+team lagonda Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 how many you city slickers got lost with a gps in yer hands.... Quote Link to comment
+The Leprechauns Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I'm amazed that you know a word like "whilst," and even spelt it rite. That's a city slicker word. And no, I've never been lost in the past six years. The GPS has gotten me out of some tight spots, though. Quote Link to comment
+Confucius' Cat Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I'll bite. It happens to me a lot (using a very loose definition of 'lost') In the act of looking for a cache in the woods, I often turn many circles and cross my own path many times. Then after the find, I try to find the trail resulting in finding another portion of the trail, another trail, or just realising that I had bushwhacked a hundred yards and the trail is six feet from the cache. I have found that following the bread-crumb trail out is nearly impossible after a good wandering search. The extent of "lost" has been not knowing for sure which direction to go on the trail. The most serious consequence of my being "lost" is to look like a fool to the Wifemate who instinctively knows which way to turn... and I'M holding the GPS. IMO, survival wise, if you are on a trail, you are not "lost." You simply stay on the trail until you come to "civilisation." You might not find you car, but you will survive. Likewise following a water course downstream will always eventually lead out of the woods. And if you are truly lost, any road is the right road. And now I ALWAYS mark the car before I go into the woods, even if it is just a state park trail. Whilst I am not concerned about survival, not being able to find your car or having to thumb a ride back to it really sucks. Quote Link to comment
+team lagonda Posted October 12, 2007 Author Share Posted October 12, 2007 ya leprecuns,,i knows all kinda em big words like ''whilst''..i figer its from me havin a giant brain n all..lol Quote Link to comment
+Rattlebars Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 WPT0001 gets me back to civilization unless I forget to mark it when I head out from the truck! Being a NightCrawler, using my long range remote start button has saved me in some instances since it turns on the headlights whilst the truck is running. Those two methods failed only once, but it only took me 15 minutes to find my way out.... RATTLEBARS Quote Link to comment
nonaeroterraqueous Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 ya leprecuns,,i knows all kinda em big words like ''whilst''..i figer its from me havin a giant brain n all..lol That must be it. GPSr or no GPSr, I always like to have some idea of my boudaries, like a road, stream, mountainside that I know I'll run into eventually. Mostly it's useful in the cities, knowing major streets and highways that run for a long way, so that I'm bound to run into one or another, and the moment I do I have a pretty good idea of where I'm at. Batteries do die, and sometimes I forget to bring a spare set, so I always try to have an awareness of my location. Quote Link to comment
+geospyder Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Back in the days that I had a Magellan I thought that I'd tweak the software a wee bit. Unfortunately I didn't notice that my tweaking messed up the data bases until I was over in Europe and had to rely on the mapping. The map drawing was OK - it was the data bases that got messed up. When I was in the Netherlands, the street names showed Italian names. That was bad enough, but at one point I forgot to waypoint the car in a village where we were doing a 21 point multi. We lost the car. That is where I discovered backtracking although trying to back track when the street names don't match the physical streets made for some interesting moments. When we finally found the car, the skies opened up with a huge downpour. The timing was perfect. Now I have a different GPSr with great maps. I also waypoint the car first thing before leaving it. Quote Link to comment
+TrailGators Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I have never gotton lost with my GPS but I have walked a heck of a lot farther than I had to because I've taken the wrong trail thinking that I found a shortcut. Quote Link to comment
+aggiejwp Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I did. Today. I went to the other side of town trying to go through a shortcut. Whichwasn't on my GPS. Blah. Quote Link to comment
+Ambrosia Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I'm amazed that you know a word like "whilst," and even spelt it rite. That's a city slicker word. And no, I've never been lost in the past six years. The GPS has gotten me out of some tight spots, though. Well, maybe never technically "lost". You always know exactly where you are, although it may not be the place that you intended or was the best way to get there. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 There were a few times early on when I doubted my GPS and ignored it. I was wrong and the GPS was right. Quote Link to comment
+jtbrady01 Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I've always known to mark my starting location. Be it my truck, a trail head or some point I need to get back to. Maybe it is my military background. With this I've never been lost. However, I was out in the woods when my battery was getting low and wasn't paying that close attention to my heading. I thought I was going NE when I was heading NW. When the battery went dead I pulled out my compass and kept on going. I walked out of the woods about 3 miles from where I needed to be. Was I lost? Not really I knew I just wasn't where I needed to be at right at that point in time. BTW - I have an extra battery charged now. Maybe I should charge it back up again just to be sure Quote Link to comment
