A Hunt Gone Bad

[ni0h]

I took everything that matters, to go find the 4x4 2-cache site. It promised a bit of fun driving, and something intrinsically interesting to get my wife to do something outside. I used my brand new Starnet SDIO unit with my Palm Pilot... no useable software for it except mapopolis and a no-feature demo-type application. It was enough to generally tell me when I was moving away from the waypoint (all done on paper) so I could turn around and go back to the turnoff.

Aside: anybody thinking about trying this unit, don't. I wasn't a whole lot better than softgps - rolling along at sub 1mph (Jeep Rubicon in 4-low-first), indicated speed was rarely below 20 mph, though in random directions... undoubtedly, some software smoothing could have had it make some sense. So, At every intersection, I'd sit there, hold it out ahead of me and wait 3 minutes for a fix, as it can't maintain a fix in an open vehicle in an outside breast pocket, and mentally average the position readings until I was mostly certain whether this was a waypoint.

Eventually, we came upon some fellow geocachers, so I was gratified to know that we were on the right track. From there on, it was easier navigation, though the road was interesting. Eventually, as the trail began to narrow, we parked and walked, saw the wreck, snagged some pictures, and my 8-year-old daughter, Kate, and I went to find the cache box. We finally gave up and did some rot13 work on the clue, and I shouted up to my wife to head on back toward the jeep with my autistic 6-year-old son, Jason, as I knew their progress would be slow, and Kate and I could easily catch up.

After a bit of increasingly frustrating searching for the cache, the battery began giving out on my Palm Pilot. From the clue, and the averaged readings, we knew the heading to the crash site was about 280, but with the extreme imprecision of the unit, finding that heading was futile. After undoubtedly crossing the trail, we headed the same direction as the trail for a few hundred feet, then back toward what should have been crossing the trail. During all the time since realizing things had gone wrong, we paused for alternating directed shouts and listening. I knew my wife could not possibly drive the jeep back down, nor could she walk, and night was setting in. I began explaining strategies for surviving the night as we picked an east-flowing stream, which I have since learned is called Cave Creek, and started bushwhacking. As the last of the light began to fail and I began to face the possibility of my wife and son having to sleep in the jeep while Kate and I made a bed of dry pine, and maybe a fire, the beautiful full moon cleared the eastern horizon. We stayed on the throttle, cut a private trail, abandoned it when it went in an unpromising direction, rejoined it about half a mile later, and came to the back side of a "NO TRESPASSING" gate, at Bunce School Road. That eventually brought us to the highway, a 911 call really just to ask whether anybody was looking for us yet... I didn't want search parties out there endangering themselves, not available for somebody else, and racking up a big bill for me. My wife had figured out how to turn on my ham radio, and the LARC net was suspended for the night for emergency operation. We caught a ride with a Deputy as far as his Durango would go, and hiked the last mile to the jeep, and brought everybody back down.

 

I'm never going on a backcountry cache again without top and compass. They never failed me before.

[rynd]

I'd add an HT.

[+PeachyPA]

Wow, you need to post that on the cache page! Glad everything turned out all right for you and your family!

[+dkwolf]

Have to say, I'm impressed. MANY people I know would not have had the foresight to take most of the steps you did--sending your child and wife back to the vehicle before light failed, explaining to your daughter what lied ahead for the night before it happened, calling off the search, etc. Many people would have just frozen up instead. And, many may say 'yeah, I could do that' but not until you face such a situation do you really know.

 

Good work!

[+Criminal]

In flying we look at (flying) incidents and determine what were the “lessons learned” afterwards. The same is true with hiking in the backcountry. I enjoy the deep woods hike to get to caches, and my gear is oriented towards survival. There are often times I question the amount of stuff in the pack, especially when there are many miles behind me and several more ahead.

 

I will not try to armchair quarterback the obvious errors that led you to that position, but I would like to hear from you what lessons you learned, thus preventing many of us from making the same mistakes. You mention the topo and compass, but here are some of my observations:

 

 Navigation. It is desirable to have more than one navigation system available, more so when the primary one (in your case the palm pilot) is not reliable. A good topo and compass are the obvious answer, and you mention that. A “real” GPS unit would have allowed you to follow your track log back to the jeep, or at least offered clues to the general direction you needed to be going. I almost always forget to waypoint the truck or even reset the tracklogs before I leave the trailhead (especially on a short hike where I don’t want to save a tracklog to overlay on a 3D map later). But by observing the tracks I can usually figure out which way I came from and which way I need to go to get back.

