MisAdventures of Caching...

[+SoonerL8R]

Thought it might be interesting to hear about each other's misadventures while on the trail. Have you ever had your batteries go dead, only to realize you forgot to pack the spare set and were now 5 miles from civilization? Maybe dropped your $500 GPS and found out the hard way that it's not waterproof? Perhaps forgot where you parked your car, ran out of gas, went into labor in the woods?

 

Whatever it was we'd love to hear it!

[+Planet]

Uh oh. Another misplaced on topic thread placed in off topic. Be prepared for a move into the general geocaching forums.

[+GeoBain]

The key to success is how quickly it gets moved.

 

I buried my car up over the wheels once in a mud puddle that didn't look that deep going in. But managed to get it out without a tow truck.

[+Ed_M]

Hiked three quarters of a mile into state game lands. At dusk. Batteries were failing. Spares were in my sons camera.

 

On the first day of bow hunting season.

[+The Cheeseheads]

Moving to the correct forum.

[+aurght]

Where do I start?

 

Left the GPSr at the cache. Longest distance - less than a half mile. Many people have done better than that.

 

Caching with the daughter's furry designer dog and found us in a hopeless shoe-sucking swamp. We both came out of there needing baths. Found the cache!

 

Just a week ago I went after what I thought would be easy. Less than .12 away in a little urban park. At the bottom of the gully, I look at the page and discover a 3.5 terrain rating and I'm wearing street treads. At about the same time I slip crossing the raging river(3 ft across) and drop the GPSr. fortunately it stops in an eddy nearby and waits for me to fish it out. It truly is waterproof and floats!!

Now, my feet are wet and I vow to find this one if I have to set up camp!

This is all 50 ft from GZ. Found the cache.

[+W4G_SOTAGoat]

I was in an urban park off the beaten path and was going under some trees and through brush. Got back to my truck and went to make a call. Waitaminute...where is my (expensive) Bluetooth headset?

 

I walked back to GZ and my phone showed connected to Bluetooth. UGH, too much ivy and kudzu. It had a full charge and has an obnoxiously bright blue LED that flashes when a call is coming in, so I come back that night with a pre-paid Verizon phone I have for trail emergencies when AT&T has no service. I go back to the GZ and connect my Atrix to the headset. I call it from the Verizon phone and start looking around. 3' from where I'm standing a see something flashing blue in the Kudzu. 'Lo and behold it's my headset!

 

Another SNAFU was that we went to the Sweetwater State Park cache for the GA State Parks Challenge and left our passports in my truck, so we weren't able to stamp them. I went back a few weeks later while I was in the area and got the stamp.

[+nekom]

Who hasn't!

 

Worst injury: Severely bruised hand when looking for a micro (in the wrong place anyway) and rocks fell on me.

Worst `ugh': Bushwhacking (SERIOUS bushwhacking) almost a quarter mile only to find that there was another parking spot within 100 feet of the cache.

Worst fail yet somehow win: Looking for a cache near the entrance to a tunnel, only to realize that the cache was actually INSIDE the tunnel, yet finding a DIFFERENT cache there.

Worst getting lost: Confusing trails, forgot to waypoint the car. Walking around for almost 2 hours before finally finding my way back. Wife (at the car) kept yelling and yelling, I tried to follow her voice in a straight line, kept running into steep hills or quagmires, and I had my 4 year old daughter with me! Eventually we FINALLY found the right trail. Oh well, at least we saw a turtle along the way.

 

Misadventure is the norm for me and my crew.

[+Planet]

Did a quick small town roadside cache in Vermont one day. Brought it to the car to log, in case of muggles. Signed log, took photos of a car parked a hair away from a memorial stone at the site, and left. It wasn't until I put the car in park, back at the house, about 15-20 miles later, that I noticed the cache sitting between us on the console. 30-40 miles later, we were back home again. What we won't do for the integrity of the game! Sure glad I was driving in VT that day, and not in some city somewhere!

