Flashes of Panic

Well, that was disturbing.

I headed up to Greenfield and Deerfield today and did seven geocaches, which is actually a pretty good count for one day; even better when I consider that before I left I visited one of my own caches to do some clean-up, since the last finder reported it was pretty wet. Eight in one day—a few weekends ago it took me all weekend to find eight. I found some interesting spots (I’d never been through Old Deerfield before, for instance) and some great views. I hung out downtown for a little while and dropped some cash at About Music. (For the curious, the haul was: Dandy Warhols—Dandys Rule OK; Ryan Adams—Demolition; Jesse Malin—The Heat.)

One of the stops was a drive-in park with a nice vista across Greenfield. You could clearly see, on the other side of the Green River valley (this ridge separates Greenfield from the Connecticut) the tower offering a three-state view (MA, NH and VT; over nearer to Billsville and Mt. Greylock you can get a four-state view.) The tower appeared to be lower than where we were… and they charge admission for that tower, I think.

There were a few men hanging around there and they were watching me a bit too much, so I didn’t look to closely for the micro. Instead I went off to find the full-size cache hidden about a quarter-mile in the woods.

One of them followed me.

I think he was surprised to see me sitting on a rock writing in a notebook. He tried to make conversation. This spooked me. I’ve been cruised before, when I was younger and didn’t understand what was happening; I couldn’t figure out why strange, sketchy-looking men were trying to make innocuous conversation with me. I tried to convey the message that the notebook was why I was here, and I’ll be leaving when I’m done with that, thanks, by myself. He walked over to a nearby view and stayed there. When I finished my log, I tried to head out without him noticing. I got a head-start, anyway.

Nobody at the tower this time, whew. But wait, the guy sitting on the bench nearby watched me walk by. He looked at me but I was resolutely ignoring him. Open shirt, pierced nipples, way, way too much muscle mass; he looked like a wanna-be pro wrestler. I snagged the micro quickly (phew) and saw he was headed for the tower. Funny that he would decide to check out the view just now, after I’d gone in the tower. I went to the top as quickly as I could without running, signed the log in a hurry (thankfully, micros also have micro logs) and as he arrived at the top, I was folding the log and heading for the top of the stairs. He couldn’t follow me immediately; that would definitely spook me, if I hadn’t already been spooked. I was thinking about whether I had a knife in my caching bag. (In hindsight, I’m probably better off with the bits of Tae Kwan Do I learned a few years ago—not enough for a belt, but enough to make someone very uncomfortable if they don’t anticipate me.)

When I got in the car, he was watching me from the top of the tower.

Isn’t there some kind of “don’t cruise me” sign I can hang out? (This one is probably overdoing it.) Aren’t I entitled to go to a park without being followed? It really put a damper on an otherwise good day, and I’m still trying to parse it all out.

Now playing: Tomorrow from Demolition by Ryan Adams