Originally Posted By: Byrd_Huntr
I believe that there is a place for beacons and similar devices...pilots, mariners, long distance overlanders, group guides to name a few. However, if a person is a day hiker, a hunter, a backwoods fisherman, a bird watcher etc, and they do not possess the very basic traditional equipment and skills to to keep out of trouble or to spend an unexpected night in the woods and extract themselves without relying on others to rescue them in lieu of those skills, they should really stay on the pavement or hire an experienced guide.


I beg to differ. For the last 3 years I have subscribed to Google news alerts that email me on a regular basis, news articles where even the most properly equipped and highly experienced outdoors enthusiasts from all walks of life make mistakes and have to either be rescued or are found dead. Many of these people would still be alive today if they carried a SPOT or PLB.

All the old traditonal skills are not going to help you if you slip and break a leg, fracture your back, etc and you have no way of putting those learned traditional skills to work to save your life, whereas pressing a button or 2 on a PLB or SPOT can make a significant difference in the outcome of your situation.

It is also somewhat ironic that on this forum, hardly a week or month passes where we hear and read of a person(s) who got lost, died etc while out enjoying the outdoors and the most popular and almost immediate lament here is "Why were they not carrying a PLB or SPOT?". DR himself has made many posts on the wisdom of carrying such devices....regardless of any persons skill level.

Yes I am not big on technology and abhore many gadgets, that in my outdoors pursuits I see people carry. However the SPOT and PLB are 2 such devices which can make the right difference. I guess though it is all a matter of perspective. As much as I love the outdoors, I also love coming home to my family and friends after a day(s) out in the trails and mountains. If in the unlikely event I ever find myself in trouble and if it takes having to press the button to summon rescue, at least my odds to live increase and I will get see my family another day...and that is all that really matters.
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock