The title of a 1982 song by the Clash and a great survival question, graphic by the Author.
At
some point, if you wander in the wilderness long enough, you are going to find
yourself “misplaced”! Just
remember that being misplaced isn’t the same as being “lost”, because
even Daniel Boone was “bewildered” once for three days (for more on this
read “Being Bewildered and Bending the Map©”, HERE). Most times, you will reorient yourself and
proceed on your way in just a short time.
Sometimes you aren’t that lucky, and you end up having an unexpected
overnight adventure. Most times when you
are “misplaced” searchers will find you within the next 72 hours. In fact, Devon O’Neill writing in Outside, quoted
Paul Anderson, who is a 42-year veteran of the National Park Service, and who
spent 11 years as superintendent of Denali National Park, as saying that “Our
stats show 85 percent of all lost people are found within the first 12 hours,
and 97 percent are found within the first 24 hours”.
Should
I Stay, or Should I Go?
However,
what happens if you fall into the unlucky 3% who aren’t found within the first
72 hours1? When the rescuers
stop looking for you, you will go from being “misplaced” to being “lost”
that’s what! When this happens, you will
have to answer the question, “Should I stay, or should I go?”.
A
case in point is Geraldine Largay, who on July 21, 2013, stepped off the
Appalachian Trail, near Redington Township, Maine, and became lost. She realized that she did not know where she
was or how to return to the trail, so she set up her tent, tried to call for
help with her cell phone and waited for the rescuers to find her. Her husband reported her missing on July 24
and a massive search began and even though the search remained open for two
years, she was never found. Geraldine
survived for at least 26 days, before dying of starvation and exposure. She wasn’t found until October 2015, when her
remains, including her cell phone and journal, were found inside her collapsed
tent.
She
did everything that experts said to do, she stopped, built a camp, called for help,
and waited for the rescuers to find her, but they never did and eventually the
rescuers stopped searching for her.
The
question “Should I stay, or should I go?” is a tough question to
answer. No matter what, you don’t want
to try to walk out too soon, because if you move you are simply making it
harder for the searchers to catch up with you, if they are still looking, that
is. However, if they have stopped
looking, then you are on your own and will have to self-rescue. But there a couple of things to think about
before you bug out
The updated “Survival Drill”, can help you decide whether you should stay, or you should go. Graphic by the Author, for more read, “Survival Drill”, Updated and Explained ©”, HERE.
Are you
injured? Are you able to walk out?
“Are
you injured”? If the answer to this
question is “yes”, then ask yourself, “are you able to walk out”?
If the answer to the second question is
“no”, then you should stay put.
There might be situations where your injuries are so severe that you
wouldn’t survive walking out, or perhaps your injuries affect your mobility,
and you aren’t able to walk out.
Are your
signals working?
In
the first “Golden Hour”2 after your wilderness emergency you
followed the “Rule of Threes”, you took care of any injuries, found
shelter from the wind and weather, and called and signaled for help, but it has
been more than 72 hours and the rescuers still haven’t found you, so now what?
Well,
perhaps, your calls and signals for help haven’t been seen or heard, so ask
yourself, “are your signals working, can they be seen from the air”? Maybe the spot where you have set up your
campsite is difficult to see from the air, or maybe your signals are hard to
see. Before you decide to bug-out, you
should try to use some more active signals, like flashing a signal mirror or even,
possibly, lighting a “tree torch”.
An excerpt from FM 3-05.70, page 315. Just be careful, you don’t want to create a forest fire, especially since you could get burnt alive by it!
The
most effective visual signal is the signal mirror, or heliograph, and according
to The Survival Book3 it “is second only to the radio as a
rescue device”. Sweep the horizon with
your signal mirror at regular and frequent intervals, the flash can be seen by
rescuers even if you, yourself, can’t see or hear them.
Build
signal fires and shadow or contrast signals in open areas, close to your
shelter, if possible. The survival
manual Down but not Out, states that three fires, 100 feet (30 m) apart
and arranged in a triangle or in a row are an international signal for
help. Remember bright flames at night
and during the day, black smoke against a light background or white smoke
against a dark background, will attract attention. The U.S. Coast Guard recommends that each
letter of a shadow or contrast signal be 18 feet tall by 3 feet wide (5.5 m by
1 m).
 |
Pages from “Survival Hints for the Sportsman, 1959©”, HERE. |
Can I
orient myself?
Before
you attempt to walk-out and self-rescue yourself, you first must answer the
question “can I orient myself”?
