Safe Outdoor Travel
by Crede Calhoun of Camp Earth
March 2002

Last month we explored things that you could do to make adventures into the woods more fun, educational and safer. This month we will focus more on safe outdoor travel and how not to get lost.

Every hike in the woods has the potential for trouble. Although I would say that it is still safer than just about anything else you could do like driving a car or crossing the street. Like most adventure sports, hiking in the woods is always safer with a group of 3 or more. If you have 4 hikers in your group, one person can stay with the injured person and two can go for help. Traveling alone in the woods is more risky, but it does provide a good opportunity for solitude.

To me, nothing beats a hike in remote woods. The sense of adventure when hiking far from roads is hard to beat. If you look carefully around you (especially at the ground where you are walking) the beautiful things you can see is amazing.

Learning how to read a map is a smart idea if you plan to travel in remote areas. With a compass and and map, and the skills to use them correctly, you can travel anywhere even in the most remote wilderness, and never get lost. You should at the very least, have a map of the trail you will be walking. Some of Garrett Counties best hiking trails are well worn paths that you really can't get lost on. Easy State Park Trails to follow include Monroe Run, Poplar Run, Herrington-Swallow Falls Trail, and The Brandt Mine. Monroe Run is an excellent half day hike along a beautiful creek and is very suitable for families and
inexperienced hikers. Maps for local trails are available at most of the Park Offices.

Whenever you travel into the woods, it is always a good idea to tell someone where you are going, give them a map if possible, and tell them when you expect to be back. This person should give you extra time and shouldn't worry or send out a search party until they are sure you are very late. Be sure to always call this person when you do get back to a phone so they don't worry or send folks looking for you unnecessarily. You don't want others to be out in the woods looking for you when you are actually at home in front of the TV.

Keeping from getting lost while hiking is mostly a skill of observation. Its fun to track your progress on a map while on a hike. Things you to look for and notice are stream crossings, trail junctions, steep climbs or downhill sections etc. Most major features can be found on the map. If you pay attention to what is going on around you should be able to find or keep track of your location on the map easily. United States Geological Survey Topographical Maps are the best for hikers. They show
just about all land forms, human features (buildings, roads, trails, etc) and what is most useful are the contours (the shape and hills of the landscape). These maps can be found at Highland Engineering in Oakland.

Things to remember if you do get lost or think you may be lost:


1)Stay Calm. Sit down. The natural urge is to rush and panic. You don't
want to slip and fall or rush off in the WRONG direction. Take your
time, slow down, sit down. Give yourself a chance to review in your mind
where you have traveled. Draw a map in the dirt if this helps, give
yourself at least 20 minutes sitting under a tree before you head off in
a direction. Most of the times, if you give yourself a chance to think,
you'll come up with a pretty could plan of action. If you rush and panic
you will only be more confused. People looking for you will have a
better chance of finding you if you stay put and near the area you are
supposed to be in.

2)Sometimes you can climb a hill or tree and get a better look around.
If you are near a stream, you can follow it DOWNSTREAM. 99% of the time
if you follow any stream downstream you will end up back at civilization
since most streams join other streams and keep going somewhere. The
Native Americans did a lot of traveling along streams and rivers and
used them like roads.

3)If you prepared correctly for your trip, than you have a little extra
clothing, water, snack foods, dry matches, a small flashlight, and
perhaps a poncho or rain coat. A whistle is a great tool for signaling
and it can be heard a long ways off. Three long blasts (cover your ears
so you can hear a response). On our Camp Earth trips most of the time
kids wear whistles around their necks just in case.

4)You can survive a  night in the woods. Stopping early enough to
prepare for a night in the woods is important. You can't collect enough
firewood to keep you through a night if wait you until its dark to start
collecting sticks. Learning how to build a fire with sticks is an
important safety skill for outdoor hikers just in case. Dragging big
long sticks will help you gather a lot of wood quickly. You can burn
logs and sticks in half if you can't break them. A small fire you can
get close to is better than a big fire that uses up all the wood.
Sitting around the fire all night can even be fun and by morning you
should have a good plan figured out.  Finding a water source is very
important.

5)Shelters can built from debris (sticks, leaves, moss etc) you can find
in the forest. Building a shelter can be a priority. Padding where you
sit with leaves or something thick can help keep you warm by insulating
you from the cold ground.

Don't be afraid. The woods are a safe place and there are no wild animals in Maryland that are out to eat you. Bears are vegetarians primarily, and there has never been an unprovoked bear attack in Maryland history. With common sense nature can become a friendly place and a safe place.

Joining your local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts is a great way to get outdoor experience and learn some basic outdoor skills. Grab your parents and begin making plans today for a great hike in Maryland's Parks and Forests.


Nice Page With Info for Kids on Surviving Getting Lost
http://www.geocities.com/redwalk44/native/page9.html

DNR Hiking Page
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/outdoors/hiking.html



Pictures of debris shelters before being covered with bark, leaves, moss
etc.

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