It started out a bad day. I headed out for a day of geocaching, and noticed I had forgotten most of my cache sheets. I had to stop to get a nail out of my tire. The caches I had hoped would be First to Finds (FTFs) were already found. I got covered with Jersey Pines travel bugs (ticks). While signing the log of another cache, a downpour started. Then I told myself that one little phrase that always gets you into trouble: "Just one more before I head home." Only problem was, all my cache sheets were at home. No problem, here's a waypoint in my GPS receiver - waypoint, but no name. Just over a mile away. I'll just drive down that road, I'm sure it will lead me to it.
After a long stretch of roller-coaster sand road, some mud and a few iffy puddles, some close calls with the pines, and more puddles ahead, I had thoughts of going back. "No," I thought, "I've come this far - it couldn't hurt to go a little further." The water in the next puddle didn't look too deep, and there were high, muddy ridges to cross on, so why go around - I'll just drive through.
Slip ... Squish ... Whap!
You guessed it, I'm stuck. The front wheels had cleared, but the rear tires slid sideways into the abyss dug by some previous unfortunate soul. The right rear tire was under water. Exhaust bubbled up from the submerged tailpipe. Mud was everywhere. The 4WD wouldn't engage. I'm on a seldom used road (I wonder why). The tires were spinning in the water (the undercarriage was probably hung up on the ridge).
Fortunately there was cell phone coverage and my son was available to come out and help, just a half hour away. I attached my tow strap to his Jimmy, and he put her in 4WD-Low, backing up real easy. SNAP! The old tow strap had had enough. Fortunately, my son had one of his own. He hooked that up to his Jimmy, put it in reverse, and promptly started to dig his own holes in the sand. Fortunately, I had a come-along in the truck, and we put that between the tow strap and the Jimmy. He started ratcheting away. "Is it moving?" he asked. No. "Well something must be moving." Yup, the Jimmy was getting pulled closer to the puddle, but the Bronco wasn't going anywhere. Fortunately, I got the idea to turn the wheels on the Jimmy to add more drag. That did the trick. The old Bronco finally cleared the mud puddle. I never did find out which cache I was headed for - I just went home. Some other day.
[Note: although the Bronco got out, this trick ended up destroying the front end of the Jimmy which cost me $400 to repair.]
While I was waiting for my son to arrive, I had plenty of time. So what does a geocacher do when he has time on his hands and he's out in the woods?
Geocache Identification Permit Approval Number: Applied for - Pending
Permit Expires on: Pending