Wandering off aimlessly will only make things worse, and if you can’t
figure out where you are first, you will not be able to create a plan to get
where you want to go. If you have a
compass and a map, by orienting the map to north, and studying the terrain
features around you, you should be able to find out where you are on the
map. If you don’t have a compass and a
map, you can study the movement of the Sun and use the “Shadow-tip Method” to
determine the cardinal directions (for more on this read “How To Find Your Way
Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method©”, HERE). At the very least, you must find the cardinal
directions and a visible terrain feature along your proposed route of travel to
help guide you during your travel before you bug out.
 |
Excerpts from Better Ways Of Pathfinding, on position finding and land navigation, by Robert S. Owendoff, pages 28 to 31
No
matter what, if you plan on walking out and self-rescuing, leave a message at
your old campsite detailing your plans and the date and time that you left, and
leave an arrow made of branches or stones on the ground, pointing in your
direction of travel.
The arrow points the way, photograph by the Author.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “There and Back
Again...Finding Your Way©”, where we will talk about finding your way in the
woods.
An excerpt from The Book Of Woodcraft, by Ernest Thompson Seton, page 162-163.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 Remember,
sometimes it takes a while before anyone realizes you are missing, and some
police departments have a policy of waiting an additional 24 to 72 hours before
they begin to look for a missing person.
So, keep this in mind before you bug out.
2
The first hour after any wilderness emergency is critical, and what you do or
don’t do can determine your survival and for that reason it is often called the
“Golden Hour”. The first hour is
also the most stressful, you will be disoriented and scared, and these feelings
will only be made worse if you are injured and in pain. Use the “Rule of Threes” to help guide
you. First, take care of any injuries,
this is crucial, particularly in the case of severe injuries which can lead to
shock. Second, find or build a shelter
from the wind and weather and start a fire.
This is particularly important if you or someone else is injured or the
weather is cold, wet, or windy. And
third, call or signal for help. The
first hour after a wilderness emergency is also the golden hour for alerting
rescuers and improving your chances of eventual rescue. If you are uninjured and the weather is mild,
you could move this task up to become your second priority.
An excerpt from “Survive: Beyond the Forced Landing”, by the Air Safety Institute, AOPA, HERE.
3 The
Survival Book, 1959, by Paul H Nesbitt, Alonzo W. Pond and William H Allen,
page 27.
4 Outdoor
Survival Training for Alaska’s Youth, by Dolly Garza, page 30
Sources
Adams, Char; “Hiker Who
Died After Getting Lost on Appalachian Trail Left Journal for Loved Ones: 'When
You Find My Body, Please Call My Husband”, updated May 26, 2016, [© 2021
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accessed September 2, 2021
Air
Safety Institute, AOPA; “Survive: Beyond the Forced Landing”,
[Frederick, Maryland], http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=57&ved=0ahUKEwjjpoab-eTYAhWMp5QKHYYIA0o4MhAWCEswBg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aopa.org%2F-%2Fmedia%2Ffiles%2Faopa%2Fhome%2Fpilot%2520resources%2Fasi%2Fsafety%2520advisors%2Fsa31.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0MXBFxEgfsS5ow6y80vbbv, accessed September 1, 2021
Garza, Dolly; Outdoor
Survival Training for Alaska’s Youth, [University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2005],
page 30
Headquarters, Department
of the Army; FM 3-05.70, [Washington DC, May
17, 2002], page 315, https://irp.fas.org/doddir/army/fm3-05-70.pdf,
accessed September 10, 2021
Information Canada; Down
but not Out, [Maracle Press, Ltd, Ottawa, Canada, 1975], page 81 to 88
Nesbitt, Paul H.; Pond,
Alonzo W. and Allen, William H.; The Survival Book, [D. Van Nostrand
Company, Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, 1959], page 27 to 29
O’Neill,
Devon “How Backcountry Search and Rescue Works”, Outside, March 4, 2016, [©
2021 Outside Interactive, Inc.], https://www.outsideonline.com/2059616/how-backcountry-search-and-rescue-works,
accessed 10/09/2018
Owendoff,
Robert S.; Better Ways Of Pathfinding, [The Stackpole Company,
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1964]. Page
28-31
Thompson Seton, Ernest; The
Book Of Woodcraft [Garden City Publishing Co., Inc., Garden City, NY;
1921], page 162-163
Waite, Sara; “Merino man
publishes survival guide”, updated May 8, 2019, [©2021 MediaNews Group, Inc.], https://www.journal-advocate.com/2013/07/26/merino-man-publishes-survival-guide/,
accessed September 9, 2021
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