Nature Encounters

[shooter206]

I had this log posted on one of my caches the other day and had to post it.

 

April 25 by Thetmes (0 found)

At first, it looked so easy. Athena and I found the park quickly, and although the GPS was a bit twitchy, we felt we had good reason to be looking in the area we did. Unfortunately, we came up empty, even after I had stuck my arm elbow deep in several trees. Athena noted that I'm very chivalrous for sticking my arm in dirty bug filled trees. As we were about to go, Athena inquired brightly, "What about that hole?" as she pointed to a head height opening in another tree. I gamely reached inside, only to find something warm and furry nestled inside! I yanked my arm out, having grabbed a squirrel. The squirrel and I were both pretty freaked out by this. Subsequent discoveries proved the following: 1. Humans that are frightened by small furry animals are predisposed to prod at them with sticks; Squirrels don't particularly like being poked with sticks; 2. Squirrels make a weird growling "rweRRRrr!" sound when sticks are poked in their lairs; and: 3. Squirrels will lunge toward and bite sticks waggled in their general direction. Having obviously proved our superiority as a species, and feeling kind of bad about poking a stick at a little, but hardly defenseless squirrel, we decided to leave. As we were walking back, Athena told me, "See? That's why I don't stick my arm in trees like that". No find, but that hardly matters does it?

 

Any one else have "Intesting encounters"?

[+jeff35080]

This is a log from one of the finders of one of my, now archived, caches:

 

Came in the long way as usual. Didn't see the near road until I found the cache. Saw one angry beaver by the pond. He swam right toward me and beat his tail several times in the water. Never seen that before. It was really neat. Didn't expect to see any wild life.

[+Webfoot]

I had this log posted on one of my caches the other day and had to post it.

 

April 25 by Thetmes (0 found)

At first, it looked so easy. Athena and I found the park quickly, and although the GPS was a bit twitchy, we felt we had good reason to be looking in the area we did. Unfortunately, we came up empty, even after I had stuck my arm elbow deep in several trees. Athena noted that I'm very chivalrous for sticking my arm in dirty bug filled trees. As we were about to go, Athena inquired brightly, "What about that hole?" as she pointed to a head height opening in another tree. I gamely reached inside, only to find something warm and furry nestled inside! I yanked my arm out, having grabbed a squirrel. The squirrel and I were both pretty freaked out by this. Subsequent discoveries proved the following: 1. Humans that are frightened by small furry animals are predisposed to prod at them with sticks; Squirrels don't particularly like being poked with sticks; 2. Squirrels make a weird growling "rweRRRrr!" sound when sticks are poked in their lairs; and: 3. Squirrels will lunge toward and bite sticks waggled in their general direction. Having obviously proved our superiority as a species, and feeling kind of bad about poking a stick at a little, but hardly defenseless squirrel, we decided to leave. As we were walking back, Athena told me, "See? That's why I don't stick my arm in trees like that". No find, but that hardly matters does it?

 

Any one else have "Intesting encounters"?

Not an interesting encounter to share, but a question. Are you sure the squirrel wasn't lying down on top of the cache?

[+cache-man-do]

Yeah, go back and yank him out and check under him. I bet he is there to guard it. He is laughing at you right now.

[+GEO.JOE]

December 7, 2003 by GEO.JOE (69 found)

This was an adventure! On the way into the cache we startled a hawk that had a cardinal pinned on the ground, this allowed the cardinal to escape and we were ten feet from the chase. As the two birds crashed through a cedar tree the hawk lost elevation and came within inches of GEO.JOE's head. This gave the cardinal just enough advantage that the chase lasted less than a minute longer before the hawk gave up. With hearts pumping we located the cache with little searching. While Fairy Flirt logged our adventure GEO.JOE found a tree about 40 feet east of the cache that is being used as a marking and scratch tree by a bobcat. This was the best cache ever. Contents were in great shape. We took noting but memories and left a Garmin poker chip and a daisy charm.

Happy caching.

GEO.JOE, Fairy Flirt and GEO.LOGO

[+Two Geeks and a GPS]

Only our second find!

 

Long hot, humid hike on a fairly unused trail. Got lost at one point, took wrong turnm and encountered a bear. Luckily he ran away as soon as he saw us. Found bite marks in cache. Log said other people removed altoids that perhaps attracted animals. Took small trailcenter pocket knife and left tiny deck of Minnesota playing cards. Cool area for a campsite and cache!

