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snowhoe
01-08-2009, 16:31
Has anyone ever been lost over night? I have I was doing a day hike with a couple friends about 13 years ago and we were by Fall Creek Falls. We were going to follow a creek down to a smaller creek coming from the falls and we missed the small creek and about 4:00 I told one of my friends that I think that we missed the small creek and he said he thought that we didnt. We did. We followed the creek until it just went under ground. The light was fading and one of the women we were with said lets just go straight up the side of the mountain. I didnt think that was such a good idea because as long as we stayed with the creek we could just follow it back to where we started. I didnt speak up and up we went. We walked thru so many stinging neddles and we all had on shorts. Got as far as we could go and their was a sheer cliff about 100 foot tall. We were screwed the light was fading. So back down thru the neddles down to the creek made it and it was dark. Thunder was booming in the distance and it started sprinkling. We decided to hunker down by a big rock by the creek. As we did the skies opened up. Thunder, rain and wind. None of us had any way to build a fire. No long sleeve shirts or long pants. Totally unprepared for this. One of the women that were with us had never even been camping before.It was thundering and lighting so hard. I have never seen it rain that hard ever. I just put my shirt over my head and tried to ride out the night. At about 1 am the woman that never had been camping started to freak out and couldnt stop shaking. We thought that she might be going into hypothermea or shock or something. So we all just huddled around her and tried to calm her down. Finally it started to stop raining and you could start to see some stuff. The sun was starting to come out. We had made it. We followed the creek back up and when we got close to the parking lot their was a group of people in a circle and they were all park rangers. As we were walking by one of them noticed we were wet and dirty and asked if we had been lost. We said yes and he said that they were putting together a party to look for us. I havent gone a day hike or any time going into the woods without a lighter and a pocket knife.

Jack Tarlin
01-08-2009, 16:34
A lighter and a pocket knife are certianly good things to carry.

So is a map. :rolleyes:

jesse
01-08-2009, 16:38
shouda never left the creek.

JAK
01-08-2009, 17:02
I wasn't lost, I knew were I was on the map, but I was seriously delayed one winter trip after going up the wrong road. It always helps to stop and have tea, and look at a map, and compass, and watch, and maybe get a good meal and a good night sleep before figuring out what you want to do next. It helps to have enough clothing to be able to just stop and think over a cup of tea, without having to setup shelter and sleeping bag and all that just because its cold and wet and windy. Quick shelter is handy too though.

Getting lost would really suck without fire, and food, and enough clothing. Map and compass and watch help minimize the panic also. Anything than minimizes poor and rash and clumsy judgement is a good thing. Interesting story.

Plodderman
01-08-2009, 17:08
Never been lost overnight but have lost my way in the day light and luckily got back on track before dark.

snowhoe
01-08-2009, 17:11
Jak, You are right I think that if it would have just been me and my friend Eric we would just have went back up the stream that night. But one of the women had to wear glasses and she didnt bring them. So we decided not to take a chance getting her hurt. If we could have just been able to build a fire I think we would have been way better off. The panic factor would have been reduced I think. No food. No water, we did drink the water in the creek. I dont think you dont people understand how being out of your element and not being able to control the enviroment around you will send some people into a shear panic.

Jack Tarlin
01-08-2009, 17:24
I dunno about "controlling the environment".

But one good reason to carry a map is so you know where the hell you are.

This frequently cuts down on distress and panic.

Lyle
01-08-2009, 17:27
Never on the AT.

In Colorado I was, as Daniel Boone supposedly said when asked a similar question, "a might confused for a couple of days".

Not a big deal at all, had everything we needed.

snowhoe
01-08-2009, 17:28
I hear you, what we were doing was swimming and just messing around in the stream. Looking for natural water slides and stuff like that. It might have gotten wet. Just didnt think that we would need it. We were planning on being back to the car by 1:00. Your right, like I said I am more preparred for just little day hikes. Learned a lesson the hard way. Let this be a lesson even if you think its just a quick trip and there is no way you could get lost you never know what can happen.

