Could have been worse, their GPS could have routed them.......
Posted on 12/24/2016 10:52:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
A woman who has been missing since Thursday near the Grand Canyon was found alive early Saturday morning, according to the Coconino County Sheriff's Office.
Searchers found 47-year-old Karen Klein shortly after midnight at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Klein had walked approximately 26 miles since Thursday afternoon in search of help after getting stranded with her husband and son in a rental car.
The car got stuck on a forest service road.
Searchers said Klein was conscious, communicating and suffering from the cold weather.
She was treated on scene by rescuers and transported to Kane County Hospital in Kanab, Utah.
She is expected to be transferred to the hospital in St. George, Utah for further treatment.
Searchers on snowmobiles tracked remnants of Klein's tracks to a guard shack at a gate to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that was closed for the winter.
On Friday afternoon, Klein's husband, Eric, and 10-year-old son had been able to hike to an area where they had cell service to call for help. Both received treatment for cold exposure, including frostbite.
The family is from Pennsylvania.
They rented a car in Las Vegas and drove to visit southern Utah.
They were following their GPS system in an attempt to visit the Grand Canyon.
However, State Route 67 to the North Rim is closed for the winter season.
The GPS system detoured them through forest service roads which were receiving heavy snow.
Klein left the vehicle to walk to State Route 67 to get help.
She had some food and water and was dressed in several layers of clothing.
Mount Washington in New Hampshire probably kills more people than any other mountain in the U.S. It’s an easy drive for suburbanites and city folks throughout the Northeast, but ascendent by foot can be treacherous, especially when there are unexpected autumn snow storms. There is also the annual cost of searching for lost hikers.
That’s some of the dumbest luck I’ve ever heard of. The Kaibab Plateau in winter is about as remote and dangerous a place to be as anywhere in the lower 48. Much of the plateau is over 9000 feet high and completely snowed in by November. These people were likely twenty miles or more from the nearest human being by the time they managed to stick their vehicle. A nasty winter storm just blew through, dropping a foot or more of new snow. There is no reason at all that they should have found this woman until the buzzards began circling in April or May.
There are several GPS programs which send people trying to visit us over a Class VI road that peters out and eventually ends in a field of boulders. A couple from Ireland with two kids got stuck there a few years ago.
Yes, in the Notheeast.
“What happened to maps?”
___________________
Very good question. We rely on our GPS quite a bit, BUT we still carry state & local maps in all three vehicles.
I think it’s probably hard to find real maps anymore. i doubt gas stations anymore.
Just like many other things like phone services have disappeared in he computer age.
Same situation here.
Our year-round residence/cabin is on a rough dirt road that turns into a trail no better than a creek bed up the hill from us. Very steep, rocky and never plowed in winter or maintained in summer.
The Jeep Club uses it for their weekend outings. We have three 4WD GMC/Chevy trucks that I won’t even take up there...just not worth the risk.
One summer day we were astonished to see an 18-wheeler stop in front of the house, down hill. His brakes were
smoking so bad I thought they were on fire. Don’t know how they even stopped him at all.
The young driver said that’s the last time he’ll rely on his GPS when travelling the back roads. It took him 4 hours to creep 3 miles down our ‘road’.
And yes, this is also in the Northeast (upstate NY). People out west mistakenly think the Northeast is all paved roads and big cities. I must admit that I thought the same before we moved here from Eastern WA state 25 years ago.
Map reading is an acquired skill that has been for the most part lost for quite some time. Eagle Scout and Order of the Arrow Brotherhood taught me many things that paid off when I entered the service of our country.
In basic training, one of the items on the bivouac week was to navigate a specific route given to us with the only directions a map, some landmarks and compass azimuths. Each of us individually had to navigate that course in a time limited test. I was stunned how many in 1971 could not even get to where they were starting from, never mind where it was they were to be going.
GPS is nice when trying to find something in an urban setting but I always switch over to the map view when traveling. I still carry my lensatic compass wherever I go and in addition to keeping my mileage and daily work tables, the little netbook laptop runs Microsofts Street & Trips with a GPS dongle. The only trouble with that is Microsoft no longer supports the product and the updated maps are non-existent.
Well, if it doesn't have a giant flashing neon sign proclaiming "FOREST SERVICE ROAD" on it every quarter of a mile, how can you expect the people to know that it's a service road?
Regards,
LOL! Great move, and sounds like a good time as well.
I went traveling all over the place checking out our national parks during the 60s, 70s and my pals were two ex-Boy Scouts. We only navigated by maps ... there was nothing else. It wasn’t hard because the parks are huge and easy to find. But I learned a bit about the basics of the US highway system and how to get around.
And, I grew up [like everyone else] getting around Los Angeles with maps. A new Thomas Guide was a necessary tool.
I was stunned a few years back to see how the Thomas Guide had shrunk.
over my travels I had a huge map collection. I gathered them up years ago and gave to Goodwill. Laer on I realized I missed them.
It appears a combination of not using maps and relying on a gps system in unfamiliar territory almost did them in. I’ve learned our GPS navigation system is less than perfect. In the remote countryside it shows roads that do not exist or will show the long way to get to the destination.
We travel forest service roads often. Just go get one of their maps, they are a bit confusing as they look like a spider web drawn on paper, but they do work.
Now for city driving, you can’t beat the gps navigation systems.
Or in broad daylight.
Broke every rule of outback travel.
GPS doe NOT stand for going places safely.
Put other people in harm’s way inexcusable.
As posters have noted, plenty of mistakes here. Glad it turned out well.
There are plenty of forest service roads in the eastern states where you could get hopelessly lost. Tons in western PA and western VA alone. Big difference is that they are lower elevation than the roads out west and do not get the snowfall nor do they get the extremely cold temperatures found in higher elevations out west.
This family was extremely fortunate.
When traveling the south side of Fort Bragg, NC along Plank or Chicken Roads and you’re try to get to Southern Pines a GPS will try and route you north along the Fire Breaks (single lane dirt trails). Many of them lead into the Artillery Impact Areas.
Could be bad for somebody who says “The GPS says turn here.”
I’ve still got a big stack of folding maps floating around the house somewhere. Mostly really out of date, though.
Merry Christmas, Nick!
(Adventures with GPS, Darks.)
At least she didn’t have to walk 26 miles across the sea.
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