{"id":5984,"date":"2011-07-04T11:47:38","date_gmt":"2011-07-04T16:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/?p=5984"},"modified":"2011-07-24T20:51:35","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T01:51:35","slug":"how-to-avoid-getting-lost-on-a-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2011\/07\/04\/how-to-avoid-getting-lost-on-a-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid getting lost on a hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of forest for article on how hikers can avoid getting lost in the wilderness\" title=\"Forest in North Carolina\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5988\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest-75x100.jpg 75w, https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest-110x146.jpg 110w, https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest-175x233.jpg 175w, https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/forest-100x133.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Getting lost is inevitable on a hike &#8212; the wilderness offers too many temptations to take a wrong turn. While getting lost tops the list of hiking risks, the worse threat is <em>staying<\/em> lost long enough for something bad to happen: falling down a ravine or succumbing to hypothermia. <\/p>\n<p>Getting lost happens to the best of us. The book &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.deepsurvival.com\/\">Deep Survival<\/a>&#8221; recounts how one veteran backpacker got seriously lost in the Rocky Mountains, compounding one error with another for days on end. It&#8217;s not just newbies wandering out there unprepared. <\/p>\n<p>Three keys to staying found on a hike: <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>1) Bring navigation tools you know how to use<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My favorite tactics:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Always hike with a map.<\/strong> You can cheat this rule a bit if the trailhead has a map of the general area where you&#8217;re hiking and you&#8217;re carrying a digital camera: just take a picture of the map, then use your camera&#8217;s playback function and zoom into the area where you&#8217;re hiking. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Learn to use a GPS unit.<\/strong> Owning a GPS and taking it along is one thing; using it to navigate when you&#8217;re in the middle of nowhere is something else.  Bear in mind that batteries die and GPS receivers interpret reflected signals that can throw you off course. I&#8217;ve come to reject the common &#8220;never trust GPS&#8221; advice, because a GPS unit has gotten me found plenty of times.  <\/li>\n<li><strong>Plan on your electronics failing. <\/strong> Say you&#8217;re navigating off-trail and you drop your GPS unit down into a crevasse and you can&#8217;t get it back. What then? That&#8217;s when you&#8217;ll be glad you&#8217;ve got a paper map and a compass for backup. Paper maps and compasses are are cheap, lightweight insurance against becoming hopelessly lost.  I&#8217;ve almost never been so lost that I needed to map-and-compass my way back, but it can&#8217;t hurt to <a href=\"http:\/\/hikinghq.net\/compass\/compass_nav.html\">learn proper compass technique.<\/a> (There&#8217;s way more to it than knowing which way is north.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>2) As you hike, weigh the risks of getting lost <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Always be watching for the stuff that heightens your likelihood of getting lost: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Taking &#8220;Y&#8221; turns:<\/strong> You&#8217;re usually fine as long you can tell yourself &#8220;this is the only trail out here.&#8221; As soon as you see an unmarked &#8220;Y,&#8221; however, your risk of getting lost rises to 50-50.  With odds like that, you need to be formulating a turn-back plan after every Y-turn.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Going on side trips: <\/strong> Taking detours to waterfalls, venturing off-trail to see wildlife and other adventurous explorations are why we hike. They are also what get us lost. Always be watching for landmarks &#8212; oddly bent trees, notably interesting rocks, unique patterns in the forest canopy &#8212; that&#8217;ll help you navigate your way back. (Also: answering nature&#8217;s call gets a lot of people lost; always be on extra alert on bodily-function missions).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Having too much fun: <\/strong> Sometimes you&#8217;ll get into a pure-enjoyment zone on a hike &#8212; especially when the scenery or wildlife are especially spectacular &#8212; that blots out the warning signs of impending disorientation. If you&#8217;re gazing out over that stupendous vista that makes you want to quit your job and hike till they drag you kicking and screaming back to civilization: that&#8217;s when you&#8217;re more likely to get lost.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hiking with a group:<\/strong> Safety in numbers becomes an illusion the second you&#8217;re separated from your group. This is perhaps the most dangerous hiking scenario because a) you&#8217;ve been ignoring all the warning signs; b) you&#8217;re on an unfamiliar trail (which is what attracted you to this group outing); and c) you&#8217;re probably not carrying a map because navigating was somebody else&#8217;s job.  <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3) Heed nature&#8217;s signals <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pay attention to the wind:<\/strong> It usually blows from the West in North America but wind directions can change dramatically if a storm is approaching. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Mind the sun&#8217;s place in the sky:<\/strong> In summer the sun&#8217;s where you expect it &#8212; rising in the east and setting in the west. But in the winter, the sun&#8217;s position is more southerly (in the Northern Hemisphere), so you can&#8217;t really trust it to tell you where east and west are.  <\/li>\n<li><strong>Don&#8217;t count on moss:<\/strong> While moss tends to grow on the northern side of trees (in the Northern Hemisphere; and south in the Southern Hemisphere), it grows on both sides of trees in dense forests &#8212; the kind of place you&#8217;re most likely to be hiking. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve learned all these tips over the course of six years of regular hiking. I&#8217;m sure there are more. Chime in with a comment if you&#8217;ve got more advice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Getting lost is inevitable on a hike &#8212; the wilderness offers too many temptations to take a wrong turn. While getting lost tops the list of hiking risks, the worse threat is staying lost long enough for something bad to&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/2011\/07\/04\/how-to-avoid-getting-lost-on-a-hike\/\">Read the whole thing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5984"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6216,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5984\/revisions\/6216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tommangan.net\/twoheeldrive\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}