 

 Complacency. You were not far from the jeep, or from the trail, yet you still managed to get lost. This happens more often than we realize, and has to me. Just departing the trail a short distance to relieve yourself can get you disoriented and quickly lost. Here in the PNW, we often follow news stories about lost hikers. Hiking here I have noticed day hikers blissfully strolling up a trail with nothing more than a water bottle and a cell phone. I usually didn’t bother with a topo when hiking on trails, figuring as long as I was on the trail I was ok. I’ve since gotten into the habit of bringing one along and comparing the topographic features on the map with what I see along the trail. I have noticed my understanding of the map features improve.

 

 Communication. I got my ham ticket for just this reason. Cell phones are too unreliable and FRS/GMRS are too limited in range. I have been able to hit 2 meter repeaters from some very remote places. It only makes sense to use the same system (VHF or UHF radios hitting repeaters) that the forest rangers are using. You had that partially covered. It’s my opinion that kids should have a whistle around their neck, and the knowledge of the signal used to say “I’m lost”, while in the woods. It’s just too easy to get separated.

 

Those are my observations, but I am more interested in what lessons you feel you (the whole family you) have learned as a result of this incident. Meanwhile, my pack is staying loaded with stuff I hope I’ll never need to use.

Edited October 21, 2005 by Criminal

[Team Firebird]

In flying we look at (flying) incidents and determine what were the “lessons learned” afterwards.  The same is true with hiking in the backcountry.  I enjoy the deep woods hike to get to caches,

In a battle netween the soft ground and a hard alluminum box going at four hundred miles an hour, the ground has yet to loose.

 

I once was lost in the woods for a day, but was able to find my way out. It is definently a harrowing experiance, I know how you must of felt.

Edited October 21, 2005 by Team Firebird

[+BilboB]

I got lost in the woods last month looking for a cache. I was only lost for a few hours, but night was coming on, I had no cellphone signal, I was soaked through, and the temp was dropping. I actually wandered around and came back to my original starting point and found the cache! I still have absolutely no idea how I was able to accomplish that. I am pretty good in the woods, but my GPSr went kaput, my compass was in the car, and I did not waypoint the trail when I left it. I have since made sure to correct all three of those screwups, but it was a little disheartening to say the least. My wife still doesnt know about it!

[+Lost & Found]

The whole reason we even bought our GPS's to begin with was we took a wrong turn during a hunt and ended up on the wrong side of a swamp.

We both had taken compass readings but from different spots. We were trailing a buck I'd shot and to begin with it was a beautiful day. But as we trailed, it started to snow. I got anxious because I didn't want to lose the trail under the snow so we ended up pushing this deer deeper into the woods. The temperature was such that it would snow like crazy, and then the sun would come out and it would melt the snow. Weirdest weather I’ve ever seen.

After trailing the deer for 4 hours my husband finally convinced me we weren't going to get this deer and asked if I had any clue where we were. Looking around, no... I didn't. We had never been that far back before.

Because we had taken a compass reading, we knew which direction to go at least and headed back to the truck. The snow got worse to the point where if we had separated more then 15 feet from each other, we couldn't see one another at all. I was close to panicking. Actually I think I was in a panic mode.

There are 3 swamps in the area we hunt and we came to one of them and because we had no topo map with us, were unsure which of the swamps it was. Had we gone around to the right, we would have come out where we should have, but mistaking it for a different one, we went to the left and ended up about 2 miles from the truck. After tripping over every log, rock and stick in the woods for 2 hours or so, we finally came to the road. I was ready to just lay down and die at this point. A couple of guys in a jeep came along gave us a ride to our truck.

Funny how you can hunt all day but as soon as you know your lost, your energy just goes right out the window.

Anyways, we bought our gps's and I found this site and learned how to use it.

I never go into the woods now without the gps, fresh batteries, flashlight, topo map, compass, granola bar, matches and water.

Edited November 1, 2005 by Lost & Found

[magellan315]

I'd like to suggest two things, the first is this book. This is wilderness survival for dummies, it does not get into how to snare wild animals. Just how to build a fire, a shelter, signal for help, and how to survive for a day or so until search and rescue gets to you. The big emphasis is on maintaining a positive mental attitude. The survival kit fits into a medium fanny pack.

