Craziest experiences geocaching

[christyglpn]

Thought it would be fun to have this thread. I have only found 6 caches but have

Already had some outright fun and crazy times. I can only imagine what the more experienced cachets

Have been through.

 

Here are mine

 

4th cache I had someone sitting in an old truck listening to

Music made me feel weird felt like was being watched.

5th cache so I thought I knew where it was I was wrong but it was

Close so I took what I thought was a shortcut. Big mistake

Scooted on my butt downhill. And walked through a marsh with all kind

Of fallen trees.

 

On a dnf cache, the terrain was listed below a 2 it should of

Been a 4. It was on a set of abandoned railroad tracks. I started walking along tracks

About halfway to coordinates the brush was next to impossible

To b break through

 

What an adventure. Walked about 8 miles in one day will get skinny one

Way or another.

[+Ben0w]

I list my special experiences on my user profile page at GC.com for collecting my memories, mostly including links to the log entry.

 

Some of the most craziest include beeing questioned by police, getting an "All OK, Sir" report from a security guard (who obviously mistook me for someone in charge at that site), badly cutting my foot in the mediterrean sea (yes, IN the sea...) and some more.

[+WRASTRO]

I once found a cache at the posted coordinates!

 

Seriously, we have had chats with LEO and security, many muggles and DNF'd our own cache. Not really crazy, but a part of the life experience of a cacher.

 

 

[+fizzymagic]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

[+popokiiti]

Getting questioned by an irate neighbour as to whether the area had become a drug dropping place. Put me off searching for nanos in ivy.......he did calm down with our explanation of geocaching though.

[christyglpn]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Yikes that would freak me out

[+Ben0w]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Human? Yes, that counts.

Edited March 23, 2014 by Ben0w

[+pkohler01]

I keep running into dead animals. The first was a dead raccoon. It was half buried in snow and I thought maybe it was a cleverly disguised cache. Nope, just a dead and frozen raccoon. About three weeks later, I stepped on a dead deer while attempting the Southaven Central cache in Suffolk County. That same day I found a dead mouse nestled in with another cache in that same park.

 

When I hid my first cache, it went missing before FTF. A little surprised by that, I replaced the cache and moved it a bit to update the coordinates. Again, it disappeared before FTF. I wound up archiving the cache and assuming that the locals had managed to watch me and removed both caches. Later, while talking with someone else about it, he suggested that maybe the locals thought it was a "drug drop". That thought would never have occurred to me but, it wound up influencing where I cache - I seldom will attempt a cache in a developed area now.

[+GilkerscleughCachers]

Nothing to weird here. Stepped over a dead badger to get to a cache once. Did 105 caches in a day once and found a cache in a small cave. As I said, everything is perfectly normal.

[+fizzymagic]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Human? Yes, that counts.

Yes, human. Pretty freaky both times.

 

Those have to be the craziest, but on the other side I have had so many wonderful experiences it is hard to even think about which would be the best.

[+Ma & Pa]

 

Cache in there somewhere

 

.

[+funkymunkyzone]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

 

Just don't do it a third time. The police are on to you.

[+funkymunkyzone]

...Later, while talking with someone else about it, he suggested that maybe the locals thought it was a "drug drop"...

I discovered a "drug drop" when attempting an FTF on a cache one night. There were some "muggles" in 2 vehicles nearby-ish, then 1 drove off and the other started circling the area where we were looking. After I made my discovery, we left the area very quickly but not before I tipped out their "stash" (which incidentally was in exactly the same type of jar that I found as a cache earlier that day), realised exactly what it was, and ground it into the dirt with my shoe. Crime doesn't pay.

[jd-mitchell]

1 for me. I have 2 LTFs (last to find) and I got locked into a cache for a few hours and had to cut my way out. on this

Edited March 24, 2014 by jd-mitchell

[+funkymunkyzone]

1 for me. I have 2 LTFs (last to find) and I got locked into a cache for a few hours and had to cut my way out. on this

 

Haha, that reminds me of getting locked into a park in Lisbon... I thought I had plenty of time to complete a multi, but then I noticed I was the only one there and the walls, 10ft or more, were way too high for me to scale. I had to get the attention of a machine gun toting guard from the government building next door, try to explain in sign language what happened, and he got another heavily armed guard to escort me through their grounds and back out onto the street. The things we do... lol

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC10TD6_dia-de-sao-valentim-lisboa

[+Ma & Pa]

In our case, a geocaching experience could have been grounds for divorce.

