Filing a missing persons report about a loved one isn’t what any of us expect to do on a camping trip. Yet every year across the U.S. campers get lost in the woods under mysterious circumstances.
When you realize you’re lost, always give careful thought to how you got to your present location. Photo: TheSOARNet, Pixabay.com
From the Great Smoky Mountains to Yosemite National Park and everywhere in-between, campers of all ages and skill levels have vanished without a trace. And when law enforcement gives up on them, one former police officer from California won’t. He’s made it his mission to close these unsolved cases.
Don’t ever get lost in the woods
David Paulides is a well-known investigative journalist with a long history in law enforcement. His series of books called “Missing 411” spotlights hundreds of unsolved cases about children and adults who mysteriously vanished in places like national parks and forests.
Some were found alive, many were not, but all of their cases share similarly eerie circumstances. Here’s why it pays to never get lost in the woods when you go camping.
Don’t panic if you get lost in the woods.
You may never get found
It’s common to think that lost campers are probably inexperienced and unprepared. Paulides’ books show that’s not always the case. The author discusses how many of those who disappeared were experienced.
Whether these missing persons were experienced or not, their disappearances all share similar traits such as:
- Campers of all ages have disappeared in 28 different “clusters” near or on North America’s public lands and often within just a few miles of each other.
- Many of them disappeared within close proximity to loved ones.
- Dogs are often involved. Sometimes they return with the victim, other times they come back alone.
- Victims who are found are often too young to communicate what happened. Or, they have no recollection of the events that transpired.
- If bodies are found, they are sometimes located years later and shockingly within close proximity to where search and rescue teams were originally focusing their efforts.
When a missing person investigation grows cold after a prolonged search, law enforcement often presumes the individual is dead. Paulides was surprised to learn that when a missing persons case is shelved, nobody keeps track of it.
According to his CANAMmissing.com website, “there is no centralized registry or database of persons who have gone missing in our national parks and forests or on Bureau of Land Management lands.”
He says the government keeps no records about the case and even if remains are found, that information doesn’t have to get documented anywhere. The author’s “CANAM Missing” group is calling for “a national, publicly accessible registry/database be created in which all missing persons are accounted for…”
If you do get lost, here’s what you must do
Nobody ever thinks they’ll end up as a missing persons case in a David Paulides book. But each year thousands of campers disappear in the woods and many of them were probably unprepared for what came next. If you get lost in the woods here are the three most important things you must do:
- Keep calm. When you realize you’re lost, remember that panic is your worst enemy.
- Think. Don’t move until you give careful thought to how you got to your present location. Try to recall landmarks you passed along the way.
- Remain observant. Stay on the trail and use your compass to guide your way back. If you have a GPS, use it but keep a paper map and compass as a backup.
For more tips about what to do if you get lost in the woods, see what the US Forest Service suggests.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
Having been involved in more than one search effort for hikers lost in the Cascade mountains of Washington State, I can attest to the fact that in several cases there, people just wandered away from their group and either fell or became disoriented within 100 yards of safety. We attempted to find one hiker who disappeared in extremely difficult terrain where we literally couldn’t step on the ground, only because the underbrush was so thick we had to walk on top of it (very disturbing!), keeping in visual and sound contact with our fellow searches as we marched in line across the thick ground covering, sometimes 10 feet or more off the ground. Never did find that hiker.
I hiked the John Muir Trail last summer and was astonished at the number of people with maps electronic or paper. Electronic are great but you always need paper for obvious reasons.
Whats even more important than what to do when lost is how to prevent yourself from getting lost in the first place.
Without maps ….
I hiked the John Muir Trail last summer and was astonished at the number of people without maps, electronic or paper. Electronic are great but you always need paper for obvious reasons.
Whats’s even more important than “what to do when lost”, is “how to prevent yourself from getting lost” in the first place.
Ive not been in a national forest since I was a little kid on vacation with dad. 🙂 …so my question is this; I get how to unlose myself with a gps, but how do you get out with a paper map? Turn right at pine tree 2,476,942, go 7,867 paces and then turn… Heh. Seriously, unless Im on a marked trail I think only something like a mountain would be of any help off the map!