+moongecko Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Recently I went out looking for 3 caches that were clustered near one another at a centuries old quarry. Actually. the quarry (which is now overgrown with trees) was once used for the stones that were used in the National Capitol Building. This old place sits behind a number of residential neighborhoods, completely forgotten by time. Anyways, there are a number of trails going into the area and they all cross several times and of course all look the same. I had my Trail Head marked, but I didn't turn on my breadcrumbs for tracking. I walked in okay... but walking out took me 3 times longer and I popped out of the woods two miles from where I parked. Doh! Lesson learned... bread crumbs are a very very good thing. I use them religiously when going pajama caching. Great feature... but only when it's turned on. MoonGecko Quote Link to comment
+Kit Fox Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 When I was hunting a Thunderchief (F-105) wrecksite, I marked the "roads end" while using Nat Geo Topo. What I failed to notice is that the road actually stopped about 400 feet before the waypoint that I had marked as parking. I never marked my truck, so I had the wrong coords to refind the truck. The area is heavily forested and there weren't many references. After having a fruitful day visiting the wreck site, hanging out with my dad, we headed to my truck. When we got to ground zero I realized my mistake. For about three minutes I had no idea where my truck was. I failed to notice that the truck was up on a knoll and we descended immediately when we started. Thankfully after much searching, we spotted the roof of the truck. Quote Link to comment
+AustinSweetnSour Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 When I was hunting a Thunderchief (F-105) wrecksite, I marked the "roads end" while using Nat Geo Topo. What I failed to notice is that the road actually stopped about 400 feet before the waypoint that I had marked as parking. I never marked my truck, so I had the wrong coords to refind the truck. The area is heavily forested and there weren't many references. After having a fruitful day visiting the wreck site, hanging out with my dad, we headed to my truck. When we got to ground zero I realized my mistake. For about three minutes I had no idea where my truck was. I failed to notice that the truck was up on a knoll and we descended immediately when we started. Thankfully after much searching, we spotted the roof of the truck. My first day of solo caching, I led my kids into the woods to find a cache...let's just say that by the time we found our way out, hours later, not one of them was speaking to me, and McDonald's was bought for dinner out of fatigue and guilt! Quote Link to comment
+Mofino Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 how many you city slickers got lost with a gps in yer hands.... Oh yea! And I'm not even a city slicker but a country boy (thank God)... Lesson learned... Read the log: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...21-ea267ee93a81 Bob Quote Link to comment
+sseegars Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 Yep! No fancy explanation. But I ain't no city slicker! Them thar's fightin' words! Quote Link to comment
rallymud Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 (edited) I have NEVER been lost.......well, not exactly. I was without computer on our first cache this summer. Went to the local CAP site (computer access), logged on to geocaching.com and found some interesting ones and had to write them down. We went to one that would suit the entire family (child friendly cache). We were on our way and checked it out. "Who would put a cache in a freaking corn field! This makes no sense!" I said. I looked at the routing and it actually lined up with an access point to the field for a tractor adjacent to the road. It was 500m in from the road but there was an adjacent stream. I realised we had nothing with us to add to the cache so we went to town got some stuff. An hour later we arrived at the same point, got out of the car and went for the cache. 2 hours later we're walking back to the car with no cache, 3 muddy and tired kids and one tired wife. I say "Wouldn't it be funny if I typed a wrong number into the GPS!" My wife looked at the piece of paper with the coords (which I left in the car) and compared them to the waypoint in the GPS and looks at me......... We went to the local pub and re-evaluated the situation. After some serious abuse (from the kids) we continued with the correct waypoint and my wife found the cache in about 5 minutes. I now can't go past a corn field without this trip being mentioned......... Edited October 12, 2007 by rallymud Quote Link to comment
bogleman Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Well there was this one time I was in Savannah GA, impulse visit. Very hard place to find parking . I find a sweet spot and hit mark and edit the waypoint to show PARK, I get out of the car and saw that I was not in a legal spot. I drove around and some more until I found another usable spot. I thought I updated the parking spot before I left. Keep in mind, alone, no maps, no other waypoints, new city and lots of distractions. A couple of hours go by and darkness starts to creep in and I decide to head out. I hit goto and start walking and walking then I realize that I am nowhere near where I parked. Well to make a long story short I ended up wandering all around downtown pressing the stupid panic button on the key fob for about an hour until I found the car. PS the panic button only works from about 50 yards, you should be able to see the car by then Lesson learned - double check and do not rely 100% on the GPS. Track back was of no use, the screen looked like a plate of spaghetti from driving around in circles looking for a place to park. I've never been lost in the weeds around home, walk long enough and you will hit a road. Quote Link to comment
+team lagonda Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 must confess once when bow hunting for deer when i was 19 i parked my car on a wooded ridge and went way down over into the holler and down the creek....it was almost dark when i started back up the hill figgerin that the car was right on top..well when i got back on top the hill there was nothin but trees and the other side o the hill n more trees..i caught myself runnin down the hill in an effort to find some way out befor dark and my mouth was gettin dry..i kept going on anyways and i came out on the little country road bout 200 yrds below my car..wheeeew.. Quote Link to comment
