Being Lost

It can and does happen, even to experienced outdoorsmen.  You mistake a game trail for a poorly marked trail, or you miss a few blazes, and before you’ve even realized it, you’re no longer where you expected to be.  It’s because you don’t realize right away that you don’t know quite where you are or where you’re going that it becomes a problem: otherwise, you’d simply be able to turn around and step right back on the trail.  Fortunately, once you realize that you don’t know where you are, there are some simple steps that you can take to help yourself find a way out, or help others find you.

1. As The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy boldly proclaims upon its cover in big, reassuring letters, don’t panic.  Panic overrides your higher reasoning cortex in favor of your baser instincts, and in so doing, you end up sabotaging your own ability to survive in these sorts of situations.  When you realize that you’ve temporarily misplaced the rest of the world, you need to stop, take a deep breath, and start thinking.
2. At this point, you’ve stopped moving.  Hopefully, you’ve found a nice spot in the shade to sit down and take a moment to collect yourself.  Now, it’s time to take stock of your situation.
   1. Status: how are you doing?  When was the last time you had something to drink?  To eat?  How long have you been doing whatever it is you’ve been doing (hiking, canoeing, etc)?  Are you tired?  Cold?  Warm?  Hungry?  What is your environment like?  Is it too hot?  Too cold?  Is there inclement weather approaching?  Will it get very cold at night?  Are there other environmental hazards or benefits?
   2. Inventory: what resources do you have?  Everything you have with you is a potential resource, even if you can’t imagine how you’d use it.  Don’t forget to include your most valuable and powerful resource: yourself.
   3. Remember: remember what you know about the area, and whatever you can about the period leading up the realization that you temporarily mislaid the rest of the world.  What geographical features do you remember seeing?  If you have a map, try to get a rough idea of what your position might be based on the surrounding features.  Even if you don’t, you might be able to identify a major landmark in the area.  When was the last time you saw another person?  Have you seen signs of water, or animal life?
   4. Plan: Now that you’ve done all of this thinking, you can start to make a plan.  First of all, don’t worry about food and water.  Chances are you’ll be able to find your way back to some kind of civilization in a day or so, so you won’t die of starvation, and you won’t even die of dehydration (although you might become uncomfortably thirsty, depending on the climate).  We can start worrying about those things if we still haven’t found the rest of the world after a day.  Take into account all of the thinking you just did, and determine an optimal course of action.
3. Okay, now you get to start moving again.  Whenever you move, you’re going to want to leave some kind of sign indicating your direction of travel.  From wherever you are, I want you to move down from there, because down is the path of least resistance.  All animals, including humans, will naturally trend towards the lowest point, just like water.  Search and rescue efforts will start by looking in low lying areas, especially areas with water, because this is where people who are lost tend to gravitate, even if they don’t have any training on what to do.  Civilizations also tend to clump around waterways, so if you can find a stream or river of some sort, and follow it, chances are that you’ll eventually find your way out on your own.  At worst, you’ve saved yourself some energy, found a ready source of food and water, and made your continued progress easier.
4. If night comes and you haven’t found your way out of your situation yet, stop.  Moving at night will only confuse the matter further.  Build yourself some kind of basic shelter, light a fire if you can (this will attract humans and repel animals), and settle in for a good night’s sleep, if you can get it  When morning comes, you can resume your journey.
5. That’s pretty much how it will go until you find some evidence of civilization, or it finds you.  If you’re out for a long time, you might have to get water (purify if you can, but don’t refuse to drink if you can’t, unless the water is obviously contaminated).  It’s unlikely that you’ll be out long enough to need to worry about finding food, but if you do, passive methods are best (snares, traps, fishing, foraging: I’ll discuss how to gather food in a survival situation in a future post).
6. Once you find the rest of the world again, savor a big glass of cold water, have a big meal, and start embellishing your story to make it more exciting when you tell people about your grand adventures in the wilderness.

This is an exceedingly basic outline of what to do in the event that you’re ever lost.  If you’re an experienced outdoorsman, then you’ll know more subtleties, be better prepared, and will be able to tailor your approach accordingly.  However, this is an excellent place to start, and even someone with minimal training or experience can follow these steps to take care of themselves in the event that something like this occurs.  Even more importantly, if your family or friends back home know that you intend to follow a plan like this one, they can communicate that to search and rescue agents, who will be able to use it to inform their search efforts and find you that much faster.  We all hope that these situations will never happen, but if they do, have a basic understanding of what to do and how to think can make all the difference.