OldStormcrow
01-08-2009, 17:30
I got lost in the Congaree Swamp for about a day and a half once in flood waters. I usually don't mind being "lost", but it took us until after dark to find a piece of land that wasn't covered with water and large enough to put two small tents on. We didn't find the river until halfway through the next day, but we have the whole place thoroughly "GPS'ed" now and still go every March.

leeki pole
01-08-2009, 17:34
I remember a day hike in Cave Creek, AZ where my truck was the only one in the lot. Being stupid and young, I had told no one where I was going nor when I'd be back. I only had a rudimentary map of the area. After lunch, I evidently took a wrong turn and none of the map details made sense. I had a flashlight, thank goodness but no shelter and not near enough water for the desert. Eventually I found my way back to the parking lot with the help of my flashlight and compass. It was very late and I was pretty much shook up. Lesson learned, I never hike without the ten essentials.

snowhoe
01-08-2009, 17:36
leeki what is your ten essentials?

Feral Bill
01-08-2009, 18:46
Years ago two friends and I took a wrong trail in to the High Peaks of the Adirondacks at night one winter. (The parking/trailhead area had been changed.) We hiked a couple of miles, camped, then headed over to our destination in the morning. No big deal.

leeki pole
01-08-2009, 18:49
water, food, fire, compass, map, shelter, knife, bag, flashlight and duct tape

leeki pole
01-08-2009, 18:51
holy cow, that was my 666th post......hope it's not an omen:eek::)

KG4FAM
01-08-2009, 19:29
water, food, fire, compass, map, shelter, knife, bag, flashlight and duct tapeNo multi-tool, no harmonica. I think you just made Les Stroud cry.

Mags
01-08-2009, 19:56
Depends on how many drinks I've had that night.... Then I woke up with...

Er..never mind. This is nominally a family site.

MOWGLI
01-08-2009, 20:05
Depends on how many drinks I've had that night.... Then I woke up with...

Er..never mind. This is nominally a family site.

Went to bed with a 10 at 2, and woke up with a 2 at 10? :eek:

That door swings both ways ladies. :)

slow
01-08-2009, 20:06
Been lost in a swamp, and come out at night with no flame,only to bed down on fire ant's.:eek:

Blissful
01-08-2009, 20:07
Never overnight.

But have for a little on a trail.

TrippinBTM
01-08-2009, 21:00
"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."


Ok, people...name that frontiersman!

Kerosene
01-08-2009, 21:36
"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."

Ok, people...name that frontiersman!Dan'l Boone


I've never been lost on the trail for more than a half mile. I've had a pretty good sense of direction since the day that I got lost in Brussels as a 15-year old with minimal French skills. As I didn't know the name of the hotel we were staying at, I wandered the city for hours but eventually found my way back somehow. I think I'd be fine as long as I could re-trace my steps eventually. I was a little concerned when it started snowing hard on my last AT section hike while I was trying to complete a 25-mile day after dark. I would've been royally upset with myself if I had had to try to make camp in the snow as the temperature dropped, but physically and emotionally I would've been fine.

Serial 07
01-08-2009, 21:41
black swatara gap...went off to find that spring 100 feet from the campsite and....let's just say that's not a reliable water source...

Wise Old Owl
01-08-2009, 21:45
"I can't say as ever I was lost, but I was bewildered once for three days."


Ok, people...name that frontiersman!


Daniel Boone

Nope never lost. Even when I was living out west.

ChinMusic
01-08-2009, 21:46
Found a GREAT campsite one evening while I was "lost". I wish I could find it again.

theinfamousj
01-08-2009, 22:08
I was in Uwharrie National Forest, going along a trail I downloaded to my GPS from Backpacker magazine. (My first mistake.) I was treating my roommate to a backpacking trip and thought it would be best to pick something from Backpacker, since I figured it would be pretty tame.

We started in at night, night hiking.

"Hmmmm," I thought, while looking at my GPS, "that's odd. The GPS says taht we are about ten feet to the right of the trail."

Clearly, we were on a trail. The trail we were on had a trail head in the very same parking lot. I couldn't understand it.

At every turn, jag, and junction, our little path lined up exactly 10 feet to the right of the official downloaded trail. Could it be the GPS?

Well, we hiked until 11 pm and then made a dry camp for the night with what water we had hiked in with.

And we continued on the next day. I didn't look at the GPS much because I figured that it was just misaligned and we were on a clearly marked trail.

How wrong I was, when the trail petered out in a field. So we sat, had a cup of tea and some cheesy-water (were attempting to cook maccaroni, but for some reason the maccaroni never cooked) and then retraced our steps. I mentally panicked until I realized that we could just retrace oru steps.

We were planning to just backtrack to the car until we found that we were being lapped by the same three guys on bikes. We asked if there was a loop trail around and they gave me directions.

