I was out hiking in the woods today, geocaching (I am an avid geocacher, which gets me out a LOT more than any other activity), and, while out looking for a cache today, I decided to "shortcut" through a state forest. Straight line distance was about .9 mile. I figured, that shouldnt take too long. So, I begin following the arrow on my GPS (I have a Garmin GPSmap 60Cx, which I load topos on as well), and head into the woods. Well, as it happens, I am in HEAVY cover (pine forest in New England, as well as tons of mountain laurel), and I couldnt get a good lock. Now, as I was blindly following the GPS, I was a little disoriented. So, I stop & think for a sec. About how far have I walked? not too far in. Do I want to keep pushing? Yes, after all, I HAVE to walk out eventually. Now, before I shut the GPS off, I recalled the cardinal direction I was moving, before I totally lost reception. So, I pulled out my handy little PSK, the one I got when I ordered my RSK Mk I knife, and pulled out the compass. I gotta say, at this point, I was a little excited that I got to use something I carry every day. So, I whip out the little compass, and follow a westerly direction (my original course, roughly). So, I use ONLY the compass to navigate for about 20 minutes, give or take, finally coming upon a trail, running, roughly, N-S. I pulled out the GPS at this point, switched it on, and find that I am only about 500' or so from where I am supposed to be. So, I mosey on up to the cache, sign the log, and head back. Of course, I find a jeep trail that ran roughly parallel to my path there, probably not more than 2-300' off to my right, as I was moving.
Now, I carry emergency gear with me, in the event I get lost. Besides the PSK, knife, & GPS, I also have a camelback MULE, without the bladder, a military canteen, an orange vest (its hunting season), a camera, binos, a journal, a headlamp, my cell phone, and a pair of nomex gloves (for reaching into holes & stone walls). So, absolute worst case scenario, if I got REALLY lost, I would have spent a mostly comfy night out. But, as with most places in new england, a good couple of hours walking in a straight line, you will hit a roda, house, or some sort of civilization. I was never in any real danger, but, it felt good to HAVE to use something I usually only carry around, just incase!

So you did what you should have done and S.T.O.P. (Stop, Think, Orientate (or Organise, depending on the circumstances) Plan.

Glad to know that some one is paying attention.
Gold Star.

The weather today was actually quite nice. About 50*, sunny, little breeze. The weather would have been a real factor had I been stuck out overnight, but, I had that plan in my head too. Again, I wasnt too concerned; more excited that I got to use stuff than anything else. Had it been later, I probably would have called, given my location, and stated that, should no one hear from me in the AM, using those coords as a starting point. But, again, I could have walked for an hour in any direction, and most likely hit civilization. Its just nice to know that your mind is prepared to deal with these situations, without freaking out.

It sounds to me like you experienced a real life DRILL ! Congratulations for doing everything right !
It's like going into combat the first time, first thing that you realize is that the firefight/battle has ended. Then you realize that you're still alive ! Then you realize that you do have what it takes to be in combat and stay alive ! THEN your nose sniffs deep and you want to slink away and clean yourself up !
Your experience is much better than the combat experience, come to think of it!!!

I'm curious ... Do you create a waypoint on your GPS to mark your vehicle's location before you head out in search of the cache?

Its also a good habit to create fast (unnamed) waypoints at convenient places while traveling. That might have easily answered your question about how far you'd walked.

Do you look at any USGS topo maps of the area first? They might have shown you the Jeep trail ahead of time.

I'm a big fan of ExpertGPS - a $60 PC-based waypoint/route manager that not only lets you create/store waypoints and routes on your PC and upload/download them to your GPS, but it also provides on-line USGS topo maps and aerial photos at no extra cost.

They have a free product called EasyGPS that has just the waypoint and route manager w/o the maps & photos, but the topo maps on-line are well worth the one-time $60 fee.

See http://www.topografix.com for more info.

(I have no financial stake in the software/service - just a user)

Ken K.

Heck, walk a good couple of hours in many New England states and you hit a state line! <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Sorry, I'm used to Texas where you can drive the better part of a day and still be inside the state.

Thanks for the story. I've begun carrying a small combo PSK and FAK with me in my camelback for most of my outings. Nice to hear stories of folks who avoid the disastrous situations by simple preparedness.

Ken, yes, I did mark a waypoint for my jeep. I dont normally do it, if I am familiar with the area. Worst case, I would use the trackback feature. I use mapsource on my laptop, and have the topo DLed onto the GPS. I also have an in-jeep GPS system, that I normally use for road navigation. I dont usually recon the area, unless its WAY out of my normal area. Then, I will usually eye it with google earth. Both of those programs you suggest are excellent though. I was using easygps for a while, until I started using GSAK & cachemate.

> Now, as I was blindly following the GPS, I was a little disoriented.

That can be a problem. I think it helps to configure the unit to "north up" rather than "track up", so the map is oriented the same way as a paper map would be. It perhaps matters more when driving as the roads can send you in all directions.

Well, when I mean blindly following, I mean watching the little arrow, not particularly paying attention to whats around me. I use the track up feature, as, for me, its a little more intuitive. But, again, I knew my general traveling direction, thankfully.