Posted on 04/14/2021 9:23:12 AM PDT by SJackson
Rene Compean texted a friend Monday that he was lost and that his phone was dying before he went missing in the San Gabriel Mountains
A California man who went missing Monday evening while on a hike in the San Gabriel Mountains has been found.
Rene Compean, 45, was found near the Chilao Campgrounds on Tuesday afternoon, the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department told ABC 7 and NBC Los Angeles.
Compean was reportedly airlifted out, was in good condition and will not need to be hospitalized, ABC 7 reported.
The rescue came just hours after the Sheriff's department asked "avid hikers" to help identify the area Compean had been when he sent his friend a photo during his trek on Monday.
He later texted his friend shortly before 6 p.m. saying that he was lost and that his phone was dying, prompting authorities to utilize the photo in the search for Compean. It was not clear if the photo ended up leading to his rescue or not.
Compean had been hiking in the Mount Waterman area of the mountain range, which is northeast of Los Angeles. The photo he texted his friend showed his legs, which were covered in dirt, and a canyon below where he was sitting.
(Excerpt) Read more at people.com ...
Lucky he had service. Glad he's OK. Wonder if he had a map with him. Compass, and could he use it. Can't depend on phones or gps, particularly without battery backup. Wonder if he knew where he was hiking to begin with.
Why would the ‘authorities’ ask hikers for help identifying his location in the photo sent to friends? Almost all pics from smart phones are geotagged with the GPS coordinates.
Just read the metadata in the photo.
Went missing? They mean he got lost right? Or did aliens take him for a while?
“Just read the metadata in the photo.”
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Exactly. Unless his phone had the capability to turn that off and he did so.
Note to self: Next woodland walk, take fully charged phone, bear spray, granola bars and when I get lost, phone a friend! ;)
We have a lot of acres in woods and it was easy enough for me to get lost right here ‘at home!’ After six years now, I finally have our land broken down in my mind into ‘rooms.’ Beau has only had to physically come FIND me, once. I was on the other side of the ridge, and below him, so I just started yelling, LOL!
But, if you’re in unfamiliar territory, it can be pretty scary; especially at night.
Surprised hikers don’t use some type of breadcrumb dropping app. Others could use that. If lost and battery goes dead, stay at the last crumb location. Of course NG without service.
When I was a kid, I was in sleepaway camp. My mother sent me against my will every summer. Even though i was a city boy, i loved the great outdoors (though I HATED camp). I felt completely at home in the woods. And i had a great sense of direction. I could walk aimlessly for miles in the woods without so much as a compass and never get lost.
One time the counselors decided to take us kids on a hike through the woods. I do not know how long a distance they led us on this hike or how much time we spent walking. But i do recall we pretty much hiked in a mostly straight southernly direction, with our backs to our camp.
Then the counselors decided it was time to head back to camp. Only they couldnt remember how to get back to camp. I was amazed at their stupidity. To me, i already knew how to get back. Just turn around 180 degrees and walk in a straight direction, due north. But i kept my mouth shut at first. The kids and counselors in camp always treated me with derision and disdain. I was normally bullied by both campers and counselors. The counselors that didnt bully me, turned a blind eye to those who did.
I watched as the counselors conferred with each other and debated which direction we should walk next in order to try to get back to camp. They pointed and walked in each and every direction except for the direction we came from. At one point we came upon a paved two way road. One of the counselors asked, “did we cross a road?” (No, we didnt)
Finally i spoke up and pointed in the direction we came from, telling the counselors thats the way back to camp. They didnt exactly listen to me, going into a small debate about which direction to go next. I thought to myself, “the hell with the rest of you. Stay lost in the woods. I’m going back to camp”.
I set about walking back to camp. For whatever reason, without a word, the counselors shrugged their shoulders and started following me and the campers followed them. After a while we came upon some thick brush. One of the counselors audibly complained, “this isn’t the way back to camp!!!”. With my hands I parted the brush which revealed the rear side of one of the many cabins of our camp, effectively silencing that dumb counselor.
I never got so much as a thank you for saving those idiots from being lost in the woods and leading them out.
The counselors never took us campers on another hike again. From then on we were confined to the camp (though without telling anybody, knowing I’d never get permission anyways, I’d take off for my own solitary hikes in the woods).
isn’t all the geo-location done by the phone embedded in the pic or text?
Thank you! For saving the day back then, and for posting your story today.
"...lost..."
It is a gift.
Most do not have it.
I can see why you didn’t like camp too much.
They knew you saved their behinds.
Upon further reflection, I'm not sure the geotagging is passed along when you text a photo to someone else.
My son and I have both been blessed with an unusually good sense of direction, him more so than me. It helps to be aware and observant as you go your way, taking special note of unique landmarks, not only as you approach them, but looking back after you’ve passed them since they’ll look different on the way back. I’ve never gotten lost in my life, while a lot of people I know can even get lost in parking lots.
Yep, it depends, DuckDuckGo tells me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/91i2sc/ysk_photos_sent_via_imessage_include_the/
“...Every photo taken by your iPhone contains geo-location information by default (as well as other EXIF attributes). When sending them through most other messaging services, this information is usually removed as part of compression, but not in iMessage. Saving the photo someone sent you will show you the location it was taken at.
To avoid that, you can either turn off Location Services for the stock camera app, or take a picture directly from the iMessage app and send it. Pictures taken from the iMessage app do not contain the geo-location info apparently....”
I have no sense of direction whatsoever (girl brain), which is why I am so thankful for my car’s navigation system. If I had a dollar for every time I got lost in the old days....
I believe some things are better left alone.
One of the things I learned in aircrew survival school was that people don’t walk in a straight line unless they have a distant object to fixate upon. This is why people in the desert walk in circles unless they have a compass or other device to keep them on course.
I have the same sense of direction, desert or mountains, rain or shine, I always find my way back to camp.
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