Always have a plan in the outdoors

First of all I don't plan to ever become lost. After all, helicopter pilots never become lost. They may be disoriented for a while, but never lost.

The little play of words may be cute, but being lost is serious, as serious as a heart attack. Yes, people have the possibility of dying when lost.

The best way to avoid becoming lost is to plan ahead, before taking the hike or walk. Study the map, let people know where you will be and when you will return.

Every member of the family should learn how to use a GPS. The relatively new sport of geocaching is a great training tool for using the instrument.

Anyone can hide a geocache and leave the coordinates for finding this cache on a central geocaching website. The fun is having members of the family enter the coordinates into the GPS and finding it. There are thousands of geocaches throughout the world, perhaps thousands in Washington alone.

The serious side of using a GPS is when hiking in unfamiliar territory or hunting in the mountains. If I draw a moose tag, my hunt will take place north, east or south of Colville. I don't know the lay of the land, so would study a map, of course, but also use the GPS to guide me.

So a hunting buddy and I are north of Colville. We park the Ram at a pullout alongside the Forest Service road. The location of the truck is entered into the device. We hike east, north, and then east again, before going south. So where is the truck? There it is on the screen, just two miles to the west.

It is easy for me to sit at the computer and discuss what to do if lost. What would I do? Let me take a step-by-step journey about what I would do if becoming lost.

Let's say my GPS is destroyed by a freak accident; a boulder rolled and crushed it. I know basically where the truck is located and start in the correct direction. But wait, nothing looks familiar and I suspect I may be heading in the wrong direction.

There is no cell phone reception at my position. Instead of continuing to wander one more minute, I would stop and make camp. Gathering firewood and building a fire is first on my agenda.

I would take one of the Smith survival tools, mentioned in this column recently, and use the fire-starting rod to make sparks to light the tinder. Next small twigs would be added to the fire and then larger pieces of wood, as the fire builds to a respectable level.

My job at this point is to make my camp better. Gather enough wood to last until the next morning. Build a shelter of some sort. I would have a plastic rain poncho to use as a tent, plus a couple of black plastic garbage bags, which will also be used to augment the shelter. Making the protective covering small, just large enough for me to crawl in would save body heat. Having these items in the backpack is part of the preplanning.

If there was an opening nearby, I would somehow make a signal, the old standby SOS would be just fine. If there was snow on the ground, the letters could be stomped in the snow. Or perhaps the letters could be scratched into the soil with a stick.

So I've settled into the shelter for the night, eating a portion of the food brought along as part of the pre planning. The night would be spent sleeping some and feeding the fire some.

In the morning, more wood would be gathered, more than enough to last for several days. The shelter would be improved and the SOS letters improved as well.

My camp is now comfortable enough for me to relax a bit. The job is still to improve the campsite. Perhaps I cut green brush to make the signal letters stand out against the soil. I would also have green brush near the fire in case a plane flies over. The green leaves will make the fire smoke and stand out more than a regular fire.

The second military meal would be opened and enjoyed. If headed into unknown territory, such as the mountains north of Colville, I will have at least two military meals in my backpack. One will last at least a day.

More wood would be gathered for two reasons; to make sure there is enough and to give me work to fill the day. It may be possible to take a nap or two.

Assisting with making and improving my camp would be the survival tools, including a knife, matches, rope or cord of some sort, a whistle, food and signal mirror.

The routine, gathering wood and improving other aspects of the camp would continue until my rescue.