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Ever Get Seriously Hurt During a Hunt?


christophe

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So far, I only have 50 finds under my belt, and only one thing has happened to me: While searching on a pretty steep hill, I slipped and landed right on my butt and slid about 10 feet with my GPSr right behind me. It didn't hurt, and was actually quite fun.

 

What's the worst thing that has happened to you while on a hunt? Have you ever gotten seriously hurt? I'm sure it's only a matter of time before an accident happens while on a hunt, but I know some things can be prevented. I'm sure we could all learn from other people's mistakes/misfortunes.

 

[This message was edited by christophe on September 29, 2002 at 06:57 PM.]

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While I and my friend were going through a swamp to find a cashe, he slipped on a slimy fallen tree and almost got knocked out. He fell into the muck and started to sink. I pulled him out and had to help carry him back to the car.

 

Fathers and Sisters I have none but this man's father is none other than me, Tony De Angelo. I know, it doesn't make any sense!

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First off, what's this "only 50 finds" crap? That's a good number, and all done in less than a month! Way to go!

 

My own worst injury was losing my step while climbing over a downed log on the side of a slope. I fell forward, and a little branch sticking straight up out of the log embedded itself in my leg like a bad prison shank. Left a one-inch hole and a permanent scar. And yeah, we did find the cache after another 30 minutes of searching!

 

I've read in other people's logs about broken ankles and rescue helicopters.

 

But surely the worst story is the geocacher who died from heat exhaustion in California. Makes me sad every time I think about it. And VERY careful about always carrying enough to drink!

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

I keep missing my ex-wife. But my aim is getting better.

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.....if it does, then the answer is a resounding YES! Actually, I was not on a cache hunt when this happened but rather I was out looking for a spot to hide a cache.

 

I know what PO looks like but apparently I totally missed this bunch. I got hit hard as both my legs from my thighs down to right above my ankles (I was wearing shorts and ankle socks) were in itching, oozing, agony for almost 5 weeks. Definitely something you should watch out for and NOT something I ever want to go through again!

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I had an incident today that could have meant bad things...

 

I was hiking up this rock field (click pic for bigger version, note the incline)

 

s_blodgett01.jpg

 

The outside edges were large rocks but the center was small soccer ball sized rocks. I stepped on in the center and the whole thing started a rock slide... I ran with it as fast as I could and was able to snag a tree branch at the last second... It was pretty eerie... It slid *forever* and you could hear rocks in the distance even... It's like the whole mountain slid down a few hundred feet and finally stopped... I stuck to the sides after that, with bruised ankles and a toe that feels broken.

 

Always bring a cellphone and always bring a radio... cause you never know...

 

geosig.jpg

Contents Under Pressure...

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I have had many near misses. I have fallen flat on my back off of logs several times; my legs are permanently scared from all the scrapes, but nothing too serious (yet?). My wife now insists on a first aid kit and cell phone for all caching. I can see it now, lying flat on my back legs bleeding and “out of service” on the phone.

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So far, thank God, neither my wife or I have had any serious mishaps while caching, a misstep or two, but no injuries.

 

It's funny though that some of the people I know tend to give me odd looks when I explain how we go out caching. We each have belt packs (or fanny packs I guess) we carry cell phones, FRS radios, (the GPS of course!) compass and hikers first aid kits. Of course, it isn't that bulky, we're not wandering around like geared up robo-cachers or anything, but even that kind of limited preparation has raised a few eyebrows. For some reason people don't associate accidents with their immediate areas. The way I see it, just because I've hiked the local conservation area a hundred times this summer doesn't mean that the next time I'm not going to have one of those freak accidents and fracture my leg falling 4 feet off of an embankment (true story, that happened to a guy out here!) and be left stranded and helpless until some passing hiker wanders within earshot.

 

For the time preparation takes, it can't be stressed enough. Of course I've gotten a bit off topic here, even with the best of preparation, accidents still happen, and injuries still occur, but you can better deal with them.

 

Gord,

Team Bradinn

 

"When I was a young man, I journeyed to the West to find myself......it turns out I had the wrong coordinates."

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I'm retired and do most of my caching alone during the week. For that reason I'm starting to have 2nd thoughts about being several miles into an area I'm not familiar with and slip or fall and break a leg or something, or even a snake bite. I can tell my wife I'm going to 'these 4 caches' and I'll be back in 6 hours, but that doesn't help much unless someone happens to wonder by and find me. This hasn't really changed my caching schedule, but as I get older I think about it more than before.

 

Rich

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My sister, an experienced climber and hiker, gave me a nice wood branch that she converted into a walking stick. She gave it to me as a gift not long after discovering I was into geocaching. It is a pretty sturdy walking stick complete with a nice carving, and the top of it is wrapped in leather. It has literally saved me on several occasions from falling, and it is invaluable when needing additional leverage or making more sure footing. There seem to be a thousand uses for it, including helping to move certain undesirables out of the way like poison ivy, etc. So needless to say, it is one of the safety items that I always take along.

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I twisted an ankle on my third find but not badly. Other than that, my only mishap has been slipping on a log and knocking my breath out for a few secs. And that was checking on one of my own caches! I just recieved an email from someone who cut his foot on a submerged broken bottle trying to reach another of my caches. But probably the most painful thing for him was listening to his wife getting on to him for taking off his boots to retrieve it!

 

Visit the Mississippi Geocaching Forum at

http://pub98.ezboard.com/bgeocachingms

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Well, i just about had a heart attack when i heard my wife scream at the top of her lungs! She was following me through some ferns when she stepped on a water moccasin. Dont know how i missed it or it missed me. We have encountered 2 moccasins, a rattler, and several non poisonous snakes while out caching. The snakes dont bother me but when i hear my wife let out a yelp,,,thats a whole nother thing!!!