You also need a compass and the ability to read it. With the compass, you can not only find a direction, you can locate yourself by triangulating on landmarks such as peaks. This is an oldy, but a goodie: https://www.amazon.com/Expert-Map-Compass-Bjorn-Kjellstrom/dp/0470407654
I have seen numerous instances in heavy weather or deep woods where a GPS simply will not work because it just could get enough signal to locate satellites. It is a good thing to have along, but only a compass will give any sense to direction under those circumstances. Indeed, you can get very lost with just a GPS.
Compass will tell you which direction is north. All of these answers presume that a person knows how to use a compass and the direction in which he needs to travel. He is lost – that means he doesn’t know where he is. And if he doesn’t know where he is how can he decide the direction to where he wants to be? In some areas of the country a person can use a compass to help him walk a straight line rather than wander about. But in the mountainous terrain of California and many of the other western states it is usually an impossibility to walk a straight line. A compass is useful, but not a solution without supplementary knowledge – like having a pretty good idea of where a road or other development is and in what direction. But he’s lost – which means that he doesn’t have that knowledge. With a compass AND a map, and recognizable landmarks that show on the map – now you have what is necessary.
GPS – there’s all types. But many, maybe most also show your position on a map. It takes less knowledge, but some still, to find your way out with a GP that has a screen that shows the maps. Battery failure makes such worthless.
My recommendation would be to use the GPS if you can, but compasses are inexpensive, so carry one AND a good map too.
Without a doubt my first choice would be a GPS. Garmin makes several models that the rechargeable battery can be replaced with AA batteries if you can’t recharge the battery…like when you’re lost.
Most good GPS models, like many of the Garmin models have a “trackback” feature that will take you back the “bread crumb” trail it generated while you were in the process of getting lost.
So a couple of thoughts:
Get a good GPS, spend some time getting to know how it works. They aren’t rocket science, but you do need to spend some time learning the functions. Garmin BaseCamp software for planning and saving trips is available on line for free. It works very, very well.
Make sure the battery in your GPS is fully charged when you leave your starting point. I’ll assume that is a car or truck.
Be sure you reset the “track log” at the vehicle so that the “track back” feature only goes as far as the vehicle. And don’t forget to turn the GPS on and allow it to “find itself” before you set out on your hike.
If you can, plan your trip using software like BaseCamp. You can generate a “route” or a “track” to follow by looking at the screen. Not difficult, but takes a bit of learning a I mentioned earlier.
Prepare by putting together a “fanny pack” or something similar that has your survival gear:
GPS
Emergency poncho
Emergency “space blanket”
Safety container of strike anywhere matches
Package of fire starting sticks or blocks
Find Me Spot device or similar
One fundamental safety tip was missed in the article. If you get lost or stuck (I got stuck on a cliff) stay right where you are. The search party will start from your last know location. If you are lost and you start to walk around, then you will get further from your last known location. Obviously I was saved….by the way…it took a helicopter to get me off the cliff
Always take a compass heading back towards a known landmark, like a road or highway. Take mental notes of direction changes and landmarks, but always remember the compass heading, and it will be hard to get lost…
Always think colored chalk should be in a survival packet. Helps you to mark your course on trees and rocks. Washes off at next rain so would not clutter up the park. Lost during a rain. . . . . .hunker down a wait it out.
Great idea!
I too have been “Lost” one time in the Chippewa National Forest in Northern Minnesota! Went into the words at 6:00 A.M.
and fortunately stumbled onto a fire road at about 7:00 P. M. Well after dark! Very scary, very disconcerting! I was not prepared to be lost. I knew where I was! I knew where I was going and then got disoriented and lost!
Many years later in the High Uintas, in Utah I had a similar experience! This time however I was prepared. I had food, water, supplies, and number one “Experience”
To make matters worse I had a GPS! I had the unit but did not trust it! I navigated to a known waypoint on my Magellan but I swore it was not accurate! I recognized nothing!
My son and I were together Elk Hunting and neither one of us felt we were in the right place! This time however I did not panic! We set our gear down and started to walk around our surroundings and within 20 yards “Bingo”.
