Hiking

How not to lose it.  Your way, that is.  Use these tips and your wits to stay on course.

By Hap Wilson

When I was quite young, and spending summers at my grandmother’s cottage in the Kawarthas, my father was producing survival films for the Department of Lands and Forests. Charlie was a local Ojibwa woodsman who worked with my father on the films and, in his spare time, he would take my brother and me out into the woods to teach us how not to get lost. There were two levels of disorientation, according to Charlie: being “turned around” meant that, although we had strayed from our route, if we trusted our intuition and powers of observation and stayed calm, we would find our way back. If we disregarded those rules and panicked, we’d get lost, which meant we wouldn’t be coming home any time soon. 

Hiking through a conservation area or on a groomed trail, cottagers expect signs – either worded or iconized – to keep them on the straight and narrow. But what do we do when we hike into unfamiliar forest where there is no guidance and find ourselves “turned around”? When you have nothing to direct you but nature herself, here are some handy tips to remember:

  • Whenever you trek off the beaten path, take along a whistle, matches, water bottle, windbreaker, and a decent map. Maps, however, are useful only if you understand the scale, so try converting the two-dimensional info to the three-dimensional reality of something you understand: For instance, a half-kilometre hike is a hefty par five in golfing terms. Once you’ve calculated the distance you feel like hiking, compute how long it will take you to get there and back. Generally, an adult can walk two to three kilometres in an hour under optimum conditions (no adverse weather or difficult terrain). It’s wise to set off on a trek with plenty of daylight and “spare” time – just in case.
  • At your start point, take note of the direction you are heading – away or toward the sun – to give you an east–west orientation. You could also take note of cloud movement; if the clouds (that is, the wind) are moving, say, in the same direction as you are on the way out, then you’d walk against them on the way back. This is helpful on short treks; on longer ones, wind and cloud direction may change at some point during the day.
  • Observation is key. Charlie taught not to fix your eyes on the heels of the person ahead; instead, take note of where you’ve been, looking over your shoulder frequently at the terrain (like looking in your rear-view mirror every 10 seconds while you’re driving). Make a mental note of outstanding features, such as extra-tall trees, large boulders, prominent rock outcrops, weird stumps, juniper clumps, and so on.  I recently took a group on a trail to visit a waterfall near my cottage; when we returned, everyone was convinced we had walked in a loop instead of retracing our same path back. The same trail will look different on the return trip.
  • If people have gone before you, you may see traditional signs such as axe blazes on trees, rock cairns, or even a Coke bottle on a branch marking the start point of a trail. Some prospectors, surveyors, and sportspeople mark a new trail with flagging tape so they can easily find their way back, but Charlie taught us a debris-free method – break a sapling branch every six or seven metres. If it’s open bedrock with no markers, create your own small stone cairns.
  • An obvious trail has some sort of “scuff” mark, even on bedrock (disturbed moss and lichen). Diverging trails can be confusing on the way back. When you choose a fork, mark the main return trail with an arrow made of sticks or stones, or make a mental note of key features at the site. And always stay together.
  • If it’s overcast and the wind or clouds show no movement in a particular direction, nature gives you other clues. For example, in cottage country, the prevailing wind is from the west – tall, or exposed trees, like the prevalent white pine, lean to the east, away from the west wind. Birds usually build their nests on the lee side too. However, the truism that moss grows on the north side of trees, usually conifers, is not especially reliable because it also grows on the south side, only greener.
  • If you are disoriented, a positive mental attitude is your most important survival tool – panicking is how you go from turned around to lost. Stay calm, sit down, and retrace your route in your mind. Climbing a hill will sometimes help you get your bearings. But don’t travel in the dark – stay put, cuddle with your partner for warmth, and enjoy the stars. 

Published in the September/October 2005 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2005 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.