This is the position I usually take when on a goup event. But I like the idea of having them leave a marker when they leave the trail. Typically we are all in sight of each other and when one needs to stop we all stop. Glad it turned out okay.

Note: A cellphone's effective range for a text message is greater than for voice calls. <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

> Note: A cellphone's effective range for a text message is greater than for voice calls.

Very good point. In this case the cell phone failed at first but worked after about an hour. She may have been wandering in and out of signal. A text message might have worked the first time she wandered back into signal.

I wonder if she tried to use the phone herself? She apparently knew she was lost before the group realised, so if she'd sent a message just to say, "Hey, wait up - I'm not with you" it could have helped. She didn't have to admit she was lost at that point. (I suspect embarassment can contribute to these problems - it is possible to die of embarassment.)

Did she have a whistle? It sounds like she was only a few minutes behind the group at the point she took the wrong turning. That would have been a good moment to sound it.

Oh, I dunno. I sometimes encourage experienced hikers to wander off. After all, someone has to to get the trail started. I think her biggest mistake was in not paying attention to details when she took the wrong turn, and then getting scared and apparently giving up sensibilities. You miss much of the experience of the adventure that way. She sounded to be well prepared enough, and she had a trail to follow, so as long as she kept her head, she ought to expect to have been found at least, and to have recovered on her own most likely.

But I suppose this is good experience for the whole group. It is a big world out there, and lots to learn of to remain functional. I am glad to hear all worked out for the best. I've spent a good deal of my life hiking around in the Cascades and the Olympics. It's still a great place to go exploring, even though the world there has shrunk a lot over the years.

As for making fire in that neck of the woods, I learned at a young age that the pitch gathered from Douglas Fir trees where the bark had been busted was about as nice a firestarter as you could ask for. Cured to anything from caulk soft to a near crystal, it ignites pretty easy, burns when wet, and is easy to control. One other thing, as easy as it can be to get a good fire going in the mountains there, it ain't so easy sometimes to keep it under control, and more than once we had to hustle to keep our little campfires from becoming an incident. We got pretty lucky about that though.

As for dealing with the wet, wool was always my friend. I don't care much for waterproof clothes as I start to feel like a clam in them after too long. Still, it is better to keep the rain out than to get soaked.