Any of you ever been lost (temporarily confused) that you are willing to admit??
I' ll go first....

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I Can' t Believe It -- Lost!

This year we utilized a “spike” camp in addition to our main camp. My wife and I went back in about four miles and set it up three days before the season started -- bulls were bugling all around us. The trail in follows the contour line of a ridge for two miles and for the most part the trail is easy to follow, but the rule is don’t “drift” high or you might drop up and over into another drainage and don’t drift too low or you may give up a ton of elevation that you will have to gain back in a bushwack. Fine, been there before and we went in and out without a problem.

As the camp ramrod, I now had an additional responsibility: taking some of my group into the spike camp the afternoon before the season and then taking the others in early, early the opening morning of the season and then getting everyone “placed” according to what the scouting and past experience has shown to be effective.

On that afternoon before the season, I headed out with three of us on horseback, myself, my brother in law, and his friend. The friend had once been a horseman but it had been years and years since he had ridden and arthritis or something was lighting every bulb in his tree, he felt he could “take” the four mile ride but was going to want off of that horse when we got there. A small cold front was forecast to move in “a skiff of snow or rain at the 10,000 foot level” – no problem – spike camp has a small heater and they should be fine. Good thing we are on horseback and it shouldn’t take too long to get them in and then ride back out. The aspens which were so beautiful when we first arrived were massively shedding their leaves – by opening morning they should be pretty much naked – good, you can see into the forest better that way.

Part way in one could see the first wave of precipitation moving towards us in a grey but thin wall, it would pass but would likely be followed by another in “fall showers” style. I calculated the “closure rate” and could tell it would hit before we got to spike camp. I had recalled what BJ had said about wide brim hats and rain so I had taken my Stetson that hadn’t seen use in 20 years. Fortunately it fit good and tight and I pulled it down tighter over my eye brow line as the wind picked up. I stopped and had them get off their horses to put on their rain gear – may as well get it done while we are still dry and its not raining. Now the first problem hit, the one fellow couldn’t get off of his horse! I had him do a slow motion “fall” to the left and I caught him – once on the ground he was okay, but he was hating life on that horse. Everyone got “geared up” and I helped lift him back into the saddle and we were off.

Rain dripping off of the brim of my hat (thanks BJ), wind picking up, visibility dropping, afternoon light fading just a wee bit – still plenty of time for a quick in and out. Tricky part of the trail coming up and I reached into my pocket for my GPS – now the pocket was clear full of good stuff but my GPS wasn’t one of the items in it, I did have my compass though in case needed. I know the trail, I was just here 3 days ago, so we pressed on. The trail in is little more than a heavy duty cow path. Hmm, interesting how the aspen leaves are blanketing everything…. [Do you see a “chain of events” occurring here?]

Twenty minutes later we found ourselves in a bushwack (I’m sure we will intersect the trail right up here a little ways....). We also found ourselves in the midst of a massive herd of elk in full rut, multiple bugles, roars, screams, and mews. We stopped and watched and listened to them for a bit and let them melt back into the trees as they slowly caught on to our presence as we didn’t want to “blow them out of there”. It was all very exciting and my brother in law wanted to spend the night " right there" and attack at first light. Just to be prudent, before we started up I pulled out my compass for a quick cross check….

Hot flash! Disbelief! All mixed with a tingle of fear and a sinking feeling in my stomach! Rain was now starting to turn into snow. The compass read 100 degrees off of what I thought was for sure due south! And just for dramatic effect, mother nature unleashed a thunderbolt about a mile away (fortunately the only one). This can’t be – I’m on my home turf; I know this area! Could the compass be wrong? I then remembered one line from my hunter education course (which was very entertaining but only provided a few tidbits of wisdom – this was one of them), and that is.... “If you are lost then the first step to remedying it is admitting you are lost.” “Boys, I hate to say it but this compass just gave me some real bad news, at best we are off course and at worst we’re flat out lost.” “You stay right here and I’m going to ride up to the top of this knob and see if I can get re-oriented.” I was surprised how casual they were --- I took a compass bearing toward the hilltop and rode through the timber up the hill. Landmarks were limited and nothing looked right, I took my best guess noted it and headed back. They were right were I left them. As I approached them, I saw two riders moving through the trees at 200 yards or so, apparently they had been “scouting” the same herd of elk. Salvation! Needless to say they quickly had company.

These boys were from Missouri, had been coming here for 27 years and found my predicament highly amusing. They offered the damnedest directions on how to get to where we wanted to go but could never " anchor" me as to where I was right now so I switched strategies. “So you boys heading back to camp?” Yep. “Where is it?” “At the ' so and so' trailhead!” (the SAME place we started out from). " How about we just follow you back to camp? They had a good laugh with that one --sure lets go! One hour later we were back at the road thanked them and headed back to our main camp.

