Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

I notice that yet another person has gotten lost here in Rim Country. I also just read about a family of three healthy adults who were lost for three days over in Oregon.

I sure as heck don't know everything there is to know about finding your way through the wilds. But I have hiked all my life and never once been lost, and I attribute that to two things I learned almost 70 years ago. They are simple, basic things, but time and time again I have read reports of people who got lost because they didn't do them.

So here they are, for what they may be worth.

The first one is the simple truth that things look different, sometimes VERY different, when you are looking forward than they do when you turn around.

So whenever I used to hike, especially in totally unmarked places like the desert lands of India and Pakistan, in deep woods, or anyplace else where I was unfamiliar with the land, I always stopped for just a few seconds every four or five minutes and glanced left, right, and back to see what the way back was going to look like. I can't tell you how many times I did that and immediately saw that I would almost certainly have taken a wrong turn on the way back if I hadn't turned and looked. A pair of boulders that look alike. A split in a path that wasn't obvious unless you turned and saw it. A stream that split. And the most classic of all when you are out in the woods, a rail fence, path, or road that trips you up. You follow a path that opens into a fenced field for example. You don't stop to look as you cross it. Just a few hundred feet away it splits into two rails fences. You can come back, varying your path by just a hundred feet or so, cross a fence that looks just like the once you crossed before but is actually the other half of the split. That turns you just a little and gets you walking across the field at an incorrect angle. You enter what looks like the right path and—bingo!—you suddenly find yourself lost. Why? Because you “know” something which isn't true.

The other one is more important. I believe that doing it has saved me from being lost at least fifty times. You are headed cross-country for a path, a road, a stream, a trail—anything. You know that if you hit it in the right place you should turn left, follow it for a while, and then cross it. But you are not sure whether you are headed for the correct place. Do NOT try to walk directly to that correct place. Do NOT!! Veer to one side, deliberately hit the trail or stream well to one side of where you should be. That way you know for sure which way to turn. If you have deliberately veered too far to the right you KNOW that you have to turn left when you hit the trail or stream. If you try to walk directly to the correct place and you end up just a hundred feet from where you should be, and turn the wrong way you are in trouble.

Hey, I'm no Daniel Boone, but those two things work.

Any other good ideas?

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

I'll go along with someone who knows the territory! You can be my guide, Tom!!! :-)) Seriously though, take along a good map. Travel during daylight. Those 2 things have saved me from being lost.

glamken (Gary Lamken) says…

Now days you can carry a GPS. Mark your starting point (way point) and just take off. When you are ready to head back the GPS will lead you back on the path you took getting there. Or you can head back on another path with the GPS leading you back to the starting point.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

First you have to learn how to use the GPS. Or maybe they are different than the one my husband had about 12 yrs. ago.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Great ideas.

And Gary's is, of course, the modern way.

Think of the fun if Columbus had a GPS and knew the setting for India, which is where he was headed. How different history would have been if he had actually found what he was looking for.

I forgot to mention one other little thing I learned way back when I was doing a little mountain climbing (nothing technical). The man who got lost up here near Pine made a fundamental mistake. If you are going down an incline you should never, ever get smart and lower yourself down a steep drop—say by hanging down and letting go. I think that's what he probably did. If you do that there may be no way you can get back up—or down. That's how you become a curious pile of human bones found on a ledge. In this case, the man had a cell phone.

Without one…?

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

People should not go out hiking alone !
Some idiots shouldn't even go out in groups.
If all the people that get lost and/or injured had to pay to be rescued, they may think a little more about what they are doing.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Pat,

I hiked alone from age 11. Feels good to be out there—just you and nature.

“Some idiots shouldn't even go out in groups.”

Too many words in that sentence.

“Some idiots shouldn't even go out….”

Just kidding, really. It's true that not everyone is a Daniel Boone, but not everyone can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich either. Comes with the genes. What's a guy gonna do?