Magento – Magento/Apache internal redirects hang the server

I've asked a similar question on StackOverflow, but to no avail. Here is the issue I've been facing for the last few weeks:

Once in a while our Apache server hangs, to bring everything back up I'm forced to run service apache2 restart. Each time the server hangs I review Apache logs and I see the same thing:

[error] [client 66.249.75.233] Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.

This entry is repeated sometimes 10, 20, 30+ times all within 5-10 seconds of each other just before the server goes down and seems to randomly pop in throughout the day. I am almost certain this is what is causing Apache to hang. Now, the IP is from one of Googles Bots and I've tried literally everything I can think of to remedy the internal redirect without any luck 🙁

Here is what I've tried:

• Used the default .htaccess files from a stock Magento EE 1.13
  installation. The log entries still show up in the log.
• Tried running tail -f on error.log and rewrite.log with
  RewriteLogLevel 4 side-by-side to try and see if I can catch the internal redirect in the rewrite log. Nothing. I can see the new entries in the error.log, but there is absolutely nothing in the rewrite.log
• Tried enabling LogLevel debug and grepping for the 66.249.75.233
  IP. Nothing.
• Tried setting LimitInternalRecursion 3 in
  <VirtualHost>...</VirtualHost>. Again, the entry is logged saying Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects...
• Tried different .htaccess configurations such as:
  RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 100
RewriteRule .* - [L]
• Or setting: RewriteBase /. Still can't get rid of the error.
• Even tried blocking the IP in Apache and in the server firewall. The entry still shows up WTF!!!

We are running a single domain website so I've combined all of Magentos .htaccess files into one (99% stock Magento .htaccess) and the only mod_rewrite directives are:

# Magento root directory
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    Options +FollowSymLinks
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteRule ^.*\.html$ /index.php [L] # I added this rewrite to skip all the other condition checks and push all *.html requests directly into index.php
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/robots\.txt
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(media|skin|js|var)/
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
    RewriteRule .* index.php [L]
</IfModule>

and

# Magento media directory
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    Options +FollowSymLinks
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule .* /var/www/barebones_live/get.php [L]
</IfModule>

Worst of all, I can't replicate this error myself!

I am completely clueless as to how to track down this entry now and why it is occurring. ANY help or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps I can try an track this down through Magento, but where would I start? Hmm, maybe I can Mage::log() in the index controller for all URL requests and see how things go from there..?