Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to...

Posted by: hercdoc

Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to... - 06/23/07 03:04 AM

Everybody run out and buy a new cell phone with GPS capabilities!Lost woman found

Posted by: Paul810

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to... - 06/23/07 03:25 AM

As of last year I don't think you can buy a cell phone without GPS anymore in the USA. I know when I tried to get one of my old Star Tacs connected to replace one I lost, verizon told me they weren't allowed to turn on a phone that didn't have GPS.
Posted by: Alex

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/23/07 06:39 AM

That's Scary...
Are they watching us?
Posted by: Russ

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/23/07 01:55 PM

Actually, no they are not. I called the 9-1-1 dispatch center and Verizon here in SOCAL last year when the James Kim family was lost in Oregon. Neither are set up to process the GPS info from the cellphone. Verizon has no plans to do so, not their job; the GPS was put in the phones, that was Verizon and the other cell phone companies' job. The equipment to access the GPS data is supposed to be a government thing, but unless your local LE has funded the dispatch centers to buy the equipment, the GPS info goes nowhere.

Note that in the cases up in OR last year, the cell phone company engineers did a tedious triangulation of cell towers in an attempt to localize the pings. My cell phone has aGPS and should be able to provide a Lat-Long, but nobody is listening. Maybe CTU on "24" can do it, but they keep it to themselves unless your a terrorist wink It sounds like the dispatch center this lady dialed into was funded and has the equipment on line. The guy I spoke to out here never heard of it.

"If a tree falls in the forest and there's nobody there, does it make any noise?"
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/24/07 02:20 AM

Verizon is useless when it comes to helping with any type of rescue using the GPS locater in the phone.

My family and I were stuck in the mountains with our Yukon Denali at 8pm at night. No cell service, Onstar was broken at the time, when I finally got the onstar working, they had us at a location in arizona, but we were actually in utah.

Well the cell phones showed roaming service, but would not hold a call. So they patched us through to verizon to see if they could get a gps lock on us.
They flat out refused. They just said no, we don't do that sort of thing.

It was me, my wife and our 3 kids all under 7 years old. Plus my Sister in law with her 2 kids, 2 year old and an infant.

The operators would not even connect us to a supervisor.

It was a that moment that I realized that nobody gives a crap. Simple as that. Nobody but me.

This all happened at 8 pm and search and rescue didn't get to use for 6 1/2 hours.

It was that night that my whole life changed in the way I think of things.
Posted by: Russ

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found - 06/24/07 02:39 AM

After speaking with Verizon I realized the aGPS function of my phone was worthless. In an emergency I'll take a Lat-Long from my real GPS and call 9-1-1 with my position. If cell coverage isn't good enough for a voice conversation, I'll text my niece and send her my Lat-Long (text messages can go out with a signal strength lower than that required for a voice conversation). She'll call 9-1-1 and relay the message. Haven't tested it yet.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found - 06/24/07 02:52 AM

Originally Posted By: RAS
After speaking with Verizon I realized the aGPS function of my phone was worthless. In an emergency I'll take a Lat-Long from my real GPS and call 9-1-1 with my position. If cell coverage isn't good enough for a voice conversation, I'll text my niece and send her my Lat-Long (text messages can go out with a signal strength lower than that required for a voice conversation). She'll call 9-1-1 and relay the message. Haven't tested it yet.


I tried that also, always said message failed. I believe the reason is that it used the data side of the network. If it is roaming, the data side most likely won't work well if at all.

Posted by: ki7he

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found - 06/25/07 01:25 AM

Originally Posted By: DeathtoToasters
I tried that also, always said message failed. I believe the reason is that it used the data side of the network. If it is roaming, the data side most likely won't work well if at all.


Text messaging (SMS) is sent on the control channel on the voice side of things. SMS does not rely on a data connection. After all, SMS texting was around long before data was. SMS in much more reliable than data is.

As RAS indicated an SMS text message can still be sent even when a voice connection can't be maintained since it just needs a brief connection on the control channel. That still doesn't mean that just because you get a signal it'll be enough to send the message. Every phone I've seen will try to send it only once and will simply tell you it failed. I'd like to see an option to keep retrying in case I go into enough coverage to send it so I don't have to manually keep retrying. Maybe there's a phone that will do this?
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found - 06/25/07 01:30 AM

I didn't know the exact protocol. I just assume.
Thanks for clearing that up.

