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

Yeah, I've been lost. These swamps in Louisiana will let you get "turned around". Especially if you cross a little ridge that you don't even realize and suddenly all the drainages are running in the wrong direction. Overcast day, can't see the sun. It's a perfect recipe for coming out of the woods a long way from the truck.
 
Husqvarna, Art's right. When we find anything out here the BP gets a call and we don't touch it. Backpacks almost certainly have GPS tracking in them and it won't be the police visiting you.
 
I was hunting in norther minnesota with a friend and we were talking about being lost. My friend said he could find his way anywhere without a compass or a map. We were on back roads and he said to stop. He got out and said he would go out in the woods about 200 ft, turn around about 4 times with his eyes closed. Then he would open his eyes and walk streight back to the pickup. It was a very cloudy day and if I had not answered when he hollered he would still be there.

A compass and a map sure comes in handy when you are hunting, but only if you know how to use it.
 
All these stories reminded me of a time my x and I were doe hunting on top of a mountain. It had started to snow pretty good and every once and a while we would hear a shot. Along comes a guy dragging a nice big doe. He went past and about an hour later, here comes another guy from the same direction, dragging a doe. My wife said "I told you we should have sat over there farther". When the guy got closer we both started laughing. It was the same guy dragging the same deer. We did point him in the right direction.
 
I got turned around a few years ago in the fog and dark trying to walk out of a relatively small woodlot which I thought I knew like the back of my hand. I called my wife and told her not to wait on me for supper, I would be home a little late but don't worry. I had a headlight but no compass or GPS (I carry both now, especially the compass!). Couldn't see beyond 30-40 feet. Next thing I knew, I heard somebody hollering and went to it -- my wife had called the lady who owns the property and she had called another guy who hunts the place and he came and got me. I was about 200 yds from my truck. The assistance was appreciated but considering the embarrassment inherent in the escapade I would have preferred to be allowed to fend for myself. I now have a healthy respect for fog, and an appreciation of the compass.
 
Never really been lost here in my home area in Florida but turned around somewhat many times. The only time I have ever been truly lost was in 1991 in the Saudi desert a few clicks from the Iraq border. It was about 2 weeks before the ground war. Four of us took a HUMVEE to a local store to get some real food. On the way back to base camp it turned dark. We had a compass but was useless, we had no map. We got to where we thought the camp was but we were way off. We finally found the paved road again and went off a landmark on it. Come to find out we were only about 300 yards from camp but it was soo dark nothing could be seen. We also didnt want to go too far east and cross over into Iraq without the M1's.
 
I've never been in woods big enough to get really lost. How sad is that?
I'm not sure I've ever been over a mile and a half from pavement.
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Pretty much Ditto. I've been to the boundary waters(canoeing) but when it comes to hunting it's all been done here in Iowa which generally has roads every mile or two going every which way. Pretty hard to get lost here. Not saying I haven't been turned around and there has been more than a couple times when we were coon hunting that we'd get all turned around chasing dogs. More than once that I'd look at a compass and doubt what it was telling me. But we have never been close to that heart stopping experience of realizing "oh crap, where the heck are we".
 
i was lucky to learn some neat navigation and wayfinding tricks as a child by reading books, i've never been lost. though sometimes when i'm walking around tokyo things get a bit confusing..

i was also very fortunate to learn about sea navigation by reading a polynesian navigation book - that was remarkably useful, though difficult for most people to wrap their head around.

one of the neat tricks i learned as a child was an old native american trick - how to use a stick stuck in the ground to tell the 4 directions with remarkable accuracy. these days though i always have a compass on me be it my iphone or my suunto mc-2g compass (awesome compass by the way). but a compass is not a lot of use without a good topographic map!

for anyone who is interested, i really recommend learning a bit about navigation - it's quite easy to find resources on the internet. i am especially partial to maritime navigation as it's extremely precise. with a sextant and almanac you can find your position to within a few hundred meters, it's like having a GPS..! then again without charts that is useless, but still, using tracking techniques (to find your own tracks, so you can go back the way you came) in combination with navigation skill (i.e. using fixed reference points both ahead and behind you to avoid going in circles) you can really be more confident when you go out into the woods

these days i enjoy getting lost on purpose just to have fun using my wayfinding skills!
 
