This page contains some commonsense advice on how to avoid getting lost. The best way to avoid becoming the subject of one of our SAR searches is to have the capability to trace your way back to your starting point. The concrete piece of advice (to be discussed) is to download a navigation app and record your track.
The intended audience for this material are the directionally challenged or navigationally clueless (not prospective SAR responders). For a more in-depth discussion of navigation that should be more interesting to prospective SAR types, see our Navigation for SAR page.
Take your phone with you.
A surprising number of people leave their phones in their vehicles. Sometimes it is to preserve the purity of the outdoor experience. Other times a person may have a “what could go wrong?” attitude. Either way, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” If you want to preserve your experience, put your phone on “airplane” mode.
Preserve the phone’s charge.
- To save battery, turn off wifi (and bluetooth, if you’re not using it for headphones).
- Ideally, top off your charge in the car en route to the trailhead.
- For the truly prepared: bring a backup charging battery.
- Don’t turn the phone off. Yes, this preserves battery life, but you lose the ability to record your track, which is the entire point of this conversation.
Install a mapping app on the phone
No need to engage in tedious debate; almost any navigation app is better than none. Our SAR go-to’s are GaiaGPS or Caltopo (iphone; android). Many NM hunters like to use Onx. Both GaiaGPS and Caltopo, as well as many others, have a free version but you will need to sign up for an account to get the app operational before you leave internet access.
GaiaGPS used to be my favorite, and they still have the most elegant, beautiful topo basemap, but they keep screwing up good features and ignoring feedback from the hardcore outdoor enthusiasts in favor of flashy gui changes and social media emphasis. So now it’s a toss-up between GaiaGPS and Caltopo (for a phone app).
Tangent: if you want to do mapping on a pc, the only good choice at the moment is Caltopo (there’s a nearly identical version called SARtopo that you’ll hear referenced, it’s pretty much the same thing). That’s what we use for mapping on SAR missions (on a laptop). Anyway, the point is that Caltopo has good pc nav software, and also a decent mobile version, and the mobile and desktop version interface well together. Gaia has the best mobile app right now I believe (if they stop messing it up even more) and no viable pc version (their website interface is nearly useless). Most of you only need an app. The Gaia app is what I typically use for personal adventures. Also, Gaia is easier to use than Caltopo.
Note: Apple Maps or Google maps are NOT navigation apps for the purposes of this conversation, as they do nothing useful without internet service. You will need to get a dedicated app. [Google earth is, however, exceptional for inspiration, scouting, and trip planning.]
Keep in mind that the free version of certain apps may lack the ability to download maps for offline use. Yes it’s nice and better to have the offline map but the free app can still save your bacon without any maps at all if you remember to record your track. If you don’t have the offline map, your app (with no cell service) will show a blank background behind the squiggly line that is your track, with an icon for your position. The point is: even without the background map, the icon with your position and the squiggly line of your track can be used to retrace your steps.
Record your track
Regardless the app, remember to start recording a track from the car. Having a track recorded is your ultimate failsafe—if you get lost you can retrace your own steps. Granted, it’s hard to remember to start the track record at the trailhead. I still forget occasionally. Even SAR teams starting out from IB sometimes forget. It’s even harder to remember to stop the track recording when you return to the trailhead.
Drop a waypoint at the location of the parking lot, while you’re in the parking lot
All of these nav apps will be able to place waypoints (markers, whatever). The idea here is that you should place a waypoint at the location of your starting point. Granted, if you start recording a track, the start of your squiggly line should be at the starting point. But things can get confusing, especially when you’re lost. Having a marker at your starting point is good practice and helps you to understand your location. If you rotate the phone to point at the marker, you can always know the direction in which your vehicle lies. You can also use that waypoint as a reference point to get straight-line distance. Usually if you tap on a waypoint it will give you a pop-up with info on how far away it is.
Make sure that when you place the waypoint, it’s putting it down at your location. Some apps have a very obvious “place waypoint at my location!” option; others you need to center the map on your position first, leave it in that position (avoid inadvertent dragging), then add a waypoint without moving the map around first. GaiaGPS used to do it the first way, which was sensible and good, but now they do it the second way, which is idiotic because of the room for error. (If I sound frustrated, it’s because this very thing happened to a team member on a mission recently. They had found the subject and were reporting the wrong coordinates because Gaia had pushed the new update and no longer defaulted to putting the marker at one’s location).