Posted by: teacher

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/25/07 04:28 PM

Of course a map and compass would have helped, too
Posted by: atoz

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/25/07 05:17 PM

If your lost and can see no reconizable objects then a map and compass is useless, unless you use the map to build a fire. A map and compass is only useful if you can figure out where you might be. In the Rockies it is easy as you can typically find various peaks in a swamp nada.
cheers
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/25/07 06:42 PM

Originally Posted By: teacher
Of course a map and compass would have helped, too


Actually it would not have. I had no way to figure out where I was exactly. It was night time, on a service road.

That fact on how I got there is a totally different story. I was stupidly...following the NAV system on our GMC Yukon Denali and forgot to shut off the service road options.

Anyway, even the nav system didn't tell me the GPS location.

There was no way I was going to leave the vehical with my family in the car. We had people who knew we were coming and we spoke to them just as we got out of range.

I know some of you are going to ask about why I didn't turn around. I was on a dirt road (that looked like asfault with dirt on it) that I thought was a normal road with some farm dirt on it.
It was one way, it was way too narrow to turn around and I could not see what was on the sides of the roads.

Posted by: KenK

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/25/07 06:56 PM

Originally Posted By: DeathtoToasters
No cell service, Onstar was broken at the time, when I finally got the onstar working...


Was the service down, or was the Onstar unit in your car not functioning and you somehow got it to function? How did you fix your Onstar at night on a mountain road?

My understanding was that Onstar communicates to the base stations via the cellular connection, and uses that cellular connection to transmit GPS coordinates and other information received from the vehicle. If there was no cell service, how did you contact Onstar?
Posted by: ducttape

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/25/07 07:42 PM

I don't have a Verizon phone, but most phones I've looked at don't give you access to the e911 GPS chip to see your coordinates.
Posted by: Russ

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 12:43 AM

Maybe there's a secret code that opens that function, but I've never seen the GPS function of my Verizon phone do anything at all. Totally worthless IME.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 01:43 AM

There is a way to enter the service menu to see the gps locations, but I didn't remember it for my LG phone at the time.
Posted by: Be_Prepared

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 01:44 AM

Originally Posted By: DeathtoToasters

It was me, my wife and our 3 kids all under 7 years old. Plus my Sister in law with her 2 kids, 2 year old and an infant.
...
This all happened at 8 pm and search and rescue didn't get to use for 6 1/2 hours.

It was that night that my whole life changed in the way I think of things.


At least you have a chance to improve the odds for next time. Sometimes, folks get into situations that don't work out as well, and don't have a chance to "be better prepared next time". I get the feeling that you will, and that's a good thing.

Regarding OnStar, I have it also, and in my case, my home cellular service that OnStar is using is from Verizon. The minutes for my phone are actually shared with the truck. I believe, as others have mentioned, that OnStar relies on Cellular for any voice communication. The new ones are all digital, so even if there's analog cellular available, I don't think you'll have full OnStar.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 02:05 AM

Originally Posted By: KenK
Originally Posted By: DeathtoToasters
No cell service, Onstar was broken at the time, when I finally got the onstar working...


Was the service down, or was the Onstar unit in your car not functioning and you somehow got it to function? How did you fix your Onstar at night on a mountain road?

My understanding was that Onstar communicates to the base stations via the cellular connection, and uses that cellular connection to transmit GPS coordinates and other information received from the vehicle. If there was no cell service, how did you contact Onstar?


Ok here is the long short story as to how the Onstar was broken and how I fixed it.

Almost a week before this incident, I was getting gas in our Yukon Denali at a Chevron station with an overhang over the pumps.

Well the keys fell out of my pocket and my fat ***, I mean, butt, hit the lock on the remote keyfob OR my hand hit the lock door button while I was getting out of the car, so when the door finally closed, it was locked. I cannot figure out which it was that locked the doors. Now if the keys were in the ignition, then the doors would have never locked, but like a good little boy, I took the keys out.

Now for anyone with kids you may sympathize with this, I left the car remote started because my 2 year old was in the car, it was almost 95 degrees. So I left it on with the remote start for the A/C and also the movie he was watching.

Well doors locked, truck on, keys on the front seat = BAD SITUATION.

I knew I had 15 min of the remote start left. So he was safe for 15 min. I called Onstar to have them remote unlock the car, but they could not as the antenna was not getting a good signal from the awning at the gas station. What a mess, so the Onstar rep asked if I could push the truck out from under the awning. Do I even need to say what I was thinking.