My one fellow had held on with gritted teeth for the whole trip out. " Let’s get you off of that horse." He agreed. He slid off and I caught him. He could hardly stand. I guarded my jaw because after putting him through hell and pain I anticipated he just might take a swing at me to even things up. I apologized for the mess. “Aw, hell that is just part of the game!!" I was floored – this was one tough (and forgiving) man! It was a mile and a half to camp. He wasn’t going to ride and even if we rode ahead and brought a car back to him he was going to walk it. The one fellow rode ahead. Myself, I got off my horse and walked the mile and a half with him – if you’re that tough I’ll share it with you, we can discuss how we are going to make this elk hunting thing work for you. By the end of the trip I was pushing to keep abreast of him.

My camp was now full of people. The 1:00am “get up” time for the opening day was now just five hours away. I didn' t try to hide anything from anyone and explained to them all what just happened and how I was going to turn right around and lead them right back in there (in the dark) early the next morning. Now I had to recover from what had just been an emotional roller coaster and a physical drain. I also had to re-plan the logistics of the coming day (and grab the #@@$% GPS). Hmm, seems like I’m going to be starting the opening day with a bit of sleep deprivation -- got people counting on me – not going to let them down –- this no time to whimp out -- time to cowboy up!

I learned about hunting from that! Now that I know it CAN happen to me I’m thinking the “chain of events” that led to it won’t sneak up on me” quite so easily next time. Next day went fine, led everyone right in, got them " on stand" , and we had three elk down, quartered (Alaskan method) and bagged and hanging in the trees by sundown. We took another elk the following day after five of us spent the night in a spike camp designed for a bit less than five hunters. But that is a whole ' nother story......

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BJ makes a good point in a nearby thread that the " gadgets" weaken your senses. He is right. In the following days when packing out meat trip after trip we took turns at " tackling" that trail with the leader using no GPS and the follower cross checking his choices!

SOOOOOO.....

Any of you ever been lost (temporarily confused) that you are willing to admit and share??

Never Go Undergunned (and that includes GPS too!),
EKM

Good story EKM, the hardnose' s who won' t admit they are wrong are the one' s they find in the spring. As lewis and clark said they' d never been lost , but they were disoriented for about 30 day' s one time. I have a poor sense of direction so I' m constantly checking to make sure I' m still on course and still I get turned around, but, I' ve alway' s made it back to the truck, good hunting

I have been turned around lots of times but truly lost only once.

We were hunting elk in eastern Oregon on a November hunt, as we drove to the top of the ridge there were fresh tracks heading into the canyon. With some where between 12 to 14 inches of snow on the ground and a gentle snow falling it was easy to tell they were just there.

I was 14 years old at the time and it took some convincing but dad finally let me take in after them. So I bailed for the canyon hot on the trail of what i thought were probably 15 elk. With that many tracks there had to be a bull in the bunch.

I spent the next two hours looking down and forward never thinking to look back. Well I finally caught up to them and there were 18 cows not a bull in the bunch. I sat down to eat a granola bar and drink some water, thats when the fog rolled in.
When i say fog i mean i couldn' t see much more than 15 feet in front of you.

This is when i started to get really worried considering it had been snowing the whole time and i figured if i tried to backtrack the tracks would be filled in by now.

At this point i figure that im lost but there is no way i' m gonna freeze to death so I found one of those pitch stumps, the kind that were logged in the early 1900' s, the stump was close to 8 feet tall. Well i set it ablaze and soon had bare ground in close to 12 feet around that stump.

I still rember that fire you know the kind where when your looking at it your front side is almost too hot to stand while your back side still has ice forming on it.

Any way about an hour and a half after i started that fire dad walked up stood there for a while warming himself and finally said " ya ready to head for the truck?" . I followed dad to the truck never to this day telling him i had no idea where i was at, although i have a feeling he knew.

I never thought to think that he knew where those elk were heading I was full of energy and couldnt contain myself. Dad on the other hand drove around the ridge walked into the canyon and had all those cows single file right in front of him, then he backtracked to where i was at. Boy was I glad for that.

I pay alot more attention to where i am at and where i am going, I carry a topo map of the area that im hunting and a compass, I purchased a gps last year but havent gotten a chance to use it much yet.

Good luck and stay safe

From a news site, regarding the recent Southern California wildfires:

All of the deaths happened since Saturday. Nine people were killed by the Cedar fire in San Diego County, which is the state’s largest blaze, at about 100,000 acres. About 260 homes, ranging from modest to expensive, were destroyed.
The victims included two people who died in their car as they apparently tried to escape.
Among others killed were a person whose body was found in a motor home and three more who were found in other vehicles, county sheriff’s spokeswoman Susan Knauss said. Three others were killed while trying to escape on foot, and two more were dead on arrival at hospitals.
The fire was ignited Saturday near the mountain town of Julian when a lost hunter set off a signal fire, authorities said. The hunter was detained and may face charges.

Thank God this didn' t happen to you Rogue!

I' ve been lost and not afraid to admit it. In fact I hope others can learn from my mistake. I know I learned a lesson or two.

I' ll try and make this short:
Solo hunt. Five miles from the nearest road. First week of November. Deer hunting out of a two man tent. Woke up to a foot and half of snow(a little much and unexpected for that time of year). Tent nearly caved in from the weight of the snow. But I figured great day to get out and track some deer.

