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Fatboy
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Quote: Originally posted by defrag4  | I've been incredibly lost only a few hundreds meters from a trail deep in the Sierra Nevadas, CA. After a few hours panic sets in and you start doing
dumb things.
Luckily we knew enough to stay put and not start wandering too far, within a few hours another set of backpackers came down the trail and we could see
them through the trees.
Was ridiculous how close we were to the trail yet still completely oblivious.
I started carrying a GPS with topo maps after that.
[Edited on 4-17-2019 by defrag4] |
Good to hear it turned out well.... so looking back on it now, what would you say happened?
You probably left the trail confident you would be able to get back on it right? Did your mind "trick" you into doubting yourself, or where you going
the wrong way when you decided to stop?
I know how hard it can be to find of trail in the forest at times.
What would you do differently today?
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by advrider | I posted about ridding out to explore the area Kat is lost in last month myself. After ridding out 50 miles and seeing that I had another 25 miles
ride before I started to hike, I turned around. My friend knew the name of where I was going but none of us had been there.
I've been a little lost in the sierras a couple of time's and it makes you realize how big some areas are. I found some lost hunters in Oregon one
time. They went off of a hill thinking that they would run into the road they parked on, but it dead ended around the corner from where they parked.
They had been lost for 10-12 hours in the rain and several hours in the dark, down to just a few rounds from shooting for help. Tired hungry and happy
to see me. |
Yes I read about that on the thread about Kat, do some SAR incidents never occur because a person(s) turn around before trouble?
Those hunters, did you hear them fire off any rounds before you found them? I was wondering - were they firing off in groups of 3 shots?
I hear people shooting around here all the time, have never even considered that they might be signaling for help.
I wonder if I heard 3 or 4 groups of 3 tightly spaced shots with a decent gap between the groups would it make me realize it is a signal?
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advrider
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They fired in groups of two shots, I didn't hear them until I had driven many miles from where they had started from. I drove down into a canyon about
20 miles from where they parked.
As it neared dark the guy riding in the back of the truck started hearing shots and we stopped and fired two shots back, they again answered and
we kept going until we found them. I've never had guys I didn't know kiss me, LOL they were worn out, cold and tired..
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by PaulW | | Back in the day as a solo hiker I explored the Rockies backcountry with no electronic devices. Sure there were really scary times. I survived... I can
get back to my truck in untracked Baja desert on a moonless night with my goodies. Lost is not part of my life any more. |
See, that is what has me wondering, and not meant as an offense to you, but if you read about GPS Joe, he probably thought the same thing.
But he didn't and he died out there. Why?
Because he thought like you do?
Because he had a heart attack?
Because he slipped and fell?
Because aliens beamed him up to their spaceship?
Then there are countless people that for some reason are 100% sure that their GPS is acting up and giving them bad intel.
Then I there is always the slim possibility that something could happen to the SAT's circling high above us, then what?
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by bajabuddha | I was raised hunting and fishing in the back country of Utah. I'd trudge behind Pappy for miles, up and down the hills, and we'd get to where the
turn-around point was and Pappy would say, "Dave, which way to the car?" then it was my 'job' to get us back to the road.
This said to future or current parents to teach a sense of direction. I carried that lesson into adultery (oops, adult-HOOD) and can say it's saved
my butt and a few others many times through the years. Been somewhat lost or disoriented a few times, but it's always been ingrained in the DNA of
life to keep directions and headers in current flow. |
That is what I wonder about as I reach my mid-fifties and have always been fairly good about directions in the back country, is this just going to
fail me some day and leave me wandering aimlessly in the woods?
Too many cases of people (I know, some have no sense of direction, but others do) getting lost.
Heck, to give you an idea a what a messed up kind of mind we have, there is and old folks home somewhere, I think Sweden or some other Nordic country
that set a trap out front to catch the odd 'escapee'.
You know what the trap is that catches the people with dementia and alzheimer that make it out front is?
A fake bus stop! That almost always stop there to wait for the bus!
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by Mulege Canuck | I work as a forest engineer. I locate logging roads for a living.
I always carry a compass ...
Your compass never lies BUT SOMETIMES IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE it when you get disoriented. |
Exactly! (I capitalized his qoute)
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by thebajarunner | Maps and GPS and sat phones are fine
But the one thing I always stress to carry on a wilderness hike....
Matches/ or a good lighter
Start a big fire.
You may burn down a few acres but the smoke is the best beacon of all. |
As you can see by the other responses, I am not going to touch this except to say.... Remember that scene in On Any Sunday?
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob | i also grew up hiking, hunting remote areas, followed by 30 years in Alaska's outdoors. one thing that continues to amaze me is the reluctance of
people the take things along that might be useful. such as a realistic amount of water and a bit of food, or a sleeping bag. i hear comments like "
but we have beer!" or,"i don't want the extra weight of a couple of cans of sardines."
i get being an optimist, i feel i am one....at times that can be a real liability. |
But isn't that the question, when is enough, well....ENOUGH?
But it seems to be true that most folks that do survive being lost for several days are the ones prepared to spend the night... mainly shelter and
something warm to hunker down in.
You can live a long time without food and even awhile without water if conditions are right.
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by pacificobob | | a friend in montana went on a local hike, sola. fell broke both ankles, it took 3 days to crawl out. she had a tough go of it. bones never did heal
correctly. she had little to no gear with her. |
All I can say here is WOW! That is one tough person!
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by wilderone | | I was in El Fuerte and wanted to hike to a spot reportedly with pictographs and an indigenous habitation site. I had a quart of water ..... I should
have taken 3 quarts of water for a one-hour hike in 98 degree heat, and the time period from "normal" to "urgent" was about 1/2 hour. I believe that
had I not returned and a rescue party had to come looking for me, it would have been too late. |
Goes to what PacificoBob said and stats seem to bear you out, many more 'day' hikers require SAR.
So perhaps the real dangers lies, not in the 7 day back country trip, but in the 2 hour stroll down the trail to the creek, or overlook or whatever.
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Fatboy
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| Quote: Originally posted by advrider | They fired in groups of two shots, I didn't hear them until I had driven many miles from where they had started from. I drove down into a canyon about
20 miles from where they parked.
As it neared dark the guy riding in the back of the truck started hearing shots and we stopped and fired two shots back, they again answered and
we kept going until we found them. I've never had guys I didn't know kiss me, LOL they were worn out, cold and tired.. |
So you figured someone need help based on the 2 shots? Or was the guy in the back one of them?
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advrider
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No, we ran into the other part of the group that had been looking for them as we got back to our truck. We had talked to one of the party that had
gone back up the trail as we came down, so we knew they were way over do. They had set out in the morning for a few hours of hunting and should have
been at the parking area, it was now near dark and starting to snow.
I didn't think to put someone in the back of the truck but one of the guys in our gruop volunteered to ride in the back and keep a lookout as we
drove down the Forest service road back to the highway, he heard the first shots way off and told us to pull over and listen. All workedout good in
the end.
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