Starting Your Day Off All Wrong.

[+Ken243]

I'd like to know about stupid mistakes/bad luck while geocaching. Here is my story/post.

 

Take a walk in highlands. Michigan cache

 

Wow! This was the start of what proved to be the most interesting day of geocaching I have ever had. After finding my parking spot for the first part of the cache I put the tape measure in my pocket which I intended on putting in the cache, jumped out of the work car/ geocaching mobeel went to open the back door to grab my gloves and click...click click click. OOOOHHHH NNNNOOO. I locked my keys in the car! But being the resourceful person my dad taught me to be, I came up with a great idea. After taking the radio antenna off the car I used the tape measure to wedge open the top of the door enough to stick the antenna down into the car and hit the power unlock button. And presto problem solved, and the only damage to the car was a bent antenna. So if you are out caching and see a white ford tempo with bent radio antenna, you know who it is. Now on to the cache, Walked right to the first one neat idea with the placement. #2 was a bit more difficult. The hint would have helped but I wasn't sure about which tree was an oak tree. That and the cords. led me to a spot 40 ft away. But after some work and looking at the base of every other tree within 50 ft of the wrong spot I finally found it. And on to #3, drove within 300ft of this one, placed in the same manner the first part was and walked right to it. #4 was a chore! What a walk and to find out the cords. led 50ft off again. After slipping and sliding and falling and cussing, I found it 50 ft north of the cords. Took the carabiener to hook my keys to my belt! and left that trusty tape measure. Check this one out! Besides locking my keys in my car its the best one I have done yet!

[adrianjohn]

This post has been around for a few days now, so here is my contribution to get things going.

 

I decided to see if paperless caching was the way to go, and the night before I downloaded some target caches into my pda. I left the pda in its cradle overnight to ensure that it was fully charged. Rising early next morning I packed my gear into the car, picked up my gpsr along with map printouts and compass and set off for a days caching. I had driven about twenty five miles from home when I realised that the pda was still in its cradle on my desk at home. DOH!

I had to drive a further ten miles to the next junction before I could turn around. I returned home to collect my pda and set off again, without further incident I drove to the location of the first cache. As I was leaving my car I glanced down at the ground and saw a large pool of engine oil forming, and looking underneath my car saw oil had been spraying out for some distance as the uderside of the car was covered in oil. Investigation showed that a tiny pin hole leak had occured in a corroded pipe to the oil cooler. I usually carry a few bit and pieces to assist with running repairs and used a coil of self amalgamating tape to bind the area over the leak. Satisfied that I had fixed the problem I carried on to my first cache before going on to get some oil to top up the oil level.

The next problem was finding a place to buy some oil, particularly when I didnt know how much oil was in the engine and how far that I could drive on what was left. At least the oil pressure warning was staying off, but where do you find an open filling station in rural England on a Sunday morning when you dont know the area.

Driving slowly and carefully I found a place and bought my oil. Oh Oh! the leak had started up again, needless to say hot oil and self amalgamating tape don't make a good repair. A further look in my toolkit revealed a Jubilee hose clip and by cutting a piece of a rubber luggage strap I made another repair, this one allowing me to complete my days caching and also lasting long enough to run my car until my dealer was able to order in the spare part I needed to repair my car.

[+Geo Ho]

Mopar and I were asked by Planet to retrieve a travel bug from New Jersey where we had planned to do some caching. There were two caches in the park where the travel bug was placed. After successfully retrieving the travel bug we moved on to the second cache where I managed to trip in a snow covered hole and fall flat on my face. After Mopar had his laugh we proceeded to search. After the cache had been found and we had signed the log we headed back to the car. Mopar thought it would be a good idea to call Planet and let her know that we had recovered the bug. I reached for my phone but it was not there. Mopar headed back to the car just in case I had left the phone there while I retraced my steps to see if it had fallen out of my pocket when I fell. I found the spot and found my phone, did I mention that it's white??. I called Mopar on the FRS radio to inform him and turned around, tripped in the same hole and landed flat on my face . . . again. Whatever.