When you need to use it…
Ok, so you have been recording a track, and you’ve realized you’re lost. First, get on your phone and double check that you have wifi and bluetooth turned off so that your battery will last as long as possible. Then take a look at your map. There will be an obvious icon to represent your position. Pinch and drag to zoom in and out to get a good view of your track that makes some sense (so that it isn’t like looking in from the space station at a tiny speck on the screen).
Hold the phone flat (level with the ground). The position icon (it’s usually a diamond-arrow thing or something similiar) is you, and it will point in the direction that the phone is pointing. Rotate the phone, and watch your position icon point to different places on the map. Rotate the phone until the icon is pointing in the direction you want to go towards on the map. This might be back the way you came on the track. Pick up your head, and look at what the phone is point at in the real world. Walk in that direction. To get a feel for it, walk for 20 seconds and then zoom in and examine your track, make sure the track is headed the desired direction.
If all else fails.
If you’re well and truly lost and you can’t find yourself, don’t compound your problems with aimless wandering. Stay calm, force yourself to endure a few minutes of inactivity just to relax a bit and take stock. Set a timer if you need to. Think. Think hard.
I got lost once with my brother in Yellowstone when I was 14, he was 11. We had followed a grazing herd of mule deer away from the campground. The deer would let us get tantalizingly close, then move just barely away. We got distracted with this stalking game and when we finally gave it up, we realized we had zero idea which direction camp was. There was a brief period of blind panic, followed by clamping down hard with some mental discipline, forcing ourselves to literally sit down for a few minutes, and thinking really, really hard. The campground was tucked in a corner made by the crossing of two roads; two of the directions from our lost spot would have led to those roads roads; two of the directions would have led to many dozens of miles of wilderness. In the end we established a distinctive central “base” at our lost location, to which we could easily return, then we scouted out in a random direction only as far as we could maintain visual contact with our chosen base, and we listened for human noises and sounds. In one of the scouting directions we caught the sounds of camp… thereby “re-finding” ourselves. In the end we were not far from camp at all, and as soon as we were back in camp we made light of the experience (we were rattled).
If you can reason your way to solving your own situation, go for it. If you find a proper trail—any trail—don’t get off the trail in favor of some dubious bushwhacking or shortcut. On an initial SAR response, we typically clear all of the plausible trails first. Finding a subject on a trail is easy compared to anywhere that’s not on a trail. If you need to take a nap, sleep in the middle of the trail so we don’t miss you.
When you reach the point that every action you take is likely to make things worse rather than better, then it’s time to call 911 and request SAR assistance. Know, however, that it will probably take many hours before we even start our search (read our “what happens when you call 911″ material).
Also, don’t get lost in the first place
There’s been lots of discussion about what to do after getting lost, but let’s remember: it would be much better not to get lost in the first place. There’s a whole lot that goes into what we oversimplify and underrate as a “sense of direction”. Much of it can be grouped into the category of “situational awareness.” Pay attention to your surroundings, landmarks. Try to keep a running tally in your head of which direction the car is in—everytime you rotate your body, or take a turn on the trail, try to update your mental dead reckoning of the direction of the trailhead. Take special note of trail junctions. Don’t rely on others in your party, keep a mental copy for yourself, in your own head, of the route you’ve taken.
Leave explicit instructions with a responsible contact, including a deadline for action
If you made it this far, I’ll provide one more “best practices” piece of advice. Tell someone where you’re going, how long you expect it to take, and at what time they should call for a rescue.
I will regularly text a friend a message that goes like this: “Headed into Euphrates canyon this morning 10/9, anticipate finishing before dark. If you don’t hear from me by 8AM on 10/10, come get us.” There are three important aspects of that message: 1) where we’re going 2) when we’re doing it 3) what time to call for a rescue. The last item is the thing that most people neglect to provide. The adventuring party has a much better sense for the likelihood of the day turning into an “epic” (a term long-used in my friend group for an outing that turns into an unplanned, greatly lengthened, wildly more challenging adventure filled with type 2 fun).
Maybe you’re expecting to be back shortly after lunch, but have a sneaking suspicion that it might actually be well after dark. Great! But please tell your people to NOT call 911 when you’re not back by dinner. Think about the latest you could conceivably get back safely, pad that with even more time, then some more besides, and give them that time. That approach also takes the burden off your spouse or friends to make the hard call. They have a deadline you provided, and so it’s your responsibility to get to the phone in time to call off the search. (Don’t forget to check in and confirm safe status! Do that before cracking the first beer!)
Matt Holmes, 1/2024