Man survives monthlong ordeal in US park on a mushroom, berries and water
Man survives monthlong ordeal in US park on a mushroom, berries and water
Robert Schock recounts how he ‘really felt … close to death’ after being lost in North Cascades national park for 30 days
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I'm just a hiking enthusiast, no expert, but I've read that if you're lost in a remote area with no chance of rescue that you should move downhill. Eventually you'll find a stream or creek. If you continue downhill following it eventually you'll reach a human settlement. Better to focus on finding people in the first couple days than securing food/water.
It's a pretty large, rugged park. You can easily be 20 miles as the crow flies from anything. I think you'd probably spend the first days trying to find a trail, because it's easier. Trying to find a stream going downhill, then trying to follow a stream to a creek, then river, moving across terrain the entire time? That's going to take a long while, and you're looking at a much larger calorie expenditure. You're also moving far away from where you are last seen and in odd directional patterns unless someone knows you're trying to follow streams.
Not to say it's not good advice if you have no hope of rescue. It's sort if like if you are in a maze and you put your hand on one wall and never stop touching it, you will find the exit. Eventually.
Only if the wall is connected to the outside. If the wall is completely internal and unconnected to the outside wall, you will never get out. That's why you should always carry bread in your pockets when you leave the house, to leave a trail of crumbs so you have something to eat when you come back to your starting point in the maze.
I didn't come up with the advice, just relating what I've read a few times. So maybe that's not representative of the current advice.
That said, moving downhill isn't really random. Gravity is a universal rule, and water moves downhill. Humans for our entire existence have needed water for survival, and eventually for agriculture. So we tend to gather around it.
I've also read if you're lost advice to stay where you are, but that's in a scenario where you expect people to know where you are and to come looking for you. Probably a tough call to make in this case, plus the guy had his dog with him.
Specifics of this situation aside, I don't think 20 miles is that hard of a push. I'd expect to be able to do that in a day or two.
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It very much depends on the terrain and under growth. Plus 20 miles in a straight line, could easily be double or triple that in the woods.
It sounds good on paper, but it's also very likely that you have to go all the way back up wasting more energy. Valleys aren't always on the side of human populations, they can very well be between mountains.
And in a national park, there aren't any cities.