Stay
Calm and Think Part II #88
So there I was, cold, wet and not where I thought I was. At
a time like this, if you have not worked on survival skills or not had any
formal training, your mind can begin to wander and you can hear things that you
would not otherwise concern yourself with. Every branch that cracks and every
movement that you hear is amplified. Your only thought is “How do I get back to
my vehicle?” But in fact, the best way to cope with this situation is to stay
calm, sit down and think things through. There is a great book that my father,
a retired Maine Game Warden gave me many years ago entitled, “You alone in the
Maine Woods”. You will recall if you have it or have seen it because the cover
is blaze orange. I still have a copy of it and have it packed in my Guide’s bag
that goes everywhere with me. If you don’t have a copy and would like one, here
is the link to the little book.
Training will tell you to sit tight and do not move. Someone
will find you. BUT that is not what most people do. Their desire to get out
drives them to keep moving and that can be detrimental. Some might say, well
Tim, you said you had some snowfall the night before, so why not follow your
tracks out. The answer is maybe, but often times you have tracked a long way
and maybe took a route and then doubled back, and that can cause you to again
become disoriented.
I recall listening to a gentlemen tell me once about a lost
hunter and what happened to him. It seems that on this day, the hunter entered
the woods and was on the track of a big buck. That track took him up and down,
and over and under and eventually, he found himself lost. Panic set in and he
became wet, cold and lost his sense of right and wrong. He started running
through the woods, peeling off his clothes. He became so disillusioned that he
did not even remember that in his run, he crossed a Maine road. They finally
located the hunter and he had very little clothing on and was hypothermic. He
did survive, but this story can tell you what a person’s mind goes through when
they are in panic mode.
So, what did I do? My survival skills started to kick in, I
reasoned with myself and decided that my first order of business was to stay
put and get warm. I began to pile up some dry kindling and birch bark in
preparation for starting a fire. My main goal was to keep myself warm in the
event I was going to have to stay there for a while. You should never go into
the woods without matches and I was prepared for that. I also searched for some
larger rocks by the shore of the pond. Why you say? Because rocks hold heat
very well. So putting them into the fire and letting them get hot will sustain
the heat available to you for a longer period of time. They tell us that if you
have to stay overnight in the woods, these rocks can be put under the fir boughs you have as your bed, and they will keep you warm. The next order of business
was to find a spot that I could use as a wind stop, such as a large tree with
lots of spruce or fir branches hanging down, or a fallen tree where the roots
are showing etc. The third thing was to find some dry fir boughs to sit on to
keep my pants dry. Once this was done, I moved on to the next thing to do. If
you are in distress in the woods, what is the international sign for getting help???
Yes, three shots in the air. And that is what I did. I let one and two and then
three shots go off and I waited. After a time, I waited and did it again,
mindful of the number of live cartridges I had, and not to use them all at
once.
I then walked myself through what I needed to do next. Was
there anything else I needed to do? Doing this will keep your mind off your current
situation to some degree and hopefully help you get through the fear.
Well, a lot of time passed and I was thinking that I was
going to have to spend the night there. I had done what I needed to do and I
knew that when Andre got back to the truck and I was not there, he would either
come looking for me or would get help. I decided that I would make one more
attempt to send up three shots and then would settle in. As I was getting ready
to do that, I heard a loud snap in the fir trees. I looked intently to see what
was there and then there was another one, this one closer. I could hear
footsteps and crunching. My heart started to race and I was immersed in what
was making that noise. And then, there it was again, closer and closer until
all of a sudden a large amount of snow fell from the fir branches and out
popped Andre. I was never so glad to see him than that moment. He had heard the
shots and came to investigate. His first words were”Hey there feller, where is
the big deer?” My face had a smile from ear to ear and I proceeded to tell him
what had happened. Once we got that out of the way, Andre said, it’s getting
dark, let’s get back to the truck. That was music to a wet clothed guys ears.
Andre took out his compass, got his bearing and off we went. Soon, we were at
the road and the truck was in sight. We jumped in, I fired up the truck and got
the heat going and we headed for home.
Over the many years since this happened, we seldom spoke of
the excursion other than to have a brief laugh. I had learned a lot that day, which
in fact drove me to learn more about the woods, survival, and what I could have
done differently. Today, I am much
better prepared with my GPS, extra batteries and yes, a very good compass. I no
longer use the bobber one. The biggest lesson I learned that day was you need
to remain calm, think things through and prepare to stay warm. Also, stay in
one place and always make sure you tell someone where you are going and when
you will be back. AND don’t deviate from what you tell them. If you use these
tips, you will fare much better and won’t waste the energy that can drive you
to becoming disoriented and delusional. It’s just that simple…