Anyway I had an idea. I only had about 4 feet until I had clear sky. The front of the truck was in the sunshine. So I told the Onstar rep to wait a sec. I got on the running boards and pulled the Onstar antenna off the roof, hoping there was enough slack in the wire to go that long.....nope there was not. So I ended up ripping the antenna off the roof completely and pulling the plug that connects under the roof out.

Anyway fire/rescue came and slim jimmied the door, which is another story. End result we got into the car.

Well I put the broken Onstar Antenna into the glove box.

Now fast forward till that night stuck in the mountains.
After we realized our cell phones would not work. I had to figure out another way to get help.

I was sitting there, listening to the kids crying, my wife crying and was just beating myself up for getting us into that situation.
The most lonley and helpless feeling in the world is not knowing that you are stuck. It is when my wife looked at me as quitely said:

"What are we going to do?"

and I said:

"I don't know"

Seeing that look in her eyes was the most motivating thing in the world.

I have always said that I can sleep on a park bench if I had to, but no my wife and kids.

So like a light shining on me I grabbed the Onstar antenna out of the glove box, then I had to figure out a way to get to the other end of the connection which was in between the head liner and the roof. So I did what I needed to do. I ripped the upper center console out of the roof (which housed all the buttons for the rear door, sun roof etc) then pulled the head liner down above my head, stuck my hand in there and found the other end.

Well I looked at the antenna end, and noticed that 2 of the three plug wires were pulled out, so I twisted them back together and pushed them back into the connector. I then opened the sunroof, replugged in the antenna and pressed the little blue button on the rear view mirror. It took about 4 -5 tries to actually get the wires pushed in enough to work, but they finally did.

THAT is how I fixed it.

Like I said, long-short version.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 02:31 AM

Originally Posted By: Be_Prepared


At least you have a chance to improve the odds for next time. Sometimes, folks get into situations that don't work out as well, and don't have a chance to "be better prepared next time". I get the feeling that you will, and that's a good thing.

Regarding OnStar, I have it also, and in my case, my home cellular service that OnStar is using is from Verizon. The minutes for my phone are actually shared with the truck. I believe, as others have mentioned, that OnStar relies on Cellular for any voice communication. The new ones are all digital, so even if there's analog cellular available, I don't think you'll have full OnStar.


Yes that is true I am more motivated and dedicated to be more prepared.

About the OnStar Verizon situation.

The Cellular service of Onstar, when you want to make a phone call from it, goes over the verizon network, but I don't believe the actual Onstar service runs off of that. I believe that is two way communication through satellite, but I maybe incorrect.
Posted by: Alex

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 03:48 AM

Sorry, the OnStar is entirely based on a cellular service. So, don't expect it to be functional everywhere. The advantages over a simple cell phone are:
1. Larger, more powerful antenna.
2. Digital signal compression allowing to send data packets in short powerful bursts, which have much better chance to reach the nearest towers in decipherable, non distorted form.
3. Automated distress signal repeating.

So, if you have no OnStar in your car, you could consider investing in an antenna-buster for your cell-phone. I saw some good external antennas, which could outperform those used in the OnStar installation.

http://www.alternativewireless.com/cellular-antennas/index.html

Or better yet, - invest in a PLB! cool

Posted by: Blast

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 01:10 PM

Quote:
Like I said, long-short version.


Well done, Death2Toasters. Thank you for sharing your story.

-Blast
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 02:49 PM

Originally Posted By: Alex
Sorry, the OnStar is entirely based on a cellular service. So, don't expect it to be functional everywhere. The advantages over a simple cell phone are:
1. Larger, more powerful antenna.
2. Digital signal compression allowing to send data packets in short powerful bursts, which have much better chance to reach the nearest towers in decipherable, non distorted form.
3. Automated distress signal repeating.

So, if you have no OnStar in your car, you could consider investing in an antenna-buster for your cell-phone. I saw some good external antennas, which could outperform those used in the OnStar installation.

http://www.alternativewireless.com/cellular-antennas/index.html

Or better yet, - invest in a PLB! cool



My PLB is being ordered this week.. Wish I would have found out aout them before last week!
Posted by: teacher

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 04:46 PM

Unless you just want to hike in a straight line....
Posted by: Alex

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 06:28 PM

Originally Posted By: Blast
Quote:
Like I said, long-short version.

Well done, Death2Toasters. Thank you for sharing your story.
-Blast

Oh, Yes. A very worthy story. Thank you!
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 06:29 PM

Originally Posted By: teacher
Unless you just want to hike in a straight line....


huh?
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/26/07 06:32 PM

Originally Posted By: Alex
Originally Posted By: Blast
Quote:
Like I said, long-short version.