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Yes, within 100 yards of my parked vehicle

I had sat in my ladder stand all afternoon, with a road hardly 50 yards to my left, which led to my parking spot.

So, when darkness began to fall, I wasn't really worried about finding my car in the dark. I turned around and looked at my parked car several times, and convinced myself that I could stay in the tree until after dark. It would be only a couple of minutes walking to the car.

After total darkness fell, I was somewhat surprised at how dark it was. No moon, no stars, no lights from nearby houses, no sky glow from a nearby town. Just DARK!

So, I climbed down and started my short walk to the car. After about 15 minutes, I still had not even cut the nearby road. Then that sick feeling in my gut hit me. I didn't know which direction to go to get to the car.

Then, in the total darkness, a pack of coyotes sounded off. Sounded like 8 or 10 of them - close by. I had always heard they wouldn't attack humans, but they were snarling and fighting and making a big racket. I backed up to a large tree, and held my rifle at the ready - just in case.

Finally, after about another half hour of just sitting still, a car came down a nearby road, and I was able to get my bearings by watching it pass by. I had gone about a mile out of the way, getting farther and farther from my parked car, all the while.

I had to walk for about half an hour to get to the road where I saw the headlights pass by, and another half hour following the road, once I got on it.

So, my 2 minute walk to my car turned into a 2 hour ordeal.
 
yup....

Last year pop's and I went out to a new area neither one of us were familiar with but I figured my good sense of direction would help. It was a monday (I take my vacation during deer/elk season) ... And was raining so hard,I was already bout 1 1/2 miles or so from base camp,and went down a trail I had been down a few times already....

Long story short some thunder and lightning came in so I headed back and a couple of tree's had fallin so I ended up a bit frazzled and wandering off and a couple hours later,completely soaked,tired and cold I found my way back to my temporary home..... No matter what I loved every second of it! :D
 
I live in the Ozarks and believe it is impossible to get truly lost.
First, whenever I strike out in a new area I take a compass reading.
However, my theory about it being impossible get lost in the Ozarks goes back to logging practices.
If I were ever to get "confused", I would simply start walking uphill. Eventually I would come to an old logging trail. I would follow that uphill where it would come to an old road, that road would lead to a more used road, etc.
 
got lost in MA once when i was young bear hunting, very thick, very dark and very scary. taught me bring extra flashlight,a compass and keep the gun loaded and ready.
 
Lost? No, misplaced myself a time or two but always found myself a way out.

GPS went out on the boat once and being a ocean newby I had to navigate by chasing the setting sun and a compass heading.
 
my grandma always got lost when picking wild berries or whatnot in her summer cabin, you have your eyes on the ground and it is easy to do it. and it is out there, woods without roads for miles and miles, but she most often ended up in the same place:D
 
I remember the old E&E exercises where they would drop you off without a map, compass or anything and you had to find your way back undetected to the camp. of course they always rigged it so not not being detected wasn't going to happen. I would always get as close to base as possible then find a space choked with brush where the normal person would walk around lay down and take a nap. Usually by the time they found me the exercise was over and it was time to go back anyway.
 
Lost on the ocean once, kinda confused in the woods a time or two.
The ocean incident was when I was a commercial salmon fisherman in Oregon. Had a 20' open dory. Back in the 80s there was no GPS, just radar and LORAN. I had no radar and one foggy day with about 50 yard visibility my LORAN decided to just quit. I knew how far off shore I was from my depth sounder, but had no idea how far north I had trolled from my home port. I headed south for a while but was worried about running out of gas so I shut down the engine and waited to hear another boat come by. Then I heard the home port whistle bouy and knew where I was. Kinda scary. More than kinda lucky. After that I spent a whole lot of time learning about navigating in the fog - mainly by over-navigating in clear weather. The same principle applies on dry land. Practice, practice, practice...Be careful out there, ya'll.
 
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