And thus, we discovered that the trail we were initially on, and the trail that we were supposed to be on (its parallel) combine to make a great 2 day loop trail with excellent campsites.

But, man, I'll never forget that fleeting moment of panic.

Old Hillwalker
01-08-2009, 22:13
In my fifty five years of hiking I have never been lost. Although once my tent was lost but I found it the next day.

buckwheat
01-08-2009, 22:26
So many lessons to be drawn from that experience (that's such a great story, by the way). Here's a few that hit me right off the bat:

1) It always amazes me how just a few very seemingly inconsequential mistakes, when you add them all up, can then lead to utter disaster (your lady friend was either going into shock, or more likely hypothermic and is probably lucky to have survived).

None of the decisions that you now can see in hindsight were so wrong were obviously horrible at the time, I'll bet. It's only in hindsight where you think to yourself "Hey wait, why did I follow the unprepared, inexperienced people?"

2) Who became the leader? I'll bet it wasn't you, even though you probably had more experience? You might should think on that one.

3) I've been in a few "situations" where I had to do some trail math. Here's the math I do in those situations: If I can list three things going against me, I pack out the way I came in. Here's what I mean by that: Suppose you find it's getting dark faster than you expected, the weather has changed on you for the worse, and your lighter just ran out of fluid. Bam! Now maybe I want out of the woods (after all, something has me doing my trail math, right?). I hike out by the way I came in, and I just assume that I'm now at significant unplanned risk (if not outright danger) and begin acting accordingly. If I try to hike out by a way that I don't KNOW will get me out safe, then I'm begging for trouble. Your instincts were sound; something or someone talked you out of it. Why?

4) Hunkering down next to a creek in a major thunderstorm on a mountain is a really bad idea unless you dig flash floods.

5) Maybe I'm just a wus ... but every freaking Discovery Channel disaster show I ever watched stuck with me, I guess. Seems like there's always somebody kicking themselves about why they didn't just bring X or Y or Z. I've always carried a full pack. Mainly I do it to keep in "hike shape." But the side benefit is that I'm never, ever without what I need to survive for a minimum of 3 days in the woods: water, shelter, food and fire, firstly ... then dry clothes, first aid, and comforts secondly. I get weird looks and comments about this ... I just tell people I'm trying to lose some extra pounds.

6) I've been on snowmobiling trips with large groups of people. It's tricky. Always somebody wanting to go make every snowmobiling mistake you can make, forgetting they're 70 miles from the nearest ambulance ... much less a hospital. Leading in a group like this means being forceful and showing leadership. Sometimes, that means stopping to explain why it's a bad idea to, for example, bushwhack up an unknown mountain in an unknown direction with dark approaching. And if they still want to do it after you've had that conversation, I think you have to be prepared to walk away, dude. I'd say: "Look we're friends, but I think that's dangerous, so I'm not willing to do it. Here's why." Comments like that get attention and demonstrate leadership. You now command the stage, so be prepared to suggest a sensible alternative.

7) I'm a non-smoker now, but took a lot of abuse about my smoking until that day when a fire had to get lit and nobody else had a way to do it. Suddenly, I had a lot of friends who didn't mind my smoking so much.

I'm really glad you got out OK and that you learned something from the experience, and that you're willing to talk about it to maybe teach others how they can avoid that same experience. That says a lot about you.

Cheers,
Buckwheat

Jim Adams
01-09-2009, 01:19
Wasn't really lost but I walked a perfectly straight line one time in the winter and crossed my own tracks in the snow at about the 45 minute mark. LOL

geek

Pokey2006
01-09-2009, 02:53
You don't need fire, three days of food and shelter -- just a map and a headlamp. I always carry both, even on the shortest dayhikes. I love comparing my map to the topography at regular intervals, so I pretty much know exactly where I am most of the time. I've never been seriously lost, though I have taken longer than expected, hence the headlamp.

As long as you have those two things (and a healthy dose of common sense, too), you can find your way out of almost any mess, provided you're not injured or sick. I couldn't imagine hunkering down and suffering all night -- I'd just keep hiking.

fehchet
01-09-2009, 03:38
I lost my car in Montreal once and had been living there for six years at the time. It must have been the influence of all that free food the bar buffet was offering. I looked for a while and then got a hotel room -- that was one of the choices the police officer suggested. The next day, after work, it took several hours to find.

