I Lost My GPS

To travel from cache to cache and cacher to cacher gathering stories of mishaps while in the pursuit of this hobby that we love so much. Please share stories of your own or others’ misadventures that have occurred while caching and be sure to add photos if you have them.

I Lost My GPS TB is not found and G-Thanks TB is now lost so I am changing the name and story back to the original name. : (

 The Story of how I Lost My GPS: "On 11-14-05 I made a late afternoon run to Land Between the Lakes Recreational Area (LBL) to place The Beast of LBL cache. I knew I was going to be short on time and may need to cover a lot of ground quickly so I took my mountain bike. When I arrived at LBL I only had about 1.5 hours to find the location, get the cache placed and get back to the car before dark.. I had been near the location I was looking for about 4+ years so I was guesstimating where I needed to go. I parked my car off an old road with access to the canal loop trail. My plan was to ride to Nickel Branch and if I had not found the site I would return to the car and ride the opposite direction. However, when I reached Nickel Branch I decided to continue on to Toys with a View cache, knowing that would be about as far as I needed to go and still get back by dark.. I reached Toys with a View but no luck - Maybe my memory was off and I just needed to go a little farther along the trail - I HAD TIME!

A bit farther turned into quite a bit farther, then I was closer to the main road than I was to the car - dark was going to catch me and it would be easier to follow a paved road than a winding, root laden trail in the dark.

As luck would have it I had my first bike wreck in YEARS. I slowed to maneuver between a very large, protruding root and a tree, I lost momentum and when a second root caught my tire it brought me to a stop. A strong thrust on the right pedal just resulted in my back tire spinning-out and throwing my center of gravity further toward the front-right, so over I went. Thank God I had an ammo can in the backpack to soften my fall. Stunned, I sat up and wiggled everything - I thought "nothing broken, but that is going to leave a mark". I got up, lifted the bike and noticed my watch laying on the ground so in my pocket it went. I knew I was racing darkness so off I went along the trail. About a mile down the trail I came to a farm field access road so I headed out along it. When I reached the top of a hill and a Y in the road, I reached to check the GPS to see which road to take. That's when I felt this broken belt clip.

 OMG! I NEVER CHECKED THE GPS!!! So there I was about a mile away from the crash site and it is now dark. I dig out the LED head lamp and back down the road I go. About the time I turn onto the trail it STARTS TO RAIN and not just a light sprinkle. In the dark, In the rain, In the woods with the Beast Of LBL, On a bike and trying to remember where I wrecked – “there was a turn in the trail, a slight incline, a root and a tree.” OH YEAH, THAT NARROWED IT DOWN A LOT!!! I rode back to about the area I thought I must have wrecked, dropped the bike and began walking the trail. Thoroughly soaked by this time, I walk until I got to a creek I remembered crossing before the wreck, so I turned around and went back past the bike to a cut tree I remembered riding past after the wreck and still not spotting the GPS or the crash site. I went back with the bike to the creek and returned back up the trail until I thought I recognized the root and tree that I slowed down for. So I dropped the bike, stepped to the side of the trail, saw some disturbed leaves (where my front tire must have landed) and then I saw the antenna of my RINO sticking out form under the leaves. I picked it up, turned it over, flicked the joystick and the light came on. It suffered a small chunk out of a corner and a wrinkle in the antenna cover but all was fine.

This was my first experience trail riding in the rain, after dark, with creatures that will kill and eat you. In a way I am glad I lost the GPS because I was starting to freak myself out with shadows and sounds in the woods. A little ways before the wreck a limb fell down through the trees behind me and it sounded like something big rushing toward me through the underbrush - THAT WAS A NICE ADRENALIN RUSH.

All in all everything was OK except a few scratches and bruises.

Enough about me - I just wanted to let everyone know that the GPS is OK!"