Well done, Death2Toasters. Thank you for sharing your story.
-Blast

Oh, Yes. A very worthy story. Thank you!


Thanks....that experienced has really changed my life.

I know look at every situation I am stuck in with a new vision, that there is ALWAYS a way to get out of it. I just need to find a way.
Posted by: Todd W

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/27/07 07:12 PM

Quote:

My PLB is being ordered this week.. Wish I would have found out aout them before last week!


Which did you order, and from where?

I've been eye`n them for a while now.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/27/07 09:28 PM

Honestly I just did a froogle search. I have not seen a recommended company or site.
Posted by: Russ

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/27/07 10:02 PM

406 MHz PLBs are not cheap.
Posted by: MartinFocazio

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/28/07 11:44 PM

Just to reiterate - GPS is worth nothing when you call a 911 center. I was actually in the 911 center for Bucks County, PA recently, and while they have really neat technology, the incoming 911 call handler does not auto-magically get a GPS position with a whizzy Google Map of the phone position.

Also, I'd like to point out that GPS is NOT at all a reliable tool for urban areas and, as we learned from the initial poster's statements, it's not even possible at times to get the coordinates.

Then there's the matter of format & datum.

46º 45.456 72º 22.32 is not at all the same as
46º 45' 06" 72º 22' 32"

when you're on the ground...
Posted by: Alex

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/29/07 12:44 AM

Anyhow, if you have GPS your chances are higher. Just learn how to use it properly.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/29/07 04:43 AM

Well then I am glad I didn't have the GPS then smile

Posted by: Anonymous

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/29/07 09:47 PM

Quote:
46? 45.456 72? 22.32 is not at all the same as
46? 45' 06" 72? 22' 32"


Indeed 780 yards difference assuming the same datum is used i.e WGS-84 for example.

If the 911 call handler has Internet access, the conversation could be along the lines, (this works for Degrees Minutes Seconds DMS coordinates)

Open Internet explorer,

enter on the address bar the following; www.maps.google.com ,

type at the flashing prompt just below the google logo, just above where it says search map, the following;

type forty six space forty five space zero six forward slash seventy two space twenty two space thirty two and click on search maps button at the end of where you have just typed.

As you can see I'm in Kazakhstan if you zoom out using the zoom bar on the left of the picture map.


If the GPS gives the coordinates as Degrees, Minutes with Decimal Seconds (DMM) you would ask the operater to search;

type forty six space forty five point four five six forward slash seventy two space twenty two point three two


If the GPS gives the coordinates as Degrees decimal (DDD) you would ask the operater to search;

type forty six point four five four five six forward slash seventy two point two two three two


Could get yourself out of a lot of trouble if you understand the google earth latitude longitude format and can instruct the operator on how to use google maps.

In the UK we don't really use DDD,DMM or DMS mappings but the OSGB datum giving grid references such as NO369741 (you can find me here), it is so much easier to use and distances between two grid references allow the distance between the two to be calculated easily. smile The Garmin eTrex GPS will output its location both in WGS-84 and OSGB map coordinates. The OSGB map coordinates are then exceptionally easy to locate on a UK ordnance survey map either 1:50,000 or 1:25,000.








Posted by: Alex

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/30/07 06:08 AM

UK is as always the cause of the entire world's confusion about the simple measurements...

google:
Your search - NO369741 - did not match any documents.
Posted by: OldBaldGuy

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/30/07 12:52 PM

At the rist of getting in the middle of yet another revolutionary war, did you seach google, or google maps? When I looked for NO369741 in google maps, this is what I got:

Your search for NO369741 around this map area did not match any locations.

Still zip, but zip in a different place maybe...
Posted by: Anonymous

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 06/30/07 04:59 PM

Hi OBG,

Google earth is good but it is not perfect (something for the future development perhaps), it doesn't allow you specify a local datum. It doesn't even specify the datum it uses but I suspect as the software is being designed with GPS in mind then the datum will most likely be the default one for most GPSs. WGS-84


Firstly you have to convert the OSGB36 coordinates into WGS84, you can do it here at

http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong-gridref.html

It even gives a script for the spatial transformation from the OSGB36 to WGS84 if anyone is interested.

When you plug in the coordinates NO369741 you get Lat 56?51′17″N and Lon 003?02′02″W

As google earth uses North (latitude) East (longitude) notation by default you would have to specify these as the conversion gives a North (latitude), West (longitude).

For the Google Earth this can be done if you enter N 56 51 17/W 3 02 02

or 56 51 17/-3 02 02 in the standard google earth notation.

