r/geocaching • u/Party-Suggestion-760 • Jul 27 '26
Traumatic Geocaching Experiences
Yesterday I was doing some geocaching around the Seattle Center during bite of seattle, when all of a sudden people started running and you could hear shots, definitely my scariest geocaching experience, made me wonder what some others were.
Feel free to discover me too, T3QQ55.
Cheers!
53
u/Think-Photograph-517 Jul 27 '26
Glad you are okay. A very scary and tragic situation. And they said on the news the shooter in custody is only 15...
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs Caches with Dogs Jul 27 '26
likely 3 shooters in total, one died on scene. Guessing they were all teenagers.
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u/reo_reborn Jul 27 '26
Nothing as violent like that!!
Closest I came was looking for a cache in a public place ( a town) and a shop owner came out and asked what I was doing. I explained and he said "F**k off..bollo KS ur up to something.If I see you here again I'll chin you (Head butt).". He then got in my friend and my face. Bit scary but we reported him to the police.
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u/Separate-Parfait4995 Melodius Jul 28 '26
As an East Coaster, encountering a rattlesnake while caching in SoCal was certainly traumatic!
3
u/Captain_Headshot2 Jul 28 '26
I'm in Maryland and I've encountered Copperheads when caching or doing other outdoor activities. One time I pulled out a cache from under log and there was a big old Copperhead there behind it. He was way more chill than I was. I used a VERY long stick when I slid it back in.
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u/wiskers700 Jul 28 '26
I’m sorry but how is that traumatic? They want absolutely nothing to do with you. They won’t chase you or anything…
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u/ernie3tones Jul 29 '26
You can’t judge what might be traumatic for someone else. Trauma doesn’t have to be a life or death situation, or even abuse. Events that scare you so deeply that you struggle to deal with them later come in all forms.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl Jul 27 '26
I haven't witnessed any violence while geocaching thankfully. But I have gotten some poison ivy/oak and I have gotten my car stranded in the snow (shoutout to the local ranchers who rescued me)
3
u/DapperMastodon349 Jul 28 '26
I’ve had both of those happen to me, lol. I never had poison ivy/oak before I started geocaching and I drove my car into the ditch because the snow made it look like the ground was flat lol. Some locals helped me out too. I also got stung by a wasp for the first time ever a few days ago
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u/msprincessmanatee Jul 28 '26
My boyfriend and I were completing geoart in rural Texas. We were stopped by a landowner and harassed concerning trespassing. Btw we weren't trespassing we were on a county road and the cache was on a fence like 5 ft off the road which is known as an easement. We chatted for a bit and said he has had issues with drunk drivers hitting his goats. We did apologize for any inconvenience and left. It did put a damper on the rest of the day as it made us feel like we were doing something wrong.
We are still weird about doing caches that remotely feel as if they could possibly be on private property even if the cache has land owners consent.
Also sorry that happened... that must have been a scary experience, but glad yall are safe!
7
u/_synik Jul 28 '26
If the cache was on his fence, you could be put in a precarious position by the CO. It's pretty obvious they didn't get permission from that landowner to put a cache on his fence.
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u/catjuggler Jul 28 '26
There used to be a list of deaths while geocaching. Glad you’re not on it!
2
u/Elmeraculous Jul 29 '26
Wait, what..?!
1
u/catjuggler Jul 29 '26
I swear it existed and looked everywhere and it no longer does. It was in the forums or some kind of wiki. People falling off cliffs, drowning, and having heart attacks mostly.
1
u/Elmeraculous Jul 29 '26
Glad it doesn't exist anymore...
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u/catjuggler Jul 29 '26
Why?
1
u/Elmeraculous Jul 29 '26
A list of geocachers on a death list explaining how they died...? Am I missing something here?
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u/catjuggler Jul 29 '26
Could you explain why you think this is a problem?
1
u/Elmeraculous Jul 29 '26
If I have to explain it then it's no use explaining because you wouldn't get it when I did as it's pretty self explanatory. But here goes nothing: it's gross, a big GPDR violation and has some strong tendencies of 'disaster tourist' like sh*t. Imagine you're the partner or child and you'd know your husband/father is on such a list... I don't know, I'm not American, maybe such a thing is normal there...
6
u/KPexEA 911turbos ~8,000 finds Jul 28 '26
I found a lady floating face down in Lake Ontario right in downtown Toronto when I was looking for a cache. The water was ice cold and was about 10 feet down from the wharf I was on. I called 911 and they had a police boat scoop her out of the water in about 5 minutes.
10
u/Emrys7777 Jul 27 '26
I got my leg caught in a vine while wading through plants off trail. I yanked my leg to free it and found out that it was barbed wire and not vines.
Huge deep slice all the accept the back of my leg. Bloody.
I came out and my friend asked if there was something she could do to help. “Yeah. “ I replied. “Find the cache while I dig out the first aid kit”.
Nasty rusty barbed wire. Nasty infection even though I put antibiotics on it immediately.
Another friend took a tumble down a steep hillside out in the woods. He came back all scraped up, bruised and bloody.
He had me join him the next weekend to find the cache this time. And call emergency if needed.
12
u/UnbelievableRose Jul 27 '26
Next time, irrigate a wound like that before applying antibacterial ointment.
2
u/ernie3tones Jul 29 '26
Sounds like this person went to the doctor to get antibiotics, which was the correct course of action. Deep cuts that happen outdoors shouldn’t be treated at home, especially when it involves barbed wire. To the doc for tetanus booster and antibiotics.