We were right were we wanted to be and where we were supposed to be!
Your mind can sometimes confuse you in the woods! You have to be patient! You cannot panic! Being well prepared also gives you confidence when things begin to become confusing!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Craig.
The worst situation I have run into is when there is a different road that parallels the road that you originally came from, and you think you found the road you thought you started from but you are not… What is worse, is that you only have a few miles on foot to figure out the paradox.
Since so many people have smart phones these days, one important tip that should be added is to make a serious effort to conserve your battery as soon as you think you might be lost. You may need that battery to last 3–5 days, and it can be done if you focus some attention on it. This could mean turning the phone off or putting it into airplane mode so it is not transmitting and receiving constantly. However, you should turn it back on at least once per hour to send a ping to the nearest tower, which will help searchers locate you and also help them to know that you are still alive. Some phones they setting that allow you to put it into “low power” mode. One other tip is that the Compass function on the iPhone does not allow you to transmit your location. However, you can easily make a screenshot of your location and send that image by email or text message as with any other photograph. Also, you can “pin” your location in Apple Maps or Google Maps and send that image to someone. The “pin” feature can also be helpful so that you can check again in 30–60 minutes to see where you are as compared to where you were before, which helps confirm what direction you’re traveling. This all assumes, of course, that you have some cell signal, which is not always possible in remote areas. Even in remote areas, however, the phone should be turned on once in a while as it will attempt to establish a connection and may just ping a cell tower even if you do not have enough signal to send or receive messages.
also text 911 AS texting will sometimes work, whereas phoning will not.
Great ideas. I’ll practice those before I go out in the woods on a winding kayak trail again!
And perhaps its worth mentioning…carrying along one of the small solar panels that will charge your phone…
Not necessary to carry a solar panel; they have small chargers now that you first charge at home and then carry with you (it’s about the size of a double pack of C batteries); you plug the charger into your phones charging port and it will charge your phone sometimes with enough juice left over to get another partial charge out of it later.
learn hot to tell which way is north east south and west with out a compass
That’s a great idea, but it doesn’t work real well with heavy cloudy days or deep woods.
Look for moss on the north side of trees (in the northern hemisphere); that will give you a rough idea of direction at any time of day or overcast conditions. They say.
Yes, I have studied the North side of the tree theory, but it often doesn’t work, due to terrain and other shadow modifying conditions and can send you way off course. A compass is far and away the better way to set a course.
Of COURSE a compass is better; that wasn’t the point. The point was, how to maintain your sense of direction when you don’t HAVE a compass? In the deep woods without a view of the sky, you may not have much of a choice but to trust the moss, or hope you can cut across a logging road or even a stream and follow that downslope. I for one will always carry a compass in primitive country, or not go out there in the first place! But it’s never a good idea to continue to move and cast about for a direction to move in….your chances of being found are greater if you stay in place. Try to build a fire, and produce smoke and smoke odor. Keep the fire burning bright, particularly if you find yourself stuck out there after dark.
My brother and I got badly lost near dusk in the piney woods of TX in 1972. We were kids, crossed fences we shouldn’t have, and got lost. The family heard my volleys of 3 shots, but didn’t think a thing of it. Finally we panicked and started running hard and fast. It was terrifying! We finally hit a road and flagged down a car. An example of what not to do!
While I agree that a compass is a handy tool, it shouldn’t be the only means of navigation used either. I lived in Michigan’s upper peninsula. In that area a compass generally points to the nearest big rock outcropping instead of magnetic north. The rocks have magnetic ore in them. I’ve detected that I was making navigation mistakes several times using offline GPS data from phones which kept a hike from turning into a rescue. Learn to use all the tools you have available to their potential.
Spot on!!
Instead of cutting a hole in the bottom middle of the plastic bag as he did, you should cut an 8″ slit 12″underneath one of the 2 closed corners of the bag. That will leave a triangle shaped hood for your head and keep you drier.
This is a really great idea, thank you!
You touched very briefly on turning periodically looking to the sides and behind. I tell new hikers to always stop every so often and especially around landmarks such as large boulders or a deformed tree. The important thing to remember is the trail can look totally different when looking back on it. I have trekked may miles in the Cascade Mountains and this has worked well for me.
