A lesson to be learned...

The weather is nasty outside, lots of wind, rain, and there will be no geocaching this weekend, bummer! I saw this article and found it funny (only because nobody got hurt)...

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GPS Leads Driver Into Train's Path
Man Escaped Without Injury Before Collison

BEDFORD HILLS, N.Y. -- It was a close call for one driver using a GPS satellite navigation system. Officials in upstate New York reported a driver was following the gizmo's directions a little too closely, and drove right in front of a train. Metro-North railroad spokesman Dan Brucker said the man got out of his car just in time. It had gotten stuck on the tracks, when the passenger train slammed into it going 60 miles per hour. The GPS device had told the man to take a right turn, which he did, right into the path of the speeding train. Officials said no one was hurt. The driver was given a minor summons for obstructing a railroad crossing. The railroad said the man and the car rental company would be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

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This is actually a good lesson for geocaching, sometimes relying too much on my GPS to find a cache. The general rule is when you get near GZ (Ground Zero - or where your GPS tells you the geocache is located), you should ignore the GPS and just start looking around for the hiding spot. A GPS will get you close to a cache (usually within 5-20 feet), but very rarely will a GPS zero out at the exact cache location. I've found caches as far as 40 feet away from GZ. There are various reasons why this happens: cloudy conditions or tree cover affect the accuracy of the GPS, the hider's coordinates may not be accurate, and GPS units are all different. I have gone back a 2nd time to look for a geocache that I haven't been able to find and my GPS was putting me in a totally different area the second time around.

The other lesson is looking too closely at the GPS and not watching where you are walking. The GPS will point to the location of the cache, but that doesn't necessarily mean that is the best approach to the cache. There could be an obstacle in the way (water, stream, rocks, cliff, building, you name it), it could require you to go off trail (ie, bushwhacking) following the arrow on the GPS, rather than just taking an easier path or trail, etc. Finally, I've had a few close calls where I was looking down at my GPS that I almost got stabbed in the head by a tree branch that was right in front of me or tripped over a rock or something, oops...