The Missing Cacher
It was a cold winter morning. Perfectly clear sky but unseasonably cold. Carl Castillero headed out in the morning to go hiking and maybe find a few GeoCaches. His wife and kids were already off to Starbucks and then errands and basketball practice. He left a note he was going to Quicksilver. Carl would be back in plenty of time to make Basketball practice at 1:00. A short time later, Carl parked in the park lot and grabbed his backpack. Brrrrr. 8:30 and it is still 30 degrees in the sun! He grabbed a bottle of water and made sure his pack was ready. Gloves, beanie granola bar, pen to sign the caches, trinkets to trade and a couple geocoins just in case. Yep, all ready to go. Carl turned off his cell phone and put in the glove box. Never any reception here he thought to himself.
Three hours and 5 miles of some pretty decent terrain changes later, Carl had a couple miles of trail back to the parking lot. Carl noticed a single track trail that led through some of the more rugged terrain but would cut about a mile of switchbacks out of the trip. He was getting somewhat tired and had already finished his 12oz of water. Carl was in his early 40’s. A bit over weight and an occasional hiker, he knew this last mile and half would be hard and figured the direct path would be easier. He headed down the steep single track trail. Clearly no one ever took this trail. Was it just animal track? Carl weaved and threaded his way down and as he neared the bottom, he saw an old foot bridge over a slow trickling stream. Perfect he thought to himself! Just the place to hide a new cache he thought. He had one in his pack. It was a micro, but that was all he had on him.
Carl scrambled down into the ravine and carefully attached the cache to the underside of the bridge. Back up on the bridge, he checked that it could be accessed from the top. No luck! It needed to be moved a few inches. Carl headed back under the bridge. The ice was slippery as he reached for the cache. Just before he reached the cache everything went black.
MJ and the kids just finished basketball practice? Where the heck is Carl? The kids were disappointed their dad was not there to watch. He promised he would be back in time! She tried him on his cell phone. Just voicemail! She left him a message to call her. She had a few more stops to go on the way home. Maybe there was an afternoon Sharks game and he was at home watching it on TV. She called home but there as no answer. Typical of Carl, he never answered the phone. On the way home, she stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner. She arrived home around 4 PM. Carl’s car was not there. She tried him on the cell again. Voicemail! It would be dark in 90 minutes!
MJ checked messages. Nothing from Carl. She checked his gmail account. Just some found it logs and a couple DNF logs for LGT: Pruneyard. Carl will get a kick out of that! A couple emails from his caching friends wondering about the puzzle solving get together that evening. Humph! Something else he “forgot” to mention.
MJ prepared dinner and suddenly realized it was 6:00 PM and dark. It was getting really cold these days. It was already 40 degrees outside. She started to worry. Carl was never this late before. Not like this! She realized she had no idea where he was. Almaden Quicksilver is a BIG park. She had no idea where he was going or what GeoCaches he was looking for. A wave of fear swept over her. She had no idea what to do. Trembling, she dialed 9-1-1. It was en eternity before someone picked. Up. “My husband, Carl, he’s missing. He did not come home from hiking. I have no idea where he is”. “Yes, all I know is Almaden Quick Silver”. “No, he is 5 hours late”. “No, he has never done this before”. They gave her the number of the Desk Sergeant. She called. She explained. No, she didn’t know where exactly he went. No, she did not know if he was prepared for an emergency but probably not. No, she can’t wait until the morning! No! do something!
MJ felt lost. Who can she get help from. She had no idea how to contact his GeoCaching friends. She knew some first names, but that was it. She checked his gmail again. Yes! There was Baudesire and Springandnono and Maker of Food and Micky & Roni. First she called their neighbor “Levels of Gratitude” (also a rabid geocacher). He was close by and could help. But he did not answer. She checked his house. He was not home. She send emails to his GeoCaching friends hoping someone was around and not out searching for a FTF. Then she remembered about The GBA! Of course! He is always on there chatting about nothing. Tears welled up in her eyes as she posted a message: URGENT. MISSING GeoCacher! Carl Castillero “cc” is missing. Please help!