You know, a good GPS, like a Garmin, have a “trackback” feature that will take you right back your starting point. Set a waypoint at the car/truck and a waypoint where you decide you have to figure out how to get back and start using “trackback”.
These days I don’t go into the back country without my “Find Me Spot”. I can’t beleive the horror stories I read on people lost in the woods, or worse yet, lost at sea. And all could have been rescued much more quickly with a Find Me Spot device.
Garmin has just purchased DeLorme, and so devices like Find Me Spot, from several manufacturers now have a satellite phone integrated into them. It may cost a bit, but sure beats being lost or dead.
What is really amazing in heavy cover is in how little distance you can travel before you totally lose your bearing, unless, of course you have set your compass, marked your trail, or used landmarks if they are readily discernible. Also, if possible take a long distance landmark, if possible, of an object that is miles away, but easily recognizable..
Good info that has been shared. Thank you.
I have been on several SAR Teams ( 40+ yrs ) and currently work in North Idaho for the Bonner County Sheriff Dept.
I have been lost looking for the lost. The funniest rescue I made for my group is, I knew there were cattle in the area so I mooed and the cattle responded.
As we walked out of the woods the farmer was leaning up against the fence looked at us and said: I wondered what the Hell was going to come out of these woods.
I carry all area maps, compasses, electronic devices and try to have a local hunter in our group.
For my phone, I carry 6 spare batteries for it along with survival supplies.
Some of these places we go into, we know we have to repel in and find a different way out. Have your skill sets honed and practiced and be physically ready.
Know the weather and the animals you may encounter including backwoods meth labs.
RangerRick
Thanks for the added tips, Rick.
Now I know I have been right in never getting far away from my Lazy Boy recliner and just watch people go hiking on TV!
Still, once I got lost and walked into the bathroom instead of the bedroom!
Fortunately wife found me stranded and walked me back to the recliner…
(giggle)
I never walked or hiked through dense woods mainly because I don’t want to encounter wild animals who call the woods their home. If I was to enter a wooded area I for sure would need to be armed for protection mainly from human predators who have staked out areas to grow illegal labs or whatever. I don’t normally carry a hand gun in our motor home but I’m leaning towards revising that basically for protection if a night time break in occurred.
I don’t go anywhere outdoors without being armed! But got a surprise two days ago. 7AM, walking out the door to go 200 ft and open the doors of my shop building to cool it out. Two steps out the front door, and 30 feet away is a coyote standing dead still, staring at me. Then sort of growled at me twice…so I sort of jumped at it…sure enough…gone in a heart beat. Still…should I be carrying? Well, the house is 3/4 mile from the county road, no houses within a mile. Hmmm….
Coyotes are generally very skittish and afraid of humans, and will bolt immediately if you yell or step toward them. However, coyotes are also known to contract rabies, so if a coyote stands its ground or even becomes threatening or attacks, then yes, you probably should be armed or able to get to safety quickly. Generally, though, coyotes aren’t a threat; when I was a kid on the farm we used to have them come down into our little valley all the time, probably looking to get into the hen house, and they’d yelp and bawl at the moon right outside our house.
No doubt out in the country area where you could be surprised by any wild animal you should be armed. Glad it was a Coyote and not a bear! a pistol would not have helped you as you know.
Depends on the pistol; a 44-mag would be a pretty good deterrent, as would be a Desert Eagle, which fires a 50cal. round.
I have a Model 29 S&W 44 mag…right out of the Dirty Harry movies. But I’m pretty danged good with a 45ACP, only got five of ’em. 230gr JHP does a pretty good job.
Got to looking on the web and talking with a DOW officer. Now makes sense, its a Grey Fox. Saw the tail end of him today, not but 50 feet from our last encounter. We have had red foxes out front of the house. But that’s been more than a year ago. Got the wildlife camera back in place yesterday. Will be interested to see what it captured.