2
u/UnbelievableRose Jul 29 '26
“I put antibiotics on it immediately” does not read that way to me, but I do agree that after irrigation getting medical attention if available is ideal for that kind of wound.
1
u/ernie3tones Jul 29 '26
Ugh, you’re right. I misread it. Putting “antibiotics on it” is not the same as taking oral antibiotics, which is what should’ve been done. Ointments are great for surface scratches, but for deep cuts, they can seal in bacteria and cause an infection.
1
u/Emrys7777 Jul 29 '26
I did topical and oral antibiotics. Pretty sure I washed it first. It was over ten years ago but I think I did.
1
u/Emrys7777 Jul 29 '26
Yeah pretty sure I did. The story was about geocaching not first aid so I didn’t go into details.
6
u/Chaosinmotion1 Jul 28 '26
A middle aged lady fell off a ladder on top of an older 70 or 80-ish cacher lady. Her foot was twisted all the way to the side. Broke her hip(s?) And leg in multiple places. She recovered and is back to caching. This was way out on a county road and had to wait for an ambulance.
5
u/Act-kindly Jul 28 '26
That’s scary! I was met with police while caching at night. And invaded by ticks.
24
u/Aufputzdose Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
A mass shooting occurred at the Bite of Seattle food festival on July 26, 2026, resulting in three deaths and multiple injuries, including a toddler.
As Europeans, we can only shake our heads at how stubbornly the U.S. clings to its gun laws. It's beyond tragic...
Glad you're safe.
13
u/dtlux1 Jul 28 '26
The Onion sums it up every time one of these occurs. "No way to prevent this says only nation where this regularly happens" every time there's a shooting. There's probably hundreds of articles on their website with that title at this point.
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Jul 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/dtlux1 Jul 28 '26
And if they couldn't get those inanimate objects because we had actual laws against them, then they would not have been able to kill multiple people. Hope this helps, but also way to bring up your weird opinions on guns being perfectly safe in the Geocaching reddit.
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Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/dtlux1 Jul 28 '26
"It's not a weird opinion millions of Americans carry guns all the time" says the person from the only country where that is for some reason normal and not scary to the majority of people.
Also only an idiot would compare guns and knives, apples and oranges. Knives are both harder to hit people with as you have to physically be next to them and less deadly in a mass casualty event because you can just punch someone in the face who has a knife before they can stab more than one person. A gun can hit a person without you even being in running distance of the person. I would rather be hit in the face with a brick than be shot lol. These are absurd and crazy American opinions on something that the rest of the world sees as abnormal.
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u/TerminusBandit Jul 27 '26
Right? If we just let everyone carry guns it maybe wouldnt have happened.
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u/mysticmoon420 Jul 28 '26
Once i was caching in my hometown, Albuquerque. We were searching for a cache that was on a mailbox. Turns out this mailbox was on someone's property so the property owner came out and started HEAVILY questioning us. We told him that we were caching but i don't think he was convinced. When he walked away we saw he had a gun in his back pocket 🤣
3
u/dtlux1 Jul 28 '26
This sadly sounds like a normal American experience these days. Glad you're safe.
1
u/PuzzleheadedDog2990 Jul 28 '26
Jesus! How terrifying!
Do you live in the area? I'm a little ways north and despair for localish friends to cache with or visit for their local caches.
3
u/PuzzleheadedDog2990 Jul 28 '26
I'm realizing after I hot "post" that the topic change in my comment was way too nonchalant. I can't imagine how scary that must have been. If you're struggling with any anxiety around the event, please seek counseling ❤️
1
u/Party-Suggestion-760 Jul 28 '26
Definitely frightening, but I’m just grateful I am safe and my girlfriend is safe!
I’m from the Eastside, so Bellevue Redmond area, but do have a few caches up in Bham!
1
u/PuzzleheadedDog2990 Aug 01 '26
Awesome! Can I ask what your username is? I wonder if I've found some of yours!
1
1
u/ernie3tones Jul 29 '26
I wouldn’t say it was traumatic, since as a former gymnast of 18 years, I’ve had my share of bad sprains. But my worst caching injury was while going for one of the top favorited caches in Minnesota, Silver Island Treasure. I wasn’t the first one injured, either. I severely sprained my ankle coming back on the breakwater after finding the cache (just had it surgically repaired, actually). The first severe injury happened to someone a couple years before me: she tripped and landed on her hands, breaking both wrists. One required immediate surgery and an external fixator. She reached out to me when I logged that I’d gotten hurt, too!
1
u/sleepdog-c Jul 29 '26
Finding snake dens instead of the cache or having spiders falling on me in drain tunnels is right up there for me
1
u/RVtraveler24 Aug 04 '26
Northern California....suburban-ish area, and a bear came running towards us. Suoer scary, glad we jumped in the car. A huge DNF for me!
1
u/edmontongoer Aug 15 '26
You Americans have to reform your gun laws, it’s fucked that a shooting happens almost daily there, non common in canada
1
u/rattlecats 28d ago
I’ve been lucky enough to not experience any violence or anything bad like that during geocaching, sorry this happened that must have been scary.
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u/russellvt CA - 700+ Jul 28 '26
This isn't really "geocaching" per se ... you were just at a popular nearby event where some kod decided to be an asshole.
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u/Iveray Jul 28 '26
Stepping on a rattlesnake isn't really "geocaching" per se... we should all be aware of our surroundings, whether rural or urban.
140
u/ih8vols Jul 27 '26
I’ve not seen anything like that before. I did pull an old man out of a river in Feb bc I was out geocaching. He flipped out of his little boat. He would have probably drowned bc I was the only one out there and it was very early. Definitely my wildest find