Please wear proper foot wear!

[WolfWalker]

I decided to go hunt a couple of geocaches today in a local (to me) park.  I had a heck of a time finding the first one.  It was under pretty dense tree cover so the gps app had me walking all over the place.  I persisted though, and was rewarded with the find.  I look up the one remaining, and set off to locate it.  I got to the approximate location, and set off the trail to find it.  Once I did find it (a cleverly hidden small bird house) I heard some people walking the trail, so I stayed real still and watched them until they disappeared.  I logged it, and went about to hit the trail to return to my car.

 

Here's my biggest mistake..........for some reason my sneakers look like I'm walking on the outer edges.  I noticed this just a few days ago and thought "Ok, I need to get a new pair".  I haven't done that yet though.  As I was about to join the main trail I had a small (tiny) embankment to walk down.........it was covered in pine needles.  Yeap, my left foot first slipped, then rolled over towards the outside, I heard a loud snap........and I went down.  Hurt like heck.  As I laid there on my back I had thoughts going through my head, like dang it, I didn't buy new shoes, how on earth am I gonna get back to my car, and then how the heck am I going to drive home........it's a 5 speed stick!

 

Well, I walked one painful step at a time, all the way down the main trail and to my car.  (Although I'll admit, at one point it hurt so bad I felt dizzy and light headed, so I just sat down and waited for that to pass.)  Got to my car, got in, and sat there logging the find on this site.  I then drove home, in hopes of finding my neighbor (and best friend) home.  Thankfully she was indeed home.  I pulled into her driveway and was in the process of phoning her when she walked out.  I explained what had happened, and she got me into her car and drove me to a hospital.  I'm now in a cast with a spiral fracture of the distal fibula, with a splinter of bone loose.  After 5 x-rays they're unsure if that splinter is inside the ankle joint or outside......

 

I'll be seeing an orthopedic surgeon Friday to have this temporary cast removed, further x-rays done, and either another cast put on or to schedule surgery to remove that splinter of bone.

 

So, enjoy the game, the challenge, and the hunt, but please wear good proper footwear.........and don't take a slip lightly!

 

Hunt on,

WolfWalker

 

**Update:**  I saw the ortho surgeon this morning.  After 3 more x-rays were taken, he sat down and explained how my fibula has 3 fractures with two pieces of displaced bone.  The one splinter that concerned him Wednesday is "just" at the joint capsule, but may cause issues later on if left as it is.....so yeap, I'll be having surgery on the 9th to gain some hardware (plates and pins).  The actual healing time will be the same whether I have surgery or not, but hey, I do want to eventually hunt more caches, and to have my ankle back to as close to normal as possible.  (As far as my shoes I was wearing at the time, they're running-type sneakers.  Lesson learned, next time I'll be wearing traditional hiking boots!)

 

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by WolfWalker

[+niraD]

Hear that, @barefootjeff?  

[+The Leprechauns]

My caching partner agrees with you!

 

We were caching in a local park where we targeted a 2/3 cache along a trail at the top of a steep slope.  It was raining heavily, but we decided to push on.  I scrambled off the trail and down the hill in my hiking boots, finding the cache container easily.  My partner had the pen, so I called for her to join me.  A few steps off the trail in her sneakers, and she tumbled head over heels, landing on her back after a 20 foot slide.  With a clearly broken ankle, I knew it was time to call 911.  It took 20 firefighters, police officers and EMS personnel to extract her from the hillside in a Stokes litter.  Fortunately, the park was a 10 minute ambulance ride from a Level 1 Trauma Center, where she spent the next week and had two surgeries.

 

That was August 28th.  Earlier today, her orthopedist cleared her to start walking freely again.  WITH PROPER FOOTWEAR.

 

 

[+Max and 99]

Ouch!

[+barefootjeff]

2 hours ago, niraD said:

Hear that, @barefootjeff?  

 

As paradoxic as it sounds, I reckon I'm safer barefoot, as I'm always aware of where I'm putting my feet and can immediately feel if what I'm stepping on is slippery or unstable. In pretty much a lifetime of not wearing shoes, the worst I've had are the occasional stubbed toe and some minor scratches and abrasions, whereas some of my shoe-wearing friends have ended up in a bad way after their shoes either unexpectedly slipped or got caught on something.

[+Gill & Tony]

Even wearing proper footwear, watch where you are putting your feet.

 

We recently looked for a cache at the top of a roadside embankment.  We all clambered up OK, but Gill stepped on a hidden hubcap that someone had thrown up there.  It slid out from under her foot and she fell face down inches from a barbed wire fence.  Landing awkwardly she broke her wrist in two places.  Fortunately she missed the barbed wire or she could have been badly scarred about the face.

[+mustakorppi]

For me geocaching is a sidehobby (that has gotten out of control lately...) for cycling, so there have been some needlessly sketchy situations when going after a cache in cycling shoes. Flat MTB shoes are usually ok, but metal cleats on rock unsurprisingly have no grip.

 

Regardless of footwear choice, the risk of injury that would put a stop to my main hobby is definitely on my mind when geocaching.

[+Goldenwattle]

3 hours ago, mustakorppi said:

For me geocaching is a sidehobby (that has gotten out of control lately...) for cycling

I love caches that are easy to cycle to. Even better, that have been set up for a cycling outing. They are one type of power trail that I approve of. Following a cycleway.

I started one of those, and now there are 44 caches in the cycling power trail, along a sealed bike path, put there by different people. This was the first one: GC64K69. I later added a multi to fill in the mentioned 180 metre gap.

