Note that in the word "geocaching" above, I included a link to
http://www.geocaching.com, which explains the sport in detail.
OzGuff isn't from the immediate vicinity, so I've never met him personally. Our paths will probably cross one of these days, though. The photo is from a playing card set that features photos of NC geocachers. Here's mine:
http://justbeeme.com/rodan.jpgA skunk would be one of the more mundane threats I've encountered to date. Out on the trails, I frequently myself facing black widows, copperheads, feral pit bulls, ticks, hornets, mosquitos, briers, poison ivy, sinkholes... all the usual stuff one finds when spending a lot of time in a somewhat less-than-urban setting.
On the other side of that, I've also been hiking two to five miles a day, lost ten pounds, quit smoking, and discovered tons of intriguing places, including
underground tunnels, mountain overlooks,
Hell, hidden iron mines, and lots more. I've seen more of Greensboro, NC, in the last six months than I've seen in 20 years of living here. There are also plenty of easy-to-find urban hides, which involve little personal risk and/or physical effort. Depending on where you are, there's just about something for everyone who's interested in it.
Pardon the extensive non-DS rambling, but that's just a bit of geocaching for you. I will tell you this -- a couple of my geocaching adventures did provide the inspiration for scenes in
Dark Shadows: The Path of Fate audio drama, due in a couple of months from Big Finish.