 

We were walking on a trail picking up a few caches. The last cache was in a group of trees at the bottom of a gulley next to the trail. MA waited on the trail while I worked my way down the incline to look for the cache. I found it easily and went though it, examining the swag and removing a couple of TB's. I looked back to the trail and MA was no long there. I continued with my task, signed the log and put the cache back in place. I then climbed back up to the trail and spotted MA far down the trail, heading back the way we had come. She was quite a distance away and it took me a while to catch up to her. It took about 5 minutes. I asked her if there was a problem. She said she saw something big and black heading into the woods and thought it was a bear.

 

,

[+gelfling6]

I still think the craziest for me, had to be heading out for a FTF close by, and while on the way out, it was already getting dark, on an old logging road, roughly 3/4 of a mile from the main road where I parked. As I was walking along the trail, all by myself, I heard what I could only describe at the time, as a rather nasty growl about 4 feet behind me. I was carrying a aluminum treking pole (the kind you can twist and collapse into itself.) and My gut reaction was "Oh-S***! Bear Or Wolf!".. The pole swung up in front of me, I let out a terrified Yell, and swung the pole like a sword to my right. (spent too many years at renaissance faires, so it comes with the territory.) Just as I reached 1/4-swing, I happened to catch red plastic out of the corner of my eye. Stopped swinging about 2 inches from giving a mountain bike rider an Hiking Pole dinner! Swung it down towards the ground, and started apologizing profusely. The growl I thought I heard, was the rider clearing his throat. (You're in the middle of the woods, alone, You hear a LOUD sound, What would be your 1st reaction?) The rider, just stopped dead in his tracks. and asked "How far from here to the main road?".. I said 3/4 of a mile,out to Rt. 202. He thanked me, and continued on, obviously thinking "Cripes! The Psychotics out here these days?".. Once he disappeared into the woods on the trail, I dropped to my knees, and started laughing at how close it got to causing him real harm.. Thankfully, I've completed all of the caches in that forest, so no need to return to the scene of the crime.

[+Shaved Ewok]

Last year I was hitting a series deep in the woods alone and ended up being hunted by three coyotes. Never been so thankful I got my CCW!

[wwjd7]

 

Cache in there somewhere

.

Are you sure that's not a cacher who refused to log a DNF?

[+NYPaddleCacher]

 

Cache in there somewhere

.

Are you sure that's not a cacher who refused to log a DNF?

 

A sobering example of where the FTF game has become way too serious.

[+Ma & Pa]

Another photo of the body. Neither one is me.

 

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.

 

 

Edited March 28, 2014 by Ma & Pa

[+docNwitchjy]

Does this count as crazy? Cache page

 

Driving up to Beechworth, I knew it was going to be a bit soggy with the rain. I should have taken this into consideration. First one to the car park, sat in the car for awhile. When I did get out, I got to meet several people.

 

Next time someone suggests a game at one of these things, I may think twice. Off to find a swan, I soon had the coordinates to a location and I was on the trail. Following the app, I went up and over the hill. Some later suggested I should have gone around the bottom. Down the embankment, I was soon on less than solid ground. After checking the compass, realised I was heading the wrong way. Turned around to head in the right direction and that's when trouble set in.

 

One foot sunk to above the ankle and the walking stick lost it's rubber stopper. Digging in the sludge, I soon had that back but I was stuck fast. A lovely young man named Jake (not sure which team) came down to give me a hand but I was still stuck. Enter our charming host. Before I knew it, I had almost face planted. A combination of crawling and the occasional allowance of being able to walk, we slowly made our way back.

 

Unfortunately disaster struck after the third game of Sam-fall-down. On attempting to get up, the ankle went one way, the knee went another way and I went down like a sack of...umm...potatoes. While sitting on my backside waiting for the pain to subside enough to move, a lovely gentleman retrieved what I had been aiming for and brought it over to me.

