The Dangers of bushwacking

[+releasethedogs]

Direct line routes can be steeper, looser, through 'sensitive' areas, areas with hidden dangers, or simply unpleasant areas.

This is what makes life fun.

[+Off Grid]

I started caching in 2002. One of my fist finds was an Ammo can north of San Antonio where I was living at the time. It was at a City park I believe. It was an ammo can and you had to hike over a mile with a tail change I believe to get to where you could turn in to the woods to get to it. It was not far from the trail you just had to figure which trail. I got it with a few backtracks and trail changes.

 

A few months later someone tried bushwhacking to get to it apparently and walked off a cliff. The news report implied they were by themselves.

After that I made sure I didn't do the bushwhacking thing.

 

we came across two bears haha. but we always end up bushwacking every once in awhile you just have to PAY attention to where you are going and dont just blindly stare at your gps andthan realize as your falling in the air oh i guess i should have looked around

[+Off Grid]

I am an avid wilderness hiker/climber, and a "has been" special operations soldier, so granted, I am maybe better equipped, experience-wise... But for me, there is something that some of you will immediately understand, and some won't... you either feel it in your bones, or you don't and if you don't, there's no explaining it. And that is... That there is something invigorating, almost spiritual that happens to me when I am out in the brush, on my own, with as few external dependencies as possible. Yesterday I was out in a swampy area, just me, a light daypack, my favorite hiking boots, and my GPS. I encountered trees I had to climb, creeks I had to cross, forks in the paths I had to choose. I stepped on a sharp object that penetrated the bottom of my boot, but luckily, not my foot. I had my trusty leatherman with me and as able to extract the object because I couldn't get it out by hand. Most would be annoyed by such things... for me, they are part of the fun, and knowing that I have all the physical and mental tools with me IS the fun.

 

And it was a little slice of heaven on earth for me.

 

There is something about being on your own, a one-to-one relationship between man and nature, out doing my thing and solving problems and overcoming obstacles. It is the culmination of experience, instinct, preparation, awareness, and tool selection, that all comes together. Everything I carry in my pack is there because 30 years of outdoor experience has told me that it is just the right tool, the right compromise between weight, function, probability of need, and flexibility of purpose. What geocaching brings to me is a goal, an incentive, a reason to press on and have to make decisions and craft tools and solve problems along the way.

 

It is not about "adventure" per se, it is not about the thrill of the risk of falling off a cliff. It is something else, it's about self-reliance, self accomplishment.

 

i agree completely on this me!!!