Have you ever been lost?

[Terrierman]

I was reading on another website and this thought came up.  Have you ever been lost in any of your outdoor adventures?  It's only happened to me once and it was quite a while ago - back in the 1970's.  I used to night hunt with hounds and was out one night with one of my usual hunting partners.  Right across the road from his house was a full section with not a house or barn or other structure on it.  Mostly wooded with a few open spots scattered around.  We hunted it a lot - rabbits with beagles, quail with an English Setter and a Pointer, squirrels with a .22.  So we knew that section very well.  The night we got lost we were coon hunting there, following dogs, listening to the two of them when they would open and nipping now and then on some blackberry brandy.  It started snowing and we were excited as we thought it would only help.  It got to snowing harder and then really hard.  At least 4 inches on the ground when we decided we might call it a night and go back to the house.  Just one problem.  We had zero idea where we were on that section or any idea what direction the house was.  We walked around a bit to try to get our bearings but we were both still as bewildered as ever.  Finally decided we needed to walk a straight line in one direction and eventually get to a road.  We did that and got to a road where we could finally tell where we were.  We were on the opposite side of the section from where the house was.  So we had a good long walk in the snowy dark with plenty of time to talk about how weird it was to get so lost so close to home.  I don't remember getting anything that night other than lost and eventually found.

Anything similar to this ever happen to any of you?

[FishnDave]

I bet that felt strange, to be "lost' on land you knew very well.  Without treelines or creeks to follow, and since you couldn't see the sun or stars in the sky, it's understandable how one could lose their bearings.  Even heavy fog can hide familiar "landmarks" we would otherwise recognize.

What would be extra creepy, is if you discovered you also lost several hours of time. 😬

[fishinwrench]

Put some turkeys to roost on unfamiliar land, then got up and hiked out there way before daylight, and got in what I thought was a perfect position. And kinda dozed off a bit.  I was only about 250-300 yards from where I parked the truck.

About 10 minutes before the sky was bright enough that I could see.... an owl let loose LOUDLY right over my head, scaring the crap out of me, and I jumped up, made several trips around the tree calming myself back down.......fatal mistake!    If I had sat still I would have been fine, but now I was completely turned around.     

Never did hear the turkeys "fly down", and although I never crossed a creek to get there I ended up having to cross a creek (because I could hear a road in that direction) and walk over a mile of gravel road, across a bridge of course, to get back to my truck.   

Being lost in the woods is a real test to your level of anxiety control. 😳

[Terrierman]

No wind just makes it worse.

[Devan S.]

Not lost per se....yet. However below Beaver Dam in the special reg. section its much darker than Taney and the cross over point I mark by a larger sycamore mentally. Obviously fog banks cause lots of disorientation especially if you cant see the treeline. I'm always afraid that they will blow the horn and I wont have time to get back and find the spot in the fog so I always go elsewhere in that case. I know I could get close with GPS on my phone but in a rush I'm not sure I could get the couple hundred yard run back, check my phone, and get across prior to "too much" water.

[Quillback]

Can't say I've ever been lost, but I have gotten a long ways away from the truck a time or two.

[tjm]

I was, as Dan'l Boone said,  "mightily bewildered" on two occasions and both on ground I was familiar with, once in a snow storm in a cedar swamp back east, and once night hunting on a heavy overcast night. Since I eventually figured it out and survived I wasn't ''lost'' as they say when a ship sinks.

[Terrierman]

5 minutes ago, tjm said:

I was, as Dan'l Boone said,  "mightily bewildered" on two occasions and both on ground I was familiar with, once in a snow storm in a cedar swamp back east, and once night hunting on a heavy overcast night. Since I eventually figured it out and survived I wasn't ''lost'' as they say when a ship sinks.

There is a difference between lost on a piece of land you know and lost on a piece of ocean that no man truly knows.  There are so many incredible stories of men lost at sea who still somehow made it.  I do not want to learn the difference first hand.  When I was USMC on ship in the South China Sea, we told the sailors they all signed up for a hitch in prison, with a chance of drowning.

[oneshot 1]

Never lost turned around maybe. 

Was on a Managed Hunt. Couldn't find my Pickup. 

Asked a Guy if he had seen it? Yes it is just down the road. Started walking.  He says no the other way. 

Anymore I have GPS with me. 

oneshot 

[tjm]

@TerriermanNot many land marks out there. But you know I had a dry place to sleep every night and hot meals most days. I wish I knew how those old time South Pacific sailors navigated those canoes from island to island and even to S.America. No compass, no sextants,  no GPS, no charts. And they found their way home after. When we had Marines aboard the AOE we let them camp out bivouac in the cargo handling area. they could set up after Taps and be packed up before Reveille because it was usually  a busy area. I always felt sorry for them out on the flight deck doing calisthenics in the dark of predawn.