Getting Lost

I get lost in the woods fairly often.  There's nothing like that terrible feeling when you're walking through the woods and it all starts looking the same.  You keep second guessing yourself and you might get panicky.  This is exactly what you shouldn't do.

When I get lost, I trust my instinct.  If I feel like one way is the right direction to get me back to a familiar place I go that way.  However, I'm pretty experienced at getting lost.  That's okay though because I'm even better at finding my way back.

I realize I'm lost when I decide to go back and things aren't the way I expected them to be.  For example, there isn't a path, a ditch, or a habitat change where I expected there to be one.  At that point I'm like, "Crap, I'm lost."  I could pull a Bear Grylls and climb way into the tree tops to see what's around.  In a forest that's not really possible because most of the tall trees are about the same height and you can't stand on those tiny branches at the top to get a decent look out over the forest to spot any landmarks.  If you find a tree that is much higher than the other trees give it a shot if you want.  What I do is go back to an area that I know I've been to before.  I tend to notice exceptionally large trees or less common plant species.  Once I find that place I can usually start back tracking from there.  I tend to get on a game trail that seems like it goes in the right direction.  I'll follow and look for anything familiar.  These trails usually will lead me to a landmark that will reset my bearings.

I always look at an area that I'll be exploring from a google earth to get an idea of the lay of the land.

The image below shows an area that I was lost in but then I found this odd looking cypress tree that I had seen earlier on the way in.