+Zop Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Lost? Not even close.. But I do live in a fairly populated area. But!! One day a buddy and I were hunting the ever so elusive 'Urban' cache in it's own environment.. In San Francisco. We ended up walking over 22 miles thru the city and not once got lost.. But... Yup. We lost the car! Only for an additional mile though. We eventually found it but we could have sworn that the spot we returned to was where I parked. So.. Moral of the story here? Mark a waypoint when you park! Quote Link to comment
+Moore9KSUcats Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Lost? Well, not really... confused, maybe. We knew where we were..... but couldn't find the right trail to lead us back to the car! The car was waypointed, but where the side trail met the main trail was not. We kept trying to find the trail, but couldn't. Bushwhacking in cedar forests is not fun..... The trail we were on finally led us into the back of a gated apartment complex. We were tired, dirty, and very thirsty! Fortunately, we got some water from the front office, and found out we were several miles away from our car. We started trekking back along the frontage road, to the next turn, (a very busy by-way), and hubby left us on the side of the road under the trees and we waited until he came back with the car. We've not been back to that part of the greenbelt since! (That was back in 2002, when we first started, I think.) Quote Link to comment
+nekom Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 Try finding a back country road in the WV panhandle, off of US 250 from wheeling to fairmont. Yeah, a GPS doesn't help you there. Quote Link to comment
+team lagonda Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 (edited) nekom,,ya,i hear ya..where i was lost,,er i mean confused was about 10 miles from the panhandle.. Edited October 13, 2007 by team lagonda Quote Link to comment
+Vinny & Sue Team Posted October 14, 2007 Share Posted October 14, 2007 I have never even come close to feeling lost while hunting geocaches, whether with or without a GPSr. Quote Link to comment
+3Coltsfans Posted October 16, 2007 Share Posted October 16, 2007 The 3Coltsfans team has never been lost, however our truck was very badly lost once. Very early in our caching career, I forgot to mark the truck as a waypoint, and thought we would never find it. We could not backtrack because we had come down off of a steep incline and didn't think it too safe to try to go back up, so we followed the marked trail. After about 3 miles of rugged hiking we came out on the road. Oh wait...did I say THE road...I should have said A Road. Anyway after a couple more hours of walking we finaly found the truck. LESSON LEARNED! Quote Link to comment
knowschad Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 how many you city slickers got lost with a gps in yer hands.... What happened to "whilst"? I believe the word you're looking for is "whal". "How many you city slickers got lost whal ya had a gps in yer hands..." Quote Link to comment
WhatUpDog Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 how many you city slickers got lost with a gps in yer hands.... Finding the cache is easy, but sometimes getting out of the woods and finding your car isn't. Quote Link to comment
+yorelken Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 Nah, never lost. I always know what state or province I'm in. Well, okay, usually, anyway. Quote Link to comment
GPS-Hermit Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 (edited) Once I didn't want to go back the way I came because of so many briars. I had to use the map page to get back on the trail another way! I didn't know where I was the whole time but the GPS did all the work. Edited October 18, 2007 by GPS-Hermit Quote Link to comment
+Team GeoBlast Posted October 18, 2007 Share Posted October 18, 2007 how many you city slickers got lost with a gps in yer hands.... What I am struggling with lately is being too reliant on the device. Many hours on the trail pre-GPS taught me a lot of skills that this nice digital display is threatening to replace. I'm finding that leaving it home is actually a refreshing change now and then. Quote Link to comment
GPS-Hermit Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 (edited) Hopefully any experience that leaves you unaware of you position in the woods will make you better. I studied the maps and had them with me - but they don't show plants so thick you can't go that way. I didn't have a flash light, warm enough clothes, extra batteries and I didn't know where I was, and none knows where I am. Darkness fell just as the GPS brought me back to my car. I do everything different now since that happened. I use the GPS to teach me better distance in the woods. I practice guessing how far I have gone then look at my track and see if I am right - them double check it all on the map when I get back. I practice being aware of north. I am pretty tired after 4 miles of hiking in rough terrian and need to have my act together. Edited February 23, 2008 by GPS-Hermit Quote Link to comment
+rlridgeway Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 "If you ain't never been lost, you ain't spent enough time in the woods" Quote Link to comment
+edscott Posted February 23, 2008 Share Posted February 23, 2008 Try finding a back country road in the WV panhandle, off of US 250 from wheeling to fairmont. Yeah, a GPS doesn't help you there. Just stop in Hundred and ask someone. Quote Link to comment
+TeamGuisinger Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 We weren't lost but the car was! We were sort of almost lost in the dark in a fairly large state park which had a really wonderful trail system that we did in fact wander off of. Can't call it lost if you know which direction the highway is...right? We managed to bush whack (for hours) to a highway. This was great news as it was spring and we were not dressed for nighttime temps and we were out of water. Unfortunately, the wonderful park was loaded with caches that we had visited 5 times. Like good little cachers we had also marked our parking spot 5 times. We had a highway, but no idea where our car was after 8 hours of caching and 2 hours of being somewhat lost. I won't tell you how we found the car, it's just too embarassing. Quote Link to comment
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