Worst weather to geocache in…

[Todd300]

Many of us have cached in inclement weather many times…typically in a steady rain shower.

But are there any weather experiences that really stands out in your geocaching career such as strong winds, pouring rain, a major snowstorm, bitter cold weather, or very hot and muggy heat?

I got my #400 find when the temps were in the teens. That’s actually a heat wave for December in my neck of the woods – lol. I don’t recall caching when it was single digits outside. I’m sure many of you have done so in sub zero temps.

As for wind, there’s been a few times I’ve had to deal with strong wind, but nothing too major. It was just more of a hassle to roll up micro logs and put it back into the container when it’s that windy.

I’ve done it in a snowstorm once…forecast was only supposed to be an inch or so and it was falling lightly..I was at my hotel in Cheboygan, MI for a bowling tournament so I decided to pick up a few caches and just like that, the wind and the snow began to intensify to the point of near zero visibility and I quickly cut short my outing, only getting 3 caches there.

I know I’ve been out in my share of caching in 80-90 degree weather, but not too often and nothing to write home about.

Been through a few rain showers. Love caching in the rain unless it’s just above freezing temperatures, then forget it.

But if I was to pick out one experience that stands out, it’s today. Got an FTF in pouring rain with winds high enough to make the rain horizontal. Soaked right through my jacket the minute I got out of my car. Had a hard time seeing the screen on my GPS because of the rain. Good thing it’s basically waterproof.. The raindrops themselves were big..about the size of a small watch battery. Good thing as I got closer to ground zero, I was surrounded by trees and that broke up the rain and wind a bit..but as I got back into the open field, I got pelted by the rain and wind again.

And you know what? I loved every minute of that. Caching in the rain is a lot of fun. Especially when it’s very windy as well.

How about the rest of you? Share your extreme weather experiences while geocaching.

[sandlanders]

We won’t go caching in extreme cold or snow, and days like today usually keep us indoors. We’ve gone in heat, but never too bad, so I’d have to say our worst caching experience weatherwise was when we took the canoe out on a very windy September day.

We were doing two kayak/canoe caches just west of us, and we wanted to do them before it got too cold, so we put the boat in the water in less than ideal conditions. We were near the shore but in the open waters of big Castle Rock Lake until we went under the bridge into the backwaters. Why we didn’t turn around before then, I’ll never know.

But we continued on to the two caches, protected from most of the high waves and wind. When it came time for the return to the boat landing, we dreaded going back under the bridge, but we did it, and the waves were getting us really wet from the splashes and spray. So glad to see the landing come into view!

We had our life jackets on, as we always do, but that was a pretty scary canoe ride for us.

[Walkingadventure]

Now that I have dedicated my life to geocaching, I haven’t found any weather I won’t cache in.

The worst I can remember this winter as I walked out onto Little Lake Butte De Morte on the trestle. As I cleared the shoreline, the wind was about 30 miles an hour over the lake and the parka, gloves, snowpants, etc. didn’t keep the weather out.

I did get the find which required me to remove the hat and gloves. It was brutal but I nabbed a difficult find that few had found at that time.

Following the signals from space.

[Lostby7]

back as a noob I went after a FTF in a Full-on blizzard. The roads were solid ice and it was the middle of the night to boot…..I didn’t even find the cache.

[Mister Greenthumb]

3 years ago when we up at White Potato Lake in January I went out with our son-in-law (Opps5) on snowmobiles for a few caches. This was the first time I drove a snowmobile. There was already 2′ of snow on the ground. We found 2 caches. Island View and Tailwater Treasure. On the way bach a blizzard developed and we could barely see. The snow got so deep we kept bogging down trying to cross the lake on the way back. We finally found our cottage. We put on something like 75 miles and were gone for 5 hours. I haven’t been on a snowmobile since, but would do it again. It was a very memorable experience. Since then we’vefound more caches in heavy snow and many in below zero temps. I found 2 in the rain today.

[RSplash40]

Finding peace and solitude on a Timberline Echo’s cache in Eagle River while high winds and tornado warnings are out in the county just to south. quite the contrast.

bright sunny day, wind whipping up -17 .. “bitterly cold”, just to find a marc puzzle in appleton…not even a ftf.

Think I’ve covered everything but the extreme summer storms.

[zuma]

I generally will cache if it is 0 or above, but not if it is colder or with a high wind chill.

