Dweste, not the answer I ever expected but good thinking!

I would burn one of the tires. Thick black smoke will always get attention. I know that is not the environmentally correct thing to do, but my life is worth considerably more than a few choking squirrels and birds.

I concur with the "shame on you" sentiment for not letting someone know where you were going.

The value of this forum is to put the brain trust to work; at least you get a variety of thoughtful responses - and maybe some other kinds!

Stay. Decision is probably colored by the knowledge that in real life my SO and son are not up to that walk and I won't be leaving them.

There is also an old staying that covers this situation pretty well. It is better the devil you know than the devil you don't. I'll stick with my current set of problems and work hard to be found before I go out and take on a new, maybe harder to solve set of problems.

-Eric

in a nutshell: if rescue is at all likely, i'll wait for it(maybe move to an open area or hilltop, but that's just meeting them half way, so to speak); if it's not, no point staying put(barring the area being a gold mine of resources).

Speaking as an old SAR guy, I don't think any rescuer would consider time spent assisting you as time spent frivolously. Many times we went out, typically looking for overdue people, finding them working their way back home, behind schedule for any of various reasons, but definitely still functioning. They would have gotten home on their own, and all we did was resolve the anxiety and provide a little encouragement, a drink of water, and a bite to eat. None of us ever considered our time wasted.

Instances of "SAR triage" were rare in my experience. When they occur, you deal with them as best you can....

I thought about these two scenarios today. DS and I went pseudo-camping this weekend. (We did a "what if?" weekend with my mom to get her better prepped.)

My mom's trailer was at one end of the approx. 3 hour drive, and home was at the other. We had to take 2 major roads and 3 minor to get there. Although a pretty straight forward route, it's sporatically populated (by people and black bears) territory.

DS asked if we could explore some sideroads on the way home, and see if we could find a new route.

We had a backroads map book, our hiking kits, water bottles, tent, sleeping bags, thermarests and snacks so if we had a break-down we could have stayed or walked to the nearest town.

Problem #1 - no cel phone. We couldn't call DH or my mom to tell them where we were going and we also couldn't call for help.

My solution? Stick to the plan and have to make the choice.

Not sure what I would do in your scenario, Sue. I'm a play it safe girl, and both sides of your coin have inherant risks. DH would probably want to hike out and I'd likely sway that way too if it was just the two of us. We leave a huge breadcrumb trail along the way though.

A similar scenario was covered in a recent episode of "Dual Survival" (or what I like to call "The Survival Odd Couple"). The two were stranded on a logging road in Maine, and had to decide what to do with limited supplies.

The episode highlighted two necessary pieces of information that are not presented here, but could be easily determined by direct observation. First, is the area where the vehicle is stuck clean and open? If not, the smoke from signal fires will likely be diffused by the tree cluster, and rescuers will have difficulty locating you by air. Second, is there any indication that the road has been recently travelled? Looking at the road beyond the fallen tree could reveal such signs.

For me, an enclosed area means I'm walking, regardless of the road. An open area and recent road activity means I'm definitely staying. An open area with little activity means I will try my best with a signal fire and recon the area for the first 24 hours. I imagine the quality of the nearby water will be the deciding factor, since I have no means of purifying it. Once the bottled water runs out, I'll want to start walking towards civilization (and antibiotics) so I can get rid of the critters I ingested from the little streams as soon as possible.

At home we DVR this show. The nickname my wife and I use for it is "Brokeback Survival."



In my mind, I'm likely to start moving before the clean water runs out.

Slight thread hijack, but may turn out to be eventually related to this thread.

Just read this news story and could help but think of Sue's scenario. It will interesting to see if any real life parallels develop here, if and when the couple are found...

The RCMP in Smithers, B.C., are searching for two newlyweds from Britain who disappeared after leaving on a backcountry camping trip nearly three weeks ago.

Caroline and Ben Davies arrived in B.C. in June on a visit to family. The couple, who are both experienced in the outdoors, then borrowed a truck to head north toward Alaska to do some camping.

Map of the area. There is some very rugged country up in that region.