Clothing damaged/Destroyed while caching

[+DragonsWest]

Retelling of a misadventure in the Lamp Post Graveyard, where a bit of steel reinforcing wire tore some expensive Football Club training equipment I was wearing at the time, has thus prompted this bit of enquiry.

 

It was only an hour before dusk and I was in a lot of deceased lamp posts, seeking out a very clever regular size cache. Alas, as I was leaving an unseen bit of reinforcing wire clawed at my pant leg and tore, rather like a claw, a few holes in it. Massive, massive unhappieness. It was good to make the find, but the injury to a bit of personal treasure was little black cloud casting a shadow on the expedition. Needless to say, now I only wear stuff which is expected to be damaged and leave the good clothes home.

[+Ambrosia]

I was caching last fall in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. I did a cache where I was searching on a dirt hillside next to a barbed wire fence. The dirt slid under my feet and I fell into the fence. I was very fortunate that I didn't fall directly on a point, but my long sleeve shirt caught several points and I ended up with holes in the sleeve. Nothing expensive, but it's my favourite long sleeve shirt. I can still wear it, however, I consider it a badge of pride. Or stupidity. I also ended up with a raised abrasion and a dark purple bruise along my arm, about 5 inches long. Hate to think what it would have looked like if I had fallen directly on a barb.

 

I wasn't even in the correct spot, and the cache was further down the slope.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Ambrosia

[+Max and 99]

This is why we have "geocaching clothes and shoes."

[+Ambrosia]

I do have BDU pants that I try and wear when I know I'll be out in the bush. But my jacket that I wear a lot is not one that I'd want to tear, and I don't have another one like it (wouldn't want to spend the extra money). I had to be really careful the other day while caching because I was in some tight spots around barbed wire and I was afraid I'd put a hole in my waterproof jacket.

[knowschad]

Bought a rather expensive pair of convertable nylon cargo pants last year from REI. First week, tore them on a thorn. Found a small tailer shop that fixed them right up for $9 while I waited. The very next week I was back with an even larger tear from an old barbed wire fence that I didn't see. $15 to fix that one (well wasn't that much, but I tipped him well). So far, I've been lucky with them since then.

[+St.Matthew]

With enough damage clothing, any cacher could qualify for... NUDE CACHER OF THE MONTH.

[+NeverSummer]

With enough damage clothing, any cacher could qualify for... NUDE CACHER OF THE MONTH.

Yikes! Hopefully the nude cachers aren't tearing or damaging any parts of their "clothing" badly while out caching!

[+larryc43230]

A few years ago, I was caching in the Springfield, Ohio, area on a cold winter day with about six inches of snow on the ground (what was I thinking???). I decided to go after a cache located at a local reservoir. My hiking route took me down a rather steep embankment. I had on waterproof hiking boots, and the hill was just snow-covered. Not a problem. Well, that's what it looked like, anyway. Under all that snow was a layer of very slippery mud.

 

As soon as I took the first step downward, I found myself flat on my back sliding like crazy down the embankment. I didn't stop until I reached the bottom, about 40 feet down. Amazed that I wasn't otherwise damaged, I picked myself up and discovered I had a rather wide, and thick, mud-colored racing stripe down the back of my winter coat. The stripe actually ran from the top of my pants legs to the top of my head. And I still have a vivid memory of how cold and wet that felt.

 

It was starting to get dark, and I was wet and freezing, so I gave up on finding the cache and walked back to the cachemobile. I drove back to Columbus (maybe a 45-mile drive) with that coat on my back (it was too cold in the car to drive without it), and dropped the coat off at the local dry cleaners before driving home. I wore it a few more times, but it was never the same after that adventure. And I had a whole bunch of mud to clean out of the driver's seat area, too.

