Injuries suffered while geocaching

[+hydnsek]

My worst injuries have been lacerations like the OP and wasp stings. However, my caching companions have suffered 2 significant scalp lacerations, 1 broken elbow (he made a TB from the cast), 1 broken wrist (took her to the ER), 1 broken ankle (he walked four miles on it to get out), 1 severely sprained ankle (we had to haul him out a mile over steep, rocky, brushy terrain), and 1 shin stab that went to the bone. I also almost bought it when I slipped on a very steep unstable slope and wound up hanging over oblivion by a thin twine rope, but no serious injury. Some people claim I'm a hiking jinx.

[+FluffyRAM]

A friend posted a picture of his bloody arm so I made a Facebook banner for him. I have yet to get hurt while geocaching, unless walking through stinging nettles counts.

 

My husband badly sliced his arm on razor wire while caching once (ironically one in a series called "Immortal Casualties").

It had been recently dumped at the GZ. He needed medical attention, and a tetanus shot.

We have a similar picture and the blood was most definitely not fake.

We reported it to the CO and he immediately and responsibly archived the cache on safety grounds.

[+Corfman Clan]

Fortunately I haven't had any permanently damaging injuries geocaching but I have had some where I've gone to emergency care afterwards. Besides the normal cuts and bruises, it's been a few years since I've had an injury of concern though I had some trouble on rappel recently that could have ended very badly.

 

I crashed mountain biking towards Skull Mesa cache and got scraped up and wrenched a couple of fingers back.

 

The next month, with vultures circling overhead, I rolled a boulder on my return from Table Mesa and got a large contusion on my right leg.

 

A couple years later, after getting FTF at It is what it is..., I tweaked my knee in a really stupid and slow dirt bike crash. I went to emergency care and had the knee checked out. I could barely walk for a couple weeks but after a couple of months I was fine.

 

On my way across Skull Mesa for another FTF at The Knifeback, I impaled the back of a calf with several prickly pear spines. One was stuck in over an inch. The next day I went to emergency care to ensure I didn't have any spines left in my leg.

 

On my way to Saturday, 4:00 PM a stick was impaled into my left shin. It hurt incredibly bad and it was very difficult to continue hiking. After a few days it became infected so I went to emergency care. The antibiotics weren't working so I went back to the doctor a couple of times. Two weeks later a sliver over an inch long and an eighth inch wide erupted from near the wound. Yikes.

Edited November 20, 2013 by Corfman Clan

[+Fugads]

Fortunately I haven't had any permanently damaging injuries geocaching but I have had some where I've gone to emergency care afterwards. Besides the normal cuts and bruises, it's been a few years since I've had an injury of concern though I had some trouble on rappel recently that could have ended very badly.

 

I crashed mountain biking towards Skull Mesa cache and got scraped up and wrenched a couple of fingers back.

 

The next month, with vultures circling overhead, I rolled a boulder on my return from Table Mesa and got a large contusion on my right leg.

 

A couple years later, after getting FTF at It is what it is..., I tweaked my knee in a really stupid and slow dirt bike crash. I went to emergency care and had the knee checked out. I could barely walk for a couple weeks but after a couple of months I was fine.

 

On my way across Skull Mesa for another FTF at The Knifeback, I impaled the back of a calf with several prickly pear spines. One was stuck in over an inch. The next day I went to emergency care to ensure I didn't have any spines left in my leg.

 

On my way to Saturday, 4:00 PM a stick was impaled into my left shin. It hurt incredibly bad and it was very difficult to continue hiking. After a few days it became infected so I went to emergency care. The antibiotics weren't working so I went back to the doctor a couple of times. Two weeks later a sliver over an inch long and an eighth inch wide erupted from near the wound. Yikes.

Great post Corfman Clan. As a fellow wanderer of these southwestern deserts, I can sympathize, especially about the spiny things. I've been fortunate not to have any serious injuries though. A few bouts of bad dehydration (dry-heaving bad) had me worried, but I was always able to recover with a rest-day afterwards. Despite having ample opportunity out in the desert peaks, the caching experience that hurt the most was when I went after an "urban jungle" cache in Las Vegas, back in May 2012. This was one of those caches involving storm drains. Short story: I only had the final coordinates and not any other info, ended up choosing the wrong entrance and crawled my way 500 ft or so in a tiny concrete tube, scraping my knees and elbows really badly. Perhaps if I was properly equipped for such spelunking it wouldn't have been so bad. I was sore for a week after that experience. Long story here. Funny thing is, I was just looking at that cache listing again and someone had a similar experience to me just a few months ago, although perhaps they were better prepared for the crawl. After my bad experience, the CO did update the cache listing stating that if you're crawling you're in the wrong place. Alas, those of us still not equipped with paperless caching devices or smart-phones may miss this beta (starting to wonder if I'm one of the last of this dying breed).

[+hydnsek]

This English woman has a tale to tell. Yikes! I hope she recovers okay.

 

Cows, a geocaching menace. I knew I was right to be nervous around them.

[+cerberus1]

This English woman has a tale to tell. Yikes! I hope she recovers okay.

 

Cows, a geocaching menace. I knew I was right to be nervous around them.

Hope she pulls through okay.

Reading further on...

 

North Scarle Parish councillor Chris Dixon, added: 'You’d have thought permission would be required from the landowner to bury something on farmland.'

[+L0ne.R]

This English woman has a tale to tell. Yikes! I hope she recovers okay.

 

Cows, a geocaching menace. I knew I was right to be nervous around them.

 

It's good to hear that she will recover. I remember reading about the same thing happening to a woman and her dog last year in the UK (not geocaching related though). I googled and found this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220951/Pensioner-trampled-death-cows-walked-dog-field.html

 

In Ontario, Canada I never think about cows while hiking/geocaching. Well, maybe the one time, last year I skipped the chance to find a roadside cache that was next to a fenced in area of cows. There was one HUGE bull amongst them. Boy oh boy, what they can do with hormones these days! The wire fence would be no help if he decided he didn't like the look of me.

[+The Rat]

Reading further on...

North Scarle Parish councillor Chris Dixon, added: 'You’d have thought permission would be required from the landowner to bury something on farmland.'

Good point, but the reviewer should be aware of the rules. I know that out here many parks and open space preserves allow grazing on public lands that are open for geocaching and some private landowners with cattle have public trails on them. Stanford University, for one. I have no idea what the rules are at the English farm, but one cannot assume there was a rule violation there.