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.