It was a dark and stormy night
by Tony Fannin - Visit his website at: http://www.nowhere.nu

...and a new cache appeared on my 'Nearest Caches' page. I had been cooped up in the house for the last three days because of all the rain in Central Texas. I had to get out. That it was 10pm and raining made no difference. I packed up my GPSr and favorite flashlight, made sure I had spare batteries for both and headed out.
The drive to the cache was slow going with the rain and the fact that I was trying to avoid running over the hundred of toads chased out of the creeks from the days of rain. As I neared the cache I noticed the car in front of me was driving very slowly, weaving a bit and blowing through stop signs. I followed a bit then called 911 to report a drunk. They took the info and asked me to stop following them. I wasn't happy about that as I knew they would most likely hurt someone. But they asked me not to follow. I gave up chase and headed for my cache.
I could get within about a 1/4 mile of it on the road. Not too bad a hike I thought. Little did I know. After sneaking into the greenbelt I started downhill and kept going downhill. I was over a 200' drop from road to cache area in less than 1/4 mile. Nice and steep. As I neared the cache location I heard the creek. My GPSr told me it was less than 200' away. On the other side of a storm swollen creek. Fine, let's find a crossing. I found where the crossing was supposed to be but the stepping stones were under a foot of water. I must have been a sight standing by the side of a creek at 11pm throwing rocks in. As I was throwing rocks I noticed the eyes. Lots of eyes. All watching me from the banks of the creek. I hadn't noticed them before because I always hike at night with my light off. I had only turned it on to get across the creek. I ignored them and pressed on. I got across the creek only slightly wetter than before. I immediately ran into a deer less than 10' from me. We both about had a heart attack. Found the cache quite easilty, logged it, and headed back.
On the way back I had to rebuild my steps as they had been washed out in the 10 minutes I had taken to find the cache. I didn't make it back across as dry as before. One of my rock piles gave way soaking my foot. Now I had to climb back up the hill. Half way up my phone rings and I about jumped out of my shorts. I couldn't talk because I was panting so hard from climbing. The humidity was over 100% from the rain and I was sweating like crazy. I made it back to my truck sweating, tired, and covered in mud.
In retrospect, crossing that creek in a Texas summer storm was probably not the best idea. Crossing it in a storm at night as even more stupid. Crossing it in a storm at night by myself, well... The things some people will do for this hobby.
I did get first finders though.