Staying Found and
Getting Unlost
By GORP Hiking Expert Karen Berger
Hike long enough and it's bound to happen: that sick, sinking feeling
when you realize that you aren't exactly, or even remotely, where you thought
you were supposed to be. Usually, however, you're not completely lost, just
a tad, shall we say, confused. Here's how to prevent the problem—and how
to solve it.
First and most important, pay attention—even if you're at the back of
the line. Don't assume your hiking partners know where they're going as they
confidently stride forth. Watch for trail markers and junctions. Pay
attention to the time you've been walking—it can help you keep track of
your mileage. Be suspicious of radical changes in the trail. If a good trail
suddenly turns bad, or a well-marked trail turns unmarked, it could be that
you've wandered off-trail entirely. Finally, note which way the shadows are
falling; they can tell you at a glance if you're going in the right direction.
Trails can be eroded, covered with deadfall, clocked by mud slides, or
concealed by snowfields. Take a step or two to the right or left and look
again—the path or a blaze might be hidden from view by foliage or
deadfall. Same goes for looking for cairns above treeline. They blend in with
the environment, so look for them from a couple of different angles.
If you do get that niggling little voice in the back of your head telling
you that something seems off-kilter, listen to it, even if your hiking
partners groan at having to stop while you figure out where you are. Think of
it this way: If you're right, you're saving them from walking extra miles,
too. A final warning about staying found: Don't kid yourself. We humans have
a trouble-making tendency to try to force reality to fit our expectations.
When we're hiking, we often convince ourselves that something in the field
(say a small little bump) matches something on our maps (say a ferocious,
contour-line-filled monster mountain). It's easier in the short term to
believe the pleasant fiction that we know where we are than it is to deal
with the fact that the molehill is not a mountain—which means we're not
where we think we are.
If you do find yourself lost, stop and try to reconstruct your route. If
you've been paying even a modicum of attention, you won't be very far from
where you're supposed to be. Think of it as being"fuzzy," not lost! Try to
figure out where you last knew your precise location (someplace obvious,
perhaps when you forded a stream, climbed to a mountain pass, or crossed a
big open flat space). Knowing how long you've walked since then will help you
calculate how many miles you may have gone. If you've only been walking for
20 minutes since you forded the Wild River, you can't be more than a mile
from that ford, no matter which direction you've gone in. Next consider what
prominent landmarks you've seen. If you add all that information together,
you should be able to find yourself on your map.
A last resort—if you think you know approximately where you must be,
but the map and terrain still don't seem to match up, look for a prominent
landmark to walk toward. It can be a landmark you see, or a landmark shown on
your map. Rivers and roads are good choices, if any are about, because once
you intersect them, you know approximately where you are, and if you need to,
you can follow them until you intersect yet another identifiable feature such
as intersection with another road or trail, a tributary stream, or a
waterfall.
Bottom line: Don't panic. With a little bit of patience and detective
work, you'll find yourself.
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