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How To Not Get Lost


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Tom, the real answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE...but people who are normally calm can panic, people with GPS can't get reception, people with maps can't see the landmarks, woodsmen find the moss growing on all sides of the tree, overcast sky obscures the sun....etc. etc. There are tons of technology answers to your question, but as others have mentioned, all powered tech.can fail you in an emergency and should never be relied upon 100%. If you are going remote, go prepared.

I generally like/use gps technology but when I am in a remote area, I am always at least minimally prepared for an unplanned overnight before I ever leave my vehicle/camp, as no one ever plans to get lost and besides being lost, there is injured and unable to move which may be even worse.

I am a firm believer at minimum in always carrying a small compass when in an unfamiliar area as even if you are not sure exactly where you came from(bad planning), you can at minimum pick a direction and keep from walking in circles.

Carrying a small pocket emergency kit with reliable fire making ability when you are in the bush also tops my list as fire makes a great nighttime companion, can signal for help (see lighting up a tree in the post above :biggrin:) as well keeping hypothermia at bay. 

Because its very wet here in Western Oregon, multiple ways to make fire is at the top of my list. I carry a small tin (3x4x1) that has: waterproof matches/striker, small lighter, spark generator, tinder, char cloth, pitch (fatwood), flat emergency whistle, 20' or so of 10# mono fishing line to use for bout anything and my 1/2" dia. button compass.(weighs bout 4oz. total) Toss in a couple bullion cubes and use the tin for a pot...With that I include a $0.99 mylar blanket that can double as shelter if need be and can be cut into strips to mark your trail and/or location to keep SAR personell from walking right by you as you sleep. Drop both in the bottom of the finds pouch before you leave on your hunt, and you won't know its there till u need it.

Once it's overcast, foggy, rainy, snowy, dark etc with limited visibility the wild places all get looking the same real fast.

Doesn't matter where we live/play in the remote areas people get lost, some overnight lost, some never come home lost, and no matter where you are, once you become lost it will trigger events that will be putting lots of lives at risk by all the people who are going to be trying to find you during the SAR mission that follows. With a little planning, the life you save may not be your own......

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No one has mention taking a couple of days medication. The main concern of lost men in WA (when I was there) was that they had not taken their heart tablets. 

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On 3/24/2017 at 8:22 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

When I was in Australia I did pretty well navigating on my own. Each day I would make a long looping walk of several kilometers with my return to camp aimed at lunch time. In one area there was a series of low rolling hills. I of course am pretty intent on my detecting but I do make an effort to keep my bearings. Still, I went around the base of this hill, then around the base of that hill, and so on. As lunch approached the sun was straight up in the sky. I was ready to head back and had looped around thinking I was heading straight back to camp.

Then I checked my GPS. It said I was pointed directly away from camp. Every sense I had argued this was not true.

I got my pilots license and when you do basic instrument training they hammer it into you how your senses can be fooled - always trust your instruments. So I did and went where the GPS said camp would be, and of course it was right.

One could argue that had I not had the GPS I would have paid more attention. No doubt that is true. All I know is I am sure glad I had that GPS.

An Alaska Bush Pilot saying "there are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots".

BWAHAHAHAHAAHH!  I snuck up on my ute one time thinking I was going one way when I went another... I have still yet to figure that out.   Did it agian a few years later.  No Old Bold pilots here.  Bush is bush.  Carry extra batteries and be prepaired for a long dark night.  Compass is easy, note your sunrise and set in camp and note your track away from the tracks.  Kinda sucks in OZ as the sun is in the north and you have to flip your file for that.

Seriously though like said all the suggestions here are good and useful.  Carry fire, carry water and a bit of tucker but if in a difficult spot STAY PUT and make some noise.... fire, radio, flares what ever.  Also never ever leave without letting someone know where your going and when you will report back!  Might help some one cares enough to go looking for your nugget cup.

geo I'm diabetic so you know my meds are on me but its a valid point... not much use to me If I run out of food but heart med's dont require sugars ;).

