CalNewbie

My quip to Rogue was an attempt at a bit of facetiousness. Not to be taken seriously. I understand that there' s a big difference between his situation and the one faced by the hunter in San Diego.

So far I' ve heard little more than varying accounts of how he started the fire. Signal fire vs. signal flare. I don' t know if it was a flare, and if so, was it something shot into the air. It seems almost impossible to believe that someone would do the latter out here. They do cover the signal fire option in hunter safety, but anyone familiar with our fire season also knows the extreme fire danger we face this time each year. Last year major sections of forest were closed during hunting season because of that risk.

So far I haven' t heard of this hunter facing charges. I' ll take that to be an indicator that they haven' t found his actions to be reckless, and that this was accidental. Still, we can learn from it. Whistles, compasses, radios, maps, etc. are good things to take with. Establish a roundevous point, make certain everyone knows where they are and what to do if seperated and lost. Bring extra water, food, emergency blanket, etc. in case the worst happens. Just like EKM had his compass, water, rain gear, etc.

ELKampMaster

Cal,

Whoops! I didn' t pick up on the facetious part --- thought you were dead serious as you have some major fire threat going on down in your area --- my mistake.

EKM

Wolf killer

Yep I have been lost. I got lost one time after I shot my first bull elk. I was only about a mile away from the main road. There was no actual way I could have ever stayed lost. I just could not think straight after I shot my bull. I got so excited I could not tell you which way was up.

Jorgy

I' ve been turned around quite a few times while hunting. More than a few times while doing little pushed through swamps in Wisconsin I' ve come out of the swamp with in yards or where I entered, I really hate when that happens.

I' ve also almost lost a little 4x4 elk I shot about 2 miles from the road. I shot it about an hour before dark, quartered it, hung it up and hiked back out in the dark. That night we got about a foot of snow and everything sure did look different the next day. Took me half the day to find it again, I kept going down the wrong drainage.

Nomercy

I' ve never been in a predicament that I couldn' t walk 10miles or less and find my way back to anything by the roads, but sometimes finding your way back to a certain point in the woods directly is difficult. You make a LOT of subtle little turns when you manouver around trees, brush, creeks, etc. and you might think you turn right back straight, but make 60 turns around trees and miscorrect by 2-3 degrees each time and you' re haeded directly back the wrong way.

All I can say is know your stars, radio towers, airports, light pollution, and topography, and check your position relative to your camp constantly (i.e. my camp is this far directly that way from here, even though I came this way this far, and this way that far to get here).

Outdoors4life

Experience is the best teacher and getting lost is something that I would rather learn from than find out when I' m cold and wet. Just want to put in a note with the compass thing: make sure you know how to use a compass! I use a compass very often as I am a surveyor, but I hunt with some guys that still don' t know how to get out of the woods even if they have a compass. Few years ago some of my hunting crew headed into the woods on a bobcat hunt behind some hounds and got way into the middle of a huge section of timber, swamps, and creeks. I sent 2 or 3 of my own compasses in with them, and they still couldn' t find their way out. Luckily they had 2 way radios so they could tell us out on the trail to fire guns so they could find their directions. But, 4 guys and 3 compasses and they still couldn' t stay together to get out--needless to say I shot a lot of rifle shells after dark to get them out. But, they made it.

121553

Scarey sometimes EKM, been there and done it, navagateing through the mountains can be tough, if you take a compass heading in a certain direction sometime you can' t always come back in the opposite direction because of rock faces and revens that weren' t there before and they never run straight, but when I go into the bush I have three maps in my back pack of the area and if need be, I can spend the night during a harsh winter night .
I have always known where I was, but I just couldn' t get back where I wanted. Bobby

iloveto4x4innc

For me it depends on the terrain. I can spend a week in the Rockies without a compass and never get lost, yet I can walk 300 yards into the swamps around here and not be able to find my way back to the truck with a compass. On our last trip into the swamp, all 4 of us had compasses and 2 had GPSs. One of the guys with a GPS got a little too deep into the swamp and soaked his compass so that it wouldn' t work. He forgot that he had a GPS in his pack and wandered around in there for 2 hours before he remembered his GPS and found his way out. Just goes to show that even if you have the equipment if you don' t use it or know how to use it, you can get really turned around. By the way, I came out of the swamp less than 50 yards from where I went in using just a compass. After being lost in there once, I make sure I keep a close eye on my compass.

Invented

once in the snow I got turned around, found my way back but everything looked different blanketed in white

Tim Buma

Lost No. Geographically embarassed Yes.
Did get lost in a big city once. Amsterdam, where every damn street looks like the one before. I just couldn' t remember where I' d left my pushbike.