Gross Navigational Errors

[Sagebrusher]

how did this happen? I assume the trail junctions are marked. Bryce is hard to get generally lost in since the rim is always above you...




Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
Rangers Locate Missing Maryland Woman

A 48-year-old Maryland woman was rescued from the Under the Rim Trail in Bryce Canyon on the evening of Wednesday, November 7th. The woman had become disoriented while attempting to solo hike the Peek-a-Boo Loop day hike the previous day. When she descended the trail from Bryce Point, she inadvertently turned onto the Under the Rim trail – a trail stretching approximately 23 miles southward from Bryce Point into designated wilderness. The woman hiked a little over 10 miles over two days, clad only in a T-shirt and shorts and with minimal water and food. Temperatures dropped into the 30’s that night. Staff at the hotel where she was staying in Kanab, Utah, reported her as missing around 10 a.m. on the 7th. Rangers located her rental car parked at Bryce Point and began recruiting staff and visitors to watch for the missing solo hiker on frontcountry trails. Park search teams hiked approximately 19 miles of both frontcountry and backcountry trails and found five “S.O.S.” notes left by the hiker in her 29 hour journey. Ranger Eric Vasquez located the missing woman at approximately 4:30 p.m. near the Sheep Creek junction of the Under the Rim trail. She was in good condition, partially due to unseasonably warm weather. The woman said that she had been awake all night doing calisthenics to stay warm and had built a shelter out of tree branches in preparedness for another night in the backcountry. Ranger Tyla Guss was the IC for this incident.

[ppine]

She was from the East Coast and got low on water and got scared. There is a fine line between okay and not okay. She got panicky and made some bad decisions.

[Sagebrusher]

Ok, looking at the trail junction I can see why someone might get confused...but after going 10 miles on a 5-mile loop I would probably turn back!

The junction is just a 100 yards down from the parking lot, The Peek-a-Boo trail requires a hard left at the junction...

https://maps.google.com/?ll=37.60346...01725&t=h&z=19

[TakeAHike]

I know that I would certainly have realized I was lost after I went 10 miles on what should have been a 5 mile trail. She definitely made some bad decisions. Besides that, if you think your lost you shouldn't continue on you should either turn back the way you came or sit down, make camp and wait for help. She shouldn't have been out there alone if she didn't know what she was doing.

[ghostdog]

Originally Posted by Sagebrusher

Ok, looking at the trail junction I can see why someone might get confused...but after going 10 miles on a 5-mile loop I would probably turn back!

The junction is just a 100 yards down from the parking lot, The Peek-a-Boo trail requires a hard left at the junction...

https://maps.google.com/?ll=37.60346...01725&t=h&z=19

That link you put up is the prefect example of why a good map is so important. When she didn't hit the switchbacks, she should have known something was wrong. Missing the hard left fork is forgivable. Its something I have done before when not paying enough attention to walking and navigating, though my fork was faint and not so trampled as that one. My map quickly told me I was not in the correct place, that I had gone past my intended route and showed me how to recover in just several minutes. A map can tell you which way you should be going, if the terrain is leading up, down or level, features you should be experiencing and how far an objective is. It is essential even for experienced hikers.

[Sagebrusher]

Originally Posted by ghostdog

That link you put up is the prefect example of why a good map is so important. When she didn't hit the switchbacks, she should have known something was wrong. Missing the hard left fork is forgivable. Its something I have done before when not paying enough attention to walking and navigating, though my fork was faint and not so trampled as that one. My map quickly told me I was not in the correct place, that I had gone past my intended route and showed me how to recover in just several minutes. A map can tell you which way you should be going, if the terrain is leading up, down or level, features you should be experiencing and how far an objective is. It is essential even for experienced hikers.

That's assuming they can even read a map. I think a lot of people can't. In fact, sometimes I get the impression, when I'm giving directions, that people don't know north from south, even in my home city where the streets are laid out in a Jeffersonian grid.

[ghostdog]

Originally Posted by Sagebrusher

That's assuming they can even read a map. I think a lot of people can't. In fact, sometimes I get the impression, when I'm giving directions, that people don't know north from south, even in my home city where the streets are laid out in a Jeffersonian grid.

True that. I kind of forget because I started using 7.5 minute quads when I was 12 years old. I wrote a letter to some country office saying I was backpacking into an area and needed maps. They sent me a tube with three quads and the map fascination started. I had a 30 year career in procuring the aerial photography to make maps and used maps extensively every day in that period. Now I’m just a map junkie with a hiking habit.

You are right about directions in town. When I ask if a place is on the north or south side of the street some say, I don't know. Then they say on the left side. Amazing.

[Sagebrusher]

How it happened...

Lost In Bryce Canyon National Park: Wrong Turn Transforms Day Hike Into 30-Hour Odyssey | National Parks Traveler

[oldsarge]

Originally Posted by Sagebrusher

How it happened...

Lost In Bryce Canyon National Park: Wrong Turn Transforms Day Hike Into 30-Hour Odyssey | National Parks Traveler

Great story, thanks for posting!!!!