How can you get yourself found after you got lost?

If you were stranded/lost in the great dark forest what would you do to attract the attention of Search and Rescue teams?

Step one, sit down brew tea.
Step two, determine if I am in fact lost.
Step three, attempt contact with cellphone and HAM radio.
Step four, determine if there's an area with in fifty meters or so where visibility will be significantly better.
Step five, put on reflective vest (or hang it some place high and conspicuous) and place whistle and signal mirror with in easy reach.

You missed a step - DRINK TEA

1) Cell Phone
2) Mobile Radio
3) SMS Text
4) Signal Fires Hopefully NOT forrest fire
5) Signal Mirror & Whistle
6) Signal Panel (VS14)
7) Start crawling

"dark" implies night

first thing, wait until morning- unless I call in a medical emergency, I'm waiting until then anyway

If safe I would use one of the 4 Whistling Pete's that I save from 4th of July.

In one survival situation a fellow came across a telegraph pole and realised he could burn it down and someone would come to fix it.
The Sock

Try to attract searches using their senses? here are some I can think of.

Sight-
flashlight, cell phone light, fire, bright clothes, messages left with cairns,
signal mirror, movement (waving), messages stamped in snow, items
left nearby (candy wrappers etc.), flares, email, smoke, footprints or ski
tracks.

Sound-
whistle, shouting, gunfire, car horn, cell phone, radio

Smell-"When I saw the flies, I knew I had found him"
smoke, decomposition, leave fecal material (this has happened on a search)


Other-
various beacons

I really want to be found before the flies become an issue. All the folks I have found "via flies" didn't have a happy outcome.

I can't think of any for touch or taste yet.

Touch-Hit them with a well thrown rock as they walk past??

Of course the first assumption made is that someone is even looking for you. That is the first major hurdle that would need to be addressed. Most of that lies in the trip planning, following the plan, having someone miss you at home and call for help, and/or use of a cell phone, radio, PLB, or SPOT to call for rescue.

I don't think I have anything in addition to the above to offer. I carry a PLB when out of cell phone range, and have always figured that I'd at least need to be able to sit out one or two nights of the current weather, and be able to signal rescuers when they get nearby. My signalling plan has involved making noise (whistle) and flashing light (signal mirror by day, and blinking flashlight by night). In general I don't really see a fire as a signalling device. Yeah, I know I could burn tires and such, but it would take long enough to get a tire going that I'd fear the searchers would pass me by. Still, it could be done.

I did purchase one of the small red laser Rescue Laser signal devices that Doug Ritter discusses in his gear reviews, but it is the size of a small flashlight, and I think the flashlight is more multipurpose. Not my EOS headlamp or Fenix light is as bright as the lazer, but they are plenty bright and would most likely attract attention if flashing toward a rescuer. The Rescue Laser is not carried on my person, but does deserve a place in my larger bag.

Pick your location too if you can safely travel to a nearby clearing, high spot, stream etc.

Hasty teams are often sent first to the areas of attraction
such as a lake or stream or significant feature.

Climbing a tree to get your bearings or to signal may work
but carries hazards.

A crosscountry runner's body was
found in Northern Idaho, months after an extensive search,
beneath a tree with a broken leg. It was surmised he tried to
climb the tree to get his location and fell.

A skeleton was found in a tree near South Sister in Oregon
when a hiker found an old rusty gun at the base of a tree
and looked up.

If a person had been paying attention, and looking backward frequently, they might be able to backtrack either to where they knew where they were, or maybe at least to an open area where fires, smoke, mirror, on-ground messages might be effective. IF it was likely anyone was looking for you.

If you were lost but still knew which direction a paved road was, you could try heading in that direction, if there was no likelihood of cliffs, canyons or strong rivers in between.

Breaking your leg in deep woods alone considerably increases your chance of attracting flies and signaling with decomposition odor to someone. Or something.

Sue

Sometimes the Boy Scouts are your friend:

http://www.troop230.org/scout_craft/backpacking_references/what_to_do_when_lost.pdf

Right on the money, someone has to know they need to be looking for you. I apply this to any trip I take, even my family vacation to Disney, I had my route figured out and it was emailed to 2 different family members they knew that on day 1 for example I was planning to be in this area and would notify them either via email or phone if they didn't hear from me they need to call for help, by them having my route it gives them an area to start to look, each night I would check in and all was fine.

You can't count on things like cell phones, they don't work in many area's. Where we backpack they don't work at all, so same as the family vacation someone back home knows what trail we are planning on going on, when we are going in and when they should expect to hear from us, if they don't by that time they need to start making phone calls.

This spot device looks like a good deal as it covers the entire US, but keep in mind anything with batteries could pose a problem if not kept charged.

I am a bit iffy with electronics, they just never seem to work.
Kind of like with Izzy's answer. Give them a try and hope a signal gets noticed, but try other things too.

Ontario Hydro Northern used to tell their line crews that if they got lost or stranded they should burn a tree up.

The idea is that if they can find a dead spruce off by itself, maybe on an island or in the middle of a rock field, hopefully near the top of a hill, then it would make a big enough torch for the firewatchers in the fire towers to see.
The fire watchers will note it and send somebody to check it out like they do with all fires and then let Hydro know that they had found their crew for them.

A fire shows up a long way away at night, but even in daylight
smoke can be missed in the north because it looks too much like fog or mist patches.
Also small smoky fires don't make a strong enough heat column to punch through the temperature inversion layer that covers northern forests in the cold weather.
The smoke tends to just hang at about the top of the trees, just like the ground mist.

If they are looking for a lost person any sign of activity will be investigated.
So they would prefer one big fire instead of three small ones once they have started searching.


I liked the answer about burning down the telephone pole too.
Kind of like "If you break it they will come!"

Okay, after having been a might turned around for a couple of days (e.g., "lost"), I'd have to crack open The Case. The Case is a Pelican case containing small bottles of gin and vermouth, olives, a cocktail shaker, and a stemmed glass. I'd start mixing and within moments somebody is certain to come along and offer "That's not how you make a martini!" Merely follow the kibitzer out.

---What I do when lost---

I yell, "HELP, HELP, HELP" (Rule of 3's right)

Then I cry uncontrollably for a few hours leaning up against something. Big crocodile tears, runny nose, wailing, the whole thing.

Then I take off all my clothes so I can die of hypothermia because there is no way I am going to be found in time.

As I throw the last of my clothes in a pile, I realize I have an ACR Microfix in my pocket. AHA SAVED! I press the button and wait.

Security escorts me from Costco before SAR arrives.

Bravo!

Good one.
I thank everybody for their ideas.

The SAR guys would probably be happy if you put those clothes back on after pushing that button and before they arrive...