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Arrow in trail tells a story.

On my last hike, this arrow was in the middle of the trail. Impossible to miss. Well done.

People got separated. Someone fell behind.

Karen and I have whistles built into our daypack chest straps. We agreed on a signal: three long whistles followed by a pause. Listen. Whistle again. Don't stop until you get an answer.

Last summer, we descended steeply down different gullies toward the car. Bushwhacking, we lost sight of each other. Thought I was too far south. Stopped and whistled. Silence. Again.

Karen's dog, Bonnie, heard my whistling before Karen did. Bonnie led Karen to me.

It's important to stick together in case someone gets hurt.

LiterateHiker 9 Aug 30
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7 comments

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1

I live in extremely dense woods my kids always carried emergency whistles whenever they left the house .my youngest got turned around hiking the creek that had done a bit of re routing after a storm once for about 4 hours, but he kept his witt's and found his way back before I had to go after him with the dog.

1

So safety conscious,so very wise also

@RoyMillar

Thank you.

2

I always to keep our groups in sight of each other. Living in the woods I have found that it is very easy to get turned around and lose where you are. There have been several hikers that seem like they are in a competition to get to the destination first for bragging rights and are willing to leave others behind. needless to say they don't get re-invited to hike with us

1

Great idea

1

Pretty neat. 🙂

1

You're so right. People get separated. People go out in the woods to explore so it's not surprising they occasionally get lost.
It says something about you that you thought of the whistles and that you pay enough attention to your situations to use them.

All the way back in the 70s the rangers at the Grand Canyon told me a story about a lady who got separated from her group and ran out of water but managed to survive.

According to the story, she picked up a beer bottle from the trail and she also found a seap(sort of a spring). She discovered that if she put the beer bottle under the seap overnight it would fill with water.
She walked every direction she could on a beer bottle's worth of water still making it back to the seap.
It was almost two weeks before they found her.

The rangers said she was in too far. She would have died if she'd tried to walk out on her own. But she was smart enough to stay with the the water and wait to be rescued.
I doubt I'd have been able to do it. I'd have tried to walk out and died.

@RichCC

You are right. If lost, don't wander. Stay by a water source.

We were bushwhacking. I vastly prefer a trail.

@LiterateHiker I just say 'exploring'(boring I know, but that's the way I am. Lol)

When I was a kid in high school I belonged to a local volunteer search and rescue group (they called it a 'Rock Group' ). We did things like one time I took my father's suburban out to pick up a bunch of German tourists whose bus driver foolishly thought he could try a dirt road he saw on a map.
Ha, ha.

The closest I personally came to finding someone was a couple of California hikers on a very difficult trail on the North Rim called Thunder River (locals often use horses).
I didn't see them and they died but we did find several notes they left. They knew they were in trouble and were trying to reach some water they could see. But they had no chance -- it was 500 ft below them in a canyon.
If they'd stopped anywhere we would have rescued them but they stayed lost and were found too late.

There's a rule I heard somewhere -- NOBODY PLANS AN ACCIDENT. All you can do is be as prepared as you can be and know and use what resources you have when it comes. (We're spoiled -- these days that usually includes Emergency Services).

1

I always wondered if you carried a signaling device.

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