 

That was almost a year ago and nobody has been there since.

 

WGS84, in case you are interested.

 

 

 

Edit: spelling

Edited April 30, 2004 by Two Geeks and a GPS

[+briansnat]

I was looking for a spot to hide a cache and saw a hollow stump about chest high. Got up on a rock to look inside and was startled to see an equally startled family of raccoons looking back at me.

[+Ttepee]

August 2, 2002 by Ttepee (255 found)

I got a midday start with this one. The woods road does not offer a great deal of shade so it was a very sunny hike today. Too hot a day to start at midday.. I was sweat'n up a storm, and the flies were vicious too. I was giving myself a headache from all the times I slammed myself in the head... took down at least 3 of them with me...but there's lots more out there!

 

As I was heading up the steepest incline of the hike all of a sudden at the top of the hill, about 2 feet off the ground, a hawk appeared over the crest, about 20 feet away from me, but face to face, flying right down the center of the woods road. I don't know which one of us was more surprised. It was very cool to be so close while watching him manuever a quick flight plan change like that... wish I could replay it.. it happened so fast and I was a little dazed from smack'n myself in the head.

 

Found the cache pretty quickly once there. I noticed the log papers in the cache referred to as a temorary log so I dropped in a logbook to start things off. I left the folded papers with the log book. Took the gold $ and left a Tribe Totem pouch, small magnetic frame and photo blow brush. I was grateful the flies gave me a break for long enough to get the log book signed and cache explored. As soon as I started moving they were right on me again. Thanks for a good workout and a cool near encounter.

[mistaken4sisters]

03/04- Tank you, tank you

 

Our third one for the day...our biggest adventure, too! Thought we'd try to hike it from the parking area we were at doing the Sierra Bravo cache, and found lovely rock formations & picnic areas, as well as mud up to our knees. We saw an area where we might be able to better access it from, so we trudged back through the swamps and moved the car. We hiked back in from that direction and found it with no problem (except for the creature who ALSO seemed to want to see what was in the cache--see photo--and oh, don't tell it to SHHHH!). Everything was nice & dry, left a man in the moon, and took flag patch. Signed log. TANKS, Team Shibby!

 

A further explanation of the deer comment follows.

We approached the final stage and two deer took off (about 100 ft in front of us). I noticed that the area where they had been hanging around was the hiding spot for the cache. As we approached GZ the deer returned. One of them (probably the male) circled within 25 ft. of us. He stood in the direction we needed to go to return to the car. The other deer stayed about 50 ft. on the other side. We had been going through the container, and signing the log. I (Shellie) thought, "well this is bizarre. Let me talk to the deer." So I begin talking in a soft voice, probably saying something stupid. This made the other half of the team feel nervous. She turned to me and let out a loud shush noise. This is very similar to the sound a buck makes to defend his territory, etc. The closest deer raised his head and made direct eye contact. He started towards us. We both freaked, and I decided to make like a predator by standing tall, raising my arms and growling. It worked! The buck backed down and we left. On the way back to the car I grabbed a big stick in case he decided to follow (like that would have helped).

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I doubt anybody will believe this but,

I was out mapping,geocaching and had stopped in a area were several Old trees had fallen,I was relaxing and sitting on a fallen tree,getting coordinates mapped, when all of the sudden I hear a high pich sqeel and look up to see a baby fawn being chased right towards me by a big Old Coyote,at the very instant they reached me the Coyote grabbed the Fawn,and took it down..........

I jumped up screaming at the coyote to get the he** out of here and leave that deer alone,well he did,now I have a baby fawn at my feet and am wondering what to do next.

Well the Papa syndrome kicked in and I grabbed up the fawn and treated its wounds,I then released it back to the wild and watched it for some time,for some reason it bonded with me and did not want to leave.I heard its Mom in the Forest stomping,a defence they use,I said good-bye and went on.

[+DenaliNW]

Not an animal encounter, but may as well have been . . .

