Anyone ever gotten lost out there?

[Bonedalien]

I'd like to make one comment on using flagging tape. It works perfect for getting back out the way you went it. As long as it's still there when you come out.

Some hunters for some reason hate seeing it, and will take it down. Not realizing they could be getting another hunter lost. If you see it. Just leave it there, and hope the hunter who put it up will take it down too.

agreed, as a land surveyor who uses flagging daily ,you can sure tell this seasons from last. leave the fresh stuff hanging and pull the old.the old is litter, and you cant know what the fresh means to a guy.
and if at all possible, clean your own lines if you hang one!

 

[njdoxie]

I seldom use my gps because the area I hunt is all up and down....but when I do and then use my compass, I don't worry about declination or anything, I just go the direction the gps indicated using my compass, and it's always put me right on top of camp....never knew I was doing anything wrong, it's always worked perfectly

 

[Moserkr]

Ive been turned around a few times, and taken some “short cuts” that were completely f’d, but never truly lost. So let me tell you a story or two about my friend we dont hunt with anymore - Ole one beer.

Ole one beer got his name for not being able to handle his liquor, but that didn't stop him from drinking. Phone apps with gps had just come out but he didnt believe in em yet. So we take him out a few times and so long as hes in the group, we are good. Opening day comes one season and he goes off on his own in a hunting spot he chose for the group. Ends up 3 miles away after dropping off the mountain and we get frantic calls through broken cell reception that hes lost. Ends up getting a ride from another hunter who drives him back to camp. Mind you its not even dark yet. Me on the other hand, I hunt til dark THEN hike back to camp. Even without gps I knew to go uphill to the road that leads to camp from my spot. So I did and as I get close to camp, one beer comes out crying and hugs me thinking I was lost too! Never been hugged by a crying man in the forest ever since... going to start a new thread - why you dont hunt with some people anymore.

 

[trophyhill]

My first elk hunt in CO I thought I was the serious mountain man and didn’t need any kind of maps or gps or anything. Well the sun wasn’t out that day and I went off chasing bugles. Before I knew it the elk were long gone and everything looked the same. I was lost that afternoon for about 4 hours as I wandered in the direction I thought I had my pickup. What a relief when I popped out on the forest road about 500 yards from my truck. That time spent lost was unnerving for me for sure. Now I have OnX, Gaia, my InReach and my Garmin 60CSX. Lots of redundancy. I don’t plan on getting lost ever again and I hunt very deep at times now.

 

[orionsbrother]

No drama, but I was hunting in Northern Wisconsin years ago. It was a cloudy, drizzly day. I was working through a large area that had been cut over several years before and had grown up with thickets of small poplar. It was impossible to move in a straight line. I had just glanced at my compass and headed off. A few hours later, I stepped onto a logging road and thought to myself, “There’s not supposed to be a logging road here.”

I looked at my compass and realized that I had found one of the areas of the Chequamegon that had enough hematite or magnetite to render my compass useless.

I looked up at the heavy overcast and confirmed that there was no way to navigate by the sun.

I just took the logging road to the road we came in on and and backtracked, but thought about what it might’ve felt like had I been in a true wilderness and looked down to find my compass pegged... or what it would’ve been like to be in that spot 200 years ago when there was no logging road.

 

[Huntsman21]

Good stories in here!

 

[Billinsd]

Never lost, temporarily disoriented? Yes, lots of times..

 

[Nsmith163]

This is less about being turned around and more about overestimating my abilities. I was in Eastern Oregon helping a buddy during deer season. We spike camped on top of a long ridge and were planning to drop into the adjacent canyon to glass. Opening morning no deer were spotted but I had a small elk shed glassed at 11 AM on the opposite side of the canyon. Confident I could get there and back quickly if I went light I stripped off a few layers and left my pack, including my food and water (of which I had only taken a sip all morning), with my buddy and headed down the canyon. It took me over an hour to get to the shed on the other side. I picked a different ridge to climb out of the canyon, thinking I would get on top, jump two ridges over and meet back up to help glass some more. The snow started falling as I climbed out and I quickly realized I was ill-prepared. About halfway up my legs started cramping and I recognized sure signs of dehydration. The thin air also was hitting me hard and had me climbing only a few yards at a time (I primarily hunt on the coast). It took me 3 hours to climb the remaining 2,000 ft. elevation to the top, and by the time I got there my head was in a fog and both legs were severely cramped.

At this point I was a mile from camp, hiking through a decent snowstorm on a ridge I had seen for the first time that morning. I realized I did not mark the camp location on OnX and my phone battery was quickly expiring. With blurred vision I stumbled my way towards camp for about a mile without recognizing any of my surroundings. I did get ahold of my buddy, who had grabbed my gear and was headed towards camp as well. Eventually I spotted our tent and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Once I got there I laid in the tent drinking water and eating my first meal of the day, thankful things didn't turn out worse.

In hindsight, I was completely unprepared and felt pretty dumb for drinking almost no water and leaving my water behind. Lessons learned. I made sure to mark the camp location on OnX as I laid there recovering.