getting lost..panic time

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WEEGEE
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getting lost..panic time

Unread postby WEEGEE » Sun Sep 20, 2015 1:45 pm

have you ever been lost ,to the point you panicked?
well i did one time in Canada
in the fall of '67 a group of us guys went to Canada on a deer hunt. i was 18 and full of adventure. we arrived at a camp site at the end of a dirt road. from there we loaded up the equipment,in boats and took a 7 mile trip ,up some lakes to another camp.
they had maybe 6 cabins on this little island. they had a big map hung in every cabin,to look and study.
i hunted sorta close to the cabins for a few days never saw a deer. one morning 4 of us decided to take a boat trip across the lake, to the other side,to see what it was like.
that night it had snowed about 6"that place was beautiful.. we pulled up on a bank, at the foot of a mountain. you could here the guys saying,I'm going here and I'll go there. they asked me and i said I'll go straight up the mountain. about 2/3 the way up i found fresh tracks. so i decided to follow them. this mountain range runs east and west and i was headed east. about an hour tracking and i jumped 3 deer. they ran about 75yrds. away and stopped.i steadied that old 8mm Mauser and cracked a round off....boom...you could here it echo off the surrounding hill sides.
i got to the place i had shot at them, and nothing...no blood ..no hair just tracks headed east. i tracked them for another 3 hrs or so,before i got a glimpse of them again.boom ,i let another round off ,at one. when i got to the spot,same as before,nothing!

i tracked about another hour or so and never seen them again. i sat down and had some snacks,when it dawned on me just how far have i chased those deer. well it gets dark about 4:30 or so,better start for the boat.
my compass said i was tracking east, most of the day along the top of that mountain range. so all i have to do is head south to hit the lake....."right"......".WRONG" :think:
what i didn't know, was the part of the lake where we parked the boat, only went so far to the east, and was a big bay!
i was too far east to hit that bay. i missed that bay over a mile east of it.
i kept going south and never laid eyes on water. i came to a huge beaver dam and for some crazy reason i just had to get to the far side. this dam had to be over 50yrds. wide. i made it to the last 10' and slipped into 4' of water. now I'm still lost or turned around ,or something.

i hear a plane coming...he goes right over my head and i wave and he tips his wings back and forth and runs a circle around me and goes on. now if i had any sense, i should have followed him,but i had to continue south...for reasons unknown.
right beside the beaver dam was an old hunting cabin.
well when your lost you can shoot your gun three times and someone will shoot back,that's what i was told,so i did. every 5 mins i would do that....not a sound...and the sun has set and I'm lost.
now is the time I'm supposed to run,and run i could(cross country track teem) so off i go.
i have lost my knit hat and one glove.i run until it was completely dark.

i had to rest,so i sat on an old log and kept seeing that map ,in my head. i went east ,then turned south and i know i didn't go a 1/4mi up that mountain now i know I've run way over a mile south and I'm still in the middle of nowhere half frozen clothes wet and my matches look like blueish water in their bag.
well, here's the one thing i do know, that huge lake we came in on,runs north and south. you can't get around it...right?
so i take off walking, fast as i could through a swamp,headed west in the dark. I'm running into downed logs crawling over ,going under all in a foot of ice and water.

i looked like i was coming to a clearing....it's water...it's the lake.GOD I'M SAVED!!! it's 1 o'clock in the morning and i can't hear ,or see nothing. in a minute or so i can barely hear a boat motor ....boom i shot off another round and soon as the echo stopped ,so did the boat motor. in a moment or so the boat heads toward me...as i got closer i walked out to the lakes edge and slipped on the icey rocks and went right in the lake. that boat came right to me with their lights on and picked me up.

two of my buddies where going back and forth on that lake, yelling for me,since that evening. they said when i was a no show that night,they figured i got a ride ,back to camp and came home. that was when the plane landed and asked the camp owner ,if anyone was camping at moon lake cabin? he said he saw a big guy in army fatigues at the cabin. owner said he had a guy in one of his cabins ,that looked like that. when my buddy told him i didn't show the pilot said he wasn't headed this way.
they started a huge fire on the island for me to see ,if i got close enough ,but i was two mountains over.

as i crawled my soggy but in that boat i said,BOYS I GOT ONE ROUND LEFT,AND THAT'S FOR WHO EVER WAKES ME UP TO GO HUNTING!!


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HoosierG5
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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby HoosierG5 » Sun Sep 20, 2015 1:50 pm

Ive been lost and panicked pretty bad, but nothing like that! Its an awful bad feeling when the sun is sinking fast!

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby muddy » Sun Sep 20, 2015 1:51 pm

Last year whole hiking with my wife in Yellowstone we took a wrong turn and made a 3 hours hike last 8 hours and 23 miles... as the sun set we finally made it to our parking lot. I was scared for the last couple hours. At least I knew we'd eventually turn up somewhere as we had hiking paths.

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby ThePreBanMan » Sun Sep 20, 2015 2:14 pm

I had a GPS map app on my phone get me lost. It had me going in the wrong direction, in circles, etc.. When I caught on to the failure I busted out the good old fashioned compass and found my way out. I have an actual GPS now (Garmin) and still carry the compass. I'll never trust a phone again.
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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby headgear » Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:31 am

Heck of a story WEEG, glad you survived that one because it could have gone bad. I was lost in the bigwoods once as a kid, not bad lost but enough that it scared the crap out of me. Ever since then I have done my best to know the woods in my area, its always nice to have some kind of a fail safe as well, carrying a compass and knowing the general area are huge. Even though you missed your lake you knew it was there somewhere and that can really help a guy out as long and you don't go totally crazy and run around in circles you can eventually find your way. Now no matter how deep in the woods I know I try and have a fail safe, say if I walk 5 or 10 miles in one direction I know a road or trail will be there, even if you lose your compass and have to spend the night in the woods you can get started in the right direction in the morning when the sun comes up.
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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby E72 » Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:17 am

muddy wrote:Last year whole hiking with my wife in Yellowstone we took a wrong turn and made a 3 hours hike last 8 hours and 23 miles... as the sun set we finally made it to our parking lot. I was scared for the last couple hours. At least I knew we'd eventually turn up somewhere as we had hiking paths.