This was a number of years ago, 1956, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in May, Yosemite to be precise.. My son tells me that bears are different now, bolder. I was walking towards Bridal Veil Falls. I saw a couple sitting on a large rock eating their lunch, and a bear was slowly sneaking up behind the man. I stage wispered loud enough that they could hear me: Don’t scare the bear!” and put a telephoto lens on my Argus C3. They didn’t believe me – until the guy raised his sandwich to his mouth and his wife saw the bear about 10 feet behind him. I kept clicking pictures as I walked towards the bear.
The guy asked “What does he want?” (It was probably a she).
I said “Probably your lunch.”
Guy: “He can have it!”
Me: “Don’t give it to her.”
Guy: “Why not?”
Me: “Because you’ll run out of food before she runs out of appetite.”
Guy: What should we do?” By this time I was 3-1/2 feet from the bear, the closest the lens would focus.
Me: “Nothing. I’ll handle it.”
I took one last picture, then YELLED “OK. GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!” VERY LOUD.
The bear lumbered off.
To this day those people probably still think that I could talk to bears. But I knew that bears did not like loud noises and my voice is LOUD. But like I said at the beginning, my son says that bears are much bolder now.
My son says that now the National Park Service and the National Forest Service require that backpackers store their food in bear proof containers otherwise the bears will get it during the night
As a teenager I spent a month each summer backpacking in the Sierras. I never had a bear problem. I stored my food in a cloth backpack, and I used that backpack as a pillow at night. My son says that’d be foolhardy now. He’s 60, but started backpacking with me when he was six. (Look up the Kaiser Wilderness Foundation. He’s one of the co-founders. And he’s still backpacking.)
On the Eastern slope of the Rockies, here in Colorado, the bears are getting bolder. Are often seen in towns and cities.
It would seem that the declining rainfall over the past 20 or so years is reducing the food supply for the bears. So they come to town for dinner.
Bolder when in contact with man? I have no expertise so can’t comment. But on my place North of Canon City, up, tracks and scat somewhere every morning. Finally made the dumpster bear proof…I hope…only time will tell.
Last summer my quad copter decided to just up and fly away. I knew the general direction it was heading when I no longer had control. I also knew the battery was almost fully charged, so I got in my car and headed in that direction. I ended up in a subdivision that I had never been in before, that was only in it’s first phase of completion. There was more untouched land yet to be developed, then had been developed up to that point.
I parked at the edge of the developed part and took off into the woods. Now I’m a certified divemaser who teaches underwater navigation to divers trying to get their advanced certification. But this was different, right? No need for compass headings and all that. My single purpose was finding my expensive bird.
By the time it occurred to me that I had better start thinking about figuring out where I was in relation to all things civilized, it was too late. I was genuinely lost, and with the heat and humidity coupled with all my activity only thinking about that copter, I was starting to get dehydrated, and, it was starting to get dark.
Now I was lucky, I had my phone with Google maps, and the little blue dot that was me. I knew in one direction was a 4 lane highway, which I did find. This was a little alarming, because that meant that either that highway had moved since I was just on it, or that I had just covered a tremendous amount of distance in the exact opposite direction that I thought I was heading!
After that is was a matter of finding the marsh to my left, and watching the blue dot on my phone as I walked along the clearing between the edge of the woods, and the marsh. I was just amazed at how lost I was able to get. so close to home! It was a lesson well learned, because it opened my eyes to how easily one could get lost for real out in the vast wilderness. I would never go hiking again without being over-equipped to find my way back.
Had I not happened to have had my phone with me, I’m convinced I would have been reduced to climbing a fence, and flagging down a car, or what would have been a very long walk back to my car. It can happen to you too!
Thanks for the interesting story and insight Miles.
