Ever been lost?

[Overland USA]

Have you ever been lost? What did you do to find your way? I realize that many of you have GPS but we weren't always so blessed with technology. I also realize how potentially embarrassing admitting something like this happened but your posts could help someone who later finds themselves lost in the wilderness.

 

[Hafaday]

I'm lost when i wake up in the morning...

Paper maps and a compass, Plus the know how to use them.

 

[Six Actual]

Never lost.. Delayed for a bit while exploring alternate routes (or circling back to our starting point), but never lost. :)

 

[Joey83]

I sometimes manage to get lost while following my GPS..

 

[dblack]

I found an awesome trail system one time. All grass covered decommissioned logging roads that were winding through the hills.

After a few hours I hit a good serviced gravel road that I wasn’t expecting. As near as I knew there weren’t any roads where I thought I was. Lol

I headed east on that road and found an even more well travelled road. Saw a vehicle and asked them where they were. They named some lake I’d never heard of... that didn’t help. [emoji16]

I knew the general directions I needed to go but quite frankly didn’t have a clue where I was for an hour or so of winding through those gravel roads. I can’t say I was overly concerned, but fuel was becoming a factor.

Good times.

For the record I did make it out eventually. I’m not still out there. [emoji846]

 

[Overland USA]

Never lost.. Delayed for a bit while exploring alternate routes (or circling back to our starting point), but never lost. :)

Sounds like my experience in land navigation :)

 

[billum v2.0]

Yes.
Backtracked.
Electronically and, to a lesser degree, map and compass challenged. Pay attention to each "left/right/straight" decision made. Being a visual type, keep track of location of easily discernible landmarks (mountains/unique rock formations/lakes/rivers/Starbucks). With a camera in every smart phone, I've stopped and snapped a quick photo every so often of the opposite direction I'm headed in case backtracking comes into play and there's more than one route out. Coming from backpacking, I don't get overly nervous if temporarily lost in a vehicle. On foot is another story.

 

[dblack]

I lost someone once.

We had a group Camping out west one time for a quadding trip and a friend of my brothers came along. I had never met him before.

We went out Friday morning for some exploring but he didn’t come along. We came back to camp Friday around supper time, ate and were sitting around the fire when someone finally asked where this guy and his wife were...

We waited around until 10pm or so and started to worry. Luckily one of our group was RCMP and knew who to call. He drove out to get service and called search and rescue.

Next morning we hit the trails around 5am with search and rescue coordinating.

Luckily they found their way back to camp on foot about 8am. They had become turned around, no idea where they were then ran out of gas. They spent the night sleeping rough by the river. At night they could see lights across the river as people drove past.

They left their quad by the river and swam across. Someone found them and brought them back to camp.

Took us all bleedin day to find his quad. He’d marked the location on gps but it was an adventure to find it, fill it with gas and bring it home.

 

[000]

Sent from my iPhone using OB Talk

 

[canadianoverlanders]

Humbly.....Lost yes, several times. But It’s never been a big deal, we always have food, water, shelter and fire. It adds to the whole exploration expedition into the unknown thing. With that said, with calm patience and actually paying attention we were able to quickly figure out where we were....pre-gps.
I’m glad we’ve never had the issues others have brought up.....I count us fortunate.
With that said, we have never been lost with a medical emergency or break down, or caught in weather.
These days we do carry a Gen3 Spot and a Sat phone for emergency comms plus it allows the grand kids to call the cool grand parents in the woods.
Generally, I don’t do anything without a plan, then we try to follow our intended plan. If we deviate from our plan, we check maps, locations, fuel to ensure we can do it and not hurt our trip or our chances of completing our trip safely. Our trips are getting further and further away from home, we already live remote, so knowing where we are going is important for us for budgeting fuel, food etc.
No plan survives first contact or trouble, but at least if you have a plan, soft and hard copy maps not just an app on your phone or a hand held gps, plus a working compass you know how to use, you have a decent reference point from which to adlib, and a great chance to unfrig yourself quickly if you stay calm. I like to take a moment to have a cup of coffee and just think and take stock of our situation....no need to panic. Usually it comes together without incident.
PS: all this is assuming you understand we are in an overland vehicle with all our stuff on board.....I’m not talking hiking, canoeing or ATVing.

