Hi Susan,

We usually hike on well marked trails. Putting markers on trees would be considered bad form. She was not lost off trail...really. She took a wrong turn down a loging road and got totally turned around.

Cameron

"Ask the person who got lost if she'd have been willing to pay $126 to know exactly where she was AND how to get to the parking lot on her own. "

I think what I meant is that it might be overkill, say, for a leisurely afternoon stroll down a marked trail in a wooded park. (I don't know if this was the case, but that's the impression I got).

If Cameron anticipates having trouble getting them to pay attention to some basic training, its going to be tough to teach them to use the GPS, map and compass well enough to get them out of trouble on their own. One step at a time.

I'd be willing to bet that the response to an attempt at survival training is "But I have my cellphone!" It won't help much to change the excuse to "But I have my GPS!"

On a another forum I frequent a member routinely does S&R in te AZ desert. The thing he recommends for a quick rescue is a cell phone and a GPS -- call 911 and give them your coordinates (UTM or Lat-Long). The helpless don't need to know how to do anything but turn it on and page over to the Lat-Long display.

Um, but what if they are out of cell range?

-john

Then they will continue to be helpless. I'm an advocate of staying found, but apparently a lot of people get lost within a very short distance of civilization -- just over a hill they don't have the strength to climb.

Correction: Cammenga.
http://www.cammenga.com/cammenga-downloads.php
This is the current manual.

This reminds me of a story on the radio some years back about how the Park Service was considering charging people for the cost of rescuing them. I remember this was in the Pacific Northwest, don't remember if it was Washington or Oregon. They interviewed a park ranger who related a story about a guy that went hiking above the tree line, by himself, and a storm moved in and the temperature dropped. They had to go up there in the storm and haul his butt down off the mountain. He sort of re-enacted his conversation with the hiker and it was pretty funny (though I'm sure he didn't intend it to be).

ranger: So, did you have a map and compass?
hiker: No.
ranger: Did you pack some warm clothing?
hiker: No.
ranger: Did you have any means of starting a fire?
hiker: No.
ranger: Did you bring anything with you to help you in case you got lost or the weather changed?
hiker: Well... I brought my cellphone.
ranger: Arrrrgggggg...

Yah, I just am always suprised that people don't seem to realize that cell phones stop working where civilization stops.

While I don't think there is anything wrong with taking the cell, I certainly feel anything that suggests that you should rely on it as a survival tool is misguided.

-john

and I'm continually surprised by how often I find cell coverage in the middle of nowhere. Note that the lost soul who was the subject of this thread was able to use her cell phone. It's a tool, whether it works or not is another issue. I'd prefer to use my GPS compass and map to just walk out.

Like KenK I preload key locations into my GPS before a hike and then I add waypoints on the route: car location, key points on the trail, et al -- waypoints are cheap.

Like I said, I'm not saying you shouldn't give it a shot, I just wouldn't depend on it.

Sound obvious, but I alway set a waypoint at the car before leaving. ;-)

-john