Have you been LOST? (In the woods-lost in city doesn't count)

I've been temporarily misplaced in the past, in the flat scrubby country of outback Australia during summer. I actually new where I was, I was on Ramadel Cattle Station. Only problem was Ramadel covered several hundred thousand acres. Eventually found the truck 14 hours after I set out for a 1 hour walk.
These days carry GPS, Radio, compass & topographic map if hunting remote locations & have not been misplaced since carrying these items. I have had a false position displayed on my GPS, after falling in a creek & submerging the unit, but was able to confirm my position with map & compass.
I have a hunting buddy that we nicknamed "bang bang", cause every second time he comes out deer hunting with us in the mountains ,he gets lost & fires shots to get our attention.
 
Never lost in the woods, but I did take a very long walking tour of Shekou, China once without intending to. It may as well been the woods since no other life form I saw spoke my language and the buildings, like trees, all looked the same...
 
I have, and it sucks.

Around here, it's simple to find your way out... follow gravity: Go down. Go down. Go down. (Follow the canyons)
Eventually, you'll hit a road, highway, camp, pipeline, river, stream, cabin, mining claim... something. If there's still no sign of help, follow the water or keep going down.

Florida wasn't so kind. Getting lost in the swamp is a terrible feeling. At the time, it was made much worse by the fact that I was driving and couldn't go back via the "road" I came in on, and the sun was going down... :(
That time, I got lucky, and found a 'jeep trail' intersection I recognized on my topo map.
 
I was when I was a kid and I panicked. I was hunting on a 30,000 acre ranch near the Mexican border in a deer blind by myself and I was new to hunting alone. Truck and guide and my dad dropped me off and left me alone. Like I always do, I got bored and began exploring. Before I knew it it was getting dark and I was in thick brush lost wandering in circles. I panicked and just hauled butt through the thorns and cactus and stumbled out on to the road near my blind. I wandered all about 200 yards. Lol
 
Once, and I did not like it! Once I calmed down and remembered that there was a paved road nearby I was ok. I picked up the faint sound of a vehicle driving by and followed it out.
 
yup, we were doing a 5 man drive in thick snow up to my waist, i started to veer of and actually walked in a circle like the myth, I thought it seemed longer than the hunt-leader said. made a 30 minute walk into a 2 hour, had sporadic cell coverage and it isn't like it was way out in the wilderness but I was lost

Also gotten lost in a cross country ski-track, how you wonder the tracks will always lead somewhere but no. we didn't see the turn because it had snowed over so we were skiing a loop of a couple of miles and didn't realize it until the third pass:o
 
The absolute best "lost" story I've ever heard happend to a friend of mine. He is a realtor down here in FL and was hunting on public land in KY. He got lost and happened to wonder onto some private land. The foreman of the farm found him and was going to give him a ride back to camp but they wound up going to the land-owners main house. They all started sitting around talking, produced a bottle of liquor, and my friend actually had the balls to ask the owner if he could borrow his shower (deer camp had been primitive).

After his shower, they talked more and he found that the owner (a seriously wealthy guy) had been thinking about buying a waterfront vacation spot in FL. Remember I said my friend was a realtor? He wound up selling the wealthy owner a multi-million dollar waterfront house down here.

The rich guy has actually moved down here and they remain tight friends.
 
I can relate to Art Eatman's post. I was hunting The Eastern Shore (Maryland) salt swamps. They are flat as a board and the reed banks are over your head at most places, and then the areas with bayberry bushes. I looked at the sun going in and moved right along. What I did not know was that it rains almost every day and gets huge fog banks. There is one road cutting through tens of thousands of acres. I figure I walked parallel to that road about 3-4 hours before I heard a car go by. I would never go in there again without a compass and map. It sounds stupid, but a compass does you no good if you don't know where you are.
 
I guess I am just too cautious. But, I have mistaken one drainage for another and ended up walking a few extra miles.

You really have to watch what you are doing in flat coastal plains. Paper company land that looks the same for miles.

I have spend a lot of time hunting on the continental divide. It is not a straight line by any means and often the direction it eventually takes doesn't jump out at you. And, if you get a little turned around the drainage you think will take you down to the river and camp may put you on another on the wrong side.
 
