Hi all,

I hesitated in posting the following story but after reading Xavier recent post and all the nice replies, I figured I would share it on the forum.

My career requires that I spend most work days in an outdoor rural to remote setting, being knowledgeable and equipped to survive has gotten me out of many difficult situations or at least given me the confidence to do my job effectively. But sometimes complacency sets in and you do something that breaks even your own rules of common sense, here is a personal example from a week ago.

I was working alone in a semi-remote area (rough gravel road into a logging clearcut) that I accessed by ATV, it was an overcast day about 15*c with occasional showers. On the ATV I had my large patrol pack that has all the gear I needed to spend a night out in reasonable comfort (like minimalist camping). It was late afternoon and I was trying to determine how to get to a small lake but the ATV trail ended and turned into a faint hiking trail. My new GPS showed that the lake was not far so I left the ATV (with my pack, coat, raingear, axe, shelter, PLB, Sat phone, water, food, etc on it) and headed down the trail with just what I had on me.

I hiked for about a 1.5 kilometres but the trail only linked up to a swampy creek that flowed into the lake which was still a further kilometre to the south. I decided that it was getting late in the day for bushwacking and started back out the little trail toward my ATV. The trail was marked with small pieces of blue flagging tape and as dusk came on I had difficulty seeing them in the dense bush. In the area of a flowing stream I lost the trail and started circling trying to find it, the bush was very thick and I fell 3 times on the slippery rocks in the creekbed. After about 30 minutes of searching it was sunset and I had to make a decision, to Stay or Go?

I remembered the most basic survival training (the same one I have taught kids), S.T.O.P. so I sat down on a log and thought for a moment. I sure wished I had some of the items that were strapped to my ATV but I did have with me my work tools and my EDC survival items; folding knife, multi-tool, compass, fire-starter, whistle, 2 way radio, cell phone, flashlight and a mini-survival kit based on Doug Ritter's homemade one. I had filed a detailed work plan for the day so co-workers knew where I would be and I may have been able to call out with the radio or cell phone.

My GPS showed that there was a logging road 800m to my west and the creek that I had found earlier was 400m to my east, I had neglected to log my ATV in as a waypoint (duh) but knew it was approximately 1000m north of me. I decided to walk the small stream east to the swampy creek as I remembered that the trail came very close to the edge of it. I walked the north side of the stream using my flashlight in the hope that I might by-chance pick-up the lost trail. Sure enough after about 200m I found a small piece of flagging tape that linked to the trail I had hiked in on and within 20 minutes I was back at the ATV (whew).

This is a small example (I was only turn-around for about 45 minutes) of where a brief lapse in judgement lead to an unplanned, although not very serious event (still enough to give me that knot in your stomach feeling). One of the times that I fell on the rocks while searching for the trail I hit a nylon carrier on my belt hard enough to smash it, an impact a little higher or lower and the situation could have been much more serious.

I learned from this experience (and a similar occurence last summer) that I need to make my main pack more modular so I can remove a fannypack sized kit from it to take with me on these impromptu excursions (I was seriously lacking a shelter component). I also need to learn more patiences, I tried to rush this job at the end of the day so I would not have to travel back to the area a second time, my haste almost cost me a wet night in the bush, my family/co-workers unneeded worry and perhaps worse.

Please feel free to reply to this post, your input is always appreciated.

Mike