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Post by odiferous on Aug 22, 2018 0:25:23 GMT -5
I get emails from our DEC on different outdoor subjects and one of them is all about forest ranger calls in the Adirondacks. A good percentage of them are always somebody, or a group of people lost in the woods. They always give details and a lot of these people have a GPS, a compass and a flashlight with them, but they end up calling 911 for help getting out of the woods. A lot of times the DEC locates them by their phone signal and they walk in and bring them out. It's easy to get mixed up in the woods, but how can you not find your way out with a GPS, a compass and a flashlight? There are places with a lot of iron in the ground that will mess with a compass, but walking a little ways will generally take care of the problem. I've wandered around up there for over 40 years with an old school pocket compass and nobody ever had to come find me. I don't know if they get scared when they realize they're mixed up and then don't trust them, or they don't learn how to use them in the first place, but it always leaves me shaking my head.
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Post by Law Dog on Aug 22, 2018 13:05:17 GMT -5
Never been lost but I have walked a LOT further then I had too several times! LOL I don't even use a compass I just start with the sun in a direction and keep track of how the ridges run. Grandfather taught me to pick a landmark a longs ways off and head for that as sidestepping trees will get all turned around without a focus point to head towards.
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Post by odiferous on Aug 22, 2018 14:08:50 GMT -5
I spent a cold november night in the woods up there once in a light rain, when I was young. That taught me to carry a small light, so I could see my compass in the dark. With the heavy cover up there, you generally can't see farther than a hundred yards and there are a lot of places where 50 or less is a stretch. Here around the house, the woods are so broken up with roads and fields, there aren't many places you couldn't walk out of in a short time. I'd love to see that big sky country out there sometime, but finances being what they are, I probably never will. At least we have some decent trapping here.
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Post by Law Dog on Aug 22, 2018 14:27:02 GMT -5
Come out I have a spare room you can stay in!
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Post by odiferous on Aug 22, 2018 14:54:06 GMT -5
Come out I have a spare room you can stay in! That's mighty nice of ya LD and I really appreciate the offer, but the shape we're in lately, I couldn't afford to get there. LOL Wish I could.
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