Also if it is over 100, it aint much fun. So, I guess the range for me is 0 -100.

Snow is never much of a deterrent. A light to moderate rain if it is warm is OK, though I lost a PDA caching in the rain once, so you have to keep that in mind. Heavy rain is not much fun though cuz you cant easily keep the log book from getting wet, so if it is raining hard, then I generally will not cache.

z

[koolma_k]

I have only been caching for a short while, but as far as weather goes, I remember doing the rainbow shape sorter in knee deep snow, going up hill… the weather wasn’t bad but it was a heck of a work out!! then I remember being out with two friends picking up I Believe and a few others in Mequon, the wind was down right wicked and went straight to the bone. And for Heat… Peter Pan 6-10 was crazy, it was in the low 90’s but being in the 5′ grass up’d the temps at least 10+ degrees, you could feel the waves of heat just rolling over you, then you try to avoid the heat by hitting the shade and the mosquitos try to drain you dry. All caches were fun 🙂 (I don’t know of many caches that aren’t 🙂 )

[neonride93]

My Number 1000 was in december 09 ( i got 25 all month and 15 were that day) and it was -14 temapture with a chill of close to 30 below. My First ever geocache was also a cold windy day in Fed that I was un preppared for and didnt have a hat or gloves and I would not leave til I found the darn thing.

Since then and since I have reached 1000 I have slowed down and pick and choose. I dont see myself running out in the winter much to cache, unless there is a FTF involved.

[sweech]

I “hibernate” throughout the winter.

[BigJim]

I love winter caching. No ticks, no skeeters, no poison ivy, no nettles, no need for boats. I just started in November, didn’t really get rolling until January. One of my first caches was an island hide that I walked across the frozen lake to get to.

All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.

[CodeJunkie]

I’ll take the cold over heat any day. I’ve only been caching for a year, but have cached in almost every possible WI weather condition. I actually enjoy winter caching including crossing a stream in hip boots, digging a 5/5 cache out from under a few inches of ice in a marsh in sub-zero windchills, etc. I’ve also chased a number of FTF’s in weather that kept everyone else away which included an evil monkey in the rain, a series in rain which then changed to sleet and then snow (all in the dark).

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

Worst? The vaccuum of space. But I hope to try someday!!! 😀

[furfool]

I did a number of caches in Merton in April of last year. That was a steady hard rain, but not a downpour. The temps weren’t bad at all, so the overall experience wasn’t at all miserable.

My most miserable was The Island (I think that was the name of it). If memory serves, it was February of ’07 or ’08. The temps were around 0º and I had to walk into a very brisk wind. Wind chills were about -20º. I got out to the island and most of it was drifted over. I started digging on one end, and worked my way to the other end, only to find the snow blown off of it. Yes, the signal was bouncing me back and forth and the cache is not always near the most obvious place. The walk back to the truck was much more bearable. I went and found a few more caches that morning. At least those, for the most part, were out of the wind.

[kansas64]

Our worst is actually pretty easy one for us..We meet up with a group that was us, Froggerz & one Team Vaughan member, back in April 09. The goal was to take down the Return to Oz Version 2 by Goldie. The day started out ok with a small amount of fluffy white snow, no biggie. When we go Oz done we separated as the Team Vaughan member had to go and Froggerz and us headed for Indian Trail by Ranger Boy.
If you don’t know this cache it is a monster and you could touch as many as 20 waypoints as he has a few dead ends in the story. The snow started to pick up but after a bit the temperature did also and the snow changed to a light drizzle and would start to get heavier.
Along the way we had one cacher slip and fall, he got a nerve stinger and couldn’t feel his hand for the next 3 days. One of our group seems to have an aversion to thunder, you guessed here we are in the woods and we get not just thunder but rolling thunder. Lets just say it unnerved the cacher a bit.
We finally after almost 3 hours said enough and grabbed one last one point as it was on the way to our cars. Mr Froggerz was the driest as he had on firehose pants, the rest of us we in best describes as drowned rats that we drowned several times. The Mrs and I get in our car and the windows steam up, my glasses stem up and we have to wait about 10 minutes for the defroster to cache up. How wet were we, there was not a speck of dry clothing anywhere and our bodies
Froggerz would be back about 1 month later to finish and us about 6 months later. Mr. Greenthumbs called us caching nuts because we tried doing two large caches on what we said was the worst weather of the year.
Truly we will never forget Indian Trail

[Author]

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