

 

I remember when the Entropy's Wash House cache in Byrnseville PA was still active, and I was maintaining it. I got on the road at around 3pm and showed up at the cache after dark. Now for those of you who aren't familiar, EWH was in an abandoned building which is SPOOKY AS HELL at night. There's no way to visit now, as the place has since been posted NO TRESPASSING, but I will probably never forget the interior of that old wash house illumined by the moon and nothing else.

 

But what made me jump out of my skin - when I got into the wash house, only to see someone had spraypainted GET OUT on the wall in BIG letters. I got out superquick, and went back the next week for maintenance only to see newly erected NO TRESPASSING signs. So I went in, snagged the cache fast, then hightailed it back to Virginia.

Okay, that would definitely freak me out. I don't even like seeing that kind of stuff in the movies!

[+TrailGators]

My scariest moments all involve spooking or almost stepping on rattlesnakes. There is not much that gets your blood pumping like an angry loud rattling rattlesnake that you didn't see until it was in the strike position.

Edited January 7, 2009 by TrailGators

[+mamalu]

About a year ago, I was in the city for a seminar. Doing some caching after a days learnin', I made my way thru a neighborhood to a city/county park. I hadn't ever been there before. My gps showed the cache off a ways in what I thought was out of the park. This park had a circular drive, just make a big loop. As I had pulled in I noticed an SUV parked to my left. As I made the loop, I passed it. So I pull down the drive to the stop sign and make a left. Noting that there is a ballfield below, where the cache must have been, I proceeded to a T intersection with a stoplight. I looked in my rearview mirror and see this SUV behind me. Ok, no big deal. I make a left at the T .... so does the SUV. Ok, now I'm on alert. My plan, initially, was to scope out the park and possible cache area and go back and park where need be. Now, I decide to do a turn around by taking a street, left again. It is a residential area and this SUV turns too. Now my heart is beating faster. I turn again, this time it was into a cul-de-sac. Yeah, so does the SUV. Ok, now I'm ticked. I'm being followed. So I start trying to reach someone on my phone. At the same time I do as I had planned. I pull back into the park and pull my car over and this SUV passes by really slow. I finally got hold of someone and told them what was going on. I then pull back out and go around the loop, to find the SUV sitting there again. As I drive by, the window is down several inches and a hand comes out , sort of waves. I kept on going...and I'll be danged, if it doesn't follow me again...I had given up on the cache as I was NOT getting out of my car HERE! I drove towards a major thoroughfare and pulled into a business, either this person would keep going or pull in too. HE pulls in...I'm ticked big time. I put my window down and he did too. I said, "Why are you following me?!!" He said I signaled him. WTF?!!?! I said I most certainly did not. He left. I left. I was very freaked out. During that confrontation, I had someone on the phone who heard it all. After I got home the next day, I decided I should call the authorities. I figure he was either looking for 'fun' or drugs...or maybe to hurt someone.

[+mfamilee]

Last fall we were out geocaching on the country back roads and had stopped to find a cache on a bridge just as it was becoming dark. When we there all of sudden we start to hear dogs barking not too far off in the distance. All was okay because it didn't sound as if they were getting nearer, but then we heard someone start screaming. We waited around to try and figure out what was going on. The dogs eventually stopped barking, but the screaming kept going on. We determined it sounded like a woman's voice and we even heard her screaming out the word NO. We played out all the various scenarios in our head what could be happening to this woman... we were definitely scared for her as her screaming was continuous. Our poor jr. explorer was crying. We were definitely sure something was wrong, but due to our own safety we did not want to approach, so we quickly called the police and did our best to give the location. They showed up about 20 minutes later and went up the road to a nearby farmhouse. It ends up the woman's dogs had gotten out of their kennel and two of the dogs had started fighting. She had tried to get in between them to break them up and one of the dogs bit her. So, she had been screaming because of the dog bite and also screaming trying to get all the dogs back into the kennel. It was odd because the cops told us her husband was home, but he was inside watching television the whole time and never heard her screaming, nor did the woman want an ambulance. After the cops gave us this information down the road... that definitely ended our night of caching and we went home. That was definitely a night we will never forget.

[+Cowboyatheart]

In late august this past summer I was caching in a wooded hiking religious retreat area that is loaded with caches. It was late afternoon I had been there since mid morning having a great time and much success bushwhacking from cache to cache.I set down to sign the log at my latest find when I noticed I still had my holder for my cell phone on my belt but it was empty,I know not really a great loss, I knew a was only a couple of miles from the truck, but I was out by myself and no one knew where I was. I didn't have a panic attack but I had a very uncomfortable feeling.I back tracked the field I had just cut across, but with chest high weeds that was a waste of time. I headed back to the truck,told my story when I got home,endured unending ribbing from my family ,got a new phone. The next day I found 2 deer ticks on me ,went to the DR. no problems.I haven't been caching since.(Lots of little things). But I will be back out this spring when it warms up (I HATE cold weather.) I think I will be doing things a little differently now though. All is well come on summer!!!!

[Haku340]

Not finding my first cache.

 

Haku340

[+weathernowcast]

This is a hole in the ice from a previous cacher:

 

 

#1554

 

28 deg F

 

0-2" of snow

0-6" of ice on the water

 

Doug let me know that this cache was available. He gave me instructions on how to get to the swim club but I checked out the west side of the lake first.

