they didn't watch survivorman or read "how to stay alive in the woods"

[gunsmith]

http://www.rgj.com/article/20110509/NEWS/110509002/1321/news

A Canadian couple took the scenic route to Las Vegas and got stuck in the mud.
Surrounded by food the lady nearly starved to death & her husband used a GPS to get lost and in all likelihood die.

That area, while harsh and difficult, has an abundance of cottontail,birds & bugs to eat its been snowing - yup cold but also means water, they had a car that has gas that means fire/signal smoke.

Sure catching a rabbit can be difficult & birds too but you can do it, you would have to catch a lot of bugs for a stir fry, but at least its food.

Why not, if you have the money for a long drive, make sure you have enough food/water for an emergency? I cant imagine driving off the beaten path and not being prepared to live for a few weeks and have the necessary tools to get unstuck. I only stay on main roads unless I'm prepared.

God bless em, I hope he is OK, but it still kind of angers me .

[KD5NRH]

Doesn't this happen at least once a year?

I mean, really; build a  big smoky fire and wait for somebody to come see what's burning.  Especially if you've had the sense to tell someone roughly where you'll be, that will eventually get noticed and checked out.

[AJ Dual]

Well, better nothing than watching Bear Gryls. They'd have tried to eat scorpions and got stung on the face, jumped off a cliff into a river, then drank their own urine. 

[MicroBalrog]

What's the problem with drinking your own urine? Apart from the 'ew' factor that is.

[Jamisjockey]

A spare tire will burn for a long time, with a nice column of smoke.  The car battery with some wires will start a fire easy peasy.  The car provides shelter, and leaving the car if you don't know where you're going? 
I remember reading some gps horror stories in one of the fishing/hunting magazines. Things that make you go

[Jamisjockey]

What's the problem with drinking your own urine? Apart from the 'ew' factor that is.

Its wholly un-necessary to recycle your waste products in most survival situations.  Water can be scavenged quite easily almost anywhere in the world.  While acutally sterile, your urine contains a host of waste products your body intended to dispose of.  Re-drinking it (without distilling it into water) just puts more stress on your kidneys to re-process the toxins. 

[CNYCacher]

She was stranded for 7 weeks.  The fact that she made it out at all tells me she did a damn good job.  Obviously she was scavenging water from somewhere so lets not go on about the water thing.  As far as food goes, she made it 7 weeks and only lost 30lbs.  Seems to me that they either A) DID bring a reasonable amount of food for an emergency situation or B) She was finding food somewhere, or both.

[AZRedhawk44]

March 22nd - get lost.  Hubby takes off with GPS to go get help.

May 8th - Wifey gets found at van.



There's a big timeline gap there.  Sad story... sounds like Hubby took a tumble somewhere and lost mobility, and probably ended up feeding a pack of 'yotes.

[AJ Dual]

What's the problem with drinking your own urine? Apart from the 'ew' factor that is.

As noted, it's only a desperation measure. The salts and nitrates in the urea aren't good for you. It's the same problem as drinking seawater, just to a slightly lesser degree.

Although mainly, there's a minor Internet meme of Bear Gryls finding excuses to "drink his own piss", making fun of the extreme things he does on his show, like squeezing elephant dung for moisture, giving himself enemas of contaminated bilge water from a raft, and talking about drinking his own urine.

(he also has a film crew and isn't really "surviving" anything")

"Survivorman" with Les Stroud is held up in comparison where he's very pragmatic, really is alone (walks everything twice, once for the shot, once to go back and collect his camera.) and you see the toll living in whatever makeshift shelter he can come up with, and whatever food he can find in the wild has on him too.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/bear-grylls-better-drink-my-own-piss

[Tallpine]

March 22nd - get lost.  Hubby takes off with GPS to go get help.

May 8th - Wifey gets found at van.



There's a big timeline gap there.  Sad story... sounds like Hubby took a tumble somewhere and lost mobility, and probably ended up feeding a pack of 'yotes.

