You Ever Get Turned Around In The Woods?

[Nameless Range]

I am kind of ashamed of this, but it was a surreal experience I figured I’d share. Opening morning my hunting partner and I got absolutely turned around – 100% disoriented in terms of direction - on our hunt, and more than once.

I had hiked this ridge once before probably a decade ago, and it was elky. Opening morning at 8,000 ft brought snow and wind and fog with a legit 75-100 yard visibility. The plan was simple. Hike the quarter mile to the top of a ridge, and walk north along it.

We got out, ascended the ridge, and began our hike. Not a half hour into it we crossed some boot tracks. “Damn, someone else is ahead of us.” Stopped overlooking a park to assess our plan, and fired up OnX. Those tracks were ours. What the hell. Ok, we thought, we need to turn around, because we are literally 180 degrees the opposite of what we think we are. So we start heading that direction, and after another 45 minutes run into our boot tracks again. Jesus Christ.

For the next hour I just checked the GPS every 5 minutes to stay headed in the right direction. My hunting partner said it best, “It feels like we are fighting the GPS”. Though the GPS was keeping us on the ridge, it always felt like we were hiking off of its sides.

My thoughts are this ridge is lumpy and wide and once you are on top it ceases its slope up, and is without any clear flanks. The timber on top is thick. Visibility was 75 yards, and no topography in the distance could be used as a benchmark. It was snowing and blowing hard. I don’t know what else to say. The only analagous thing I can think of is an inner-ear issue, where you so lose point of reference, that you are adrift in terms of direction.

It really felt unbelievable, and it was humbling. We walked over our own boot tracks twice in the first two miles of our hike. Had I not had a GPS, much the same as the first decade of my hunting life, we probably would’ve ended up in some drainage we didn’t even expect, and would’ve had a long walk back to the truck. I spend a fair amount of time outdoors, and regard myself as better-than-average at orienteering and I was turned around as hell, so maybe I shouldn't.

Our tracks. For most of those first two loops, we thought we were walking in what was generally a straight direction:



The clearest it got that morning and the opening in the center of the loop we walked at first:



The timber we were hiking in:



Anyone have any stories of times they got turned around in the woods?

 

[hank4elk]

Oh yeah.
It's why I always have a compass with me...or the Garmin.
Every valley with a dirt road in NM looked like my road to me for a couple years. We just have the same trees, mud ,rocks, mesas................

 

[nrpate05]

That is a surreal experience. I've only had it happen once but it was the biggest mindf*ck ever. I literally couldn't believe I ended up where I did. It was foggy and I got turned around in some timber. Thought I was heading west but I was heading north and ended up on a different trail than I anticipated. Didn't have a GPS (~10 years ago) so I panic climbed to the top of a ridge. Luckily the fog lifted enough that I could see a road in the valley. At first I thought it was the road I came in on and I almost left thinking that but I did a double take and it was the road in the adjacent valley. I was so turned around I couldn't believe it. Ended up being fine but it is the weirdest experience to not know where you are and what direction you're headed.

 

[JT88]

Ever watched any of the "Hunter disappears in woods, discovered 10 years later 15 miles away from search area" videos on youtube? Some of them are downright creepy. Surprised it doesn't happen more with how many people are in the mountains nowadays. Sometimes your "point of reference" landmarks aren't visible and things can get confusing. Panic is the enemy

 

[ammo]

I was solo hunting last halloween and was crawling through over-head-height deadfall to get back to my truck. It was a real sophies choice of either over-head-height deadfall OR swamp. At one point after going through a particularly horrible section I realized I had made a complete circle and was headed back up the mountain.

Also (unrelated) on that trip - that opening morning a couple of guys pulled up to the truck while I was making coffee and asked me where 'we' were headed (as if I had a sleeping husband stashed away in the back). I said 'we' were going X direction. Granted I do often hunt with the husband unit, but also found it pretty entertaining that these guys had invented a hunting partner for me when it was visibly just me myself and I.

Also (unrelated) on that trip - FYSA Moose rutting make the most terrifying ungodly sounds. If you ever hear truly horrifying yeti screams and it's roughly Octoberish.

 

[elkduds]

First time it was on familiar terrain, very foggy. 2nd time it was in a series of parallel creek deep draws. I'm w @hank4elk, gps is nice, compass is mandatory. I still like printed paper maps along w compass.

 

[Schaaf]

Never on land but I was turned around in a snowstorm in my boat on Fort Peck after the GPS unit took a dump. Most humbling experience of my life. I regularly think about how lucky I was to not run it on the shore somewhere that night.

 

[Sam Colt]

Always. Always. Always have a compass on my wrist. Always.

At least since the last time this happened to me. It's humbling when you're 50 miles from the nearest human settlement and there are hundreds of miles of wilderness in every direction.

 

[gouch]

When I was younger, I always told people that getting lost was the best way to find new and better hunting spots. It was always an adventure and I always seemed to find my way back eventually, so all was good. Then one day I got turned around and it got dark. It was a clear night so I could navigate by the stars, and I knew that the main FS road was south of me, so I headed south. I eventually hit the road which eventually led me to the road that I was camped by, which eventually led me to my camp. By then it was time to rise and shine and get ready for the morning hunt. My first thought was, I'm getting too old for this sh*t. The next week I bought my first Garmin.

