So yesterday I took out a friend of a friend who I've been acquainted with for some time. I know his father quite well from way back. He's suggested to me that we go whitetail hunting before and has waxed on and on about it since I said it might be okay to join me some time.
He's always insinuated to me that he's "not a novice" hunter. He's new to the province though and doesn't know anyone else here who hunts. I have taken him out shooting before and was impressed with his shooting skills.
So I took him here:
ht tp://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=zhoda&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=52.653769,105.732422&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Zhoda,+Division+No.+2,+Manitoba&ll=49.278417,-96.389709&spn=0.025841,0.051627&t=h&z=15
We got setup to go out for the evening, planning to be back around 7 or so. I thought it would be a good opportunity to walk the trail with him, look for signs and get an idea of his outdoors skills. I've spent a lot of time in this area and know the layout near the trail quite well. He didn't. I had sent him the above link and pointed out where we'd park so he could study it and get some idea of the layout as well. Sunday night was full overcast with moderate fog beginning around 6.
We walked in about 300m down the trail and I suggested we check out the clearings on either side of the main trail to see if there were any deer bedded down. He didn't have a pair of binoculars, so I went east where there is more understory and the clearing is a little longer. He was to head west, look for deer and meet me up the trail 20 minutes later.
3 Hours later (an hour after sunset), using my doe call as a signaling device, I found him 500m west of the trail on the far side of some old-growth blown down and partially flooded pine. Turns out he decided it would be a great idea to flock off into the bush with no compass, no map, (and no clue) on an overcast day... He was soaked to just below his waist from having waded in boggy muck. Lucky for him he was dressed appropriately.
As we started back, I got the full story from him. He had headed off into the bush because it "looked good" and it "looked dry on the map".
After he hit the bog, he realized he was going the wrong directions (presumably, he tried all of them). It turns out that he was in a completely different part of the WMA than he realized and he had been walking through the pines for an hour and a half in circles trying to find his way out.
He's the type of person with self-perpetuating rage if that makes sense at all. I'm sure we all know someone like this. Every branch in the face led to a fit of swearing, cursing and crashing around. He managed to rip off his blaze vest and face mask, lose my rattle bag, drop his gun in the mud (which he insisted on keeping loaded - in case of bears no doubt), and stomp through water instead of picking his way through the high ground - leading to tripping and additional rage. At several points I was very close to knocking him out and dragging him back by his hair because he simply refused to calm down and shut up. He also kept insisting that I was lost too and tried to inject directions that were completely non-helpful (like heading for the road when that led through the swamp and there was a perfectly good trail 90 degrees to the left of that direction).
It was nerve wracking for me and him. Finally, after ~3 hours of searching and 1.5 of rescue (which included humoring him by proving that west just lead to the bog and then backtracking) we eventually got back to the trail. At this point I was starting to get a little cold from the fog and from having sweated but he was shaking and obviously hypothermic. I had been trying to keep us moving to keep him warm, but to reassure him that we weren't getting more lost we stopped repeatedly so I could listen for the highway and he could smoke. Eventually, we made it to a clearing that I recognized and we headed straight for the trail and then to the truck to warm up.
So what are your experiences getting lost in the woods? Ever head off into unknown bush on a foggy overcast night? Through flooded blowdown? Probably not. Personally, I wouldn't have tried that on a clear day given the choice! I've never been so lost I didn't know how to find "something" that I could use to get home - even if it was a "long way." The psychological effect was pretty powerful. Even with me there to reassure him, he was completely irrational and willing to take some serious risks. Near the end, he started talking about random directions as North and East as though he was completely sure where he was oriented. Even I didn't know from time to time, but I knew that if I headed to the tree I'd spotted 15 minutes ago, I could reorient from there.
Needless to say I have some idea of his woodsmanship skills now...
He's always insinuated to me that he's "not a novice" hunter. He's new to the province though and doesn't know anyone else here who hunts. I have taken him out shooting before and was impressed with his shooting skills.
So I took him here:
ht tp://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=zhoda&sll=49.891235,-97.15369&sspn=52.653769,105.732422&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Zhoda,+Division+No.+2,+Manitoba&ll=49.278417,-96.389709&spn=0.025841,0.051627&t=h&z=15
We got setup to go out for the evening, planning to be back around 7 or so. I thought it would be a good opportunity to walk the trail with him, look for signs and get an idea of his outdoors skills. I've spent a lot of time in this area and know the layout near the trail quite well. He didn't. I had sent him the above link and pointed out where we'd park so he could study it and get some idea of the layout as well. Sunday night was full overcast with moderate fog beginning around 6.
We walked in about 300m down the trail and I suggested we check out the clearings on either side of the main trail to see if there were any deer bedded down. He didn't have a pair of binoculars, so I went east where there is more understory and the clearing is a little longer. He was to head west, look for deer and meet me up the trail 20 minutes later.
3 Hours later (an hour after sunset), using my doe call as a signaling device, I found him 500m west of the trail on the far side of some old-growth blown down and partially flooded pine. Turns out he decided it would be a great idea to flock off into the bush with no compass, no map, (and no clue) on an overcast day... He was soaked to just below his waist from having waded in boggy muck. Lucky for him he was dressed appropriately.
As we started back, I got the full story from him. He had headed off into the bush because it "looked good" and it "looked dry on the map".
After he hit the bog, he realized he was going the wrong directions (presumably, he tried all of them). It turns out that he was in a completely different part of the WMA than he realized and he had been walking through the pines for an hour and a half in circles trying to find his way out.
He's the type of person with self-perpetuating rage if that makes sense at all. I'm sure we all know someone like this. Every branch in the face led to a fit of swearing, cursing and crashing around. He managed to rip off his blaze vest and face mask, lose my rattle bag, drop his gun in the mud (which he insisted on keeping loaded - in case of bears no doubt), and stomp through water instead of picking his way through the high ground - leading to tripping and additional rage. At several points I was very close to knocking him out and dragging him back by his hair because he simply refused to calm down and shut up. He also kept insisting that I was lost too and tried to inject directions that were completely non-helpful (like heading for the road when that led through the swamp and there was a perfectly good trail 90 degrees to the left of that direction).
It was nerve wracking for me and him. Finally, after ~3 hours of searching and 1.5 of rescue (which included humoring him by proving that west just lead to the bog and then backtracking) we eventually got back to the trail. At this point I was starting to get a little cold from the fog and from having sweated but he was shaking and obviously hypothermic. I had been trying to keep us moving to keep him warm, but to reassure him that we weren't getting more lost we stopped repeatedly so I could listen for the highway and he could smoke. Eventually, we made it to a clearing that I recognized and we headed straight for the trail and then to the truck to warm up.
So what are your experiences getting lost in the woods? Ever head off into unknown bush on a foggy overcast night? Through flooded blowdown? Probably not. Personally, I wouldn't have tried that on a clear day given the choice! I've never been so lost I didn't know how to find "something" that I could use to get home - even if it was a "long way." The psychological effect was pretty powerful. Even with me there to reassure him, he was completely irrational and willing to take some serious risks. Near the end, he started talking about random directions as North and East as though he was completely sure where he was oriented. Even I didn't know from time to time, but I knew that if I headed to the tree I'd spotted 15 minutes ago, I could reorient from there.
Needless to say I have some idea of his woodsmanship skills now...
