Lost Hiker

[pierre girard]

Busy day tomorrow. Another lost hiker in the wilderness. 44 year old male from the big city, two days overdue. At the very least, he will be hungry, as he only had food enough to last through Tuesday. Hope he has more bushcraft skills than the average person in his situation. Lot of trails intersect in the area where he was hiking, and it is easy to get messed up if you can't read a map.

If he's not breathing, he will at least be easy to identify. Rose tattoo on arm, unknown tattoo on stomach, and a tattoo of an eyeball on each buttock (?).

Apologies if I sound a little jaded, but you get kind of tired of people with little or no experience taking off into the woods and getting lost. When we do find them (and they are alive) they are the biggest complainers too. It's not their fault. It must be someone else's fault. "Why aren't their signposts on the trails, etc.?"

Because it is wilderness! That is what wilderness means. No sign posts! You're lucky there are trails. Learn to read a map! Maybe some people shouldn't be allowed out of their house without lessons.

End rant.

 

[redflex]

Same in Scotland, nice sunny day lets go for a walk up this hill ,. Half way up weather closes in mist fog no visibilty, cold wind they are wear the normal jeans t-shirt trainers etc , they not worried the have mobile phone someone will come and get them , shame they dont know where they are!!!!!!!

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

Hope it goes well

 

[British Red]

Welll....buzzards gotta eat too

 

[jdlenton]

yup best regards hope it all works out
and Pierre you know that if it wern't for people like you when people like us really get in trouble and need you there would be no one there with the skills to find us and help when we really need it. :You_Rock_

 

[Dougster]

They say we are becoming a risk averse society and I agree. I think that the risk has been perceived to be removed because the assumption now is,someone, with technology, will always be there to save them. Let us know if you get a thank-you. It would be great to see an exception to the rule.

Saying that, I musn't tar everyone with the same brush. The guy could be a great outdoorsman with a sprained or broken ankle. Irrespective of the temperament of the guy, I hope the day ends well for you all.

 

[mark a.]

Good luck, hope it all turns out ok.

But please don't rant before you've found him. If he does turn out to be an underprepared fool, then feel free to rant afterwards. But he could be Ray Mears' brother who unfortunately broke a leg. I'm sure most rescue people would rather be called out unnecessarily than not be called out when they could easily have helped. But if us mere mortals think that the rescuers hate being called out and assume we're all muppets then perhaps people won't call for help until it's too late.

 

[Tony]

Good luck with it, I hope he's ok

 

[sxmolloy]

Pierre, I would be interested if you could post an update as to what this hiker was like and how he became lost, injured, missing or whatever. How he handled having to be rescued and if he was grateful for your efforts.

If he was injured did he manage to make himself as comfortable as possible or did he not know what to do in a situation like this.

As mentioned an update would be good and much appreciated...ATB...Stu

 

[pierre girard]

Update:

Ray Mears brother, he was not. Knew that much before I posted.

Searchers all out of the woods. Bloodhound went right to the edge of the water and sat down. Not looking good. Time for the divers.

 

[falling rain]

Same in Scotland, nice sunny day lets go for a walk up this hill ,. Half way up weather closes in mist fog no visibilty, cold wind they are wear the normal jeans t-shirt trainers etc , they not worried the have mobile phone someone will come and get them , shame they dont know where they are!!!!!!!

Ah yes the good old mobile phone that some peoples lives seem to revolve around nowadays..................except they fail and the battery drains in double quick time in the cold. What no signal? How can this be, I always get a signal in the city

 

[sxmolloy]

Update:

Ray Mears brother, he was not. Knew that much before I posted.

Searchers all out of the woods. Bloodhound went right to the edge of the water and sat down. Not looking good. Time for the divers.

oh dear, doesn't look good at all. thanks for the update pierre, i would be really grateful if you could let us know if the divers find anything. its things like this that make you glad your alive and well i find, but its the persons family i feel for.

once again thanks pierre.

 

[mark a.]

Fingers crossed...

 

[pierre girard]

Latest Wrinkle.

Girlfiend just called and said he might not come out until today (?). Who knows? Maybe he will walk out yet. Unsure if this is legit - or just wishful thinking.

Some of the rescue squad were in the woods until 1800. They are all out now. Don't know what is planned for tomorrow. This is a huge area to cover. Every once in a while we get one of these strange ones. This one has strange written all over it. Sometimes the people don't want to be found and will avoid the searchers. Really makes it tough.

 

[Tadpole]

Latest Wrinkle.

Girlfiend just called and said he might not come out until today (?). Who knows? Maybe he will walk out yet. Unsure if this is legit - or just wishful thinking.

Some of the rescue squad were in the woods until 1800. They are all out now. Don't know what is planned for tomorrow. This is a huge area to cover. Every once in a while we get one of these strange ones. This one has strange written all over it. Sometimes the people don't want to be found and will avoid the searchers. Really makes it tough.

I have been told, and or read somewhere, that sometimes the lost person (mostly it’s men that do this) will deliberately hurt himself, if he thinks he is about to be found, so it looks like he was unable to get himself “unlost” rather than just being lost
Must be a macho thing.

 

[geoff88]

Sounds to me like it's just "natural selection" taking place, people like this probably shouldn't have children. Let him find his own way out, if he can't it is just Mr Darwin in action.

Geoff

 

[crazydave]

you should read some of the incident reports and complains from british mountain rescue teams - they get phone calls from people who want them to send a helicopter to pick them up because they running late, are tired, have nothing to eat, have a blister etc.....

and as to men and maps there's a quote from commander in chief - 'if moses had been a women then she'd have stopped for directions and they'd have been in israel within a week'

 

[pierre girard]

Well, there is news

Subject located today - 12 miles from any trail, in the center of a large black spruce swamp.

He hasn't eaten for six days, and has been drinking unfiltered water from a beaver pond. It has been determined that he was lost within two miles of starting out from the trailhead and has been lost almost since he set foot in the woods.

He'd picked out the spot where he wanted to die. For once, we didn't hear, "I wasn't lost."

 

[Spacemonkey]

and as to men and maps there's a quote from commander in chief - 'if moses had been a women then she'd have stopped for directions and they'd have been in israel within a week'

..only 'cos she couldn't read the flippin' map...

 

[mark a.]

That's good news Pierre. Hopefully he will make a full recovery. Well done to the rescue team.