 

[TrumpkinTheDwarf]

Been turned around a few times in timber and snow, just like you're describing... The sharper the terrain features, the less issue I have. Where you really get mixed up is when you start tracking a bull in snow, and he just keeps running loops in the timber. That takes some time to realize what's going on.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Never out west... well not since I was a kid, but the MA woods are very humbling.

This crap is so hard to move through you find yourself doing circles in under 50 yards.

 

[hank4elk]

Never on land but I was turned around in a snowstorm in my boat on Fort Peck after the GPS unit took a dump. Most humbling experience of my life. I regularly think about how lucky I was to not run it on the shore somewhere that night.

I've had the compass go out in rough seas, in the fog, in what is called the graveyard of the coast ....at night. LOL
Finding lost boaters on a lake is a cake walk.

 

[thusby]

Never out west... well not since I was a kid, but the MA woods are very humbling.

This crap is so hard to move through you find yourself doing circles in under 50 yards.

View attachment 246206

100%, I can get lost in featureless woods when I’m 100 yards from the truck chasing grouse.

 

[Nameless Range]

When I use words like "embarrassed" or "surreal", I really do mean them. My buddy and I were quite bothered while it was happening, and we were joking, mostly to alleviate our anxiety, that this was some vortex we were in. I sheepishly spoke to my wife about it afterward - it sort of felt like a failure as an outdoorsman.


All that to say that if I read this story on Friday, and someone else on Hunt Talk had written it, I would say to myself, "Yeah, a guy can get turned around, but I am a bit too in tune with topography and direction for it to happen to me like that." Those would be wrong assumptions I would've made, and for what it is worth, I think "It can happen to you" is a lesson applicable to many who think it can't.

 

[thusby]

I've had the compass go out in rough seas, in the fog, in what is called the graveyard of the coast ....at night. LOL
Finding lost boaters on a lake is a cake walk.

I tried to boat up the Mississippi River in heavy fog one day. Drove for an hour in what I thought was the correct direction. Ended up right back at the beach I left. Must have driven some godawful big oval route.

 

[gouch]

It is amazing how you can walk in circles when you can't see any landmarks. I was hunting on some relatively flat ground, in heavy timber on a foggy day. My plan was to walk a straight line for a couple of miles then circle back around. After a couple of hours of walking I saw some footprints in the snow and thought, "Dammit I thought I was the only one in here". Then I realized they were my own tracks. I just went back along my own path to keep from getting anymore turned around.

 

[hank4elk]

I was young and full of it.
Went down the wrong drainage in the clouds. In the Sierra's. No map or compass.
I wound up 40 miles from my truck and hitchhiked back up 395 and walked the 5 miles to my truck. The 70's ...

 

[brocksw]

My first solo archery hunt in the mountains. I didn't get "lost", but I got turned around. Went after some elk on the other side of a drainage. Ended up about 3 miles from my camp at dark. Had to drop about 600 feet, find a spot to cross the creek, then climb 1000 feet over 800 yards to get on the ridge top about 600 feet above my camp.
Well long story short, I was feeling a little too confident in myself and didn't really take a good look at my GPS. I glanced at it, it looked like I was basically retracing my steps from earlier in the day (which was the plan). So, I started climbing. Got to the top, and even though it was dark, something still didn't seem right. Whipped out my GPS and here I climbed the wrong ridge and wound up on the mountain next to my camp. I stopped, ate all the food I had on me while cursing myself. Thought about starting a fire and just sleeping on the mountain. But I didn't think there was any chance I'd get any decent rest. It crossed my mind to let a bear eat me rather than correct my navigational error(That seemed easier). Anyway, I dropped back down to the bottom, climbed up the right ridge this time. Talk about sweaty and pissed off by the time I got back to my tent.

 

[Hem]

Pre GPS i spent a night on the mountain one September. Bowhunting elk one afternoon , by dark I just knew I wasn't gonna find the truck after hours. Instead of wandering around I stayed put. Built a fire in front of a tall steep faced rock, cut some pine boughs to lay on and cover myself with, ate a half cooked /burnt grouse. Stayed up shivering all night in a long sleeve cotton camo shirt. It wasn't glamorous.
Early GPS days similar scenario. Missed a turn off a ridge in the dark and ended up in a hell hole of downfall and alders. The GPS was running me in circles in the timber. Finally gave up on the device and used my head to make it out ...on one of those dark nights you can't see anything.
Last incident was pre GPS too. Went for a spring hike in the Gallatin. Parked on the highway and headed straight up the mountain to wander around. Pea soup fog and raining. At some point I realized I had no idea where I was, it was pointless to continue. All water runs to the Gallatin so I thrashed my way down a creek.
Humbling, but gotta stay calm and think.

 

[BirdManMike]

I got 'lost' in heavy fog just walking thru fields and sage brush once, just last season. I had a mile walk to the field I wanted to hunt and figured the fog would be burned off when I got there, or shortly after, since the sun was starting to peak thru it to the east. Made it to the field, walked a little way in, and waited 10 minutes with no sign of sun peaking, then called it and headed back since I needed to fly my falcon, didnt have all day to do it, and there had been no fog further down valley in the morning as I drove up.

Made my way back to the vehicle, only I was completely turned around and instead of going east went south, crossing a completely different fence and walking a ways into the field before realizing things were looking right. Only then did I look at the dog GPS to see where I was and realize my mistake, that I walked the wrong way and was an additional mile from the vehicle. Really eerie feeling, for sure.

Fog still hadnt burned off by the time I made it back.