The end of competence

[griz]

Here is the link to the story:
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_e48b6c12-6205-11df-846d-001cc4c002e0.html

Members of the Missoula County Search and Rescue Team had their hands full Sunday as a half-dozen hikers reported route-finding issues in the Mormon Peak area.

Dispatchers received the first call of distress around 1:50 p.m., when two women who had spent the night camping became worried that they'd gotten off course while returning to the trailhead, which is located on Mormon Peak Road, off U.S. Highway 12 west of Lolo.

The women were not injured and had cell phone service, so they decided to follow a creek bed and try to re-orient themselves, according to Lt. Rich Maricelli of the Missoula County Sheriff's Department. The hikers told dispatchers they would call back if they still could not find the way.

They did call back, and in the meantime came across a third hiker who was disoriented, and then a fourth hiker, a man who also had lost his bearings.

"It was a little hard to keep track of it all," said Chris Froines, volunteer chief of the search and rescue team.

Things grew more complicated when the lone male hiker decided to venture off on his own, and the three women encountered a separate set of lost hikers, two men. The lone hiker managed to find his way back to the trailhead, while the other five hikers spoke with county officials by telephone.

Officials sounded sirens and tried to direct the group to safety, and eventually a LifeFlight helicopter was dispatched. After the pilot was unable to locate the hikers in the thick timber, the helicopter hovered above the trailhead as a beacon.

"They were all pretty close to the trailhead, so with the help of the helicopter they were able to get their bearings," Froines said. "They also had cell phones, so we were able to triangulate their positions and get a pretty good fix on at least one of them. Without that technology the outcome could have been a lot different."

Froines said the area had generous amounts of snow cover that caused the hikers to lose the trail and follow various sets of tracks branching out in different directions.

"Then you end up in the tall timber and you can't tell which way you're going," he said. "The lesson is to have a map and a compass with you, and a GPS (Global Positioning System device) if possible."

Everyone was safe at the trailhead by 9:30 p.m., Froines said, and no injuries were reported.

So everybody is fine, that's great.  But here we have a Life Flight helicopter and a bunch of rescue people tied up for half a day trying to find this bunch who apparently were not that far from the trail head.  Remember the old days when a hiker assumed a little bit of the responsibility for their own welfare?  It just seems as if some people would call somebody if they needed a klennex when 30 years ago they would have carried a hankerchef.

[AJ Dual]

We need "rescue insurance".

I don't know how the actuarial math works out, but when you buy your park entry permit to camp/hike/park the car, you pay an extra $5 insurance premium for $10,000 - $100,000 in rescue costs. Maybe they keep you on a roster so that experienced people can build up or pre-pay higher premiums for things like mountain climbing etc.

It's waived if you are harmed in a more mundane manner on designated trails or camping/parking areas etc. that standard EMS service can reach/find you at without a search.

A simple common sense free-market answer to the problem IMO.

[AZRedhawk44]

Was hiking with the GF a couple weeks ago, on a trail I know pretty darn well back in the Superstitions.  I probably have close to a thousand miles on my boots back in that one particular mountain range.

It was a short little trail, maybe 3 miles down and 3 miles back up, to see some indian cliff dwelling ruins.

The rain has been so thick (for the desert southwest) that foliage is growing up over the trail in places, bushes are encroaching on the trail sideways, and deer runs and such are starting to look like trails.  I dunno if Montana (where the story above is from) is experiencing similar issues or not, but it's possible.

There's also a lot fewer hikers on the trails nowadays, for the last several years.  Gas costs and economic downturns are taking a toll on the number of hikers that beat down the brush around trails.

My result?  I got us lost for about half an hour.  I lost the trail, though I knew it zig-zagged across the creek bed at the bottom of the valley and there was literally no other way out other than back up the length of the valley.  I had a map and a compass and I knew the topology of the area pretty well so I wasn't terribly worried.

So, we followed the creek bed at a much slower pace than we would have gone if we were on the trail, and joined back up with it again.  It was a bit spooky when the late afternoon sun was yellowing on us and we came across the remains of a week old mountain lion kill (a large whitetail doe), but we were back at the trailhead an hour before sunset.

It's thick out there.  Not just that trail... I'm noticing a LOT of trails are either not getting cut back by USFS, or not getting enough foot traffic by hikers.

[Jamisjockey]

This is the fallacy of a "free" society.  You pay your taxes for such things, so you expect to be serviced. But in general, the services cost more than you, the individual puts into the system.  There should be no free ride.  You pay to play if you get in trouble.  Private companies would step in and provide insurance as well as private SAR duties.  

