Sunday, May 03, 2009
Tsunami’s and Missing Persons!
A new and, as yet, unfound geocache in the dunes of Coos Bay’s north spit called Tsunami Island was the goal this cool and cloudy Sunday morning. It was a pleasant half-mile walk to the “island” amidst the sand. A bit of a brushy and wet bushwhack up to the top of the hill but not too bad. Arrived at GZ and finally had the cache in hand after twenty or so minutes searching. Mosquito’s were beginning to swarm so I decided to keep moving and explore more of this island of trees and brush in the dunes.
Less than 100 feet from the cache area, on the opposite side of the hill, I happened upon what appeared to be trash left by others. I gathered it all up in a plastic bag and hauled it back to the pickup. The unusual thing about these items was the number of prescription bottles and over-the-counter medications. There were close to twenty! Upon returning home and logging my FTF online, the cache owner’s curiosity was peaked and asked if there was a name on the meds. He “Googled” the name and quickly called me and said “Dude, you need to call the NB police - the name was a local man who has been missing for many months!”. After getting over the shock, I did indeed call the authorities and an officer came by to collect my findings and take a statement. I was also able to provide GPS coords - he was pleased about that. This has to top the list of the strangest things I’ve ever discovered while geocaching! Hope my find helps bring some closure to the case.