[+JL_HSTRE]

Consecutive 100+ ft bushwacks. The first one I missed the unmarked trail. The second one the trail was clearly marked except we didn't realize it looped to within about 10 ft from the cache.

[+Gitchee-Gummee]

Here is our story, via log quotes, from an FTF attempt...

Went to get it late in the day, CO stated on page that it was less than 100 ft off trail; so 'twas to be a quick in & out... youbetcha, eh!

Didn't find it

09/28/2009

 

Raining, wind howling, trees and limbs coming down. Not having good luck finding the cache, then I noticed the time........ oooops!

Told Gummee we had best get moving to get out before dark. Well................... the best laid plans, you know.........

Finally stumbled onto the road at about 9:10pm (was so dark, we were on it for a minute or so before we were aware of it).

We are currently engaged in equipping pack with all the good stuff, space blankets, lightsticks, firestarters, lots of extra batteries, cheap ponchos + + +.

Had fun, of sorts. Lots of "tree hugging" in the total darkness.

 

Going to try it earlier in the day next time

 

Stetson and good shoes still soaked, two days later!

Pitch black -- so black, that you could not see your partner face-to-face -- Gummee literally had to hold onto my coattails to stay with me. Back at the vehicle, Gummee said, "I knew you'd get us out". My response, "I'm dadgum (I didn't type that, but that is what Grounspeak had it converted to) glad you knew I was going to get us out, 'cuz I sure as h*** didn't!"

Trust me, we always mark our parking spot now, even if it is supposed to be within 10 ft of the cache! Soaked to the bone would be an understatement.

 

Didn't find it

09/30/2009

 

Tried this again today. Same results, 'cept that I didn't get stuck in the dark.

Sometimes, one just never learns... The cache simply isn't there!

 

Update Coordinates

10/01/2009

N 46° 26.101 W 087° 05.753

 

** Coordinates Changed From **

N 46° 26.610 W 087° 05.753

Distance From Old: 3094.7 feet

Updated

Notice the distance change↑ (bolding added)

 

Found it

10/02/2009

 

Of course, we had to go out in the rain (again). But hey, just what fun is it w/o some extra challenge?

What a hoot! Gummee opened this one as Gitchee was lagging behind. Didn't notice the GeoGem at first, but closer inspection opened our eyes !

We happily took the FTF, leaving "kipper", hair band and an agate slab. Took the two TBs to add on and move before the series got shut down.

Gummee was still laughing, going to the next. Thanks.

Success at last! You truly could almost park atop the cache (after the coord change).

Yes, we still tote the pack with all the caching and survival goodies inside.

 

We can only say that to date, this is the most memorable. You must have been there to realize just how bad that first venture was.

We laugh about it now. We weren't laughing then.

[+power69]

1. Had to fire my Beretta 92FS to scare off a pack of coyotes.

2. in 2011 i had 5 bicycles stolen off mountainsides

3. Fell 20 feet in a ravine reaching for a precariously placed ammo box.

4. Fell into a cholla cactus, got both hands and a foot hooked trying to remove them.

[+Madav42]

Let's see...

 

We decided to work on the PMC Lite series. When we had most of the puzzles solved, we finally started to go after the caches. Got to our first - in another state - and were so happy to find it we neglected to write down the clue.

 

Doing another PMC Lite cache, we got hopelessly turned around in the woods - we were just going to dash in and grab this cache, so didn't take food, water, or note where the car was parked. Seemed like we were in there forever, and when we came out, we were a long hot walk away from the car. New rule for us - waypoint the car.

 

Stopped at a rest area to pick up a cache, got in the car and drove on. Stopped for another cache, and found out that Mr.'s phone was AWOL. Mrs. called the phone, and was surprised when it was answered. Seems the phone was in a car headed to Florida - someone had picked it up at the rest area and actually mailed it back to us. Now we do an electronics check before we leave a location.

 

Hey, it gets us out of the house!

Edited January 6, 2012 by Madav42