[Kingcreek]

I learned to use a compass long before I saw my first cell phone. Spent a lot of time in wilderness areas and off the trail. The only time I ever got lost was in the northern minnesota boundry waters area and I didn't trust my compass because of all the iron in the rock there and I went with my instincts over my compass. I got myself out but it was darkest dark when I got back to deer camp and my tired flashlight was putting out about as many lumens as a paper match.

[Tallpine]

Too bad that they had cell phones and service 

Otherwise, they all would have had to find there way out on there own and maybe learned a few things in the process.  And nobody else would have had to interrupt their day. 

I learned to use a compass long before I saw my first cell phone.

I never used a compass back in Colorado.  There were really only two directions, up and down.  But one time we almost walked off the wrong side of a mountain in a fog.  It would have been no big deal except we would have come out about 50 road miles from where we left our car.  While everyone else was chattering, I noticed that the rocks just didn't look right, and we turned around and walked back up to where there was a Y in the ridgeline.

[Boomhauer]

Remember, I think it was towards the end of last summer/early fall, the idiots in the Grand Canyon that called the rescue services several times, once for water, another when they were lost, and refused rescue each time? The third flight the flight crew finally wised up and brought LE along with them and told them to get in the helo or we will arrest your ass right now?

[41magsnub]

One of the funnier backpacking trips that involved getting lost was in the boy scouts back in the day.  One of the dads was leading this expedition, he is a serious outdoorsman who spends weeks at a time in the Bob Marshall and has climbed several mountains including K2 and Mount Kilimanjaro.

The polarity of his new compass was reversed and he was doing all the navigating, the rest of us were just along for the ride.  He never looked at the sun and thought "hmm...  this seems wrong".  We just went on for miles and miles before he realized late in the day we were going the wrong way.  We camped for the night, then hiked back keeping our schedule.  We were lost in that we were going the wrong way, but at least knew how to get back to where we started from os there was no danger.

20+ years later he has yet to live it down and he still gets a couple of compasses for Christmas each year!

[Hawkmoon]

I wandered off one of the less-used trails in Acadia National Park many, many years ago. I kinda figured out that the "trail" I was following maybe wasn't a trail when it ended at a dense blueberry thicket, and I was only halfway up the mountain. But I had a map, and I had eyes. The back trail wasn't clearly visible, and I didn't know if I'd pick up where I had gone wrong if I tried to backtrack, so I guesstimated where I was and where my trail should be, headed in that direction, and found it. They mark trails across open rock in Acadia with rock cairns, and a number of them on the less popular trails apparently had either fallen prey to winter frost, or had been knocked down by vandals.

Once I realized what was afoot, I had no trouble scanning farther ahead and finding other cairns (or the vestiges thereof). I also rebuilt a couple on my way up.

[KD5NRH]

I've wandered off a lot of trails, and I rarely carry a map when hiking, unless there's some hard-to-find thing that I want to find.  OTOH, I do carry a compass in case of cloudy nights or a desperate need to find directions at precisely local noon.

Have a clue where the major landmarks are; peaks, rivers, fences, roads, etc.  Have a clue how to navigate even when you can't find those.  Have enough basic common sense to survive for a couple of days on what you have with you and what nature provides.  There are very few places left on the planet, much less in the U.S. where a person with any sort of basic survival skills could actually be lost long enough to come to serious harm from exposure or hunger.  Dehydration is possible, but easy to avoid; a Camelbak and a few iodine tabs should keep you going long enough to straight-walk (i.e. pick a direction and walk straight until you find a reliable routing method like a river or road) your way out.

[Tallpine]

Dehydration is possible, but easy to avoid; a Camelbak and a few iodine tabs should keep you going long enough to straight-walk (i.e. pick a direction and walk straight until you find a reliable routing method like a river or road) your way out.

If you walk in a straight line long enough in Montana, you will eventually come to a bar. 

[Bogie]

It's like people forget how to think...
 
You're going south. You call me to ask where a motel is. I tell you to get off the highway at milemarker 118, and go west to the service road.
 
"Which direction is west?"
 
"The service road on the right side of the highway."
 

[MechAg94]

It's like people forget how to think...
 
You're going south. You call me to ask where a motel is. I tell you to get off the highway at milemarker 118, and go west to the service road.
 
"Which direction is west?"
 
"The service road on the right side of the highway."
 