 

After finally getting to a spot where walking was a little easier, we soon had me upright and hobbling out of there. Washing the mud of my hands was almost a relief and by this point I had forgotten the cold. It was also somewhere around this time that the rain stopped.

 

Into the geomobile and up to the high school, met up and was able to talk to some lovely cachers I had not met before. Swapped a pathtag, got some clues and collected a TB. After this it was time to head home to Benalla and the telling off from Doc when we were both home.

 

Tip: Avoid lake beds after a week of on and off rain

 

EDIT: This was also smiley number 200 for us

[+tealeaf]

I had some kind of ritual sacrifice done next to one of my caches. A cacher got to GZ and didn't even hunt after she spotted two birds with their severed heads surrounded by candles. She didn't log anything but sent me an email which I forwarded to the Open Space guy we work with. His response was that it was a first for the farm; but this goes on a lot in the foothills. Open Space takes pics and files police reports. The site is on the edge of an old farm that is now used to grow grain for birds and attracts a lot of birders and walkers.

[+unicornivi]

One time in particular when my partner and I were doing a cache in California. Keep in mind we were still pretty new at it and were in the "gps knows!!!" stage. We arrived at the supposed coordinates which were about 100 feet away. We couldn't get to them as there was barbed wire fence. So we found a trail along it and took it which only ended up taking us super far away... soo we took a hike into the vast dry and painful grass. There were barbs and the grass was tall... being a native of the area I knew the serious rattlesnake risk but my Jersey boy insisted we hike through it. I swear we were out there for two hours until we found the cache which could've been found an entirely different way, of course... but no one even told us this anywhere -__- Anyway by the time we got back to our car our shoes were packed with fox tails and brambles. Horrible experience XD

[+NJSquirrel]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Human? Yes, that counts.

Yes, human. Pretty freaky both times.

 

Those have to be the craziest, but on the other side I have had so many wonderful experiences it is hard to even think about which would be the best.

Were you able to determine if either of those people were cachers?

[+kudjo24]

I'm only at about 60, but the most memorable have definitely been those that involved cliffs. The human body, for some reason, has this awful subconscious tendency to gravitate towards the edge...in one particular case, a 200ft drop where a hiker at died 5 years earlier. Move slowly always, and really enjoy the view while you do, lol.

 

[+hzoi]

Hatto's Schatz was a cache on an island in the Rhein River near Bingen. It was near an old tower, the Mauseturm (Mouse Tower) that was used to collect tolls on the river. When we started caching, I saw that the owner had put up a "Hall of Fame" for the first three finders. Of course, since this was an island cache in the middle of the river, the idea was that you were supposed to use a boat. I had no boat, so I waited until it was warm enough and then swam across. The current was so strong that, even though I was swimming in a straight line, I traveled at a 45 degree angle from shore to island.

 

When I got to the cache, I saw that another cacher had beaten me to the #3 spot by a mere four hours. But the cache owner added me to the hall of fame anyway.

 

 

[+Inmountains]

How about geocaching in the cemetery after your father's funeral and wearing a suit while caching? My father and mother got me into geocaching so it was an honor and tribute to him. I just had a problem climbing graveyard trees in dress shoes, a white shirt, tie and dress jacket. But it was also a continuation as I found 15 caches on the day he died, February 29, 2012. I held his hand as he passed at 8:30 PM that evening. I told him that now he can find a LOT of caches and to start at the second star to the right!! Yes, I teared up while caching the day of his funeral.

[Elwig04]

I found a cache in a pine cone in Saint-Lunaire (France) , that was a very original place and i had a lot of difficulties to found it.

[+4thnoel]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Human? Yes, that counts.

Yes, human. Pretty freaky both times.

 

Those have to be the craziest, but on the other side I have had so many wonderful experiences it is hard to even think about which would be the best.

Were you able to determine if either of those people were cachers?

 

This is defiantly the funniest thread I have followed. Dead bodies?????? What did the police say or did you put them out. No wait you found them. Was a cache hidden in any?

[+Roman!]

