PaulD made a good point on the 'Once Again A signal Fire" thread about turning the incident into a positive opportunity to review what to do if you realize you are lost. So I started this thread.

I replied to PaulD:

"Some thoughts.

Preparation: Get map, compass, gps, maybe satellite image of area. Study the map and image. Plan the hike. Consider what to do and where to go if an unforseen event occurs. Take enough gear to sustain you for longer than the planned hike if need be. Leave a hike plan, with schedule and contact numbers, with a trusted relative or friend, or the appropriate park official.

Take your survival stuff, including signalling gear and perhaps a reminder card of what to do if you realize you are lost. Typically, sit and prepare a snack or hot beverage; eat and drink the snack while thinking through the situation and formulating / re-visiting your unforseen event plan; usually stay put, stay together, and signal for help.

If you decide a signal fire is appropriate, plan it carefully, build it carefully, assemble what you need to put it out before you light it, and tend it carefully to generate either smoke or flame depending on which is going to be most visible.

Have your signal mirror ready if overflights are in the area, and for when you think rescue is in the air near you."

I am sure the ETS community has plenty to add.

Agree, it's all in the preps.

I can't overstate staying found. Consider how many survival situations/emergencies start out with getting lost. Compass, maps, GPS -- learn how to use all three.

A kit to include. . . yada yada yada, we've discussed kits at length in many threads. Don't get lost.

I have never been truly lost, but I have been thoroughly "turned around" a time or two. So here's my two-cents' worth.

Learn to recognize the symptoms. When you'd bet real money that your compass (or the map) is wrong, you're turned around. Following that, if you act on your gut feelings and ignore hard evidence, you are (or will soon be) lost.

I agree with the preps above. These give you the confidence to sit down and think things out, or even spend an extra night in the bush (big deal). All the northern men of the bush would stop and make tea -- "bile the kittle" -- when turned around. After all, you're not lost -- you're sitting right here. And where you are is the center of the universe. The only issue is where everything else has buggered off to.

Think about what someone you know, smarter and more experienced, would do ... and would not do. Talk through it -- out loud. This sounds odd but it's highly effective in staving off panic and arriving at reasonable courses of action.

Last, swallow your pride and backtrack. Especially when the trails have turned to game trails and the brush is getting thicker. The urge to push on is strong -- "it's got to be just around the corner!" But that can get you deeper and deeper in trouble. If you've been glancing at your back trail now and again (which you should, because it always looks different) you'll gain confidence in each small sign that you're on the way back to "found."

Last evening a 3-year old boy walked away from his home in the far SW suburbs of chicago. Parents & authorities searched for him all night and into the morning. They checked nearby ponds, used dogs, and flew heat sensing choppers. During the night there were two waves of serious thunderstorms that rolled through. As of this morning at about 7:30am his was still missing.

The great news is that searchers finally found him at about 8:30am. He had traveled almost 2 miles from his house across corn fields and into a nearby park. Its just a reminder that EVERYONE - kids and adults - need to say put as soon as they realize they're lost.

Why? well, looking at the search area involved ... If we assume they travel 0.5 miles away, the search area is almost .2 square miles. If they travel 1 mile it goes up to almost .8 miles - an 8X increase. If they travel 5 miles the search area is almost 24 square miles - a 100X increase! If they travel 10 miles the search area is almost 79 square miles - a 400X increae! You get the idea.

The other thing is lots of people who wander consume waaay too much precious energy trying to get unlost, not to mention the risk of injury. James Kim is a very good example.

Speaking of GPS's & compasses ... You know, I've used compasses for years, but for some reason I always get a brain cramp when it comes to the "True North" and "Magnetic North" settings on the GPS's and the declination-adjustable compasses.

... And it can make a big difference in the eastern and western parts of the U.S. where declination can be as much as 19 degrees off of true north. At that declination, heading 19 degrees off from your real destination will put you 1/3 of a mile off from the correct path for each mile traveled. That can total up to a long way off.

Anyway, the correct usage is:

If using a non-adjusted compass, set your GPS to display "Magenetic North".

If using an adjusted compass, set your GPS to "True North".

So why in heck can't I remember that??????

I can easily imagine someone who knows how to use compasses forget to check for the area's delination before heading out. I almost forgot to check when I headed out to Yellowsone/Tetons last month.

My older GPS didn't display the declination for the current area, which was a pain because I'd have to calculate declination by flipping between true and magnetic north settings. I usually could figure out the amount of declination, but not necessarily the direction, so I would just imagine that magnetic north was somewhere north of the Mississippi River (so on the west cost the needle would point east, and one the east coast the needle would point west).

My Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx and my Geko 201 will show the magnetic declination IF I select the Magnetic North setting under Main Menu > Heading. Nice!

Man, sorry about the length of this post. I've been thinking about the "using a GPS to get unlost" thing a lot lately.

Ken K.

I never, ever, get lost.
Some of my hikes are just a little longer than planned and I don't always end up where I thought I would.

Worse case I walk any of the cardinal directions and hit either ocean, Mexico, or Canada. It isn't like I'm going to walk my way to Japan by accident.

The key is to know what you know. Virtually every piece of land is bounded by clear and obvious boundaries. Highways, rivers and oceans are good. As long as you keep your boots off the hard and dry you pretty much know where you are. Unless you insist on placing yourself in one of those few exceptional places it is pretty hard to find a location that isn't bounded every five or ten miles in any direction.

So you know, at least generally, where you are. Given a block of land ten miles square it is pretty hard to walk 14.14 miles in a straight line in any direction without hitting a boundary.

Know what you know and realize your not really, in the wider sense, lost.

Second, know your constraints. Make a good accounting of how far your resources of food, water, strength and energy will carry you. The more critical the situation the more risk you take. Let this guide your route. Choose your path out carefully and wisely.

Third, and possibly the most important key: Once you decide on a route stick to it. Too many people vacillate and second guess themselves. In a 10 mile square the maximum length of a straight path is 14.14 miles. But if you walk in circles, or keep reversing course, the path may have no end.

That might be true in fairly populated areas and even less populated agricultural areas, but out west, or in some of the northern border areas one can go days and days without hitting an obvious "border" or civilization. without being well-equipped & experienced, or being just plain lucky, things go go real bad real quick.

Take the James Kim situation for example, even if he'd headed off on day #1, when he was in top health, could he have really "walked out" without getting REALLY lucky and stumbling upon an inhabited area or traveled road? I've looked at maps of the area and I really don't think so. Others who have spent time in that area may have a better sense of it than me though.

Maybe I don't put enough faith in the Human will to survive.

I wonder if a dedicated parent really impressed on their youngster the importance of STOPPING the moment they thought they might be lost, it would carry over into adulthood?

It might if it was frequently reinforced. Smart kid, smart adult?

Sue

A quick side note: Variation is the difference between true north and magnetic north, declination is determined by the magnetic heading that a ship, car, or airplane had while it was being built. Declination is the magnetic field that the vessel has of it's own, and how it effects the earth's magnetic field.

I have had a long hard day, and am not really at the top of my game, but "huh"? How 'bout the guy on foot with a map and compass in say Washington state, versus another guy in Florida. Don't they have a different declination, based upon where on earth they are standing at that moment, in relation to true north???

I thought that was magnetic deviation.

ETA: Magnetic declination is synonymous with variation.