Getting lost?

[Tbob]

Hey guys, I was just wondering if any of you ever worry about getting lost, turned around or mis-placed while out in the backcountry? I have a gps but I get spotty service here on the west side with the tree cover and I also carry a compass, but again it's hard to get any barings with the thick trees on the west side ... I've been a backpacker for a long time now, but usually don't get to far off the trail in fear of getting lost and spending the rest of my life in the wilderness walking in circles. I really want to start getting more off trail to increases hunting odds and just having a better overall experience in the woods.. Does anybody have any advice for a guy who's always concerns about getting lost? Thanks all!!

[darren]

Try to use the topography as much as you can. Study the map and make a plan and have a mental map of the slopes and other features you're traveling over and check that against what you see with your eyes.

In the wooded hikes I've been on there have always been at least a few breaks where you can see peaks and ridgelines and valleys and lakes and whatnot. Take what you see and look at your topo map and make your best guess about where you are. Then break out the gps and see if you're right. If you're wrong, figure out why. Rinse and repeat. When you get good at this you won't panic if you don't have gps coverage everywhere.

If you really are in thick woods all day at least you have the pitch of the slope to work with to go with your topo map, but I've never really been in that situation.

 

[RadSav]

Biggest key is to be observant before you step into the woods.  If you know where you were when you started life gets a lot easier.  If you rely 100% on your GPS and figure you can just blindly go where ever without observing as you go sooner or later you will get into trouble.  Real maps are a great backup to a digital map too!  And remember it's ok to spend the night in the woods if you are prepared.  Just stay calm and all will be revealed at first light.

As I get older and the wife moves the bed around pointing all different directions I find my sense of direction is not what it once was.  So some times these days I don't end up coming out in the exact spot I figured I would.  But five minute of reasoning and observation while I'm eating some noodles or kippers and I'm back on track to the truck or camp.  There are just too many roads, too much air traffic and too much noise on the westside to ever get lost.  Unless extremely remote and even then rational reason should get you out just fine.  As long as you know where you started, where you've been and have a reasonable expectation of where you should be.



Now if you are my wife and follow direction with half your brain turned off you could have problems.  When someone tells you to take the second trail to the right and then drop down to the road you see that's pretty simple.  But my wife gets to the second trail to the right and says, "He told me second trail to the right, but I doubt he really meant the second trail.  I bet he meant the fourth, fifth or sixth trail."  And if those don't look right "maybe he meant to say left instead of right"

I once had to lead her with the radio in the middle of the night using only satellites and aircraft for barings.  OK dear lay flat on your back here comes a plane.  Tell me when it is closest to you or right over your head.  That was a long night with a lot of tears and imaginary red eyed cougars and demon possessed bear.  All that could have been easily avoided if you pay attention and follow direction and notice what is around you before you step into the woods.  We now carry Rhino's so I can ping her location and go get her.  Though I have not had to do that since the one bad night because she pays more attention and knows where she is before leaving the truck or trail.

And for the men out there it's important to remember that 99% of women have no idea what you mean when you say North, South, East or West.  They understand up, down, left, right and "your screwed".  But north has no meaning unless you are standing on the beach at Westport

[JLS]

 

Rad, if she takes the wrong trail then you don't have to worry about here beating you back to camp and eating all of the Nutter Butters. 

Tbob,

Learn to function and navigate without your GPS, then learn to use your GPS as a helpful tool and not one that you rely on.  You are well served to have 7.5 minute quad maps of the area you are hunting and a compass.  Look up the declination for the area you are hunting because it changes every year.  Know how to properly set the declination.

You don't need to see very far in order to use your compass for bearings.  I've used mine in the heavy old growth, and as long as you can sight an object 20 yards in front of you then you are heading in the right direction.

[boneaddict]

THe last time I got lost was when I had the GPS and I left the trusty compass at home.  The compass is now back in the pack and the GPS with all its wonders is somewhere buried in one of my drawers. 

[D-Rock425]

I've never been lost once I got confused for 2 or 3 days but I wasn't lost.

[farmin4u_98948]

I do great in the woods but get me inside a mall....

[jackmaster]

if you learn how to survive when lost and you learn to stay calm when lost then your never truly lost, your just educating yourself, sometimes it good to get lost so you can apply what you have learned. i have had some of the most enlightening times when slighly turned around

[Bob33]

I rely heavily on GPS technology. I have no fear of getting lost but prepare for the possibility of getting injured.

[Rider]

Getting lost out in the backwoods doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[fillthefreezer]

I've never been lost once I got confused for 2 or 3 days but I wasn't lost.

i thought youd gone under! 

[huntingaddiction]

I don't understand the possibility of getting lost.  Assuming you left the truck or camp.  If you started going downhill, you obviously have to go uphill to get back!   Just sayin!!!

[RadSav]

I don't understand the possibility of getting lost.  Assuming you left the truck or camp.  If you started going downhill, you obviously have to go uphill to get back!   Just sayin!!!

You would be amazed at how the fear of getting lost can effect that simple ability in folks.  I hunted with a chiropractor friend of mine who got lost on Mt Rainer when he was a kid.  Absolutely scared to death to hunt by himself.  So I took him to a spot I thought would ease him into hunting alone.  I said, "As long as you can tell the difference between up hill and down hill it is impossible to get lost.  Road at the top, road at the bottom, road to the left, and road to the right.  Worst case scenario you have to follow a creek along a flat for about 200 yards before you hit the road in one spot.  I will drive the road and pick you up in a few hours."  Absolutely no doing for him, "I know I will get lost!", he told me!  I don't believe we ever hunted together again after that.  Just a little to cuckoo for my taste.

[KFhunter]

when I was younger I'd take off blazing a trail through the deepest darkest stuff you could imagine and always pop out exactly where I inteded too - never heard of a GPS    compass?  psssht


Now I got a GPS and spend more time trying to follow that stupid line,  I constantly veer to one side or the other of the line then have to correct course.    It's 1/2 mile to the truck and I'll walk 12 miles trying to follow that line on the GPS 

[Broken Arrow]

Knowing how to use a compass and a map are your best friend. A GPS is great....but if it goes down, and you don't how to navigate with out it....it could and will get ugly!