 

The west bank looked very scary to me. I counted eight stretches of open water on the west bank of the lake alone.

 

I was going to let caution rule the day but I wound my way up to the other side of the lake but kept finding open water on the shore. I then found the swimclub and a few dozen snowmobilers, 4 wheel drivers and beer drinkers or a combination of all three.

 

I decided to make the 0.5 mile walk and avoided the 80 MPH racers out on the lake. When I got to the island I noticed several rifts in the ice and I became a bit wary so I decided to stay on the rocks in stead of try my weight on the ice near the shore.

 

When I was on the island I called Surfcaster who told me about the recent calamity that occurred on the ice yesterday where Eric fell through the ice!

 

Good grief, so now I am a bit disturbed. I found the cache signed it with a tiny bit of lead I found in one of my pockets and made it back to shore all the while keeping Doug on the phone in case I fell in the lake.

 

Looking at the hole Eric made int he ice I feel I was lucky to make it out alive. I saw several areas where the ice seemed stronger then where Eric fell through!

 

Very memorable cache. Thanks for the fun and memories and one of my scariest caches I have found although it must have been scarier for Eric.

[besty45]

My experience isn't really that scary , but it still freaked me out. I was with a couple of friends as we decided to geocache on a rainy day. We had found the cache pretty quickly and the area it was in was on a hidden road behind rail road tracks. The cache was placed near an old abandoned neighborhood and we decided to take a look around. When we finally reached the neighborhood we saw KKK spray painted on the ground and as we were looking at it two people appeared not too far away out of nowhere and were walking straight towards us. We got out of there pretty fast

[+linuxxpert]

Bump!

[+HOGFEVER]

I have not had any scary adventures yet but I love reading these stories,MORE PLEASE.

[+mrmaness]

This is funny now, but at the time it scared the crap out of me and my daughter. We were looking for our cache and my coords were spot on. I looked at the hint and I knew we were in the right area. We were new to caching and VERY inexperienced in caches. There was a rock near a hole that seemed to be out of place so my daughter picked it up. When she turned it over there was this weird dog tag looking thing glued to it???? I told her to put it down but she was insistant and kept messing with it, well about that time, my cell phone (which was on vibrate) went off and we thought it was that dog tag thing...lol Come to find out after we went back for the 4th time that was the cache, we just needed to turn the tag and it unscrewed.

[+gdpsych]

I went caching in a dead end at a public park near my job. Shortly after leaving my car I spotted a male individual who seemed to be following me. I resumed my journey and after getting approx. 30 to 40 feet into the woods I looked back and saw that he was at the woodline and had covered a distance of 100 feet to my to my 30 to 40 feet. I quickened my pace to GZ 250 feet down the hill and made a wide loop back to my car. I didn't see him so I'm not sure if he was still in the woods or turned around and left the area. For me this was not a scary moment; I was prepared to protect myself and I luckily saw the threat. I bring this up as a warning to fellow cachers to know their surroundings and be prepared. BTW I didn't find the cache and did not log a DNF due to the situation.

[+StephenTravels]

I went caching in a dead end at a public park near my job. Shortly after leaving my car I spotted a male individual who seemed to be following me. I resumed my journey and after getting approx. 30 to 40 feet into the woods I looked back and saw that he was at the woodline and had covered a distance of 100 feet to my to my 30 to 40 feet. I quickened my pace to GZ 250 feet down the hill and made a wide loop back to my car. I didn't see him so I'm not sure if he was still in the woods or turned around and left the area. For me this was not a scary moment; I was prepared to protect myself and I luckily saw the threat. I bring this up as a warning to fellow cachers to know their surroundings and be prepared. BTW I didn't find the cache and did not log a DNF due to the situation.

 

I had a similar situation a few weeks ago while vacationing in Florida. I went to go find a bunch of caches in a big regional park west of Jacksonville NAS. Right after I entered the woods I heard a car pull up in the parking lot and two guys quickly got out. One went down one trail and the other followed behind me by about 100 feet. The trail system in the park is pretty big and there are a ton of them meandering their way through the woods. He was behind me for about 10 minutes and followed every turn I made. I started to pick up the pace and eventually lost him, but ended up on a long stretch of trail that ended with a dead end in a swamp. So not only did I have to worry about the two suspicious characters wandering around, but I also had to keep an eye out for snakes and gators. Being from WA state, I was not familiar with those kind of wildlife encounters. When I finally got back to the main trail I spotted the other guy a bit further down the trail going in the opposite direction. He didn't see me. I didn't want to take the trail back to where I entered, so I walked around to the opposite edge of the park and made it back to the road.

 

I had locked my bike (actually my friend's bike, whom I was visiting--they were at work at the time) on a post at the trailhead in which I entered. I had to go back and get it so I followed the road back to where I started. I was relieved to see their car gone and the bike still there intact.

 

I'm pretty sure they weren't really looking for trouble, but they looked kinda suspicious. I wouldn't have been so paranoid if they hadn't gone down all the same trails that I did (even the smaller game trails). I did manage to go back to the cache I was originally going to look for later in the day...no luck. When I got home, I discovered the owner had removed it and archived it because it had its time. Go figure =P

Edited April 12, 2009 by tsunami_KNUW