 

--Larry

[+firestronaut]

I haven't been caching long and already ruined two pairs of shoes, and a pair of trousers through brambles and other cloth-ripping items

 

I also have a decent sized bruise from falling into a tree branch

 

I've recently bought some decent clothes and shoes from the local charity shop so the rest of my clothes don't get ruined

[+Dominoes]

More then once, I have ripped my pants while climbing through strands of barbed wire.

[Mr.Yuck]

In early February, I tore a $30 or so pair of corduroy's on a nasty thorn that I had bought a few weeks earlier with a gift card received at Christmas. That ticked me off. Not like I hadn't been to that park before, and knew I'd have to bushwack over .1 mile to that new cache.

[+thewingfamily]

My son has this pair of pants that he absolutely loves, but since he is a growing boy, he has somewhat grown out of them. They still are the right length, but are getting a little tight in the belly. But, he loves them. He wears them everytime they come out of the washer on the weekends. Last weekend, we went out and did a series of caches around a lake. He made it all the way back to the parking lot, saw a frog jump into the water and took off after it. Just as he got to top speed, he tripped. He ripped a hole in the pants from just above his knee and down to the bottom. He was more upset about the rip in the pants than the road burn and gashes on his leg. I was trying to patch him up and he was yelling at me because the blood was getting on his pants and that I had to take them home and wash/stitch them up. Once we got them home I realized that there was no way that they were going to be repaired and luckily, after a trip back to the same store, I found a pair in his new size. He would have never agreed to this if he hadn't destroyed the pants. *Sigh*

 

thewingfamily

[+ohmelli]

LOL! I'm loving these stories! Mine are too tame to tell thus far.... but I have landed on my butt twice, and ripped a shirt - thankfully not a favorite! I'm not terribly picky about what I go caching in though - so I'm sure I'll have at least one tale to tell before I learn my lesson! I am TRYING to learn from YOUR mistakes though! Thanks for sharing!

[+GrateBear]

In early February, I tore a $30 or so pair of corduroy's on a nasty thorn that I had bought a few weeks earlier with a gift card received at Christmas. That ticked me off. Not like I hadn't been to that park before, and knew I'd have to bushwack over .1 mile to that new cache.

 

Why would you buy a nasty thorn? Sorry, I just couldn't resist the way that read......

[+oxford comma]

today I had to do a little bushwacking through some briars- my arm looks like I got in a cat fight .

[+TeamTwoStar]

I know what you are talking about. However, since I have spent a lot of time in the woods before I started caching, I don't where anything that can't be ripped or dirtied. The worst that happened to me was I had to really strech in my jeans to get a cache, but my jeans didn't have enough streach and ended up ripping. The other thing that happend was I almost ruined my sneaker I use for hiking. We were on a trail and in order to get to the cache we had to walk through a tunnel. It looked a little muddy but not a big deal. As we got further and further in to this tunnel the mud kept getting deeper, it was up past my ankels. It nearly pulled off my shoes and I almost face planted in the mud because the metal on the tunnel had no grip. My sister and me gave up because there was quite a bit more of the tunnel to go. I think we will try from another direction soon. I am sure we will have some more misadventures while geocaching.

[Mr.Yuck]

In early February, I tore a $30 or so pair of corduroy's on a nasty thorn that I had bought a few weeks earlier with a gift card received at Christmas. That ticked me off. Not like I hadn't been to that park before, and knew I'd have to bushwack over .1 mile to that new cache.

 

Why would you buy a nasty thorn? Sorry, I just couldn't resist the way that read......

 

Yeah, it just wasn't working for me, even as I was typing it.

 

OK, so I tore a 3 week old pair of $30 or so pants on briars. That sounds much better.

[+StarBrand]

Worst I ruined was a pair of jeans. Caught on a hidden nail in tall grass and combined it with a graceful 1/2 spin and face plant into the mud as I pulled away and tore a wide hole from just above the knee to the ankle.

[+popokiiti]

I wear what doesn't matter. Most injuries when I'm caching are to my pride (and body) and not my clothing....so far.