 

Above all carry a whistle and a really loud one that does not have a "pea" in it. One of the most cost effective and easiest ways to siganl for help.

[Bag o'Tricks]

This is just the sort of experience that causes me to carry a pack with enough gear to pull a bivouac even when taking a short jaunt on known trails. Yes, I've used an awful lot of energy hauling "overkill gear", but you never know when you (or others) might need it. I've become part of SAR teams while on the trails and I'd like to think that others similarly equipped would be immediately available to look for me if it became necessary. I usually have a "bug-out" kit with me on all travels, a bare bones survival kit carried in an Eagle Creek Departure pouch.

Have recently been wearing a Ranger Rick survival neck chain - a good "possibles" source if all else fails.

 

Some people have accused me of being disappointed when things don't go wrong. I'd be far more disappointed if they did and I was totally unprepared.

 

Bag o'Tricks

[+Colorado Cacher]

One situation I never want to be in. Although, I have purchased and always do get, a search and rescue card good for five years here. $15.00 (?) for you to come and haul me out of the mountains if the need be. Thanks very much.

[+dkwolf]

Another good one is The Army Survival Manual. Sure, some of the methods discussed involve G.I. gear, but overall it's a good resource to have. Covers types of shelters for all climates and terrains, what plants are poisonous, etc etc etc.

[+flannelman]

I have been what I call mildly lost a few times but nothing seroius. But there are other times when some of those skills would come in handy. This past August, my family and our freinds family were out on the lake in a rented party barge. We had a great day picknicking on islands, fishing, and swimming. As we heades back to the marina the outboard broke something in the lower unit. We could idle along but that was all. As we got about 1 mile from the marina a summer thunderstorm blew in from the north. There was a great deal of thunder and lightening and the wind was blowing 4 ft waves up across the lake. With the motor in the shape that it was in there was no way that we could run into the wind to make it back. We got blown to shore( a wooded ridge that was 2 miles from the closest dirt road) and had to leave the barge. We took the canopy off the boat and found a huge log that was a few feet off of the ground to drape the canopy over. There was just enough room for the wives and the kids( 6 kids in all ages from 1 yr to 12 yr) under the canopy. We had to wait out the torrential downpour in hopes that it would stop before dark so that we could hopefully flag down a passing boat for help.

 

After about 1 hour the rain finally stopped and we were able to get help. Even though this situation was not too serious, and searchers would have been out soon after our return time at the marina, we still had six kids to keep calm and still had to make the right decisions when it came to staying out on the water or heading for cover.

Survival situations can come up at any time so it is best to be prepared.

[+Colorado Cacher]

Another good one is The Army Survival Manual. Sure, some of the methods discussed involve G.I. gear, but overall it's a good resource to have. Covers types of shelters for all climates and terrains, what plants are poisonous, etc etc etc.

British SAS survival manual actually has more details. Just my opinion, we all know how those are, lol.

[trekbabe]

Yes this has happened once to me. My caching partner and I were going to look for a cache that was up a rather steep hill. I needed to rest for a few minutes. My partner decided to go on. I would catch up in a few minutes. Wrong. I manged to find my way back onto the trail, not well marked, and lost the trail again....I gave up on the trail at that point and followed the creek downhill until I found my way out of the forest. and started back to where the car was parked...the only thing I was really concerned about was making it back before dark. Took about 2 hours of walking. At the time I made it back my partner was just coming back and seen me. I know several mistakes I made....1. not having water 2.leaving the 2nd GPS in the car. 3.Having no survival gear with me. Never went back to retrieve the cache however. Will have to sometimes.

[+maggieszoo]

I've never been lost while caching. However, it would really be hard to be lost for any length of time in this area. Trekbabe is from just up the road and did the right thing--follow a stream until it crosses a road. Even though it seems you are deep in the wilderness, you are rarely ever more than a couple of miles from a road. Now, all that changes if you get hurt and can't self-rescue.

 

Having said that, I have been in places other than where I needed to be while horseback riding. If I am riding from home, I trust the horse to know the way back to the barn. It is spooky. They never take the path I would take, but we always get home! When trailering to a state park, I'm not sure if they would go to the trailer or not. The way they act when we approach camp, I think they would, but wouldn't want to test this theory. That's why I usually carry a pretty extensive kit when riding in strange territory.