 

I found it, and I have it! I didn't ever set out to take the cache, and I don't ever do that, but things got a little weird. I was walking along the trail to the final coordinates, and stopped for a second to let the GPSR get a good solid lock. While I was standing there, a drunk guy comes mumbling and stumbling down the trail. He wanders around for a bit, and then disappears. Figuring he is gone, and that it is safe to begin looking, I wander off trail to find the cache. After some searcing, I find it, open it up and do what I've always done - look at the contents, read the log, and write my own log. As I'm doing this, the drunk guy all of a sudden reappears, crashing through the brush with a sickle in his hand, and he says to me, Have you seen my machete lying around - has a red handle? I say no, and quickly gather everything up and retreat to my truck. I didn't want to compromise the cache, and I didn't want to end up on the six o'clock news either (Cachers Dan & Janet find body in Washougal). Anyway, I figure I would read the paper and wait a while for the drunk guy to pass out in a stupor or find his machete. But after a while the parking lot kept getting busy with cars driving in and parking or people hauling dogs out of the back to go for a walk. I didn't think it would look to good to get out of the truck with an ammo box (left backpack at home). So, I headed home, but will return it this afternoon. In addition to taking the cache box , I also took a tennis ball and the key to the Nutria. I left a carabiner, a skateboard, and Tigger.

[+joefrog]

That reminds me of one of the funniest stories I've ever read. Not a caching story, but it very well COULD be!

 

Neighborhood Hazard (or, Why The Cops Won't Patrol Brice Street)

Edited April 30, 2004 by joefrog

[+Two Geeks and a GPS]

That reminds me of one of the funniest stories I've ever read. Not a caching story, but it very well COULD be!

 

Neighborhood Hazard (or, Why The Cops Won't Patrol Brice Street)

 

That is the funniest thing I have ever read, it is classic!

I only hope that it is true.

[+Planet]

Since my log has links I'll link the log. for my Northern Harrier Hawk encounter.

 

here's the other one that was pretty cool:

Planet found Greenwich Gold One (Traditional Cache)

 

I came up to Stamford today to meet with 68Dodger from Utah to play geo-guide. We met in the lobby of his hotel and not knowing each other I flashed the secret geocaching hand signal of the pointing forefinger on the chin (see the forums), and he flashed it back. We first did Har Har, I'm a Comedian and then headed here. Nice walk in in a nice park and we certainly couldn't miss the trail when the man jogging says that way is private - you go this way! - ok, no problem. We saw a spot where I think a house must have been once, since there was an old bottle dump and some old gutters and some myrtle growing which is usually found in gardens. After a couple of oops wrong ways we found the correct trail and walked right to the cache. But not until after startling a deer. The first one we saw. The second one we didn't see right away and we had it cornered between a ledge and a fence and it was a little upset at this fact and started hoofing the ground, not unlike a bull pawing before he charges, so I whistled Fur Elise, and said let's turn slowly and back a way and then we sat or crouched down low and were hidden behind some trees. The deer was peeking around at me and pawing and I just kept making noise and when I snapped a twig she realized she could get away, and off she leapt. Very cool encounter but no matter how pretty they are when cornered, they can attack, ever seen When animals attack? There was an attacking deer on that show. So, I took out the sparklers, since they are a firework and put in a new skateboard toy. We signed the log and swatted gnat's the whole time. Spring has definitely sprung. The bugs are out! Thanks for a great cache and a memorable experience. Ben's TB from Har Har was here too, but I haven't logged that one yet. I will log it in and out next.

Cache you later,

Planet

[+Webfoot]

Not an interesting encounter to share, but a question. Are you sure the squirrel wasn't lying down on top of the cache?

OK. So I lie. I guess I did have an interesting encounter about a month ago.

 

Logging this DNF only because we couldn't find an access down to the trail. We were up above and circling around and came fairly close a couple of times, but still couldn't find one when we ended up to the east of it off of Esparanza. We walked above the canyon along a residential area and then came to a dead end street that looked like possible access but when we looked over the side, there in the middle of the trail was a big Bobcat. Either that or this was one of the biggest cats I've ever seen. Wish I'd been quicker with my digital camera and I could have had some visual proof, but this cat had tufts on its ears and a short tail and was BIG!!!

Anyway, I digress. Dropping down there, we were .09 away from the cache, but couldn't find a trail worth walking to. Most of this area had poison oak five feet high and I wasn't going to risk that with my 8 year old. I have a suspicion as to where the cache is hidden and I'm pretty sure I know where to access the trail from, so I'll be back on another day.

[+parson11]

Interesting encounters!

Edited May 2, 2004 by parson11