Lost

[Mother Natures Son]

Recently we went on a hike with some friends on the trail. Our "all-knowing"leader took us on a new side trail north of Duncannon, PA. We had to see this, a breath taking view of the river. Well, we got to the side route and it turned out to be a Deer trail. No matter, it promised to have great views. One trail lead to another and soon we were not only lost but off the map and no one knew where we where. What should've been a simple four mile hike turned into a ten mile hike. We got back to the car at sunset. Has anyone got this lost before?

[jjozgrunt]

When I was in the army we went to the jungle training centre in Canungra. For the exercise they decided to use an area that had not been used for over 40 years, there was a reason! This is pre gps time.

So after day 2 till the exercise was over, no one knew where we were including the DS and enemy. Nothing gelled with the map and compass, things seemed to run in the opposite direction to the way they should have, it was a blessing to get out. Later a memo was found detailing the fact there was a hill of almost pure magnetic rock in that area and no matter where you were your compass always pointed to it. Lost for 16 days we were.

Only time I can honestly say that I was geographically embarrassed (lost).

[nsherry61]

. . . Has anyone got this lost before?

Every chance I get. I love exploring new, off-map areas. You never know what you might run into as far as unexpected "route alternatives".

[nsherry61]

For what it's worth, my family hates it when I do this type of thing. I don't understand why someone would not want to explore an interesting off-trail area just because there is not trail or map.

[winger]

No compass I presume?

[Praha4]

did your 'all knowing' leader treat all of you to dinner to make up for it?

yes been lost off the trail before, and it's aggravating
usually I always turn around and look the opposite way for blazes on the AT ... if I think I got off the trail

but those 'side trails' can end up being a rabbit hole

glad you all got back safely

[tscoffey]

Your training did not include using the stars for direction finding? Would have been fairly easy to determine which way was north.

[Bronk]

One time I was hiking in Allegheny National Forest near a place called Jake's Rocks...its basically a bunch of giant rock formations on top of a mountain. I stepped off the trail to explore and climb on some of the rocks, each time seeing another group of rocks further away...after an hour of hopping from group to group I realized I hadn't kept track of where I was going and didn't know which direction it was back to the trail. But I was on top of a mountain and could see the reservoir below where I was camped. So I stumbled upon a spring and reasoned that if I followed the water it would lead to the lake. As I went down the mountain my spring merged with several others and eventually turned into a creek...by the time I got to the bottom it was a cascading waterfall. It flowed out to a dirt parking lot near where I was camped. Only problem being I had driven to the top of the mountain and then had to roadwalk back to my car. Sometimes its fun to get lost off the beaten path...especially when you have a good idea where you are and that you're going to make it back.

[Tipi Walter]

A guy named Mike Gourley got lost in the GSMNP on a dayhike and here's his interesting story---

http://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profil...-and-misplaced

I wrote a review on one of my backpacking trips---
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=520518

There's getting lost with a day pack and getting lost with a full trip pack on your back. Getting lost usually results in significant bushwacking and doing so with a 60 lb pack is a whole different beast than stumbling around lost with a daypack.

I got lost once in Pisgah NF back in 1984 and of course panicked and did super-human things like hit a river and swim across with my big pack and literally ran up a thousand foot mountain on the other side of the river gorge and sat exhausted on the top in a quandary. Panic produces tremendous energy and stupidity.

[illabelle]

A guy named Mike Gourley got lost in the GSMNP on a dayhike and here's his interesting story---

http://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profil...-and-misplaced

I wrote a review on one of my backpacking trips---
http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=520518

There's getting lost with a day pack and getting lost with a full trip pack on your back. Getting lost usually results in significant bushwacking and doing so with a 60 lb pack is a whole different beast than stumbling around lost with a daypack.

I got lost once in Pisgah NF back in 1984 and of course panicked and did super-human things like hit a river and swim across with my big pack and literally run up a thousand foot mountain on the other side of the river gorge and sat exhausted on the top in a quandary. Panic produces tremendous energy and stupidity.

I've met Mike Gourley. That story is pretty serious in person as well! If I remember right, he got lost in February. Not a good time to try and survive outdoors without equipment. Mike does a lot of off-trail exploration in the Smokies, going to old homesites, cemeteries, logging operations, etc - with a GPS of course. He took us exploring inside the southwest border of the Park, around Maynard Creek, where my son-in-law's great-great-great-grandfather once lived. Very cool trip!

[TNhiker]

Two years ago, in the snowbird somewhat wilderness area----I got lost on the upper part of snowbird creek trail near Mitchell lick...

lost enough that I spent an extra night out and missed a day of work.....and my work called various sheriffs departments looking for my car (of course they didn't find it because I didn't let anyone know where I was going)....

i had food---I had water---I had tent and gear...

sadly I didn't have any spare reading material as I had already read what I had...

i also had map and compass but in the area I was in---there were many unmapped dirt roads and it was confusing the hell outta me....

i knew I was going in wrong direction but couldn't figure it out and once daylight ran out---I set up tent...

next morning---i figured roughly where I was at and made the trip out...

Got to my car and my phone had a ton of messages from people trying to figure out where I was at...


I still haven't been back to the "scene of the crime" to sort out where the "real" trail I was looking for is at....

[Malto]

I know this area pretty well. How exactly did you get lost on a ridgetop where the AT runs the length of the ridge?

as to your question.... I have had the trail get lost many times. The furthest off the path was in Harriman where I learned that a white blaze with a red dot looks an awful lot like a white blaze when hiking at night and not understanding the local trail marking. After sunrise and the realization that the AT is rarely a bushwhack, I figured out I was on another trail, no big deal, I ended up doing a nice long loop instead of an out and back.