I have done and still do a lot of bushwhacking hikes with a compass. I've never done the GPS thing. Being prepared, of course, is the most important glean here. Then if you get temporarily location challenged it's no big deal -- whatever.

This winter here in Sarasota I am doing urban day hikes. In my hip pack I carry water, food of some kind, 6 Tums, 4 ibuprofen. a wool hat, a long sleeve wool shirt, a map. money, a lighter, a folding knife, and a bus schedule. I have had to use all of the items at some point.

garlic08
01-09-2009, 09:29
...I've been on snowmobiling trips with large groups of people. It's tricky...

You just hit the nail on the head. I do a lot of solo trips (like most everyone on this forum, I bet), and this point is exactly why. When friends and family express concern, I just need to point out all the large groups that get in trouble and make the news. Anyone who follows all the rescues on Mt Hood will understand. (Aaron Ralston is a glaring exception, though, I have to admit.)

Once a friend of mine turned around from a group day hike on Mt Rainier, went back to the car to wait because he didn't like the group leader. Well, he had to wait for two days. They got lost because of a series of cascading errors.

Chance09
01-09-2009, 09:39
getting Lost Would Really Suck Without Fire, And Food, And Enough Clothing.

:d Lol :d

Chance09
01-09-2009, 09:57
I went down to Otter Creek Wilderness to do a 26 mile loop over 2 days and managed to be lost just about the whole time. Let me tell you that that place doesn't have a single sign or marker in the park other than rock piles, and every trail had a rock pile so that didn't really help much. I wasn't overly worried because the park is only about 25 mi by 25 mi and i had a compass so all i would have had to do was hike in one direction long enough, but man not knowing where i was at started taking a toll on my moral by the end of the first day. The funny thing is is that I even had a map. I was planning on judging my distance and location by the forks in the trail, but I'd get to what looked like a simple fork in the trail on my map and see a 6 way intersection. I just had to pull my compass out and take my best guess. By the end of the day I hadn't seen a soul and thought i knew where i was on my map but having no way to confirm it wasn't sure how much stock i was going to put into it. I did know i was on the south end of the park and it was time to start hiking west.

Then I ran into a bachelor party lol :D, unfortunately they couldn't get strippers to hike the 5 miles into the woods

Walked up to them, and i guess it showed, cause the first thing they said to me was you look lost. They offered me a beer and we sat down and talked a bit, then one of the guys pulled a GPS from somewhere and showed me exactly where we were. Turns out I was less than a mile from where i thought i was but having it confirmed was a huge relief. I thanked them for the beer and hiked on a few miles past their camp cause i didn't want to be around when they got drunk and set up camp.

The next day the same thing happened to me with 8 miles left, running into more trails than were on my map ,so i just bailed through the woods west to a fire road.

Now I make sure to have a better map printed nicely in color and full detail when i can.

Low Impact
01-09-2009, 10:12
Never been lost OVERNIGHT, but have been lost at night - which is pretty scary.

Was in the 100 Mile Wilderness - hiking after dark - and there was a really wide river ford. When I finally got to the other side, I couldn't pick up the trail.

My headlamp was super dim, as it was running out of batteries. I thought I was following the blazes on the trees, but I wasn't.

Got super freaked out. Luckily two of my buddies were about 20 minutes behind me - and I eventually saw their headlamps off in the distance and called out to them.

I was hearing about that for the rest of the way to Katahdin. :D

e-doc
01-09-2009, 10:12
Coming off Baldy at Philmont Scout Ranch, our got lost and bivied within sight of the top of the mountain. I don't get lost anymore

leeki pole
01-09-2009, 10:42
Been lost in a swamp, and come out at night with no flame,only to bed down on fire ant's.:eek:
Now that will get your attention!:eek:

Tipi Walter
01-09-2009, 11:32
The only times I've been lost were the times when I got out of the woods and tried to maintain a two or three month relationship with a woman addicted to the world of indoor heat and flush toilets. You could definitely say I was lost "over night", over several nights, over many nights. But with a good forest nearby and a topo map, I always found my way out and back to a tent.

Tipi Walter
01-09-2009, 11:57
In my fifty five years of hiking I have never been lost. Although once my tent was lost but I found it the next day.