I spent 11 days on a bus from Vancouver B.C. To Maine and back so I could create a challenge cache no one here was pre qualified for. It should have only been a 9 day trip but I lost a day due to an avalanche and another day due to deciding to visit Mingo.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

I spent 11 days on a bus from Vancouver B.C. To Maine and back so I could create a challenge cache no one here was pre qualified for. It should have only been a 9 day trip but I lost a day due to an avalanche and another day due to deciding to visit Mingo.

 

Welcome back!

[+Roman!]

I spent 11 days on a bus from Vancouver B.C. To Maine and back so I could create a challenge cache no one here was pre qualified for. It should have only been a 9 day trip but I lost a day due to an avalanche and another day due to deciding to visit Mingo.

 

Welcome back!

 

Thanks.

[+fizzymagic]

Does finding a dead body count? I've done that. Twice.

Human? Yes, that counts.

Yes, human. Pretty freaky both times.

 

Those have to be the craziest, but on the other side I have had so many wonderful experiences it is hard to even think about which would be the best.

Were you able to determine if either of those people were cachers?

 

Yes. Luckily, neither was.

 

I was tempted to count them as FTFs.

Edited April 10, 2014 by fizzymagic

[+beauxeault]

... I just had a problem climbing graveyard trees in dress shoes, a white shirt, tie and dress jacket. ...

 

This evening I did a little geocaching in a tux. No tree climbing involved, though, thank goodness.

[christyglpn]

Hatto's Schatz was a cache on an island in the Rhein River near Bingen. It was near an old tower, the Mauseturm (Mouse Tower) that was used to collect tolls on the river. When we started caching, I saw that the owner had put up a "Hall of Fame" for the first three finders. Of course, since this was an island cache in the middle of the river, the idea was that you were supposed to use a boat. I had no boat, so I waited until it was warm enough and then swam across. The current was so strong that, even though I was swimming in a straight line, I traveled at a 45 degree angle from shore to island.

 

When I got to the cache, I saw that another cacher had beaten me to the #3 spot by a mere four hours. But the cache owner added me to the hall of fame anyway.

 

 

Holy cow that had to be a long swum

[christyglpn]

I spent 11 days on a bus from Vancouver B.C. To Maine and back so I could create a challenge cache no one here was pre qualified for. It should have only been a 9 day trip but I lost a day due to an avalanche and another day due to deciding to visit Mingo.

Wow and I thought I was crazy walking to most of my caches 25 so far

About 30 miles total at least

[+Viajero Perdido]

A couple of times, hiking across the shores of dried-up lakes, we've found ourselves walking across quaking bogs.

 

You realize, hey, the ground is moving; it's liquid underneath. Maybe a foot down. It's like being on a tarp across a swimming pool. You jump up and down, and see a wave in the ground going away from you. (The other people with you ask you to stop it please.) And when your party for a moment accidentally walks in step, like soldiers on a bridge, you quickly realize, whoa, don't do that either.

 

As I said, this was dried up lake bed, and on the first occasion I remember there were cracks in the ground everywhere. I stuck my hiking pole in to see how far it'd go. Hmm, all the way to the handle, impressive. Now what happens when I pull it out? I was afraid of a geyser, but nothing happened except the pole came back wet.

 

That was pretty bizarre.

[+TwoEyeJay]

Though not my experience, this happened this month not here in NB, Canada, not far from my place

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/rcmp-don-t-suspect-foul-play-in-death-of-woman-in-coles-island-1.2608582

[4wheelin_fool]

Though not my experience, this happened this month not here in NB, Canada, not far from my place

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/rcmp-don-t-suspect-foul-play-in-death-of-woman-in-coles-island-1.2608582

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC3QYP9_tree-house

[4wheelin_fool]

1 for me. I have 2 LTFs (last to find) and I got locked into a cache for a few hours and had to cut my way out. on this

 

Haha, that reminds me of getting locked into a park in Lisbon... I thought I had plenty of time to complete a multi, but then I noticed I was the only one there and the walls, 10ft or more, were way too high for me to scale. I had to get the attention of a machine gun toting guard from the government building next door, try to explain in sign language what happened, and he got another heavily armed guard to escort me through their grounds and back out onto the street. The things we do... lol

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC10TD6_dia-de-sao-valentim-lisboa

 

I was last to leave at a park a few minutes after sunset. The exit was a long straight incline to the gate in which a park official was locking as I approached from below only 300 feet away. I'm pretty certain that he saw me, as he turned towards me with my headlights on. When I got to the top it was locked and he was gone. I called the police, but he returned about 5 minutes later with cup of coffee, claiming he didn't see me. Now I just keep a set of bolt cutters in the trunk.

