My World - Geocaching Drama!

On Saturday we did some geocaching on our way home from Enid, in the Cheyenne Valley in north western Okieland. As the name suggests, this is deep in what was Indian Territory and the Pickup is far more advisable than my Mazda 3 (note the tag/number plate)! All you will find there nowadays is oil wells, Rattlesnakes and some pretty rock - oh and crazy Brit's and Geocachers!!

Here's me posing in front of Lone Mountain, whilst keeping my eyes peeled for snakes, this is in the area where they have the Rattlesnake Roundup, so my concerns were very justified. Therefore I decided to stay on the road next to the car and take pictures of this lovely but deserted spot.

The Hubster however was on a mission to find the geocache hidden at the base of Lone Mountain, and off he trekked watching where he walked, GPS in hand. It was a warm day and the red dirt looked far too inviting for snakes to get me out onto it!

I took this photo of him and called to him "have you found it" and he shouted back "no big Rattlesnake", I just chuckled and muttered to myself "YEH RIGHT'! Back he came and I asked him if he signed the cache, "no, didn't you hear me? There was a huge Rattlesnake right by it". Turns out there really was one!!

He'd just spotted the cache when he heard the unmistakable 'chit, chit' sound of the Rattlers first warning! He said he froze instantly, went very cold and his butt cheeks were squeezed so tight, you wouldn't have got a toothpick between them LOL! Looking around he spotted it stretched out sunbathing 5ft away, it was as thick as his upper forearm (which is well developed) and he never did see the head or tail, just 3ft of it was visible - so it was BIG! He made a fast but careful retreat, forgetting the cache and looking out for another snake, as they usually travel in pairs.

My immediate response being the photographer was "well did you get a picture for my blog?", sadly the one on his camera phone did not come out. So bless his heart he agreed to go back with my camera for me, my very own 'Indiana Jones'! But when he got out there again the snake was gone, which made him doubly nervous and back he came even more warily.

We found the next geocache a few miles away adjacent to the highway, signed the log and called it a day. Once we got home he contacted the geocacher who placed the 'rattler' cache and related what had happened and the risks for people who don't know that area or Rattlesnake warnings well. Today the cache was moved 170ft closer to the road and out of the brush, much safer!

And a final funny, 5am Sunday the Hubster woke me up snuggling me, which is extremely rare as we both like our own space in bed. I asked him what was up, he said he was cold. A few minutes later he whispered that he'd also had a bad dream about the snake incident and how stupid it was to go back. I'm afraid it really gave me the giggles, that was obviously SOME nightmare!

P.S. Enlarge the first piccie and see if you can spot something very rude, the hint is - pesky Hubster!

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