I got lost in a Bass Pro once, does that count? :D

Seriously though I have been lost in the woods twice. Once was a relatively large state park where worst case you keep walking eventually you will pop out in civilization. Ok worst case you walk onto a pot farm but I digress.

The other was in Maine woods and these were real honest to by God if you go the wrong way your are screwed unless your first name is Grizzly. That was a bit unsettling. Took the better part of a day to suss things out. At one point a buddy I was with just stops dead in his tracks and very calmly YELLS AT THE TOP OF THIS LUNGS HEEEELLLPPPPP!!!!!. Then very calmly started back walking simply saying, what the hell I had to give it a try. :D
 
I've never been lost when I had my compass with me. But...in my teen years I went squirrel hunting in a large wooded area near where I lived in Louisiana. It had just rained a bunch and the area I hunted was flooded to a depth of about 9 inches or so. I didn't have the compass. I got lost. Sky was clouded over. I walked and I walked and I walked and eventually found my way out of the woods, though I had to walk through a large hog pen area. The owner asked where I had come from and I told the truth. "Got lost". So, I walked a mile or two back to the house, where my cousin was waiting. "Where ya been?". I told him I had gotten lost and he thought that was the funniest damn thing he had ever heard, and wondered how in the world could I have been dumb enough to have gotten lost. Well, that really ticked me off, so I took him back in the flooded woods to show where I had gotten turned around and darned if we didn't find ourselves lost. Unbelievable. We wandered around for half an hour and then came across muddy water where somebody had been walking earlier in the day. That would be ME. Followed the muddy water trail back to the hog pen AGAIN, walked past the owner AGAIN and then walked the couple miles back to the house. Cuz and I didn't chat much on the long walk. Geez! Went straight to my grandpa and asked for his extra compass.
 
Woods, plains and desert are my comfort zone. In the mountains or marsh you can get me turned around and confused all day long till night comes and I can see the stars. If you want to lose me just take me to any large city with more than 10,000 people and walk me 3 blocks away from where I want to be and then laugh at me because I am not a happy camper.
 
Lost in Dublin, Ireland, but that doesn't count. I teach land navigation to Boy Scouts and it consists of normal good-to-know things such as map reading and compass work. At the beginning of a teaching session we begin with a little prayer:

When I'm lost and in doubt,
let me run in circles, scream, and shout.

Works for me.
 
Lots of little tricks. Stopping to look back and see what the country behind you looks like, checking for landmarks in the direction of where you came from is one.

Remembering the pattern of winds is another. In my area, early morning breezes are from the northwest. In the afternoon, from the southeast. Absent some weather change, those are quite reliable. In coastal areas, the land breeze/sea breeze directions are fairly obvious.

Always carry a deck of cards. If you get lost, stop and lay out a game of solitaire. Pretty soon, Sumdood will come along and tell you to play the red six on the black seven.

Gotta hope he ain't lost, either...
 
Came close to being lost, but it was mainly just confused. I could see where it would be easy to get lost in the woods at night.
 
Two of us went to New Mexico to dirt bike in the desert. We stayed in a big tent on the edge of the desert.

My riding partner wussed out and being bull headed, I went alone. That was probably one of the most dangerous things I've ever done. I was alone and 20-25 miles out in the desert where every bush looks like every other bush. I had a GPS but I stopped, got a sighting, then attempted to keep my landmark in view as I rode. That didn't work! I kept getting very lost during my daily rides.

Finally, I used Velcro to mount the GPS on the front fender of the bike. That way, I could keep both hands on the handlebars and keep the arrows of the GPS lined up as I rode. That worked like a charm!

Flash
 
I was lost for about 3 hours in swampy wilderness country of Huron Nat'l Forest. But I made my way out with help of a small compass.

Jack
 
I was raised in the woods (we were farmers and loggers) and was lost alot. Never really cared and learned lots of new territory that way. I just got through hiking for the better part of three days on an archery mule deer hunt with no compass (don't own a GPS) and came out 2 miles south on the road from my vehicle. Couldn't quite close the deal on a 180 mulie, but there's next week after I rest the old bones a bit. BTW the elk are pushing cows and screaming. Saw a big 6 point this morning with about 20 cows. Priceless. :D
 
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