 

Even funnier than that . . . after doing several more caches, we decided to hit one more. It was dark but it was an easy one and we were close by . . . so what the heck. After locating the cache and signing the log we headed back to the car and I noticed my flashlight was missing. So, we go back to look. We didn't find my flashlight but Mopar DID find my little yellow Etrex laying in the snow. The lanyard got snagged on a branch and pulled my GPS right out of my pocket. What's so funny about this that is that Stayfloopy had lost his little yellow Etrex at the exact same cache 6 months prior.

 

Lessons learned . . . tie everything down, zip up pockets, watch out for holes.

 

I'm not a ditz, really I'm not. Really . . .

 

Anyhoo . . . happy caching and stuff!

[+rusty_tlc]

My current nemisis cache is a multi that starts a few blocks from my house. We decided to drive to the park since it was late and pretty cold and windy. We found all the clues and went back to the car. The cache owner had provided a check sum so we tested our results and found we had made a mistake. Since I was sure I knew which one I had screwed up we hopped out and ran over there thinking we might have time to finish the rest of the mulit before dark. Sure enough I had screwed up, we got the right number and headed back to the car.

 

This is where things started going sour. The keys were sitting in the drink holder, inside the locked car. Next to my cell phone, and my wifes purse. Now the wind is really kicking up, and my wife is realy pleased with me. We walk back to the (locked) house. The only good thing was that I had left the door between the garage and house unlocked. After we got into the garage, we recovered the spare truck keys and the spare car keys. We retrived the truck and went home. This is where I did the second stupidest thing of the day, I ask my wife if she wanted to try to finish the multi.

[+Wulfster]

I took an afternoon off from work and drove about 30 miles to a nearby cache (I planned on hitting caches until it got dark).

Since I didn't plan the trip in advance, I wasn't sure where to park for the first cache. I drove down what the GPS said was the correct road; it tuned into dirt, and then into a two-rut trail which ended in a pile of brush (about 2 tenths of a mile from the cache).

Since I thought there may be a closer road, I turned my truck around in the weeds on the side of the trail and smashed my bumper into a hidden stump. It pushed the bumper into my rear fender as well.

I decided to cool off by driving to the next cache (so this ended up being a "no find").

[+Leapin' Lizards]

From a cache that temporarily had us on the run... away, far far away.... we came back a few weeks later and beat it, though!

 

----

Should you decide to expose friends to the Joys Of Geocaching, we'd like to offer a few helpful tips.

 

1. Never assume that this'll be a quick jaunt in and out. Take all necessary supplies, including the special pack that carries the 17-month-old baby. Hauling a toddler on your shoulders for more than two miles at a stretch isn't so good on neck muscles.

 

2. Cell phones for everybody. Even if the other three adults in the group have one, a fourth will, at some point, be necessary. As a secondary note here, leaving them in the truck isn't conducive to finding lost tribe members in the brush.

 

3. Girl Scouts are smart enough to stay on marked trails. You should be, as well.

 

4. Yellow jackets build their nests underground. Dogs like to dig. Yellow jackets can bite and sting, and will do both at once when they feel threatened. Dogs go crazy when they are being attacked by angry yellow jackets. Humans go just as crazy. Any questions?

 

5. 0.2 miles through the scrub, even when you're positive you can guess at the cache location, might as well be 200 miles away and in another country.

 

6. If it looks like the trail has ended, it has. It does not pick up again further on.

 

7. Lakes, and the bogs surrounding them, harbor a variety of interesting wildlife, including crayfish, mosquitoes, and angry horseflies the size of Buicks.

 

8. Given a choice between impenetrable brush and a sheer rock face, it has now been conclusively proven that half the males in the group will choose one and half will choose the other, while all females will simultaneously yell, You have GOT to be kidding, park themselves on boulders and refuse to move another inch in any direction.