She's got a good story anyway 


I'm just thrilled that there are still places in the western USSA where you could park a vehicle and not be noticed for 7 weeks 

[lee n. field]

weeks and have the necessary tools to get unstuck. I only stay on main roads unless I'm prepared.

God bless em, I hope he is OK, but it still kind of angers me .

Hmmm.

Her husband, 59-year-old Albert Chretien, remains missing after setting off on foot March 22 to get help.

Since March?  He's dead.

[Regolith]

My question is....where in the hell were they going?   

There's just about one paved road in that area (that isn't in a town, anyway, and there ain't many of those, either), and they should have stayed on it if they were heading for Vegas.  There isn't really much in that area worth straying from the highway to go see that I know of.

And the thing with gravel or dirt roads Nevada is, if you don't know the current condition of the road, it's best not to drive it with anything that can get stuck easily, like a van.  There's too damn many of them and very few of them are maintained very well; even the ones that are supposed to be well maintained can be washed out or deeply rutted, especially during the spring when the road crews haven't had a chance to get out to do anything with them and the ground is still soggy.

And of course, as they found out the hard way, if you do get stuck you're most likely going to be out of cell phone range, there's unlikely to be very many people around, and it could be a very, very long walk to the nearest ranch house.

[Boomhauer]

My question is....where in the hell were they going?   

There's just about one paved road in that area (that isn't in a town, anyway, and there ain't many of those, either), and they should have stayed on it if they were heading for Vegas.  There isn't really much in that area worth straying from the highway to go see that I know of.

And the thing with gravel or dirt roads Nevada is, if you don't know the current condition of the road, it's best not to drive it with anything that can get stuck easily, like a van.  There's too damn many of them and very few of them are maintained very well; even the ones that are supposed to be well maintained can be washed out or deeply rutted, especially during the spring when the road crews haven't had a chance to get out to do anything with them and the ground is still soggy.

And of course, as they found out the hard way, if you do get stuck you're most likely going to be out of cell phone range, there's unlikely to be very many people around, and it could be a very, very long walk to the nearest ranch house.

The article didn't say it, but I bet they either messed up thier GPS, or it was a crappy one to begin with, and they were following it's instructions to the letter on where to go and got in this situation.

You ALWAYS have to review the route on a GPS to make sure it's right. You ALWAYS should have backup paper maps (and know how to read them). You should NEVER just blindly trust an electronic device (especially considering the number of cheap, poorly designed and programmed GPS units out there). A GPS car nav system is programmed to follow roads to get to somewhere and is very dependent on those roads being properly classified (ie, interstate, standard road, secondary road, forest service roads and such) to get the desired routing. It's also a good idea, if you are not familar with an area, to stick with the interstate or a major highway if at all possible. Shortcuts aren't if you don't know the area.

[seeker_two]

March 22nd - get lost.  Hubby takes off with GPS to go get help.

May 8th - Wifey gets found at van.



There's a big timeline gap there.  Sad story... sounds like Hubby took a tumble somewhere and lost mobility, and probably ended up feeding a pack of 'yotes.

Why do I feel inspired to write a murder mystery novel by this?..... 

[gunsmith]

oops missed the whole left on March 22 thing, I guess she did find a water source.
Leaving the van was the husbands fatal mistake, well I'm assuming fatal.

[Jamisjockey]

Why do I feel inspired to write a murder mystery novel by this?..... 

Death by guilt.  The black widow should convince her husband that he must save her, but the obvious flaw will result in his death.

[Ben]

My question is....where in the hell were they going?   

And the thing with gravel or dirt roads Nevada is, if you don't know the current condition of the road, it's best not to drive it with anything that can get stuck easily, like a van.  There's too damn many of them and very few of them are maintained very well; even the ones that are supposed to be well maintained can be washed out or deeply rutted, especially during the spring when the road crews haven't had a chance to get out to do anything with them and the ground is still soggy.