[+mom2sage]

Went after some kayak caches today, but we were with a class and did not plan for the tide. When we were 200 feet from GZ, (and ran out of water) the instructor got out of his kayak and sunk in mud up to his thighs. He then crawled through the mud to reach the cache for us. The rest of us took photos and stayed clean and dry in our kayaks .

[+JPreto]

Gun pointed to the head by a policeman! This is how they do it in Brazil... First the gun, then the questions!

 

http://coord.info/GLDDV9PZ

 

I know at least another story like this...

 

http://coord.info/GL5NQ4K3

 

This one is even better because the guy that was looking was on the phone with the CO asking for help and he heard everything without being able to help...

[+Overurhead360]

:o :o ^^^^^^

 

 

i thought my police story was bad

 

my first, MY VERY FIRST GEOCACHE was a nano at a boat launch. why i chose this i dont know it was just the closest to where we were. but it was close to dark when we started, needless to say someone found it that day so we were determined to find our first cache. we found it via phone lights about 4 feet into the woods off the boat ramp, magneted to a nail( im guessing the nail was there already)but as were signing the log, of course the blues come flying down the boat ramp spot light on us. we proceeded to attempt to explain what we were doing. at the end the officer just looked at us like a cow looks at an oncomming train. blank faced and said "what ever floats your boat guys, im going back to the station to see how many people believe this story myself"

 

I enjoyed his boatlaunch joke and he left. that was deff my most exciting story of geocaching

[christyglpn]

Nothing to crazy lately 2 dirty diapers at one cache.

Than an eye opener

A cache listed as a larger walked a mile there and back

It was a large container but next to no swag. But an amazing

View which made the 2 mile round trip well worth it

[+Roman!]

Today I got hit by a blizzard while caching in my t-shirt.

Drove up the Coquihalla to grab 2 caches I needed for a challenge cache.

 

[christyglpn]

This thread has had some great stories here's another from me happened today.

Tackled part of a power trail today on foot. Decided to end day off at a tb geocoin hotel. While there ran into a pregnant puppy

Chased it around for about an hour trying to find the owner. 1 person I asked got cops involved. So worked with cops for about an hour trying to get her. Tried for about an hour before we lost her.

 

After walking 5 miles I amazed myself by running about half a mile though now my big toe is in a lot of pain

[+rockey_f_squirrell]

I had one where there was a live snake sitting on an area I suspected the find to be, and I thought it was a fake snake. As I neared it, it curled up and gave me a warning.

 

Had another one where I picked up a rock and had either a possum or raccoon growl at me (winter time too)

[+dprovan]

I had one where there was a live snake sitting on an area I suspected the find to be, and I thought it was a fake snake. As I neared it, it curled up and gave me a warning.

Yeah, I ran into a rattlesnake that I thought was rubber camo. Worse, the cache was named "Critter Cache", so it was exactly what I was expecting. I'm still not sure what made me poke at it with something long while hiding around the corner to see if it moved instead of just reaching for it.

[+Ma & Pa]

For some reason MA found this to be a crazy caching experience.

 

**************************************************

 

A few years ago we had driven down to Florida and did the Easy Street series. The caches were mostly film canisters on the ground next to fence posts. A few times as we looked back down the road, we spotted neighbours at the end of their driveways looking towards us.

 

At one cache I had the following log.

 

Ma went for the cache and Pa stayed in the car. A car went by, slowed and made a U-turn and parked behind our car. Pa figured it was perhaps an upset neighbour, so he stayed in car and locked the door and let Ma handle him. Turns out it was a local cacher Doughball. Had a great conversation about local caches.

 

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