I'd have to agree with this one. I've always managed to turn around before the worst happens, although many days I would follow a trail into nowhere and have to turn around cuz to continue would put me way off in the middle of nothingness. I call these backpacking experiences "reach arounds", cuz ya got to reach inside yourself and turn around since the trail just stops or is impassable with blowdowns/briars or snowdowns(snow-heavy brush covering up the trail--too hard to pass thru).


I went down to Otter Creek Wilderness to do a 26 mile loop over 2 days and managed to be lost just about the whole time. Let me tell you that that place doesn't have a single sign or marker in the park other than rock piles, and every trail had a rock pile so that didn't really help much.

I just got back from a Snowbird wilderness backpack where I followed a very poor and brambly trail down into the Snowbird Creek valley and then reached an opening with Posted signs and no trails(of course there was 6 inches of snow on the ground). I couldn't find the dang trail and turned back. Back up the thousand feet I just dropped.

Once on a Tellico River backpack I left the campsite and bushwacked which I figured would get me where I wanted to be and two hours later I arrived at THE SAME EXACT SPOT I STARTED FROM. Freaked me out.

In Pisgah around the gorge of Upper Creek I lost the trail and grew impatient and bushwacked to the sound of water and ended up pulling an Epic Near Death Cliff Episode. Canyon falls, 80 foot perch on a rock face with full pack, etc etc. By the time I reached Upper Creek I was panicked and lost and in my adrenal delirium immediately crossed and humped 1500 feet up the other side to a small knob and sat lizard-eyed, sweaty and twisted. Panic will induce reptilean behavior and tiny pupils. Not recommended.

In Lost Valley I was, uh, lost, and the big bowl surrounding this laurel-choked place kept me captive for a full day of bushwacking and bloodloss. Going up out of the valley was pretty easy, but coming down off a ridge into the valley to find the creek can be a nasty, heartbreaking experience where clevis pins are pulled out and the pack hangs off the frame like a rag. You never end up where you think you will and for several miles you'll be "lost" until you reach the blue line. Just hope it's the same blue line you went up on 3 days ago.

Slo-go'en
01-09-2009, 12:12
I've never been lost overnight, but almost had to spend the night in the woods due to having lost my headlamp. Had spent the night at the "Gray Knob" cabin on Mt Adams and apparently left it in the loft when I packed up in the morning.

Got to the bottom of the "headwall" (which was a solid ice flow, this being early Feburary and having more rain then snow that year) when it started getting dark. No problem, get the headlamp out. Oh boy, can't find the headlamp! No tent, bivy sack or sleeping pad, since I had stayed at the cabin.

Thankfully, a half moon came out about then and gave just enough light to more or less keep track of the trail. It was also a good thing I knew the trail well, having been up and down it at least 100 times before. Even so, it took about 3 hours to finish the last 1.5 miles down to the road. Ever since then, I make sure I have TWO flashlights in my pack!

buckwheat
01-09-2009, 12:44
You don't need fire ...

Look, we're friends and all, but that's dangerous, so I'm going to make sure I always have a way to:

a) warm someone
b) cook something
c) signal rescuers
d) calm people down
e) sterilize implements
f) ward off animals
g) give hotheads something to do (gather wood)
h) cauterize a wound
i) light up my surroundings so I can work

This is a just partial list of how you could use fire in various circumstances. It is such a versatile tool, and can be carried with oneself very, very easily. To hike into the forest without it seems ridiculous to me.

But, HYOH.

Cheers,
Buckwheat

Tipi Walter
01-09-2009, 13:05
Look, we're friends and all, but that's dangerous, so I'm going to make sure I always have a way to:

a) warm someone
b) cook something
c) signal rescuers
d) calm people down
e) sterilize implements
f) ward off animals
g) give hotheads something to do (gather wood)
h) cauterize a wound
i) light up my surroundings so I can work

This is a just partial list of how you could use fire in various circumstances. It is such a versatile tool, and can be carried with oneself very, very easily. To hike into the forest without it seems ridiculous to me.

But, HYOH.

Cheers,
Buckwheat

I never build a fire, or rarely, but then again I don't bring people out who might need to have a wound cauterized. Nor is there a big need to sterilize implements. I mean, it's not like we're setting up a jungle hospital in the middle of North Vietnam.

As far as the others, well, I'm the only hothead in the woods at any given time and a big fire would only make me hotter. What I need is Miss Nature's sidelong glance and a fast cold wind with snow. She'll keep me occupied well enough in my warm tent and with a little luck, she'll invite other animal buddies into camp and dang sure not try to ward them off. No offense, but an open fire is stone age television, good for group storytelling but not much else.