It's like that in a lot of CA too. I often go exploring when I'm fishing in the Eastern Sierras. I fish near the NV border and explore dirt roads in both states. I have a 4X, extra food and water, and "get unstuck" supplies. I'm really careful and often get out to check iffy conditions before I consider driving over them. You'd be surprised how many times I've gotten to the end of one of those roads and found people in a sedan kicking back and drinking brewskis or something.

[Regolith]

It's like that in a lot of CA too. I often go exploring when I'm fishing in the Eastern Sierras. I fish near the NV border and explore dirt roads in both states. I have a 4X, extra food and water, and "get unstuck" supplies. I'm really careful and often get out to check iffy conditions before I consider driving over them. You'd be surprised how many times I've gotten to the end of one of those roads and found people in a sedan kicking back and drinking brewskis or something.

 

I'd be impressed with anyone that could get a sedan through most of the gravel roads that were in my area of the state.  The ones that are close to town or are used by current mining operations are generally ok, but once you get too far away from those areas, they go to crap very fast. I've never even seen anyone try them with anything less than an SUV or a pickup truck.

[KD5NRH]

I have a 4X, extra food and water, and "get unstuck" supplies.

I worked with a guy who kept a winch on the rear receiver, six t-posts with rings welded to them on the roof rack and a post driver mounted to the inside of his jacked up 4-Runner.  Drive a 5 foot t-post 4 feet into the ground and it makes a pretty good anchor.

As for the GPS, this is why I like to carry both a "car type" and an "aircraft/boat/hiking type" that just points straight at the destination.  Even if the roads aren't right, having a constant direction will keep you from wandering in circles or going off in the opposite direction.  Add in basic orienteering skills for a "reality check" and it's pretty hard to stay really lost.

[gunsmith]

I live between Oregon & Reno in northern NV, you can tell just by looking at the place
that you had better be well prepared. I always have a knife, gun, & multi tool. I strive to have more & if I don't I stay on the main roads.

I just like real maps, never really even have used a GPS much, for a little while as a taxi - the company installed them & I found them to be pretty useless-I guess you need the high $$ ones. I would still have a decent map & a plan before going.

There is kind of a survival book for my area, Chuck Dodd's ... http://www.shopblackrockdesert.org/chdogtogeari.html
book recommends having two spares of good tires, & the jacks needed to get out of mud. As well as the gear/maps/food/gas etc ... my survival kit is kind of small right now, basically matches, multi tool, gun/ammo, knife but I do not really wander far from main roads right now. I've got to start getting better prepped.

BLM is always looking out for fire, if you find yourself stuck out here sometime-signal fires will get noticed[/u]

[Jamisjockey]

http://www.pullpal.com/

[Regolith]

I worked with a guy who kept a winch on the rear receiver, six t-posts with rings welded to them on the roof rack and a post driver mounted to the inside of his jacked up 4-Runner.  Drive a 5 foot t-post 4 feet into the ground and it makes a pretty good anchor.

That's actually a pretty damn good idea.  Having nothing to hook your winch to when you get stuck is kind of like needing to use your gun and having it go "click" instead of "bang"...it is not fun. (And yes, that's from personal experience).  

[Regolith]

http://www.pullpal.com/

WIN!

[MicroBalrog]

Please explain:

I thought the differences between different GPS devices were based on programming, not hardware? Don't all of them work on the same principle? Wouldn't it be possible to have both a 'car GPS' program and a 'hiking' GPS program on the same device? Why two devices?

[Tallpine]

A couple times now, I have given specific instructions to people as to how to get to our house, only to have their GPS tell them about a much better road.

The trouble is that other road turns quickly into a two-track, it's private not public, and it is actually closed off to through traffic by the landowners on both ends.

Showing up unannounced in the yard of some backwoods Montana homestead is not always a good idea, either 



Anyone who needs GPS to find their way around had best stay inside city limits.