If it wasn't for the compass on my rear view mirror, I would rarely pay much attention to what direction I was going.  I would at least know what is West though.

[KD5NRH]

If it wasn't for the compass on my rear view mirror,

I think I have one of those.  Shadows are easier to see, though, and not affected by nearby magnetic fields.

[Tallpine]

Makes you wonder how the pioneers ever found their way across the plains to Oregon... 

And back then, they didn't have decent cell phone service anywhere west of the Mississippi River 

[230RN]

Never got lost in the mountains or plains.

I did get royally lost once in one of those enormous shopping centers.  Every darned street or road into it and in it was named Flatirons.

Way.
Boulevard.
Circle.
Street.
Concourse.
Parkway.
Trail.
Avenue.
Lane.
Place.
Loop.
Bend.
Rue.
Calle.
Ulitsa.
Strasse.

I exaggerate slightly for the sake of a good story, but it sure was frustrating.  Reminded me of Georgia.  Everything was Peachtree this or Peachtree that.

Away from streets or roads and signs?  Nooo problaymo.

Terry, 230RN

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

been lost in the woods before  wasn't too worried so long as i didn't get hurt i knew i'd cut a road before i starved.  did spend some extra time on top of a mountain in wva one winter.     was right hungry when i finally got off. was there 10 days  only planned for a week  and i underestimated how much food for me and the dog. o coulda walked out there is i had too but i wasn't healthy and waited for my ride

[BridgeRunner]

I have not yet been lost in space in the woods, but I have been lost in time.  That was one of the most disorienting and frustrating experiences of my life, and considering that I've spent a not inconsiderable amount of time being insane, that's saying a lot. 

It was at the end of my first term of law school.  Last final was Sunday 9-12.  I headed out from home in Metro Detroit at 6.30, went to mass in Lansing at 7.30, went to my final.  Immediately after my final, I headed North. Nope, I didn't.  I had locked my keys in my car.  It is my habit to not bring extra stuff to tests becaus of distractions and a desire to avoid the appearance of cheating, as so I left my stuff in the car.  And then locked it.  Facilities manager at the law school helped me break into my car.  Then I headed north, to Ontonogon.  Except, I had just finished my first term of law school.  Hadn't quite been on the ball with little things like auto maintenance.  Spent about an hour running around northern Michigan trying to find someplace that had a working compressor available on a Sunday evening, after I noticed that I had a seriously underinflated tire.  I got to Ontonagon at  about 3 am because of all the delays, and it was way, way too late and way, way too dark, and I was way too tired to follow plan A of grabbing a site in one of the car-camping areas.  After violating public urination laws, I slept in my car until I woke up about three hours later and headed for the trailhead. 

I hiked a lot farther that first day than I had planned, about ten miles, iirc.  I was about two miles in when I realized that I neglected to bring a timepiece of any kind.  I figured it was no big deal.  Who needs to know the time in the woods, anyway?  And I can just watch the sun.  No worries.  Right.

Ten miles was a long way for me then, because I had a forty pound pack and was hideously out of shape.  By halfway through the day I was experiencing auditory hallucinations from exhaustion.  That two hours of sleep in the car was about the best night's sleep I'd had in weeks.  I was still intimidated by law school then, and I did have five final exams that terms, not to mention a slew of roommates making life interesting.  When it started getting on towards late afternoon, I found the bestest campsite of all time and went to sleep.  Woke up in what was clearly fairly early morning, make some breakfast, cleaned up, thought about getting dressed, and crawled back in my tent and went to sleep. 

When I woke up after what seemed like about twenty minutes, there were some hikers hiking past my site.  Huh.  Well, I slept late, anyway.  No worries.  Passed a couple other sites, where groups of people were cooking elaborate meals.  Started getting freaked out.  For no real reason, whatsoever, just got completely freaked out about feeling out of sync with everyone and everything.  Well, so the fact I'd spent much of the preceding day listening to my dead grandfather calling my name probably contributed too.  Hike FAST through the area full of campsites, and tired to get over it, and then realized that I did need to get some idea of what time it was, so I could figure out when you start thinking about the next campsite.  I did come across a family a while later and they told me it was 6 pm.  No one was sure if that was eastern or central time, which freaked me out all over again. 

I ended up going about three miles and finding another site, settled and got cleaned up, built a fire, relaxed a while, and got myself sorted out.  By the third day I was getting slightly less nutty and just asked the first person I ran across the other days for the time, and then I was good. 

