My Worst Geocaching Fear

I'll let you in on a little secret about me and geocaching. It's about my worst geocaching fear.

We are fortunate to live in an area that still has a lot of wilderness. Even near our house in the suburb of Kent there is plenty of woods to see and to cache in. It doesn't take much time to be off into wild country. A short drive can have you walking in an area that doesn't see much traffic.

I have faced a lot of fears while out geocaching. I had to walk across a log over water, being afraid of heights made this difficult for me. The fact that I fell off of a dock and into Lake Washington in front of a number of my geocaching friends just weeks before (there are pictures) didn't help. The calls of "here comes the water baby" were a little distracting. I made it across though, both ways.

I have stuck my hand directly into a bunch of nettles and not realized until the stinging started. (It's not as if every person in the state could identify nettles in their sleep.) I have learned not to wear perfume on the trail because it attracts bees, although my husband is the only one who has been stung. Once, my son discovered a bumblebee's nest when he knocked over a decomposing tree, but we managed to escape unscathed.

We have passed many signs warning of bear or cougar, but we tend to shrug those off. I think if we ever really saw one of those animals we'd take pictures. They don't tend to attack, preferring to be left alone. I worry more about my fifteen pound dog, than I do about my husband or myself.

I've got caught in hail and snow, my husband has broken his leg and I have bruised a rib. But my worst fear and I know it's silly, but I'm afraid we're going to find a body, or more likely old bones. On the rare occasions when we've seen bones my adrenaline has gone through the roof before we decided they were deer. It's highly unlikely, I've never even heard of it happening, but my nightmare is to walk around a tree and be staring at a skull.

As phobias go, it's a silly one. The chances of it happening are tiny and, fortunately, it doesn't stop me from caching. Still, when I come to the next log, I look over before I step. Just in case.