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One of my buddies does S&R in Marin county, they get called for people getting lost 300 yards off trail that were going for a walk CONSTANTLY. Just people out f

One of my buddies does S&R in Marin county, they get called for people getting lost 300 yards off trail that were going for a walk CONSTANTLY. Just people out for a walk, no cell coverage. They never have gear with them. My friend said this a game changer.

pests 4y ago
I notice we have a lot of SAR people in this thread so question for everyone: Is it wrong to call for help when you are lost only 300 yards off trail like you said? I would be embarrassed - but is anyone going to be upset?
- MarkMarine 4y ago
  Not wrong, it’s never wrong to call for help if you need help. Call early before you’re hypothermic, dehydrated and your cell battery is dead. A lot of my buddies rescues are older people who just got a little lost, or slipped down a steep embankment and can’t get back up. The worst ones are when that happens, but it’s been 3 days and the chances they find a live person are more slim. The SAR people vastly prefer finding people alive, so if you need help, give them a chance for a happy ending by calling.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Yeah, it doesn't take much. People should be in better shape with smartphones in their pockets but I wonder how many even think about the compass or have downloaded maps if they aren't in cellphone coverage. And it's not like the commercial map providers are all that good with mapping trails. Absent some combination of map and compass--in some form--it's super-easy to get totally disoriented absent trail and landmarks. Long before cell phones, I still remember going on a casual short off-trail jaunt to a lighthouse in Nova Scotia and suddenly realizing I really didn't know where I was. Took a deep breath, carefully figured things out, and I was fine (the boundaries were pretty constrained anyway). But it's not hard.
    - MarkMarine 4y ago
      From what I've been told, there are a ton of incidents of just 50-70 year olds that are out for a daily walk and a couple things go wrong. The service in the hills around here is pretty poor, so it's not hard for me to imagine that this was a regular walk, you take a pint of water and a sweater and that's it. I own a PLB that I use for safety when spearfishing from a kayak in Northern CA, but I don't bother throwing it in my pocket if I'm just walking the dog in the woods for a couple minutes. I can see this being a big help.
      - int_19h 4y ago
        Going onto real backcountry trails unprepared is also very common, unfortunately. I see it all the time on trails in the Cascades where there's no cellphone coverage whatsoever (mountain valleys) and it's 10+ miles from the trailhead to any human residence. People still come wearing nothing but t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops (!!!). Sometimes not even a bottle of water, too. And, pretty much every year, there's at least one hiker who goes missing for days. If they're young and lucky, they manage to subsist, and SAR finds them eventually. If not... well, sometimes another hiker finds the body years later, but there's no shortage of names on the missing person list, either.
- dghlsakjg 4y ago
  SAR here in BC Canada vastly prefer that you call at the first hint of trouble, even if you don’t think you necessarily need help. They would much rather be on alert and be stood down, or assist someone over the phone who called early and is easy to find and help. The problem is that many people wait until conditions deteriorate or they are much more lost. Sending a team of a few people to go out and call your name along a trail during the day in clear weather is easy. Sending a team of people to find a hypothermic or injured person at night and extract them is an order of magnitude more involved and risky. In other words, no one will be upset if you call out of caution.
- kccqzy 4y ago
  I once visited the Joshua Tree National Park where I went off trail to visit the Heart Rock. It was a very short distance off trail so I wasn't very careful. Having found the rock easily (just a short distance off trail, maybe five minutes of walking) I relaxed and took a break near the rock. And by it was time to go back I had forgotten how I walked from the trail. It took me at least fifteen minutes to find the trail again. Mistakes happen.
- int_19h 4y ago
  People get lost even closer than that to the trail in thick bush. There was a lost hiker here a few years ago - when they eventually found him and retraced the steps, it turned out that he came within a hundred yards of the trail more than once while trying to find his way back (but could never tell). And if you stay lost through the night, hypothermia can get you fast even in places where you only need a t-shirt during the day.

pests 4y ago

I notice we have a lot of SAR people in this thread so question for everyone: Is it wrong to call for help when you are lost only 300 yards off trail like you said? I would be embarrassed - but is anyone going to be upset?

MarkMarine 4y ago
Not wrong, it’s never wrong to call for help if you need help. Call early before you’re hypothermic, dehydrated and your cell battery is dead. A lot of my buddies rescues are older people who just got a little lost, or slipped down a steep embankment and can’t get back up. The worst ones are when that happens, but it’s been 3 days and the chances they find a live person are more slim. The SAR people vastly prefer finding people alive, so if you need help, give them a chance for a happy ending by calling.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Yeah, it doesn't take much. People should be in better shape with smartphones in their pockets but I wonder how many even think about the compass or have downloaded maps if they aren't in cellphone coverage. And it's not like the commercial map providers are all that good with mapping trails. Absent some combination of map and compass--in some form--it's super-easy to get totally disoriented absent trail and landmarks. Long before cell phones, I still remember going on a casual short off-trail jaunt to a lighthouse in Nova Scotia and suddenly realizing I really didn't know where I was. Took a deep breath, carefully figured things out, and I was fine (the boundaries were pretty constrained anyway). But it's not hard.
  - MarkMarine 4y ago
    From what I've been told, there are a ton of incidents of just 50-70 year olds that are out for a daily walk and a couple things go wrong. The service in the hills around here is pretty poor, so it's not hard for me to imagine that this was a regular walk, you take a pint of water and a sweater and that's it. I own a PLB that I use for safety when spearfishing from a kayak in Northern CA, but I don't bother throwing it in my pocket if I'm just walking the dog in the woods for a couple minutes. I can see this being a big help.
    - int_19h 4y ago
      Going onto real backcountry trails unprepared is also very common, unfortunately. I see it all the time on trails in the Cascades where there's no cellphone coverage whatsoever (mountain valleys) and it's 10+ miles from the trailhead to any human residence. People still come wearing nothing but t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops (!!!). Sometimes not even a bottle of water, too. And, pretty much every year, there's at least one hiker who goes missing for days. If they're young and lucky, they manage to subsist, and SAR finds them eventually. If not... well, sometimes another hiker finds the body years later, but there's no shortage of names on the missing person list, either.
dghlsakjg 4y ago
SAR here in BC Canada vastly prefer that you call at the first hint of trouble, even if you don’t think you necessarily need help. They would much rather be on alert and be stood down, or assist someone over the phone who called early and is easy to find and help. The problem is that many people wait until conditions deteriorate or they are much more lost. Sending a team of a few people to go out and call your name along a trail during the day in clear weather is easy. Sending a team of people to find a hypothermic or injured person at night and extract them is an order of magnitude more involved and risky. In other words, no one will be upset if you call out of caution.
kccqzy 4y ago
I once visited the Joshua Tree National Park where I went off trail to visit the Heart Rock. It was a very short distance off trail so I wasn't very careful. Having found the rock easily (just a short distance off trail, maybe five minutes of walking) I relaxed and took a break near the rock. And by it was time to go back I had forgotten how I walked from the trail. It took me at least fifteen minutes to find the trail again. Mistakes happen.
int_19h 4y ago
People get lost even closer than that to the trail in thick bush. There was a lost hiker here a few years ago - when they eventually found him and retraced the steps, it turned out that he came within a hundred yards of the trail more than once while trying to find his way back (but could never tell). And if you stay lost through the night, hypothermia can get you fast even in places where you only need a t-shirt during the day.