I was really astonished at how disoriented I was without a clock, and more than a little ashamed, both of feeling like I needed a clock and of not being able to tell what time of day it was.  It was a hazy day, and I was in heavy woods that short second day, and although I had good maps and knew what direction I was going, I couldn't get any idea of where the sun was relative to me.  Each time I tried I got all panicked about my incompetence. 

In retrospect, I experienced all the psychological effects of being totally lost without any of the actual real or perceived dangers of being lost in space.  Dealing with that was a major emotional challenge.  I guess my response to it was "fake it 'til you make it".  It didn't REALLY matter, not much anyway, whether I knew what time of day it was or not, so I just dealt with it the best I could, and figured I'd figure it out.  I don't know how I'd deal with being actually lost, but then I bring maps and such, and other than Israel, haven't hiked anywhere where being lost was a major risk. 

No, there's no real point to this post.  Just thinking about being lost.  I guess the difference between me and them is that I've never had a cellphone with me on a hike, and if I did, it likely wouldn't have service anyway.  Well, and I've been working for years to overcome an over-developed sense of self-reliance, so prematurely calling for a rescue seems just kinda' pitiful to me. 

But if I didn't have that, I don't know I'd react to being lost.  I'm not great with maps and navigation.  Wish I was, but I never learned.  Not sure how to learn either.  I guess REI offers classes and such, and I could always go on an organized hike with a guide and such and try to pick up some skills.  I understand that there are such educational ventures.  I tend towards harsh judgment of the people who go calling for a rescue when they got turned around ten minutes into a trip or something, but I'm not really that much more competent, just more stubborn about getting help.  I'm not a dumb person, just never learned how to navigate in the woods, not well, anyway.  I've done ok so far.  Well, and I'm nutty enough that a couple days of extreme disorientation and the effort of coping with it are some great memories, because I like that sort of challenge. 

Some of these people are probably very capable, intelligent people.  Just not at this activity.  Should they stay indoors?  I guess insurance is a good idea.  Yeah, now that I'm officially an asthmatic, I guess I'd be happy to pay for SAR insurance on the off chance I had an asthma attack in the woods or something.  It doesn't have to about incompetent map-reading.

No, there's really no point to this post, I'm just deep in rambling.  What can I say, it's Friday night.   

[Hawkmoon]

It's like people forget how to think...
 
You're going south. You call me to ask where a motel is. I tell you to get off the highway at milemarker 118, and go west to the service road.
 
"Which direction is west?"
 
"The service road on the right side of the highway."
 

You haven't spent enough time driving through New England.

In Connecticut, what is now I-95 used to be the Connecticut Turnpike. It runs parallel to the coastline, which in Connecticut means east-west, and it was designated as East or West. Then the Connecticut Turnpike was incorporated into the Interstate highway system as I-95 ... which runs (generally) north-south. So the Connecticut Turnpike east became I-95 north, and the Connecticut turnpike west became I-95 south.

Except that you're still traveling east or west, despite the signs telling you you're going north or south. I used to run a CB radio on longer trips and going through Connecticut was always fun: "Yeah, driver, take northbound I-95 about 30 miles east, and get off at ..."

[PTK]

...

The idea of being lost not so much in space but in time is terrifying. I'm amazed how frightening that idea is...

[sanglant]

link to a link to a short story about being lost in time.

[KD5NRH]

I exaggerate slightly for the sake of a good story, but it sure was frustrating.  Reminded me of Georgia.  Everything was Peachtree this or Peachtree that.

My street is "Drive" on the survey and the city plat, but "Street" on the post office records.  The post office says it doesn't matter since it's the only one anyway, so they're not going to fix it.  I've been tempted to see if the city council would name a block of deserted alley somewhere with the "Street" designation just to force it to get sorted out.

[griz]

Except that you're still traveling east or west, despite the signs telling you you're going north or south. I used to run a CB radio on longer trips and going through Connecticut was always fun: "Yeah, driver, take northbound I-95 about 30 miles east, and get off at ..."

We've got something like that.  In Chesapeake Virginia the eastern end of I-64 loops around and heads due west.  My wife swears it is a plot by men to confuse women.

[Tallpine]

I-90 East runs mostly south from Hardin, MT to Buffalo, WY.

[Ron]

I-55, the Stevenson Expressway or "Historic RT 66" by my house has the north/south designation even though by the time it gets to the Chicago suburbs (where I'm at) is really running more east/west.

It does run N/S through most of the state though.

I've never been lost, but I've been mighty confused on occasion