Pedaling Fool
01-09-2009, 13:11
I’ve never been lost overnight, but I was once stranded for two days. This happened in Maine back in ’81 during a SOBO hike from Katahdin to Gorham.

I was at the end of the 100-mile wilderness, just before Monson. A snow/sleet storm came in so bad that it masked the blazes (this was around the end of July/beginning of August). We were already low on food and the last thing needed was a delay in getting to town.

We set up our tents, wish I could remember exactly where, but when the storm hit – and it hit hard – we couldn’t even make it to a shelter, we completely lost sight of the trail and just had to stop so we didn’t get really lost. We were stranded there for ~2 days – at the end the only food we had was raw onions and of course by this time I already had a hiker’s appetite and now I had to seriously ration my food about a day out of Monson. I’ve never been so hungry, remember eating that raw onion like an apple – and it was GOOD!

TomWc
01-09-2009, 13:21
I got stuck once in Jean Lafitte park south of new orleans. About 7 miles into the bayou solo in a canoe. I had planned on staying on a solid spot of land I found on a map that ended up not existing. I kept on paddleing thinking that surely there had to be *some* patch of dry land that I could throw my tent up on. I was wrong, and dark came down hard in the swamp, the fog came up and visibility was about 40 ft. I knew that I was not going anywhere.

I tied off halfway between two cyprus trees in a creek, blew up my thermarest and laid down in my sleeping bag on the bottom of the canoe to try to get a few hours sleep. I was *not* used to the sounds of the swamp, so sleep took a long time coming.

After a while of laying in the bottom of the canoe, I hear the sounds of a boat coming up the slough that I had been travelling before I tied off. A bass boat going slow came out of the mist. It turned out to be a couple of good 'ol boys from around there who were out for a moonlight cruise with their honeys and some beer. Long story short, they threw the canoe up on the bass boat, cracked me a beer and gave me a quick and much appreciated ride back to the car.

Tipi Walter
01-09-2009, 13:27
I’ve never been lost overnight, but I was once stranded for two days.

Being stranded is a subcategory of being lost, I guess. It could occur due to high water or winter snows. During the Blizzard of '93 I was stranded in my NC tipi for 4 days, until I cut path thru 3 feet of snow off the mountain to the closest road and hitched into town. I had a woodstove so everything was good, no electricity to fail or water pipes to burst.

I spent 5 days stuck in a blizzard once back in '03 at 5,270 feet on an open bald in December. Partly by choice, partly by circumstance. The best thing to do then is to sit tight and have a book on Robert Scott's final South Pole trek where he and others endured -70 below degree temps before setting up a final camp and checking out. Makes any winter trip pale in comparison.

Six-Six
01-09-2009, 13:35
My little story -
I was about 13 - the family was vacationing at a dude ranch outside Yellowstone. Campers nearby were going to hike back to a trout stream for the day. I asked to tag along.
We found the stream, fished most of the day, and it was getting time to leave.
One of the adults had gone upstream of me and came back down to say it was time to go. I of course wanted to stay "just a little longer" so he said to join up with the others downstream when I was done.
Well, when I looked back up he was long gone and so I started walking downstream. I walked and walked to where I thought I must have past the meeting point. They must have left without me. So, I dropped my lose gear and headed up the hill (steepest part of course). I could see the main highway through two ridge lines. So, at the very least I knew which general direction to go, but it was getting late in the afternoon and I had no camping gear.
I continued down the other side of the hill, came across a logging road, rounded the bend and there they were. They had found my gear at the streamside after looking for me and figured I had left without them.
Anyway...Got back to camp safe and sound.
The next day, there was a story of a teenage boy who got lost at Yellowstone and died after falling off the edge of a cliff in the dark, the same day I had gotten separated.
Lots of errors made, lots of lessons learned.

Just Jack
01-09-2009, 15:15
Overnight???---Hell--I've been lost all my life!!!

Tipi Walter
01-09-2009, 16:39
Overnight???---Hell--I've been lost all my life!!!

This brings up an important point. Fireants hurtlng thru space on a blue-green orb.

buckwheat
01-09-2009, 16:42
I never build a fire, or rarely ...

That's not really the point, though is it?

I would be willing to bet that you always have the ability and tools to make a fire though, right? If you find you need one?