 

[The other Sean]

Never lost.. Delayed for a bit while exploring alternate routes (or circling back to our starting point), but never lost. :)

Pretty much this. Paying attention to what direction you went in to the woods and Knowing what direction the roads in the area go can be a big help. If you know you went in the woods headed south off a road that goes east and west for 50 miles in each direction, if you get "lost", just go north, you will come out on the road. WHERE on the road is a guess, but it's on the road where you can flag down help.

 

[adventure_is_necessary]

My last trip I was lost. So many of the roads are privately owned and none of them were labeled correctly (because they were private) that I had no idea where I was at on the map. Zero cell signal and I don't have a GPS. I asked locals at a convenience store and they helped me plot out my route, but the roads twist and turn so much that I got turned around rather easily and lost my place on the map. I don't give up easily, but I was forced to find an alternate route as the easiest way was blocked off by road construction, and the quickest way was super difficult to navigate. I think a GPS might be in my future, but I plan on utilizing something like google maps to give me approximate mileage from certain landmarks so I can reset one of the trip odometers.While this might be a little extra work, I rarely need a GPS with my road atlas's and cell phone. I also don't want to spend the money on a GPS as I have yet to see a major need just yet and I'd want to get a good one which equals more $$$.

 

[old_man]

Having grown up in the desert of west Texas, you develop a sense of direction at an early age. I always keep track of which way is north. When I fly, the first thing on the ground is to use my tiny compass to get my bearings. It was a bit frustrating around DC. Big tall trees everywhere and the sun was always behind clouds and out of site. I don't think there is a straight road anywhere and nothing runs North/South/East/West. You have to pay attention.

I am somewhat of a map freak and could spend hours looking at a map. I make a point of looking at a map before heading out and visualizing major landmarks. When I was younger, I solo hiked hundreds of back woods treks here in Colorado, most didn't have any blazed trails and climbed over 30 fourteeners. Never got lost. I have made a few wrong turns and had to bushwack to get back on track a few times. The key is to always watch to make sure the terrain is what you think it should be and make mental notes so you can retrace your steps if necessary.

 

[Kevin108]

From time to time I don't know exactly where I am, but I've never had to stop and consult gadgets or maps or anything. I get lost in looking or at or photographing my surrounding sometimes and have to see which way the water is running to know which direction I came from.

 

[The other Sean]

My last trip I was lost. So many of the roads are privately owned and none of them were labeled correctly (because they were private) that I had no idea where I was at on the map. Zero cell signal and I don't have a GPS. I asked locals at a convenience store and they helped me plot out my route, but the roads twist and turn so much that I got turned around rather easily and lost my place on the map. I don't give up easily, but I was forced to find an alternate route as the easiest way was blocked off by road construction, and the quickest way was super difficult to navigate. I think a GPS might be in my future, but I plan on utilizing something like google maps to give me approximate mileage from certain landmarks so I can reset one of the trip odometers.While this might be a little extra work, I rarely need a GPS with my road atlas's and cell phone. I also don't want to spend the money on a GPS as I have yet to see a major need just yet and I'd want to get a good one which equals more $$$.

Google maps offline can be a useful backup tool. I use it all the time on road trips.

 

[JoeyLuck]

I've been lost a few times, but never panic and have always found a way to something or someone.

 

[nickburt]

Never lost, just temporarily unsure ......

 

[Kelso]

Somewhat lost hiking once with a friend. Decided to go for a "quick hike" on a well established trail so didn't bother bringing a map and we started hiking AFTER supper around 18:30. We ended up loosing the trail in the snow and took a guess at the marked trail junction instead of turning back. (I know, nothing but bad decisions) Spotted the road at sunset as we crested a ridge. From there it was a simple 3 or 4 hour walk in the dark to the truck, but we very nearly spent the night out in the woods.

Never really lost overlanding, yet.

A very valuable skill that I have been refreshing with training is proper map and compass navigation. Knowing how to properly pinpoint your position on a map without gps coordinates is very reassuring.

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

 

[blackntan]

I get lost on pourpose find some great places a couple ive never found again pre sat nav days , Got me in some tight places some times though. And some red faced farmers.

 

[4wheelspulling]

I have never been completely lost physically, but spiritually yes! I have been blessed with a good sense of direction. One of those that can go some place once, and find my way back again. Even years later. Benz.