PNW CAMPER
FNG
Older hunter here pushing 68 this year. A number of years ago after cancer surgery and some heart work I was wanting to get back out into the woods and mountains. The doc was OK with the idea and said his only concern was for me to get back into shape. My wife was worried that something might happen to me and I would not be able to call for help. So, I got in shape and bought a SPOT, for those who don't know SPOT might have been first gen for notifying someone you needed help while out backpacking, hunting, etc. They would send a rescue team to come save you. Fast forward to last year and after a couple of upgrades from the old Spot unit, I purchased a Garmin In Reach system. There are several other devices on the market as well to choose from as well. I have been a Garmin user for years, so that is what I went with.
Today I was out driving around the national forest in a different state, in new area doing some scouting and in general looking around planning this years hunting season. As I was coming down the mountain and headed towards a main road, I got too close to the edge of the forest service road and found a soft spot and the passenger side went right off the shoulder. Stuck and in real danger of rolling / sliding off the road completely and tumbling down the mountain.
I grabbed the important stuff and crawled out of the truck. I had grabbed my cell phone and inreach. After a through review of the trucks situation and inventory of my lack of serious recovery gear, I realized I was not getting the truck out on my own. OK time to activate my emergency plan. I was in another state and many hours from home and friends. I grabbed my inreach, which will send alert if you need a full blown rescue team and medics or just an email via satellite to a friend, wife, etc. In my case it was my son, I sent him the waypoint of where I was, described my situation, asked him to call me a tow truck and tell my wife I was OK. By the way, I had no cell service. He sent me a message back and tells me he found a tow truck in the next closest town on its way. He was able to provide them my GPS coordinates and an e copy of the map that inreach had sent.
It only took a little over 3 hrs, as they had a truck and driver available. The moral of this story is that for us older folks (or anyone) a little planning goes a long way and hopefully a lot of things go right. I had told my son where I was heading and he said he would be monitoring his email all day in case I sent him a message or needed something. It could have just as easily my truck completely rolling down the hill or serious medical emergency, fortunately it was a small problem, but a manageable one because I had done some advance planning. So any way, if you don't have some kind of emergency way to contact people while your out in the back woods or maybe just on a few days road trip, I would recommend you think about getting something in case of emergency. Out west cell service can be iffy. In my opinion the best communicators all have satellite capability. The Garmin In Reach for example will default to a cell signal if one is available, if not will send out a satellite message.
Good luck and be safe out there. Sorry for the long post, but I find writing this all down has helped me think through what happened and what I can do to be better prepared for the next adventure.
Here is a pic of my truck off over the shoulder. The pic might not look too bad, but what you can't see is the drop off right next to the truck. Yup, really looking at upgrading my recovery equipment after todays episode.
Today I was out driving around the national forest in a different state, in new area doing some scouting and in general looking around planning this years hunting season. As I was coming down the mountain and headed towards a main road, I got too close to the edge of the forest service road and found a soft spot and the passenger side went right off the shoulder. Stuck and in real danger of rolling / sliding off the road completely and tumbling down the mountain.
I grabbed the important stuff and crawled out of the truck. I had grabbed my cell phone and inreach. After a through review of the trucks situation and inventory of my lack of serious recovery gear, I realized I was not getting the truck out on my own. OK time to activate my emergency plan. I was in another state and many hours from home and friends. I grabbed my inreach, which will send alert if you need a full blown rescue team and medics or just an email via satellite to a friend, wife, etc. In my case it was my son, I sent him the waypoint of where I was, described my situation, asked him to call me a tow truck and tell my wife I was OK. By the way, I had no cell service. He sent me a message back and tells me he found a tow truck in the next closest town on its way. He was able to provide them my GPS coordinates and an e copy of the map that inreach had sent.
It only took a little over 3 hrs, as they had a truck and driver available. The moral of this story is that for us older folks (or anyone) a little planning goes a long way and hopefully a lot of things go right. I had told my son where I was heading and he said he would be monitoring his email all day in case I sent him a message or needed something. It could have just as easily my truck completely rolling down the hill or serious medical emergency, fortunately it was a small problem, but a manageable one because I had done some advance planning. So any way, if you don't have some kind of emergency way to contact people while your out in the back woods or maybe just on a few days road trip, I would recommend you think about getting something in case of emergency. Out west cell service can be iffy. In my opinion the best communicators all have satellite capability. The Garmin In Reach for example will default to a cell signal if one is available, if not will send out a satellite message.
Good luck and be safe out there. Sorry for the long post, but I find writing this all down has helped me think through what happened and what I can do to be better prepared for the next adventure.
Here is a pic of my truck off over the shoulder. The pic might not look too bad, but what you can't see is the drop off right next to the truck. Yup, really looking at upgrading my recovery equipment after todays episode.
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). No way I was making it another 40 miles to the trailhead where my truck was parked. Used the inReach to send my wife a message to pick me up the next day at another trailhead-took almost a half day to travel 10 miles (that's on pretty good trail w/o a lot of up/down). I was at the trailhead maybe 20 minutes and my wife showed up to "rescue" me 
