Geocaching For Special Needs Kids?

[+bigredmed]

As some of you know, I am a pediatric hematologist who treats kids with bleeding disorders. We constantly struggle with the need for sports that give kids their chance to be cool and compete, but not at the cost of a serious bleed. Track, Golf, and Cross Country are all sports that the hemophilia community pushes. Since these sports contain elements pertaining to geocaching, it occurred to me to start telling patients about this as an alternative sport.

 

Before I go too far in this direction, I wanted to poll the group as to what kind of injuries you have received while geocaching. (bad cuts, sprains, fractures, etc).

 

(number of injuries versus time spent geocaching)

 

Thanks for your help.

[+Halden]

I have yet to receive any injuries but by choosing appropriate caches I can't see the risks being much higher than light hiking. you might turn an ankle or nick yourself on a tree but other than that I would think you are pretty safe usnless you go for the underwater or rock climbing caches.

[+briansnat]

The worst injury I received was when I impaled my hand on the frozen stump of a reed. Lost lots of blood. But it was a 3.5 star terrain cache. Other than that, it's been nothing more than scrapes and scratches.

 

I think if people stick to 1 or 1.5, or even 2 star terrain, the chance of injury is no more likely than walking down a city sidewalk.

Edited January 14, 2004 by briansnat

[+The Weasel]

I agree. I think it just depends on the terrain. Hiking through the woods, your bound to get scaped and dinged from time to time. No big blood loss for me, just those little anoying cuts you forget about until you reach into a salty bag of chips!

[+woof n lulu]

Falling is always a possibility, and if there are any bushes in the way (here it is cactus) that can get a little hair raising, but on the whole, with care the lower difficulty caches are not really dangerous.

[dead_white_man]

Have never been injured, but I did suffer a horrible nose bleed once whil caching. It is a little frightening to be unable to stop a hemmorage when you are 2 miles from your vehicle and no cell phone service. It did stop after about 70 minutes.

[+Sparky-Watts]

I agree with BS here.....I'm assuming most hemophiliac kids are aware of their activities and the potential for injury around them, so a 1.5-2 star cache would be good. I've had the usual thorn scrapes and scratches, but so far nothing this serious.

[+ChinCache]

I think pride and ego are the most common injuries, not much blood lose there

[+The Leprechauns]

In 600 or so cache hunts, I've had two serious injuries, neither of which should be of concern to the kids you're trying to help. The first was due to clumsiness on steep (3.5 star) terrain. While scaling a slippery, rocky hillside, I tripped forward onto a branch sticking straight up from the trunk of a fallen tree. Branch punctured shin, blood everywhere. My daughter rushed up with a concerned look on her face and said "Daddy, does this mean we can't find the cache?" After applying pressure and a gauze bandage, and locating a stick suitable for use as a crutch, we found the cache 20 minutes later. It was a fake boulder on a hillside full of boulders.

 

My second serious injury was when I fell 12 feet into an icy stream from the icy trail that ran along its undercut bank. There had been a thaw/freeze cycle overnight and I really should not have been out geocaching in those conditions. It took a week for the bruises to disappear, and ten days for the limp to subside.

 

In both cases, the caches themselves were quite safe under normal conditions. Avoiding challenging terrain and bad conditions should minimize the risk.

 

With your extensive experience as a geocacher, I'm sure you could come up with a list of recommended caches that will provide a fun challenge that is also safe.

[+clearpath]

I have not been injured yet (knock on wood) but have read in this forum of several people that have had their eye or eardrum poked by branches.

 

edit - spelling

Edited January 14, 2004 by clearpath

[The_Brownies]

My feet have incurred BLISTERS.. Lots of blisters...