Paddled over to an adjacent shoreline. Plugged in my location with my GPS, and figured all I would have to do when I was ready to get back to the canoe was follow the GPS. A foot and a half of heavy snow is tiring to walk through, but I had a fresh set of tracks to follow and kept going. I was spent. Time to head back to camp. Turn on GPS, wait for it to " find" me, use the GOTO button, enter canoe. Follow arrow. Arrow points in direction I' m to go. I walk in the direction it had indicated, walked for about fifteen minutes and checked my progress. GPS pointed in a different direction, so I went in that direction. Fifteen minutes later I noticed I had walked in a big circle. Tried again. Same results. Second big circle. Kinda scary walking into your own tracks for a second time. So this time I turned the unit on and left it on, and followed the indicated direction. I walked about five minutes and looked down, the arrow pointed in the opposite way I had just been walking. What the f**k was going on? I had already finished all my juice, was sweating like crazy, and was tired. I began to panic. What to do? Follow my footprints back and walk in reverse circle for the next two hours try and unravel which tracks were which?

I got lucky. At some point in time I remembered I had a compass in my first aid kit, at the bottom of my back pack(just in case). I knew which way the shore was, show me which way west is and I' m home free. Fifteen minutes later I was back in the canoe.

What happened? I wasn' t as familiar with how to use a GPS as I should have been, and put too much faith in its abilities. For one most GPS units don' t have a magnetic compass, so they cannot tell you which way is north when you are standing still. There is a screen(at least on the Magellans) that show the sun and/or the moon in relation to where you are standing and you must orient yourself to them. I was not aware of this, and as it was it was an overcast day and the sun couldn' t be seen anyways. Two: If you start walking it WILL show you the direction you are travelling and you can then make adjustments to your route according to where it is you want to go. I wasn' t aware of this either. Three: A GPS relies on satellites, batteries, and an unobstructed view(don' t work well in heavy forest). Batteries die. Satellites are not for the general public, so the military can make adjustments whenever they want and the GPS unit in your hand may become useless. Four: A compass is cheap($10), and works in the sun, rain, snow, forest, uses no batteries. Take one or two with you, they can save your life.

I don' t know what would have happened had I not had the compass with me. At the very least I would have wound up spending the night in sweat soaked clothes. As it was I decided to pack it in that day, but the snow was too deep and couldn' t drive out from where I had parked. So had to leave the truck, walk another half mile through the snow to flag someone down to get a ride to the closest motel so I could warm up, dry off and get some sleep. Good news, the power was out! All I wanted was a hot shower! Nope. No heat. No light save for a candle.

In my second year of hunting last year, I got spun around twice in one day. Neither time was I very lost because I could either completely backtrack or walk a huge distance to a distant lake.

The first time I was supposed to head out to a last watch position. Through a couple of small errors I ended up off course and unfamiliar with my surroundings. In the distance I could see a lake that I knew but I couldn' t figure out how to get to where I wanted to go. Our FRS radios were out of range so it was up to me and my compass. I headed due east and came out 100 metres from the trucks when I was supposed to be 1 km northwest!

Later that afternoon, my buddy wanted to help me out and boost my spirits. All I had to do was walk around a large hill and meet up at a waterfall. " When the hill starts to fade right, follow it," he said. So I head off and sure enough when the hill starts to fade, I keep going. I end up in a spot I couldn' t see on my maps. At least this time the FRS worked and after some serious thinking it turns out I was only one hill over about 1/4 mile away from my intended destination.

I walked over and did I ever take a beating from my friends. They asked me if I was capable of following the four-wheeler trail back to the trucks and pick up a watch position. Not only was I able I also bagged a beautiful 10 pointer only 100 yards from the trucks to give a great end to a truly miserable day! [:-]

Don' t feel too bad. I have a lousy sense of direction and before GPS got lost fairly often but managed with a compass to eventually get out. Can' t understand starting fires in drought times. Same caused our rodeo fire last year but at least that was a city woman. Panic is a weird thing and hope that real hunters have more guts than to start a blaze in warm weather when ther are so many roads in southern cal that would eventually get you out. Hope those types don' t dream of hunts in Montana, Idaho etc. cause I been lost there and that is big country. Glad you ended up with a good elk season.

I' m reasonably sure that the california hunter ed course teaches that when you are lost build a small fire for comfort and the smoke will be a signal, so if that is the case then we can' t blame this person, I was sitting on my porch watching the fire' s and thinking that if the hunter was on the wrong side of his fire he may have been killed also,

I' m thinking Rogue' s very very low odds of starting a forest fire were entirely within the bounds of reasonable.... maybe not preferrable versus prevention, however, that opportunity (prevention) is already gone once you realize you are lost. Rogue did what it took to prevail. I' ll keep the " burning stump" technique in mind for less than happy circumstances.

Good Job,

EKM

got lost my senior year in highschool,stayed lost for two days,in a swamp in central Fla.we finally walked out the late evening of the second day.that is not real fun.there was three of us.they had three planes and two choppers,along with estemated 400 searchers. that was in Nov.1964.I learned a lot about watching the woods.we were the talk of the town for mo' s.that was not to much fun either.

have been turned around for a few min. but not lost again.I always watch the woods and the lay of the land.