Lost?

Being lost by yoursefl is actually one of the most dangerous situations you can get into. I have had to endure only a few hours of this horror and to this day I can honestly say it was one of the worst feelings I have ever had. I was out on a hunting trip with my dad when I was twelve. He sent me down a ridge and told me to find an old logging road and then follow that all the way back to camp. I did as instructed but I thought that the first overgrown dirt road I found couldn't possibly be the right one so I kept going. This is when I started to get worried because i couldn't find another road. I tried back tracking to find my dad and couldn't. I began to panic. I started shouting, firing my gun into the air. Panic took over so quickly I really couldn't tell you how long I was lost. I started hurrying towards what I hoped would be the highway. The whole time despair took hold of me stronger and stronger. I got luck, my chosen path ended up leading me right back to camp. I actually still beat my dad there by a few minutes. The important thing to remember though is that it felt like hours that I was lost and my panic had reached a stage of hysteria. Your biggest danger when your lost isn't lack of food or water, it's not shelter or heat, it's keeping your cool. Panicking is the worst thing you can do. If you ever get lost and you realize it you should immediately sit down. Focus on your breathing for a few minutes to calm yourself and then do your best to figure out your surroundings. Hopefully you didn't go out with out anyone knowing where you went or when to expect you back. Usually when you take a calm look around you though you can figure out where you need to go.

No one likes to try and sleep when cold.

I can't tell you how many nights I've spent camping feeling just a bit colder then I would like to. It happens to everyone. Luckily there are a few solutions out there. Two of the best easy fixes I can offer are to cheap and simple. Both require a fire though so hopefully circumstances will warrant a fire if you find yourself in the need of using my solutions. If you have a nalgine bottle or a similar bottle of thick plastic fill it with boiling water and put it in your sleeping bag with you, preferable with the lid sealed. It works best at the foot of your bag with the top closed as tightly around your head as you can keep it. The second solution is a bit more crude but works just the same. You place a larger rock, say two thirds the size of a football very close to the fire for a good 45 minutes and then rap it up in a thick shirt and use it just as you would the bottle. The rock solution is more of a risky one because as I did last time using it you can over heat the rock and rune a good flannel shirt. I burnt a hole right through one of the layers of my shirt. I wasn't cold though and sometimes that can mean living or dying.

Water is king!

This post doesn't have an applicable story because I've never been in the situation when I was dehydrated and I'm honestly glad. The only times I've suffered form dehydration where safe at home when I was sick. Successive vomiting can leave you dry quickly. Moving on though there is one tip I would like to make mention of that I've been taught concerning gathering water. This one will seem a bit ridiculous because of the needed tools, but should you be in the odd circumstance of having them and needing water you'll know what to do. If you have large sheets of plastic such as saran wrap and you are in a hot dry environment you dig a small hole about two feet in diameter and a foot deep and cover the hole with the saran wrap leaving a cup in the very center of the bottom of the hole. You then place a small stone on the plastic above the cup so the plastic will dip down towards the cup. Condensation will then gather and drip into the cup. It's ridiculous but could save your life, maybe...

Some times you need rope.

I can remember one time vary vividly when I needed rope and definitely didn't have it. Picture if you will an early spring day. The mountain still retained patches of snow and ice. For the most part though winter had cleared and given way to the new plant life of spring. With me dangerous situations don't just happen. It's strange to say but they usually come gradually until all the sudden I realize I'm in trouble. This time it started out as hiking. And hiking turned into a little bouldering. And bouldering quickly turned into free climbing. Before I knew it is was stuck on a three foot ledge over a thirty foot drop. The only way out was up and to do that i had to climb four more feet and then scramble up a gradually rounded lip. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that this area was usually in shadow which allowed ice to stay built up on the rounded lip making my climb virtually impossible. I made it out in the end because i wasn't alone and my friend was able to lower a dead lodge pole to me and i was able to climb the rest of the way up. This is just one situation when even a small length of strong rope would have been a life saver. When doing anything outdoors you will find that rope can solve hundreds of problems and if you have an emergency pack of some sort in your car I highly recommend rope.

My Intro

I don't pretend to be an expert so don't take my posts as such. I'm just a guy who has had some experiences in the wilderness and felt like sharing them. Hopefully they can be of some use to you and if not at least you might find them amusing. As for a quick background, I am currently twenty three and attending college in Rexburg, Idaho. I have spent some time in Idaho, Alaska, and most of my childhood in Montana. I've spent a lot of time outdoors hunting, fishing, camping, backpacking, rock climbing and even a little spelunking. In each post I'll share a quick story of and offer some practical advice. This is my story, enjoy.