Within minutes the message board was frantic with activity. One of their own was missing. The GBA took care of their own! The phone rang. It was the police. Have you heard from him? Yes, we know it is 9:00 PM. Yes, we will, we will have someone call you in an hour. MJ was frantic. Everything was moving so slow. She went back to The GBA web site to look for a reply. There we 43 replies. Where did he go? Who was he with? Where are you? We are coming down from Petaluma and Livermore and Vacaville and San Mateo and San Francisco and Cupertino and… and… and. Tears welled up in her eyes again as she typed her reply: No, he is still no home. He went to Almaden QuickSilver. He left at 8:00 AM. He is probably not prepared. He is never prepared. My cell phone number is … The cell rang instantly.
Carl stirred. It was dark and very cold. He was numb. He tried to stand but couldn’t. Something was broken. There was no shortcut home. It was cold. Very Cold.
Sprinandnono checked email. Maybe a new cache was published. A message from Carl. “Probably taunting me about a puzzle” she thought. She opened the message and was in shock. One of her caching buddies was missing. She cached with him several times. She knew he was never prepared for a hike. She knew he was prone to bushwhack. She knew she had to help. She navigated to The GBA web site to send the alarm. She found the alarm already was raised. She posted a message for the Cacher in Trouble “CiT” team to mobilize. She placed the calls that started the ball in motion! First to Little Rasgul, then to Maker of Food. Immediately the Cacher Recovery Procedure (CRP) was invoked! First, she contacted MJ. She had to let her know that help was mobilizing. THE help was on the way.
Little Rasgul organized the team. Through The GBA forum, he directed the CiT response. Four cachers to every entrance of QuickSilver. Every available cacher was assigned to an area to access the park. Everyone was given a scheduled time to report. All by the book.
Make of Food organized the forensics team. He and Springandnono headed to Carl’s house. MJ was on the phone. “Yes, thank you. Please check on The GBA for updates”. She pointed them to his computer. Springandnono knew Carl used GSAK. They checked that first. They checked the geocaching.com web site. They found he had just downloaded his finds pocket query. They also found he had an “unfound caches” pocket query. They quickly enabled it. “Trust The Garmin” Carl would always say. MoF knew he must have MapSource. He quickly located mapsource and used Poultreys calibrated park maps to map Carl’s found and unfound caches.
MoF checked the caches around the McAbee entrance, the Hacienda entrance, then the Woods Road entrance, the Web Canyon entrance, the lesser known Guadalupe Dam entrance and finally the Mockingbird entrance. Web Canyon, Mockingbird and Woods road were the likely entrance points. No caches found near any of those.
Carl was cold. His leg was numb. Good thing he thought or it would really hurt. He was inching his way from the ravine. He was nearly to the bridge. Along the edge, just beyond the bridge was some deep leaves and compost. He worked his way there and burrowed as deep as he could. It was much warmer under there. Good thing he watched Man vs Wild last week. Now, were could he find some maggots…
The GBA forum was ablaze with activity. Half of the nearly 1000 members (the number seems to fluctuate around 1000) had responded to the call. Little Rasgul organized the first response team, then the additional teams started their planning to ensure an around the clock response. Scouts were dispatched to all entrances. A description of Carl’s car was provided to each scout.