 

9. One of the rules in geocaching is to try to be discreet while on the hunt. Screeching the decoded hint clear across a lake to a scratched and bloodied man who has finally emerged onto a rock is not considered discreet.

 

...and perhaps the most important hint of all...

 

10. If you are manually putting coordinates into your GPS unit, rather than downloading from the Web site, HAVE SOMEBODY ELSE DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR NUMBERS. The possibility exists, however remote, that you have transposed digits.

[+Fish]

Here's one that I did a couple of weeks ago.... enjoy...

Actual Log entry...

 

Have you ever had one of those days where you should never have turned on your GPS?... Well..... I did all the calculations for this cache today (Yes... I used all my fingers and toes... and used a crayon). And I figured that I was pretty close to being bang on... Hit the old GOTO button and I was off to the races... Got to the location, and started searching..... hmmmmm..... Nothing here... What the heck?

Getting frustrated I pull out my handy dandy Cell phone and give MarinerBC a quick call.... as I'm talking to him... I realize my near fatal mistake... I hit the wrong waypoint! AHHHHHHH!!!!! (Fish is now banging his head on a telephone pole mumbling "Stupid, stupid, stupid). With new co-ord now set for the GOTO, again I'm off to the races... Well... I get to the area, and I start searching cursing the name TWR as I crash through the prickle bushes... after awhile... and wondering which scratches are going to get infected... I call MBC again... I told him where I was. You can almost hear the laughing in his voice.... and he says.... your about 10 meters off. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!... As he says that I walk up to the tree.... and I say "No..... Awwwww crap!" There it is...Thanks for the hunt... Thanks MBC for the clue, now I'm going to sit back enjoy my coffee... and ponder which scratch is going to stop bleeding first... TNLN. Thanks for the hunt!

[+Bluespreacher]

From a cache that temporarily had us on the run... away, far far away.... we came back a few weeks later and beat it, though!

 

----

Should you decide to expose friends to the Joys Of Geocaching, we'd like to offer a few helpful tips.

 

1. Never assume that this'll be a quick jaunt in and out. Take all necessary supplies, including the special pack that carries the 17-month-old baby. Hauling a toddler on your shoulders for more than two miles at a stretch isn't so good on neck muscles.

 

2. Cell phones for everybody. Even if the other three adults in the group have one, a fourth will, at some point, be necessary. As a secondary note here, leaving them in the truck isn't conducive to finding lost tribe members in the brush.

 

3. Girl Scouts are smart enough to stay on marked trails. You should be, as well.

 

4. Yellow jackets build their nests underground. Dogs like to dig. Yellow jackets can bite and sting, and will do both at once when they feel threatened. Dogs go crazy when they are being attacked by angry yellow jackets. Humans go just as crazy. Any questions?

 

5. 0.2 miles through the scrub, even when you're positive you can guess at the cache location, might as well be 200 miles away and in another country.

 

6. If it looks like the trail has ended, it has. It does not pick up again further on.

 

7. Lakes, and the bogs surrounding them, harbor a variety of interesting wildlife, including crayfish, mosquitoes, and angry horseflies the size of Buicks.

 

8. Given a choice between impenetrable brush and a sheer rock face, it has now been conclusively proven that half the males in the group will choose one and half will choose the other, while all females will simultaneously yell, You have GOT to be kidding, park themselves on boulders and refuse to move another inch in any direction.

 

9. One of the rules in geocaching is to try to be discreet while on the hunt. Screeching the decoded hint clear across a lake to a scratched and bloodied man who has finally emerged onto a rock is not considered discreet.

 

...and perhaps the most important hint of all...

 

10. If you are manually putting coordinates into your GPS unit, rather than downloading from the Web site, HAVE SOMEBODY ELSE DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR NUMBERS. The possibility exists, however remote, that you have transposed digits.

This has got to be the funniest and most accurate post I've read in oh-quite-some-time in these forums!

 

Thanks

 

Bluespreacher