This again could cause some problems if the notation isn't specified i.e. N(lat) E(lon) or N(lat) W(lon) as well as the different formats such as DDD, DMS or DMM etc


Or you could just plug in the OSGB map reference into the ordnance survey maps website at

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/

just plug in NO369741 where it says 'place name or postcode' then hit go. The accuracy is 100m by 100 m. To specify a more accurate map reference you would just make the coordinate an 8 or 10 digit number. Such as

NO36917415 - accurate to 10 metres
NO3691274156 - accurate to 1 metre

distances between grid references are easy to calculate, just use Pythagoras Theorem.

Example Calculate the distance between NO369741 and NO243861

Distance = Sqrt((243-369)^2+(741-861)^2)*100 = 17,400 metres away!! Anyone want to calculate the grid bearing and the magnetic bearing from NO369741 smile








Posted by: OldBaldGuy

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/01/07 01:07 PM

Oh my God. A few minutes ago I thought I had a pretty good handle on the coord stuff, now I feel soooo uninformed. Why can't there just be one simple way to do this stuff???
Posted by: Russ

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/01/07 03:00 PM

I preflight my GPS with local landmarks and other things like the location of my car. If lat-long doesn't work, then just give them a bearing and range to the parking lot or some other landmark that's well known. Get them with a mile and use your mirror/chem light/whistle/laser beacon/surveyor tape to get them the rest of the way.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/01/07 05:26 PM

I would call this one he ck of a evolution of a thread.

The knowledge in this thread is astounding!
Posted by: AROTC

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks to... - 07/01/07 05:32 PM

Save your life by making sure you have your cell phone with GPS on you at all times. Wowee, yet another way to bypass natural selection.

Death to Toaster's problem was solved by jerry rigging his Onstar antenna (congradulations on that by the way, its not everyone who'll rip the ceiling out of a $40,000 car to do what he needs too), but it was also created by reliance on another gadget namely the electronic navigation system on his car.
Quote:
...following the NAV system on our GMC Yukon Denali and forgot to shut off the service road options.


Map and compass wouldn't haven't gotten him out of the situation, but an up to date map and a few minutes of route planning could easily have prevented it.

I'd also like to know how search and rescue reacted when they arrived. Were you truely in a life threatening situation? Or just in risk of having to spend and uncomfortable night in your car? Did you need SAR or AAA?

I know I'm being rough (not specifically at Death to Toasters, he's just a ready example and I am impressed by his willingness to treat his truck as an object he can tear apart if he needs to), but seriously we've got to pay more then lip service to the idea that the mind is the most important survival tool. Its impressive to hear about someone who's will to live let them cut their own arm off to survive. What's more impressive is the people who's mind recognizes danger and gives them a chance to go around it.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/01/07 06:12 PM

Ok I can not resist responding to this post while in church. I should wait till get home....but like I said I cannot resist.

Thanks for the props on tearing apart a $40,000 truck (more like $56,000), but the fact is that I was just making up for past stupidity by going the route I did and blindly following the NAV unit.

The details of how I got into the situation might help to explain things a bit.

Unlike some NAV units in cars, the GMC unit cannot change routes, destination address, or Options while in drive. So while we were driving for 7 hours already with crying and screaming kids, annoying sister in laws and sore butts, my wife was on the phone with her other sister and was convinced to try a shortcut to our NORMAL shortcut (mistake 1).

Well we put the information into the nav unit and then read off some of the roads and turns that it calculated for us back to my sister in law, she said it sounded correct (mistake 2)

So I said then lets go. I did not verify the whole route. (mistake 3)

It was at night so going an unknown shortcut was also pretty stupid (mistake 4).

While on the roads I thought several times about turning around, but fought my instincts, plus turning around was almost as dangerous as we were on a road just about the size of the car.

Plus being nighttime in an unknown area I was more concerned with the small road and various cute, little animals, then the nav. (mistake 5)

What did search and rescue say?

"How the hell did you get on this road, it was supposed to be closed!"

So many mistakes made ALL learned from and never to be repeated.
In the end i am kinda happy it happened. It taught me life lessons I could never have learned anywhere else and never so quickly.

By the way the first people to find us were a pair of park rangers (whose truck got stuck while finding us) so then S&R had to get their truck out also.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/01/07 06:34 PM

To answer the second part of your question.. S&R said the road I was on was supposed to be closed, but sometimes hunters or kids riding 4 wheelers break the chains..