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Turned around but never considered my self lost . Sometimes I wish I could get "lost"! LOL. I'd have no issue spending a night or two in the bush . Elk hunting carried water purification tabs ,lighter, storm proof matches and a good space tarp for a shelter . ....BUT Yellowstone has a huge population of Griz that do not fear people . That would make me a little nervous too ! ;)

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby muddy » Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:38 am

E72 wrote:
muddy wrote:Last year whole hiking with my wife in Yellowstone we took a wrong turn and made a 3 hours hike last 8 hours and 23 miles... as the sun set we finally made it to our parking lot. I was scared for the last couple hours. At least I knew we'd eventually turn up somewhere as we had hiking paths.

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Turned around but never considered my self lost . Sometimes I wish I could get "lost"! LOL. I'd have no issue spending a night or two in the bush . Elk hunting carried water purification tabs ,lighter, storm proof matches and a good space tarp for a shelter . ....BUT Yellowstone has a huge population of Griz that do not fear people . That would make me a little nervous too ! ;)

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Yeah, I had a pocket knife, Bear spray, and a walking stick. We ran out of water since it was only supposed to be a few hours hike. Not technically lost but very turned around for a few hours.

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby Swampbuck » Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:38 am

That's a great story WEEGEE!!

Worst I've had happen was I was about 5 miles deep in a flooded cypress swamp. Access is either walk or push pole a small boat down the old logging runs which are hardly visible anymore unless you know them. I was scouting an area I hadn't been and had dropped my gps in the water but kept on. Long story short I missed one of the runs on the way back and it was getting late. I knew if I didn't find it I'd never get out that night. Walking 5 miles in that stuff would take days. A cold front was coming through and I wasnt dressed for it and a guy died a couple yrs ago just this way. I had a hunch I had passed the run so was killing myself circling back and Luckily found it right before dark. Wasn't too serious but I pay more attention to the weather now lol

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby olivertractor » Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:44 am

that Canadian wilderness is awesome! When I'm up there I always think twice before I do something, due to the fact I don't know it that well. Yeh, Yellowstone with grizzlies, no thanx! Well at least you were prepared for them :lol: :lol: Gotten turned around in the big woods as a kid, but there was always snow on the ground, like headgear said I like to know what lay of the land.
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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby Dewey » Mon Sep 21, 2015 6:14 am

olivertractor wrote:that Canadian wilderness is awesome! When I'm up there I always think twice before I do something, due to the fact I don't know it that well. Yeh, Yellowstone with grizzlies, no thanx! Well at least you were prepared for them :lol: :lol: Gotten turned around in the big woods as a kid, but there was always snow on the ground, like headgear said I like to know what lay of the land.

I hear grizzlies like a little pepper spray on their humans for seasoning. :mrgreen:

Getting lost isn't always a bad thing. I have found some of my best hunting spots in the bigwoods when I was lost. Problem is finding them again. :lol:

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby remmag » Mon Sep 21, 2015 8:49 am

That sounds like a very scary & dangerous situation you were in, hard to stay calm when your in the middle of nowhere and wet in freezing conditions.

I got myself into a situation two seasons ago where I was hiking back to my truck in the dark. I just finished a evening hunt in a new location that I've never hunted before with no human trail access. Was still a mile+ back in when my flashlight died. Luckily with the aid of light from my cell phone and my compass I was able to follow a direct heading and get back to the road.

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby WEEGEE » Mon Sep 21, 2015 12:25 pm

i forgot one fact ,that hindered my travel i was on,an iron ore mountain.
my compass would read "n" and 20' away it might read "e" or"s" you could never get a good reading ,until i was in a valley.
the only way i could tell, was the lite glow in the "sw" sky. if it would have been snowing ,or cloudy, it could have turned out bad.
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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby Dhurtubise » Mon Sep 21, 2015 1:15 pm

I have been lost once before as well, but I was lucky that I somehow arrived back at the same lake after portaging a mile in the bush (bushwacking) with a canoe and a heavy pack on my shoulders. I got lucky because this was in the most remote part of Algonquin Park in Ontario. It's a huge park and I was already a whole lake and portage outside any travelled route. The lake I left and came back to was only 500 yds wide. It could have been disastrous had I not accidentally happen to circle back to my original position.

Another time in BC, I hiked up the wrong creek 10 miles and 2600' in elevation gain with a 50 lb pack to get to a lake that was filled with trophy Bull trout. I was never really lost because knew how to get back to my car (follow the creek back) , but I only had 3 or 4 more weekends of that work placement. The next day I bought myself a GPS and never looked back.

It's easy to get turned around in the bush.

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Re: getting lost..panic time

Unread postby Tufrthnails » Mon Sep 21, 2015 4:56 pm

Spent the night in the swamp here in Florida due to getting turned around leaving a new stand at dark. Small compared to your story, 54,000+ acres of swamp is a lot of swamp to work through in the dark. Found high ground started a fire and didn't sleep a wink. Worked my way back south to the main highway and hiked back to the truck in the morning. I was pretty panicked at first until I realized I had no way of knowing which way was which and the moral of the story is always bring extra bats for the gps and standard compass. Never made the mistake again.
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