The Perils of GeoCaching

Well, no one ever said it was all fame and glory geocaching - there are some SERIOUS risks involved in this hobby.

Every GPS I have owned has a disclaimer/warning when powering up that basically tells you that if you walk off a cliff while watching the screen instead of the trail - you are on your own :-)

Until recently I have only used my GPSs while driving my cars or riding my motorcycles and have not had to worry too much about this cliff business. Now that I am geocaching, I can finally appreciate the merit behind this warning: the other night while hot on the trail of a local cache, we were walking along a bridal path and I was concentrating on the little GPS arrow instead of the path. Luckily, my highly hoaned survival instincts sprang into action and guided my left foot safely beyond the horse offering I almost encountered. *Whew*

Alas, while I was able to safely dodge that near catastrophe, I was re-acquainted with one of my arch-nemesis from the days of yore: Yep, the Insidious Purveyor of Suffering - Poison Ivy!
In the Flesh! Mine!

It has been many, many years since we have crossed paths, I had grown complacent thinking that this foul beast had been slain - but as I am finding out today, that is not the case.

One of the caches we had searched for was hidden at the end of small drainage culvert half buried in the ground. Standing astride the pipe and knowing that the cache had to be inside of it, I summoned up my prodigious courage - brushed aside the nearby vegetation and reached inside - aware that there might be terrible beasts hiding within!

Well, luckily (for them) it turns out, there were not any terrible beasts lurking ready to pounce onto my arm - but the harmless vegetation I had shoved aside turned out to be the real enemy!

I am now writing this entry with my unafflicted left arm - my ravaged right arm hanging by my side.

Fear not though - for modern science has come up with a treatment that should hopefully reduce my urge to gnaw the affected limb off to end the torment!

So, let my hardship be a warning to you - if you are going geocaching in unknown woods and are allergic to Poison Ivy - wear long sleeves ;-)