When hiking in a mountainous area have USGS Topographic maps covering all the areas where you might be – within walking distance of your planned route. Many years ago, when I was about 13 or 14 (I’m now 81) a few guys and me were hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains in February. We were probably the first party of hikers to take that trail since it had rained. Although the area is VERY close to Los Angeles it is as rougher than anything you saw on MASH. Somewhere under all the leaves and mud the trail turned and we didn’t. When we realized that we were no longer on the trail we took out the map. We weren’t lost – we knew where we were. But the trail was lost. Rules say that ordinarily one should travel downhill to get to civilization, and that would have been true even then. But it was late and we’d not get out by dark hiking in that rough country with no trail. We were probably only about 8 miles from where my mother had let us out. But checking the mountain peaks around, taking compas sights on them, we located ourselves at less than a mile from the top of Mount Wilson. There was (probably still is) a hotel up there. We headed straight uphill and arrived at the hotel. I called my uncle and he talked the hotel manager to put us up and feed us (and call the other parents). The next day we hiked down to Pasadena. If we hadn’t had the map we’d have been in some very rough damp mountains overnight. That would have been cold and uncomfortable. But worse, there’d been some VERY worried parents. It was having the map AND KNOWING HOW TO USE IT that turned what could have grounded each of us for a month (at least) into a very enjoyable (for us) two day outing. And without causing our parents any undue worry.
And yes, to this day I consider that one of the best parts of the upbringing I had from my mother was that she not only allowed me to have such adventures, but actually encouraged it. (As a teenager she had hiked in those same mountains.)
How easy it was to get lost! We were on a partially marked atv trail over the Labor Day weekend. The store we rented the atvs from gave us a very simple map with directions to stay on the trail but that all trails led back to the store. Wrong! We had a 4 hour rental and we barely made it back! We had a the map that had no trail names nor directions, The trails were partially unmarked due to a local fire and construction. We were told the trail would be about 2 hours and we spent 3 1/2 hours with over half of those hours trying to get back, We crossed into another state, twice! There was no mention of that. We lost the other couple that was riding with us, In the future we will bring survival gear, we had a compass, water, lighter and cover.., in the car. Doh! Then we read about all the atv accident injuries and deaths. Lucky the first time, prepared the next! Thank you so much for this informaiton!
This Sam is NOT the Sam Crabtree (me)of the earlier post.
This David Paulides book referenced above, has very little to do with “getting lost” in the woods. There’s strange things going on out there at these Nat Park hot-spots, if you don’t think so read that book and it will convince you. One thing- he’s never found one of these “cases” where they had been carrying BOTH a personal locator beacon, AND side arm. Plenty with one or the other, but not one using both. Maybe that’s because very few people do carry both in the first place? Nevertheless, that’s what I do.
It seems like you’re talking about getting lost IN A NATIONAL PARK. Unless the U.S. Department of the Interior has change their policy it is not legal to have a loaded firearm in a U. S. National Park (except for certain designated exceptions).
Strange things like UFO sightings. There are many many first-person accounts of alien abductions in remote areas. I would nor dismiss this offhand.
Me and a friend were hunting in the mountains and became hopelessly lost. After thinking it over we decided to try the age old theory of firing 3 shots in the air hoping someone would come looking for us. So my friend went up on a nearby hill and fired 3 shots in the air. We waited 2 hours, nothing. So he went up on the hill and fired 3 more shots. 2 more hours nothing. I told him let’s try one more time. He says man I hope this works this time I am about out of arrows. ????
Yuk, yuk, yuk; golleee gee….he didn’t use his explosive head arrows?
Hahahahaha
Had to laugh. Funny indeed, RangerRick
You have to wait until there is no wind, then shoot straight up and catch your arrow as it falls toward the ground. If you don’t catch it, it can be damaged by rocks or drive itself through the toe of you shoes. If you do this properly you’ll never run out of arrows.
I am a police officer in the interior of western Canada, and I was also a timbercruiser for years before this (mapping forestry cutblocks). I am also involved in Search and Rescue operations and am an avid outdoors enthusiast. The majority of the time, people don’t get lost, they get ‘stuck’, by either vehicle problems, overestimating usable daylight, or physical injury. Granted we have high success rates in finding these people in short order. Now of those that do get lost (disoriented or otherwise) the author is very correct. They are usually lost within a very short distance of safety,
My recommendations are simple. First and foremost make sure someone is expecting you back. No one knows you are lost if no one is waiting for you to check in. Carry basical survival gear and know how to use it. Do NOT have your life depend on electronic equipment. Yes yes yes carry a cell phone, gps, spot, radio, but do not make them your only essentials. The old fashioned equipment almost never fails or breaks. A compass, whistle, mirror, laminated paper map, waterproof firestarting material. And learn basic orienteering using a compass and topo map. Even in heavy fog, darkness and dense tree canopy you can find your way out with a compass if you know where you need to be (even if you dont know where you are).