The reason the road was closed was because of a sudden s snow storm the made that road absolute mud. Impassable.

We were on a road called Ericcson Pass about 15-20 miles from any paved road in both directions. Complete mountains. The nearest house was 23 miles away.

I will get the google map coordinates when I get home.

Since the road was supposed to be closed, the main S&R person said that they would have started searching in the opposite direction and it would have taken at least 2-3 days before they would have looked in our area if they didn't have any direction to start at.
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 12:57 AM

Here are the lat and long from google earth:

Lat: 39°57'34.34"N
Long: 112°36'25.17"W

Our Destination was Tooele, Utah.

Somewhere in a more southern direction, in the town named Hinckley, Utah we made a wrong turn.

If you follow the Ericcson Pass, north and then hit Lookout Pass and go east till you hit Route 36 and follow that north and you will go into Tooele, Utah.

Ericcson Pass and the Desert Mountain Road (the road that leads to Ericcson Pass are not paved. Lookout Pass which is after Ericcson Pass is paved.

So to answer your question, no AAA would not be able to get there.

Posted by: AROTC

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 02:18 AM

Ha, I was just there, well a little more east around Provo and Price. I just got back from geology field camp up there, I go to school up in Laramie. Beautiful country, but rough. What time of year did it happen?
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 02:25 AM

Originally Posted By: AROTC
Ha, I was just there, well a little more east around Provo and Price. I just got back from geology field camp up there, I go to school up in Laramie. Beautiful country, but rough. What time of year did it happen?


It happened in March of this year. Very beautiful country but also very dangerous if you don't know where you are or what you are doing.

I assume you heard about the boy that got killed by the black bear recently in American Fork Canyon.

Sad Story.

Convinced now that I could not just call AAA? smile

I get that alot...until people see where I was stuck.
Posted by: norad45

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 01:46 PM

Quote:
Ericcson Pass and the Desert Mountain Road (the road that leads to Ericcson Pass are not paved. Lookout Pass which is after Ericcson Pass is paved.


I used to ride out there all the time. It is not an area I would care to be stuck in, particularly in January or August.

Lookout Pass is the site of the old stage stop on the Pony Express route. During the last half of the 19th century the woman who ran it alone kept numerous dogs as company, and when they would die she'd bury them in a little pet cemetary across the road. During the 40 years she ran the station she also found a half-dozen or so people dead or dying along the route, and she buried them there as well. The cemetary is still there. The woman was Porter Rockwell's sister. He had a ranch near Ericson pass, and the ranch house is still being used today.
Posted by: OldBaldGuy

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 01:50 PM

"...The cemetary is still there..."

NOW you really have my attention! My wife and I love old graveyards...
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 01:56 PM

Originally Posted By: norad45
Quote:
Ericcson Pass and the Desert Mountain Road (the road that leads to Ericcson Pass are not paved. Lookout Pass which is after Ericcson Pass is paved.


I used to ride out there all the time. It is not an area I would care to be stuck in, particularly in January or August.

Lookout Pass is the site of the old stage stop on the Pony Express route. During the last half of the 19th century the woman who ran it alone kept numerous dogs as company, and when they would die she'd bury them in a little pet cemetary across the road. During the 40 years she ran the station she also found a half-dozen or so people dead or dying along the route, and she buried them there as well. The cemetary is still there. The woman was Porter Rockwell's sister. He had a ranch near Ericson pass, and the ranch house is still being used today.


Wow I didn't know that. Porter Rockwell's sister...now that is interesting.

Well knowing that before hand would have made more even more nervous smile

Posted by: norad45

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 02:12 PM

I wouldn't call it a graveyard. It's more like a monument. It measures about 20' X 20'. The State has erected a 3' high stone wall around it topped with an iron fence, and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers has put a plaque up with the historical info.

The unpaved road is graded and is pretty safe even in the dead of winter, but unless it's high summer if you get even a foot off of it you better have a winch. Traveling out there brings to mind the wise words of Patty Reed : "Don't ever take no shortcuts...."
Posted by: OldBaldGuy

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 02:34 PM

Noted, thanks...
Posted by: DeathtoToasters

Re: Woman who gets lost in woods is found thanks t - 07/02/07 02:39 PM

Very kewl info.

From what I remember it snowed for about 2 days, then the next day it was sunny with no snow, and then we drove on it the day after that.

It was the stickiest stuff I have ever seen. Thick, red-maroon colored clay. It was horrible.

I guess my wife could have buried me there if something would have happened smile

I loved all those Porter Rockwell stories.