 

We do try to prepare and be careful, so far we've been lucky with no serious mishaps.

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My wife was in the brush poking around for a cache when she stirred up a hornet's nest. They swarmed around her and chased her down a small slope until one of them stung her on the neck.

 

Here in Florida, we take no chances...we carry a first aid kit, snake bite kit, sting swabs, knife, waterproofing bags and other survival/camping items and especially lots of water on each hunt.

 

Mark

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I was out this weekend in Arkansas, had the cache in sight and was about to pull it from it's resting place when I was yanked out of my 'cache found reverie' by a snap of twigs nearby. Looking that way I saw a Arkansas Razorback and he wasn't too happy with me being on his turf. They are as mean as their reputation!

 

I threw everything I had at him 40' away -GPS, cellphone, and cache bag, then he charged, and I ran (Fight vs Flight). Dodged around and through trees but that didn't help they're nimble and can turn on dimes. All I could see was tusks, fur, and leaves getting kicked up!

 

Jumped up onto a tree finally, unfortunately... the tree was rotten (and burned hollow by lightening I discovered later) which proceeded to snap at the base. Down we came.

 

Fortunately all I heard was "Sqweeeeee!" as the Razorback got frightened off as the tree came crashing down. I figure one of the limbs must have hit him. I couldn't see nothing but stars and black as I took a shot from the tree to the jewels when it came down. Ow! That left a mark!

 

I did finally manage to limp back out to my truck.

Called my wife, and told her I was coming home early, but didn't tell her the story. When I got home, I found that she had made me Pork Chops for dinner (My birthday). There's just that special something that I love about that woman!

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quote:
Originally posted by christophe:

What's the worst thing that has happened to you while on a hunt? Have you ever gotten seriously hurt? I'm sure it's only a matter of time before an accident happens while on a hunt, but I know some things can be prevented. I'm sure we could all learn from other people's mistakes/misfortunes.


 

Well, I don't know if I'd call it a serious injury, but I did badly sprain my ankle after finding this cache, and while playing disc golf. Kablooey, Twocatz, and Eug had to help me out of there and I ended up going to the emergency room.

 

I still enjoy the sport, do not blame Pedalman for his cache, and would never consider suing the County over it (can you believe people asked me if I was going to sue? I was off the trail, for Pete's sake!).

 

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

Becky Davis

San Jose, CA

Cache 'n' carry... My 4 year old!

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quote:
Originally posted by RB_Nielsen:

"...My sister, an experienced climber and hiker, gave me a nice wood branch that she converted into a walking stick. She gave it to me as a gift not long after discovering I was into geocaching. It is a pretty sturdy walking stick complete with a nice carving, and the top of it is wrapped in leather. It has literally saved me on several occasions from falling, and it is invaluable when needing additional leverage or making more sure footing. There seem to be a thousand uses for it, including helping to move certain undesirables out of the way like poison ivy, etc. So needless to say, it is one of the safety items that I always take along..."


 

Here's a great piece of kit:

 

http://www.guideschoice.com/BD_trek_pole.htm

 

The advantage of a trekking pole over a wooden walking stick is that you can adjust its length 'on the fly' (shorter for when you're climbing up a hill, longer for when you're going down the other side). A trekking pole also tends to be lighter than a wooden walking stick and, with an ergonomic hand grip, more comfortable to hang on to.

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Not too long ago my buddy and I were checking out some caves I had located. We decided to park right along the freeway, since they were located really close by. Anyways, a couple hours later, we came walking back towards my car. As we were rounding the corner of some trees, I noticed a police car with its' lights on, parked near my car. I held my friend back because I wasn't sure if we should go out there. This was because my inspection was expired and I thought maybe if I didn't go out there, they couldn't give me a ticket or something? Anyways, that didn't make too much sense, so we just decided to go see what was up.

 

As we got closer to the car, we noticed an ambulance and a fire truck, all surrounding my car. Oh God I thought, what happened? Oh well, let's just see. Getting closer, I saw that my rear windshield was all shattered. Man! I thought, someone broke into my car.The cop was asking me as I walked up if I was the owner of the car. I said yes, and asked what had happened, after noticing a bloody shirt on the ground next to my car. As the firemen were sweeping the glass off the street (and dumping it back into my car??!!), they proceeded to tell the story:

 

Apparently a couple of bicyclists were riding down the road and one of them was not looking up when he approached my car. He smacked right into the back of my Honda and his face slammed headfirst into the rear window. Blood was trickling down the side of my car. It was such a weird thing they kept saying. They had never seen anything like it. The cop did notice that my inspection as expired, but didn't give me a ticket for it. Eventually the firemen got as much glass out of the car as they could and then the cop got some information from me, then we took off.

 

The funny thing is, I decided to get my first GPSr with the money I got for the windshield!

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Actually, it was yesterday according to my watch and over 500 miles earlier. It's going to be our first no-find from just plain wimping out. Great cache, great location, we were just not prepared and too far from home to get more equipment. I haven't even logged it online yet although I did write up my no-find log on the ride home. I'll log it, as well as several others (mostly finds!), later today.

 

Even with the no-find, it still caused some minor injuries to the two team members that were crazy enough to attempt it. Fortunately just scrapes, bruises and sore muscles. Along with first aid kits, common sense is essential on all cache hunts. Better a bruised ego than a broken neck!

 

BTW, the cache in question was Lost Caves of the Middle Sun. We were so, so close...

 

GeoMedic - team leader of GeoStars

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