[Tipi Walter]

Everyone should study the plight of Geraldine Largay---

THE SAGA OF GERALDINE LARGAY
** 66 year old retired Air Force nurse from Tennessee.
** Disappeared on the AT in western Maine on July 23, 2013.
** Body not found until October 2015. Wow.
** Authorities think she went off trail for a bathroom break and couldn't get back to the trail. Is this even possible? I mean, I leave my pack and go 10 feet off the trail with my pack still visible.

** Texted her husband several times to no avail.
** Last phone attempt was August 6, 2013.
** Last journal entry was August 18.
** Survived at least 26 days.
** Set up a final camp on a knoll (ironically on land owned by US Navy and used as a SERE training center).
** Dwindling food supply---clif bars, tuna fish, gatorade powder.

** She died 10 minute walk from a dirt trail that becomes a road.
** Maine Ranger Deb Palman said, "This is some of the worst country in Maine. It's hard to understand how logistically difficult this area was on any given day, by the time a searcher would get close to where Largay was found, they'd have to turn around to make it back to their vehicles by nightfall."
** What!!?? Can rescues never happen at night? Can a searcher not bring a pack and camp out for a week? Very odd.
** Apparently she was hiking the AT north as a modified slackpack due to a back injury requiring her husband to meet her along the way with supplies.
** Her last camp was "only" 2 miles from the AT but 2 miles off trail on a bushwack might as well be 50.
** Took medication for anxiety attacks.

More info here---
https://www.google.com/#q=largay+remains

[Leo L.]

Great stories!
Our country is too small to really get lost, I think. We hardly can walk more than 2-3hrs straight without meeting civilisation.

It happened to me and a friend once that we, having started late, didn't find the shelter and had to bivouac in a snow storm for the night.
This teached me to always start early to have lots of time to correct errors, and to have a headlamp in the pack.

[Hikingjim]

Only time I got seriously lost:
I took the chairlift up to the top of a mountain in British Columbia with my sister & her baby. I noticed there were some backcountry trails up there (in addition to the short groomed trails), so I decided to go for a little hike.
The trail ended up being poorly marked and I went further than I should have. I only realized I was lost when I started coming back down and found myself on the wrong side of the mountain with no reasonable way to go the direction I wanted to travel to get back.
I tried several options and there were a lot of cliffs, crevices and serious bush blocking the way. I ending up doing a good chunk of bushwhacking and then following a stream for a good distance. I hit a waterfall that was probably about 80 ft high and had to scale it on an intense angle and hold on to whatever I could
But eventually I got back. Bloodied from the bushwhacking and with a new appreciation of how easy it is to get lost when you're outdoors and not in "this is a serious hike" mode

[Slosteppin]

I have never been lost, there have been a few times I lost the trail and a few times I went straight when the trail turned (actually several of each in the last 40 years).
Our first backpacking trip my son and I lost the trail for three days. We were hiking in northern Michigan on what later became part of the North Country Trail. The trail had fallen over the cliff and into Lake Superior. We were not lost. We knew the lake was north of us and we wanted to go east. We bushwhacked and sometimes followed old logging roads. Each morning and afternoon we would go north until we were above the lake. Late the third day we found remnants of the trail we could follow again.
Getting lost on a day hike is generally more serious because you would not have much food or equipment.

[RangerZ]

Never lost - temporarily misoriented at times

Like some else says - I know where I am, I'm right here.

[rocketsocks]

I long for the day I become lost again, in true panic mode, only then will one truly know themselve. The last time it happened me mum was only a couple isles away...a true adventure full of all kinds of mind endinding nasties, albeit short lived. Yup, can't wait!

[rocketsocks]

Great stories!
Our country is too small to really get lost, I think. We hardly can walk more than 2-3hrs straight without meeting civilisation.

It happened to me and a friend once that we, having started late, didn't find the shelter and had to bivouac in a snow storm for the night.
This teached me to always start early to have lots of time to correct errors, and to have a headlamp in the pack.

when you say 'our country' you mean Austria, correct?

[rocketsocks]

Everyone should study the plight of Geraldine Largay---

THE SAGA OF GERALDINE LARGAY
** 66 year old retired Air Force nurse from Tennessee.
** Disappeared on the AT in western Maine on July 23, 2013.
** Body not found until October 2015. Wow.
** Authorities think she went off trail for a bathroom break and couldn't get back to the trail. Is this even possible? I mean, I leave my pack and go 10 feet off the trail with my pack still visible.

** Texted her husband several times to no avail.
** Last phone attempt was August 6, 2013.
** Last journal entry was August 18.
** Survived at least 26 days.
** Set up a final camp on a knoll (ironically on land owned by US Navy and used as a SERE training center).
** Dwindling food supply---clif bars, tuna fish, gatorade powder.

** She died 10 minute walk from a dirt trail that becomes a road.
** Maine Ranger Deb Palman said, "This is some of the worst country in Maine. It's hard to understand how logistically difficult this area was on any given day, by the time a searcher would get close to where Largay was found, they'd have to turn around to make it back to their vehicles by nightfall."
** What!!?? Can rescues never happen at night? Can a searcher not bring a pack and camp out for a week? Very odd.
** Apparently she was hiking the AT north as a modified slackpack due to a back injury requiring her husband to meet her along the way with supplies.
** Her last camp was "only" 2 miles from the AT but 2 miles off trail on a bushwack might as well be 50.
** Took medication for anxiety attacks.

More info here---
https://www.google.com/#q=largay+remains

like
many, this story will forever amaze and at the same time cause tremendous internal confusion to the point of brain crash...it just never made any sense to me whatsoever!