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If you do not own a dedicated GPS unit I can recommend a GPS phone app that is simple and accurate. To be honest for most detecting situations I only use my nav skills and my iPhone for a back to camp GPS...and also for offline map navigation. (if detecting in thick scrub or very rugged hilly areas etc...get a dedicated GPS)

The phone is in an Otter box and I carry a spare battery. I have utmost confidence in the reliable nature of my phone/ long long battery life with all networks etc switched off.  The free app I use is called "Locatier". Its a simple GPS and direction pointer back to home program using your phones GPS.(no mobile reception needed)  I like the simplicity, the last waypoint marked and named is always on the top of the list. And when you look at the list it gives you your distance and direction from all waypoints on your list. Handy for checking out places where you may have marked gold finds spread out in one area yo are doing big walks in..

I have used it for a couple years and it is very accurate and reliable.

PS I carry a Personal locater beacon, satt phone and detect in very remote areas with a friend nearby.

 

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The one medication I take I could go for a few days without taking it.

But, being 70 and not choosing to give up climbing mountains in search of gold, I carry a couple aspirin in a bottle "just in case". 

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Thanks for all the tips guys.

I am currently recuperating from big toe nail removal surgery, right foot this time, was tired of getting repeated painful ingrown nails on the big toes.

Not much open country where I live near Chicago, almost all private. But if I ever get to Arizona again, getting lost in the desert can be a concern. I can't do much until the toe heals up which could take months. will stick to Indiana gold creeks for this year unless I hear from a buddy in Tucson. A spot I want to check out, I am hoping he knows the rancher and can get me in on this private land to prospect. I stumbled across a land listing for this property  and could hardly believe the cost for almost a thousand acres of desert, 3 small mountains, and a ranch house was under $250,000 , but is not currently on the market. Heck, where I live ,$250,000 will barely get you 3 acres of bare land, if that.

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Great advice in the posts. Steve is so right about relying on your instruments. Here in the pacific northwest weather can change for the worse very quickly and instruments are your friend. 

I do have a interesting story of the instruments going astray.

I managed as well as did the actual work of an aerial mapping, surveying and high altitude photography company for many years. Using small Cessnas (182 and push pull turbo 206) and Robinson helicopters required the pilots to really trust their instruments. 

We also performed land surveys with conventional instruments like theodolites and chains, early lasers, later total stations with infra red and the such. We eventually bought and used some of the first Trimble Navigation GPS units here in the northwest.

We were performing a large cadastral retracement survey of public / private boundaries for the federal government over two townships of land with many ownerships. Because of the rugged and remote lands, we used a combination of technology. All of the above conventional equipment was used along with aerial photos and the "relatively new GPS units".

We used the tripod mounted GPS units primarily for establishing control points on the mountain tops, from which we then utilized the other instruments for ground traverses. Well into the project, amazed by the benefit of the GPS units and their accuracy, which we tested, all hell broke out with the data.

In these kinds of surveys, along with the GPS control points, a lot of data is collected initially about existing prior survey evidence, often for days at a time, and then is processed back in the office for further investigation and action in the field.

Well, after one such period of data collection from the GPS units, absolute chaos ensued with the survey control data as well as the the other traverses from those control points. Survey results from this period was miles off from previous data collected. Impossible to be as such.

I'm telling you, this was on par with losing a survey field book in the old days, which was a cardinal sin. The entire job is at a standstill.

As I recall our first call to Trimble (the GPS maker) was of no help and caused a great concern on their part as well. They got on the horn and called us back later with the explanation.

The first gulf war had just begun and the military had "dithered" the signals coming from the constellation of satellites utilized by our GPS units. They were preventing any enemy from using these signals for hostile action over in the Gulf or here at home with missiles or airplanes. We eventually received, from the military, an equation / formula for untangling the survey data and all turned out well.

There was very little use of GPS by the public back then relative to the widespread use today. If the signals were again "dithered" by the government, in this day and age, oh boy,  just imagine.

Mike

 

 

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On March 22, 2017 at 9:40 PM, whitebutler said:

I learned to use the stars and the sun. My father was a sailor and insisted I learned how to get home. I encourage others to learn also. 

The first sailors used star charts and those haven't changed is thousands of years. Know the stars and change yours.

Cheers

John

Probably the most heroic survival story ever is the story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew on the  Endurance. When they became stranded on an ice pack in the Antarctic he and 4 other men set off in a 23 foot boat 800 miles to a whaling station. They navigated by the stars and sun to get there.  

strick

 

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