The cell rang. MJ grabbed the phone. It was Little Rasgul. They found his car at the Mockingbird entrance. The other phone rang. “Yes officer. I understand. No, I have not heard from him”. “Officer, The GBA CiT team is helping me. They found his car at the Mockingbird entrance”. “Yes, I am sure you would have checked there too”. She turned and told Spirngandnono “Search and rescue has been called. They are trying to get a helicopter with FLIR. It could be a couple more hours”. CC’s car was at the Mockingbird entrance. MoF went to work. There were three trails leading from that trailhead. Ah yes thought MoF, his 45th birthday cache. Certainly CC was doing that one! “No”, springandnono said. “I am pretty sure he did not do that one”! MoF looked shocked but nodded knowingly. There were too many other caches to be found first. After all, it is about the numbers! MoF would direct the Cacher Recovery Team (CRT) to the three trails. They quickly assembled the cache files, briefed MJ and headed out. MJ updated the police and told them to call Santa Clara County Parks and get them out there.
Over 90 GBA members answered the first call to a CiT and descended on the Mockingbird entrance. A cacher was in trouble and they do not lose one of their own. Carl’s car was there. MoF and springandnono arrived within a few minutes. They had the keys but were instructed to wait for the police and park rangers just in case there as foul play. The Park rangers arrived and set up a base of operations. Little Rasgul confirmed cc had been there. He had logged the Sig Item and Travel Bug cache at 8:45AM.
Per the CRP, teams of six experienced cachers were assembled. Each team was assembled so that the members had collectively found all the caches in that area. Each team had two members familiar with the trails. Each team loaded all the caches in the area into their GPSr. They carried basic medical supplies and hypothermia blankets. Teams were sent to each trailhead. They would start at either end of the tails and meet in the middle. Standard recovery methods were employed. Silence, call out, silence. They were to examine every possible track from the trail as they were briefed as to Carl’s propensity to bushwhack. The county search and rescue team would be arriving soon having been notified by MJ where the activity was. The helicopter was delayed. They were easily 30 minutes behind The GBA CRT.
Through the darkness the CRT snaked their way through the trails, lit only by head lamps and flashlights. Each team had FRS radios to be used when the missing cacher was located. It was nearing 35 degrees. They knew hypothermia could set in quickly at these temperatures and CC was at serious risk not surviving the night. There is a surprising amount of sounds in the wilderness at night. Within 10 minutes, the team heading west on the Norton tail radioed in. The first cache was found CC had not logged it. Moments later the call came in from the lead Hacienda team. CC had not logged their first cache either. Either he planned to get them on the way back, hike in and cache out, or he did not go that way. Ten Minutes the radio crackled. The Alpha Team (A-Team) located a cache CC had logged! CC took the Hacienda trail Southwest! The Norton trail team was recalled. The Hacienda team was told to stop and wait. Twenty minutes later, the A-Team radioed in. CC logged a cache just off the Buena Vista foot trail (and apparently set up a decoy geopile) the time was 9:30 am. He was definitely headed to Buena Vista! The second New Almaden team headed for Prospect#3 junction.
The A-Team reported CC had been to the Buena cache. MoF studied the map and made the judgment call. He sent the A-team south along the Randol trail then turn west to Prospect #3 and then he had them come down and meet the second team at the New Almaden junction. To Carl, this route would have looked doable in a couple hours and had 4 caches along the way. The search and rescue teams had also started down the New Almaden trail well behind the CRT. The commander agreed with MoF this was the high probability route. Every rescue has variables. They just hoped they picked the right ones. The search helicopter was on its way and would be there in 25 minutes.
Carl had no idea where he was in the park. He looked at the map in the morning but never really got those park maps and squiggly lines. He knew he was last on the Randol trail and was headed to the New Almaden trail. He was sure someone would have to be searching for him, but it was getting late and colder. Surely they would give up for the night. All he needed to do was stay warm. He had managed to strap his hiking pole to his leg to immobilize it. He poked the wrapper from his power bar on the end of a stick and propped it up like a reflective flag. All he could do now is wait. Wait for morning and hopefully help would come. He started to fall asleep but woke himself up quickly. “Am I supposed to stay awake for hypothermia?” he thought. Those explorers to the South Pole all seems to die after falling asleep. Stay awake. Music. Think about music. Sing. He started to sing the songs he knew any words to. He didn’t last long. He fell asleep within a few minutes.