And if you do get lost; STOP. Set up a shelter and start a fire. Then worry about water. Food last. You can survive days without food. Make your campsite big and obvious. Set up somewhere visible from the air, like a clearing or water edge. And stay dry, stay warm, and stay put.
If someone knows you are missing and where you should be, you will almost always be found by morning light. Be smart and be safe.
Thanks for the great insight Kenny.
The unusually high number of disappearances in National Forests might be due to extraterrestrial and/or interdimensional beings who frequent them. There have been many sightings of UFOs there, and some aliens do have use for us. Altho Sasquatch belong to one of these interdimensional races, they are benevolent and actually more evolved than humans are.
You can always share some of your liquor with the Sasquatch and they will be more than happy to lead you back out and are much friendlier than the aliens.
I did a lot of hiking in my younger years here where I live in southern AZ. Now with my senior citizen status comes preferred/cheaper access to federal parks, monuments, etc., but also ailments which put major hikes in my past. Having said that the point is my hiking days were before the tech era with smart phones, Magellan or Garmen, Spot me, and so forth.
However, while I was a recreational outdoorsperson, unlike respondent Kenny, above, whose experience sounds far above mine, I understand his comments. Especially in regards to tried and trued older methods of navigating.
I thank my boy scout leaders (who were Army men, as I spent my scout years at Ft. Huachuca in Southern AZ) because they taught us basic orienteering with compass and topo maps (which they had access to from the Army). Also, we learned to use basic trail markers to find our way back when we were off-trail on our particular hike (or bush-whack). Leaving rock cairns, arranging sticks to point the way, putting a blaze on a tree, bending or breaking small branches, leaving scruff marks in the dirt, and so forth. Others could follow our trail, also. If you get lost you’re probably not going to be lucky enough to get a Tohono O’odham tracker out looking for you. World famous Native American trackers. They see subtle signs no one else can see. But even a city boy, like me, could follow and find you if you made trail markers. We were also taught the basics of what to do if we did get lost, like Kenny, above, explained.
When I was a young man, years removed from my Boy Scout days, I used those techniques, plus the comments of one reader, above, looking backwards and noting landmarks, different looking trees, cacti,
rock formations, and so forth.
But the main thing I practiced besides all the skills above to avoid getting lost was to stay on the trail. I’m sure southern AZ isn’t the only place where there is an abundance of clearly marked hiking trails. If you stay on an established and designated hiking trail, your ability to get lost is minimized. Of course, if your curiosity is aroused to go off trail to explore something or to look at something, the skills notated will help you stay un-lost. Of course many adventurers aren’t interested in just where the trail goes. Okay, then all the sound advice by readers above needs to be taken seriously before you even take the first step away from a trail.
Another valuable tip is to keep track of the time. Walking into large, unfamiliar forest areas, can be confusing when you turn around to exit if you don’t know how far you’ve walked, even when using a compass. When you have walked what you think is far enough to get out and nothing looks familiar, or you know it will be getting dark soon, the tendency is to start doubting your compass, that’s when panic starts to set in. Is my compass working, did I look at it wrong, am I too far off my entry heading. I’ve ventured into woods with no trails and so many trees that there are no real visible landscapes and not paid attention to the time. I have on occasion questioned my compass, but always continued to follow the direction of return, and have always come out close to the entry point, (often to my surprise). The closest I’ve come to being lost was coming out to the road I drove in on and walking the wrong way on the road for 15 minutes before I realized that I had not recognized any part of the road or landscape. If I had turned left on the road instead of right I would have been less than a minute from my truck. I’ve also gone into the woods for less than 200 yards, turned around to go back and gone in the wrong direction. this time questioning my GPS which told me to go the opposite direction, but verified with a compass. While hunting your typically not looking for landmarks, but looking for game or following game trails and it’s easy to get turned around. The most important things are to both have navigation aids, know how to use them, and believe them. Don’t rely solely on a GPS, they can fail.