Posted on 09/03/2025 11:50:09 PM PDT by thecodont
Halfway into a recent weeklong backpacking trip through California’s Sierra Nevada, nine members of a scout troop and their scoutmaster came across a man standing alone in a meadow deep in the Emigrant Wilderness. He appeared disoriented and didn’t have any hiking or camping gear.
The California Highway Patrol confirmed the man was Douglas Montgomery. The group soon learned the 78-year-old was an experienced outdoorsman and former scoutmaster himself. The group also learned that he was stranded after veering 15 miles off his intended route, had lost his backpack, and had been battling hypothermia for two days.
“We started very quickly realizing that he wasn’t all right,” said Michael-James Hey, scoutmaster for Troop 26 from Santa Barbara. “He was looking really bedraggled. He’s got cuts all over his hands. He’s very unsteady on his feet, and he’s being polite, but he’s pretty out of it.”
Montgomery was on a two-week-long solo backpacking trip. Several miles earlier, he’d set his pack down and left to get a better look at his whereabouts and the trail. When he came back, he was unable to find the pack, which contained all his food, water and camping gear, as well as a GPS-enabled communication device.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
” The leader eschewed a topo map in favor of her cell phone.”
That should have been a clue that they were idiots. She probably couldn’t read a topo map. Topo was all we had back in the day.
Ultra stupidity in the ultralite community. I am all for a base weight of 4 pounds (tent, pack, sleeping bag/mat), and another 6 lbs of socks, a change of clothing plus a dedicated sleep clothing to keep my sleeping bag clean from body oil and sweat) and 1.5 lbs of food per day. I usually hike with 17 lbs of gear, food and clothing and a capacity for 4-6 liters of water, carrying two or three liters. This includes a 5k power brick, a GPS, phone, headlamp, first aid kit, and cooking gear using denatured alcohol. I make ample use of Freeze Dried meals, usually buying can of Mountain house and breaking down into portions. A few Koean coffee sticks, and I’m golden.
I wrap the balls of my feet, heels and insoles with tape of any kind to prevent blisters.
I don’t have much extra, no guns or ammo. My knife is a 1.4 oz mini scissors, knife combo pliars type thing - I once went out with a taped razor blade - that was incovenient and dangerous - but many forgoe decent first aid gear or hydration supplements.
I always have a paper map in addition to what’s on my phone or used in the GPS.
There is a guy on Youtube that hikes with less gear than his liter of water - some sort of badge of honor in the hiking ocmmunity. It is sheer insanity.
Try the Allagash in Maine, if youget lost you could end up in Canada, or drowned in all the water features, or just wet in cold weather, and die of hypothermia.
I never think of north/western Maine. That place is scary big.
Most of the rest of New England, you aren’t more than 5-10 miles from the nearest road. And if you find a road…you can walk out.
Although, we have idiots get themselves lost in the rocks in Western MA hills every week. As someone who has walked around this place for almost 60 years, I don’t understand how people miss the basic warnings and prep things. But….none of them ask me. Ha Ha.
When camping at the seashore, it is quite easy to get lost when walking along a long, straight beach at night. Your tent is behind the first or second row of dunes, and you cannot see it from the beach. What I have learned to do is scrape several sets of long lines in the sand with my foot perpendicular to the water. I make a double line pointing at my campsite, flanked on either side by single lines about fifty feet apart. Sometimes, I leave a light stick nearby at the edge of the dunes to mark the location, but these are often missed or stolen.
Rescue badge
First Aid Badge
Glad they didn’t earn their Cadaver badge.
Mike sounds like he was a great guy.
Canoe trips need not be minimalist.
I spotted two major mistakes.
It's why they have clips to attach to your person.
I have an older Apple iPhone XS that is no longer in use as a telephone. The GPS chip in the phone is accurate within a couple of yards. I have a golf range finder app installed on the phone, but have to load up the course on WiFi before heading out to the course. Apple Map has the ability to create offline maps at least with the newest OS version. Third party offline maps are also available.
There was a group called the Mountaineers in Washington state, something like that, who spoofed photographers and through them the readers of Life magazine or whoever about mountain climbing. They carried watermelons and carved them up during a lunch break as if that was standard mountain climbing fare.
There was a tragic incident on the Appalachian trail a few years back. A nice lady was solo hiking went off trail to go to the bathroom and then lost the trail. No Cell signal, and they didn’t find her body until a year or two later, inside a tent. It seems she tried to light a signal campfire and was unsuccessful, it wasn’t clear to me she even had matches or a lighter. Very sad.
“But if you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life you should never, under any circumstances, go on long hikes alone. Don’t take short hikes alone, either — or, for that matter, go anywhere alone.
And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs. Wear wool next to the skin. Insure every good and chattel you possess against every conceivable contingency the future might bring, even if the premiums half-cripple the present.
Never cross an intersection against a red light, even when you can see all roads are clear for miles. And never, of course, explore the guts of an idea that seems as if it might threaten one of your more cherished beliefs. In your wisdom you will probably live to be a ripe old age. But you may discover, just before you die, that you have been dead for a long, long time.”
Colin Fletcher hiked the length of California solo in 1958, when such things just weren’t done. Later, the entire length of Grand Canyon. A combat veteran of the second World Wars, with the Welsh Marines, something like that. Admittedly hiking alone at 78 years is a little bit of a stretch. I’m not sure what Colin would say here.
Me either, but any sane reasonable person would say it was a mistake.
A few of the guys on this thread should look into Bothy bags.
They are far less than a tent but they can be something to keep the rain and wind off you while you rest and make something to eat.
Are Bothy Bags any good? - Review of this emergency/survival shelter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrQntDraOc0
You left out spending weeks trying to pick up the Mongol’s treasurer’s girlfriend where she bartends.
Never go on a solo back packing trip.
I bought a new one last year. I thought the sat thing was “a joke.” Then I tried it. it took a minute to catch the satellites, but it is legit. I could imagine using it if I got lost when I was riding my motorcycle around the southwest deserts.
But a map and compass and the basic skills to use it still makes me feel comfortable.
And….if you get lost, just sit your ass down if you don’t know what you are doing. That is what I taught my young kids.
Solitude works better when one is alone.
Cool stuff these days. I use to go on canoe fishing trips way back in the day. When we ended the trip, my dad called my mom on a pay phone and let her know we would be back home in a couple of days.
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