[+cerberus1]

12 hours ago, WolfWalker said:

Here's my biggest mistake..........for some reason my sneakers look like I'm walking on the outer edges. 

 

Kinda surprised, I have thought you'd be preaching to the choir, but apparently by posts ... Not.      

Sorry about your lesson learned.  Ouch.  Even with the other 2/3rds (who'd hit urban hides), I don't think we've ever worn sneakers caching.

One beautiful waterfalls trail area near me, Glen Onoko, finally got closed due to repeated rescues.  Footwear a part of the problem.

Too many spills.  We'd see couples with the gal wearing ballet flats, on what would be a steep 3 - 4.5 in terrain.  

[+niraD]

21 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

Even with the other 2/3rds (who'd hit urban hides), I don't think we've ever worn sneakers caching.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "sneakers". Some people use the word to refer to shoes that are most appropriate on a tennis court, basketball court, or other smooth athletic court. Others use the word to refer to pretty much any athletic-style shoe, including trail runners and similar low-cut hiking boots/shoes.

Edited December 2, 2021 by niraD

[+terratin]

11 hours ago, barefootjeff said:

 

As paradoxic as it sounds, I reckon I'm safer barefoot, as I'm always aware of where I'm putting my feet and can immediately feel if what I'm stepping on is slippery or unstable. In pretty much a lifetime of not wearing shoes, the worst I've had are the occasional stubbed toe and some minor scratches and abrasions, whereas some of my shoe-wearing friends have ended up in a bad way after their shoes either unexpectedly slipped or got caught on something.

 

Oddly, I'm safer in converse compared to hikingboots. My ankles are totally hypermobile, and in over 40 years of dealing with that my body has learned to use my foot muscles to compensate. If I wear boots, or other shoes in which I can't move my muscles as I'm used to I just fall over sideways. My feet are also so trained to 'feeling' the ground and reacting to uneven things that thick soles make me feel kind of foot-blind. I still wear the boots on higher terrain hikes, but it's not my preference. Mind you, when I do sprain my ankle (I do that more often) then it hurts for a few minutes and then all is fine again.

[+PeoriaBill]

Thanks for posting this topic.  This is good advice for new and old cachers alike.

[+funkymunkyzone]

On 12/2/2021 at 4:14 PM, WolfWalker said:

...Got to my car, got in, and sat there logging the find on this site...

Glad you had your priorities right!

[+Bundyrumandcoke]

My thongs are correct footwear. 

[+Mysterion604]

In June I broke my wrist coming back from a caching / GPS measuring hike. I was walking down a mountain bike trail, when gravel got loose under my foot and I fell down tumbling as I went. Picked myself up, started walking the rest of the way back, but by the time I reached my vehicle, it was hurting pretty bad.

Footwear at the time of the fall was work boots; nothing specifically wrong with them, but maybe just a little more protection might have helped me not skid and fall down? I have upgraded to actual hiking boots since then, but wearing a cast for 6 weeks at the height of summer was not fun.

 

[+The Jester]

On 12/8/2021 at 1:23 PM, Bundyrumandcoke said:

My thongs are correct footwear. 

I wear Teva's most of the year (unless the snow is over an inch...).  I've rock climbed in them (up to a 5.4), crossed stream & rivers, scrambled rocks & talus slopes, bicycled and been on trails of all levels.  I do have trail shoes and hiking boots I use (mostly when carrying a load or in sandy conditions).  

 

14 hours ago, mysterion604 said:

In June I broke my wrist coming back from a caching / GPS measuring hike. I was walking down a mountain bike trail, when gravel got loose under my foot and I fell down tumbling as I went. Picked myself up, started walking the rest of the way back, but by the time I reached my vehicle, it was hurting pretty bad.

Footwear at the time of the fall was work boots; nothing specifically wrong with them, but maybe just a little more protection might have helped me not skid and fall down? I have upgraded to actual hiking boots since then, but wearing a cast for 6 weeks at the height of summer was not fun.

I'm not sure a change of footwear would have helped, but trek poles very well could have.  

[+HoochDog]

Even with proper footwear, watch where you step. On a new cache hidden near an abandoned building, I stepped on a board with a rusty nail sticking up. It went through my shoe and deep into my foot. 
Went straight to the doc to get a tetanus shot. 
I got the ftf though so it was worth it. 😈

[+Mysterion604]

On 12/12/2021 at 6:33 AM, HoochDog said:

Even with proper footwear, watch where you step. On a new cache hidden near an abandoned building, I stepped on a board with a rusty nail sticking up. It went through my shoe and deep into my foot. 
Went straight to the doc to get a tetanus shot. 
I got the ftf though so it was worth it. 😈

 

Och! I've done that. I was helping a friend demolish an old rotten treehouse on his property, stepped on a rusty nail, and it went right through my shoe like the sole was made of warm butter. One of many tenanus shots I've had in life.

 

[+DreamMachine74]

I've only recently invested in good shoes with geocaching in mind. I have two pairs of running shoes that are fit for city streets and trails in parks with not much terrain variability, havig bought them just after pur last lockdown.

I also have only recently [maybe 3 months ago] bought a pair of good, waterproof hiking shoes that, upon testing yesterday to replace my 3D/5T ammo can [which is no longer an ammo can....grr  ] , stood up well to the test of mud, slopes and well,enough sturdiness to keep out the water....I do need to run more tests on just how far submerged thse shoes can be. 

I've only come to invest in good shoes after many years of just wearing one pair of running shoes...or boots for the winter. I've slid many times on leafy slopes in river valleys and such, but I was always lucky, mostly in that there were just leaves on the ground and I caught my fall with my hands.