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Injuries while caching


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Not life threatening, but earlier tonight I was doing some night geocaching with some friends and managed to slip while working my way down the side of a highly vegetated hill, landing all my weight on my right hand directly on a cactus. I was bleeding in several places and had to spend the next several minutes trying to pick out the needles.

 

It was also nice to find that when my friend heard me fall and start yelling loudly, his first question was in regards to the safety of the GPS. icon_smile.gif

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Gotta love them jumping chollas. I was once way out in the desert, up on the side of a mountain, when I noticed one was hitching a ride on the bottom of my camos. I took off my leather glove to give it a smack and knock it off. In a second, it attached itself to the glove, which swung up and planted the cholla spike ball DEEP into the top of my hand. My yell scared small animals for miles.

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On a cache trip 05/21/03 I had a stick slap me in the eye, and a twig broke off in it, I was 1/4 mile in the woods, I pulled the twiq out and my eye didn't didn't run or have any bleeding, so I continued on my way. Most important, I FOUND THE CACHE. So far I have over $200 in doctor bills.

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I have two stories. The first one happened to a coworker, and was logged of our B.B. Cache GC62C2.

 

October 13, 2002 by WhereRWee? (259 found)

You can [delete] or [permanently encrypt] this log entry.

We had a trip planned to Crown King this weekend with 4 other families. Decided to hit one or two caches on the way up and stopped off to do the B.B. cache. On the way back from a small easy hike from the cache site one of our group slipped on some pea gravel on a shallow 3 foot incline. She fell to the ground and dislocated her ankle and broke it in two places. The group we were with consisted of 1 certified EMT and one former EMT and two police officers. We were able provide the emergency services ourselves and get her to the hospital within an hour. Two hours of surgery and lots of bolts later the ankle was put back together. She is expected to be in the hospital for another day and off work for 4-6 weeks.

 

I'm posting this as a friendly reminder to be careful when out doing the remote caches sites. Always let someone know where you are going, bring a cell phone, and BE PREPARED for the unexpected. This was not a difficult cache and was truly an accident. The remote location of this cache could have made it much worse if it was a solo cache hunter.

 

Maybe the B.B. in this cache stands for broken bones.

 

The other story happened to us at ROADRUNNERS #6 GCF936.

 

This one took us two days to do. Last night we did our 6th cache for the day GCD604. Jane said This one is only 1.5 miles. So off we go. We find the road in? Nice dirt road. Road narrows, and at 450 feet away, we see the main dirt road. We pull onto it only to find out that it is a river bed, sand. Our Ford f150 got stuck. The four of us, (Jane, myself, our 8 year old and 6 year old) dug, pushed etc. for an hour and a half. No luck. And of course the high tension lines blocked out phone reception. Finally at 9:30 we took the 9 month old puppy, and we all hiked the half mile, in the sand to the road. Flagged down a motorist, and hitched a ride into Surprise. Then had a nephew bring us home.

 

Today I went out with my neighbor and a tow rope, and we got the truck onto firm ground, then did the cache. Took a Panda77 domino 4-1. Left Magical Memories pencil. Thanks for the very Magical Memory. BEWARE OF THE SAND.

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quote:
Originally posted by ETREX 700:

Anyone ever been seriously injured, or found themselves in a very bad situation while caching? Let's hear about it!


 

Nothing serious yet (crossing my fingers). I've grabbed barbed wire while slipping and punctured my hand. Had poison ivy and plenty of scratches. A few minor slips and fall.

 

I did, however, take a really good fall last Saturday. I had been out to a 1.25 mile round trip cache that has coordinates in it. These coordinates take you to a cliff ledge that could be pretty dangerous due to loose rock. At least the ledge is optional and they didn't put the cache there which is smart.

 

So I ease down the ledge like a mountain goat and scare away the turkey buzzards sitting on it. Sliding a bit here and there I mke it to the windy ledge. I stood there for awhile watching the angry buzzards wishing I would fall and die so they could eat me, and enjoying the spectacular view of course. I proceed back up with no problems.

 

After all that, I'm walking along the mostly flat section of trail. I step over some recently fallen branches and next thing I know, I'm flat on my chest screaming. My shoulder and bicep hurt like hell but nothing was broken but my pride. I had a long branch I had found on the ground in my hand. I had been using it as a makshift staff. I'm still not sure how I fell.

 

I think what happened is that the staff broke just as I was stepping over the branches causing me to fall and get tangled in the branches. All I know is that my feet came right out from under me in no time flat. It was all I could do to land on my arm instead of my face. No more makshift staffs, I'm sticking to my trekking poles from now on!

 

-beatnik-

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I keep re-injuring ankles that were sprained badly during my military career. It seems they hurt after any off-road cache hunt these days.

 

Now, I ALWAYS use a stout staff. (Recently got one from El Diablo to replace my last one which broke.)

 

And, since my old Army boots no longer fit, I am trying to find some real high top boots for ankle support.

 

DustyJacket

Not all those that wander are lost. But in my case... icon_biggrin.gif

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My sons placed a cache called "A Kids cache" but after some feedback and a few injuries they changed to name to Among the Rocks!. The earlier log entries tell of twisted appendages and blood trails. Ive included several warnings in the description but someone still gets hurt from time to time. The cache is in a very large Boulder field on the side of a wooded mountain.

 

as far as bad situations so, this cache has some interesting reading. Some of the early finders (i was 4th) went solo, which in hindsight was probably not a great idea. We all made it back , but there were times.......

Muskrats, Mosquitos & Muck. Basically the cache is hidden on a little bump of dry land out in the middle of a tidal salt marsh. Were talking the kind of wet mud that doesnt want to let go once your knee/thigh deep in it. The earliest logs of the solo hunters as well as the later team hunters are all interesting.

 

"Problems are merely opportunities for interesting solutions which can be implemented by those with the courage to be different."

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Tired of waiting for the snow to melt, I dragged my husband geocaching one March day. It was fairly warm for winter, but there was a lot of ice. He slid on the ice and sprained his ankle. I practically had to carry him back to the car. I went back the next day alone, only to discover the stupid cache was plundered.

 

Go figure.

Zoraima

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