Geocaching fatality

[seminary7]

My good friend, Mike Curtin, died Sunday, Nov 1, while geocaching in Southern California. There was a big heatwave that day. An article about Mike's death is at:

 

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/editionArticle.do?id=1083

 

Here's Mike's obituary.

 

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/editionArticle.do?id=1359

 

Be warned. When it's hot be careful - better to not go out geocaching. Mike always brought water along with him when he geocached but the heat (apparently) got to him.

 

God bless you, Mike. I'll miss you.

 

[This message was edited by seminary7 on September 06, 2002 at 06:37 AM.]

 

[This message was edited by seminary7 on September 06, 2002 at 06:39 AM.]

[+LarsThorwald]

Well, I'll ell you something: that's a sad story. The guy must have had some pre-existing condition. Either way, we were in Laguna yesterday and that's the hottest it's been since we've had a house there. Near 90 - and that's at the beach!

 

109, though? That's too dadgum hot to be hiking, any way you look at it. IMHO.

 

Pretty sad.

 

Charlie

"One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction."

[Jeremy]

I'm deeply saddened by your loss. My heart goes out to you and the family and friends of Mike.

 

As one that is susceptable to heat exhaustion, I take added extra precautions when going out hiking. Definitely water is a must, but I also just watch for any of the symptoms.

 

If you aren't well educated on heat exhaustion, pleasevisit this site to learn more about the symptoms of heat exhaustion and prevention.

 

Jeremy Irish

Groundspeak - The Language of Location

[+GypsyMoth]

Please accept my sympathy also. Thank you for sharing the link and the reminder to all of us to be careful.

 

Just don't let Kirk show you what he affectionately calls the 'Captain's Log'

[+LarsThorwald]

In reading the newspaper stories, it's clear that Mike had water with him... which only goes to show how insidious heatstroke can be...

 

Charlie

"One should never begin a journey by heading in the wrong direction."

[+mrcpu]

When I was on training with the military, if we were outside doing something vigirous like section attacks, we would stand down at 100 degrees F. Obviously, if it was a REAL war that wouldn't happen, but we didn't want unnecissary training casualties.

 

It's surprising how fast heat or cold can kill you. What is even scarier is that we are on a globe spinning through space with a very very very thin atmosphere protecting us from near absolute zero and hundreds of degree HOT conditions. If the earths average temperature were to change by a few tiny degrees either way we'd be EXTINCT!!!

 

Anyways, I hope Mike died happy, doing something he enjoyed.

 

Rob

Mobile Cache Command

[seminary7]

Jeremy,

 

Thanks for your kind comments. They buried Mike on Wednesday. The offical cause won't be set for a couple of weeks but it looked like heat exhaustion.

 

One thing I do know is that Mike was in excellent physical condition. He played basketball in an adult league and worked out regularly. He was geocaching to get some extra exercise. In fact, that may have been what pushed Mike to go out when others would have stayed home.

 

I spoke with Mike's widow the day after he died. They were High School sweethearts. He had two young boys. So sad.

 

Mike loved geocaching... His sons had Mike buried with his own geocache box.

 

I was told by another friend that when Mike was found he didn't have water with him. I have been out geocaching with Mike and his kids and Mike was certainly well prepared for geocaching when I went out with him.

 

A lesson for us all. Life is very short.

 

seminary7

[+whooven]

Oh my gosh, that is so tragic. Very sorry to hear that. My condolences to his family and friends.

 

I hope you don't stop geocaching as a result of this tradgedy though. I think you kind of honor your friend Mike when you continue on.

 

-----------

Bill

Jeeps Only!

http://www.jeepsonly.com

------------------------

[+TeamHanda]

I am so very sorry to hear of the death of your friend, Mike Curtin. And also very sad for his wife and sons. My 16 year old son and I were hiking in Valley Center, California that same weekend. Valley Center is in San Diego County, northeast of Escondido. It's known for having high temperatures during the summer. There was a "must do" cache that had a $5 bill in it. We started late....didn't start the hike until 11AM. The trail consisted of steep switchbacks. It was a mile of hiking, and if I'm not mistaken, a gain in elevation of 600 feet. An hour and a half later we found the cache. Looking for the cache was nearly worse than hiking. Much of the looking around time was spent in blazing sun and climbing on rocks. We each had a quart and a half of water. The hike downhill was worse than uphill. The temperature had increased and there were few opportunities to stop in the shade. We take plenty of breaks and drink water even if we aren't thirsty. I'm 52 and overweight. What saves me is that I had a very active job for almost 25 years. And the weight gain has been in the last two years. I do not have high blood pressure or a family history of cardiac disease. But I began to feel very, very odd. Water was not helping. My son does not drive and I wasn't sure that I should be, but I needed to cool off. The air conditioned car was of some help. I did not experience any relief until I stopped at a small market and bought a bottle of Gatorade. The cold beverage, the glucose and salts did the trick. My heart rate finally began to lower and in another few minutes, I almost felt normal. The outside temperature was 105.

 

I've learned my lesson. For all warm hikes I now take "frozen" Gatorade for both of us. I now realize how dangerous it is for your body core temperature to increase. All the other water we take also starts the jouney frozen and we take the big, printed hankies with us. Soak those in water and put them around our necks or on top of our heads.

 

And someone else's advice of just not hiking when the weather is so hot is also good.

 

Please pass our condolences along to the family. Let them know that a mom and her son from San Diego County will be thinking of them every time we put a cache out. I hope they will continue to go Geocaching. I've found it to be such a wonderful family activity that involves so many areas of learning. Learning to take better care of ourselves on the trail is not something many of us thought we would need to learn.

 

Thank you for sharing with us.

 

Sincerely,

corysmom

[+Kevin & Susan]

Here is a link to the cache The ZenBabes and we created today in Mike's memory:

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=37173 .

Although we did not know him, we feel a deep and profound sense of loss at Mike's passing and wanted to give others a place to come and pay their respects, too.

We checked all three of our caches today, and found a log by Mike in the High Road to Fossil Hill cache. Apparently, the only cache he visited September 1st. We pulled the page from the log and attached it to the log book of his memorial cache.

Please come and visit the cache and share your thoughts and prayers for Mike and his family and friends. It would be nice to have a photo of him in the cache, if anyone who was close to him might want to contribute one.

We send our sincere condolences to Mike's family and friends.

Kevin & Susan

[The Nelson's]

We are deeply sorry for your loss...

You and his family are forever in our prayers.

 

Steve

 

http//:www.thenelsons.8m.net

RV's & a GPS makes the world go 'round