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.

https://maine.gov/ifw/education/pdfs/aloneinmainewoods.pdf

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…