Right about the bend in the Randol trail where it heads from west to North and junctions with the Prospect#3 trail, Little Rasgul noticed a single track animal trail heading north east towards the parking lot. He instructed the A-Team to wait while he and Hymnknob2 investigated the trail. It was a steep downhill track that led into the dark abyss. Something had been down this trail but there was no way of knowing what. They headed down while the rest of the team went on. This was the best lead they had. He radioed in he was taking an unmarked animal track and gave the coordinates and heading. It was very slow going. The dark and cold were bad enough, but the brush and bramble made it much harder. Had it been daylight, they would have seen the clear signs someone had been here before them, but right now, they could not see anything.
Carl dreamed of crazy things crashing through the wilderness. There were voices and chatter echoing in the darkness. His dream was filled with a black void and images of lights like an alien ship landing in the darkness. Unrecognizable mumbling from far in the distance. These were not terror dreams and were surprisingly comforting. He no longer felt cold. Only calmness.
Little Rasgul shined is lamp just down the hill and caught sight of a small bridge, crossing what would be a small creek with a couple frozen puddles. Without much rain, it really was just a trickle and the surface was frozen solid. “Interesting” he thought. “There was always something new in this park”. As they leveled to the bridge, something shiny caught their attention. It appeared to be a piece of trash hung up on a fallen branch. Whoa! That did not make any sense. They leapt forward to investigate! Stepping into the debris, Little Rasgul felt a thud. The leaves stirred.
Carl’s was suddenly awoken from his calm sleep and sprang up through the leaves. Disoriented he swung his arms frantically to protect himself from what ever was preparing to feast on him. He contacted something that let out a yelp. A human yelp! He slowly became aware he was not alone.
Little Rasgul was unprepared for the onslaught of flopping arms and took a wild shot in the midsection. Luckily that is where he was best padded so the damage was minimal. They cleared the leaves away from Carl and Little Rasgul removed the thermal blanket he had tucked in the front of his shirt. So much for the extra padding! Carl was becoming coherent and was saying something about his leg. They inspected the basic splint and quickly determined it was sufficient for now. They radioed in.
All radios crackled at once. Little Rasgul was reporting in. They found him! There were cheers that could be heard for a mile! Micky and Roni quickly updated The GBA forums using the web browser on his cell phone. The call was made to MJ. “They found him. He is OK. They will have him out in an hour”. All her emotions hit at once. She did not have to be strong anymore. She was sobbing as she hung up the phone. She would hear from them again in a few minutes.
The park rangers and Search and Rescue used ATV’s to get to the extraction point. By the time they reached CC, six CRT members were at the site. They quickly prepared the extraction basket and had him on the trail in a few minutes. He was back at base camp in less than an hour and was quickly rushed by ambulance to the hospital. MJ met him there and did not leave his side.
Carl was released the next day but spent a while recovering. The break was not too bad and he was even able to attend the next unevent! The GBA members were heralded as heroes and their planning and execution was covered on all the new channels, newspapers and across The Internet. A special commemorative coin was created. This would be talked about amongst GeoCachers for years to come.
This is a fictional story to help remind all cachers of some basic rules.
Hiking essentials:
Compass
Enough Water
Enough Food
The Right Clothing
Firestarter/lighter/waterproof matches
Knife/Multipurpose tool
Working flashlight
Map
First Aid supplies
Tell someone where you are going and your planned route
Additionally,
Hike with a partner(s)
Avoid yellow snow
Carry a whistle
Carry your cell phone with you
Watch Survivor man and Man versus Wild!
Cachers should;
Make sure your spouse/partner/family knows how to contact other cachers especially those you are close to
Buddy up with other cachers. We all need someone to have our back
List caches you plan to visit
Call/text and check in
Log the time when you log a cache
Side note: Per MJ herself, had this been a true story, she would have both been onsite and the first to box cc’s ears.
This original story is copyright by the author, January 2007.