This isn't a survival story. It's just the first time I had to use any of the skills I've been reading about, even if only in a minor way.

My nephew and I were out chasing bunny rabbits on Sunday, but the area we hiked into had too many ATV riders and campers to be safe to hunt in. So our hunt turned into "hiking with a gun." The weather was beautiful. We practiced figuring out where we were using the topo map and compass bearings, which we're still not very good at: out of six position fixes, we were only certain of four of them. The other two, we could never be sure which peak on the map was which peak on our horizon.

I learned that if you take off your boots and socks to cross a stream, and then clean and dry your feet most carefully, except for one tiny grain of sand that you missed in the web between two toes, you will get a blister there in before you know what happened. Ouch!

We started back to the car around 5pm, with an hour of easy dirt-road hiking to get there. Our check-in time of 8pm left us plenty of time, so we enjoyed a leisurely walk back. Just as the sun touched the horizon, we noticed we were finally in an area with no ATV's and no people around. We decided to leave the road and use the last of the daylight to see if any bunnies would show themselves.

We chased a few noises in the brush (birds), but in the half hour of legal-for-hunting light we had we didn't find any rabbits. It finally got too dark for safe hunting, so we headed back to the road. And back to the road. And back to the... hey, who moved the road?

Oh, and someone turned off the shiny ball in the sky. There's not much of a twilight in the desert.

Well heck, we're lost.

We remembered the STOP acronym we learned from somewhere. (S)top: We stopped walking, took off our packs, and relaxed for a few minutes. The desert is a beautiful place at night; it'd be a shame to spoil it by being panicked. We drank some water, gave some water back to the desert, and waited until we felt calm (well, until I felt calm... my nephew was just as cheerful as always. He's a fantastic wilderness companion for that reason alone). Then T(hink), O(bserver), and P(lan). We got out our flashlights and the topo map, looked around, and tried to figure out where we might be. There are some mountain peaks on the horizon, but goodness, if it was hard to tell which peak was which in the daytime, it's impossible at night. So no help there. Looking around, we didn't see any other landmarks. It sure would have been nice to know where we were when we left the road (next time, get a position fix!). But looking at our topo map, we could see that no matter where we were, by going due East we must intersect the road somewhere North of our car. We decided to go 200 yards East, and if we had not found the road by then, to stop and reevaluate our plan. Oh, and it's cooling off, so time for jackets. That's when my nephew discovered that his spare clothes and jacket were damp. He must have dunked the pack during our stream crossing. That could be a setback if we end up staying lost. Fortunately, only one sleeve his cotton pullover got damp.

We're going to have to work on his gear, I think. I didn't think that keeping things dry would be difficult (it's the desert!) or that cotton would be a problem (it's the desert!). It hasn't rained here in over four months, but we managed to teach ourselves a lesson anyhow.

We got our packs back on, scanned the area to make sure we weren't leaving anything behind, took a bearing, and headed East counting our steps. Before long we ran into an arroyo that headed our way, a nice bit of luck. Arroyos are much easier to walk in, being mostly rock and gravel and relatively few cactii. But after we thought we had gone 200 yards, no road.

I'm getting worried again, so we go back to the STOP acronym. My newphew is as happy as he always is, but I'm getting nervous again, so I waited until I was bored (boredom, I figure, is a sure sign that I'm not panicked). What could have gone wrong? Could we have crossed the road and not noticed? Our visibility is limited and there's not a big difference between a bad dirt road and the bottom of an arroyo, so that's possible. Looking at the topo map, we noticed that the road makes a hairpin around an Arroyo (hmmm). If we are in that Arroyo, it would explain why we haven't hit the road yet. From the map, the hairpin is only a hundred yards long, so we decide to go another 200 yards East along the arroyo.

Well, that's the end of the story. 100 yards later we found the road, climbing out the arroyo just as the map said it would, and a short hike from there, we were back at the car.

If we had not found the road after our second 200 yard hike, then we would not be anywhere near where we thought we were. I like to think we would have switched from the "self rescue" mode we were in to "stay put, get comfy, and help rescuers to find you" mode, but to be honest, I was anxious for self-rescue. Thinking that the road must be just over the hill, that there won't be the bother of search teams and helicoptors and the embarrasment of having to be rescued, those are mighty powerful thoughts.

We did a lot more things wrong than right, but made good use of the STOP acronym. I hope you enjoyed our small adventure.