ENJOYING THE OUTDOORS: MISDIRECTION TURNS HUNTERS IN CIRCLES

A lot of outdoor enthusiasts will tell you that they've never been lost, but they have been "turned around" a time or two.

I can relate to that. There have been several instances in which I knew exactly where I was ... however, I didn't know the direction of anything else.

Wherever you go, there you are. Yet, sometimes the location of your vehicle or where you started out is a mystery. My truck seems to get lost with annoying regularity.

A perfect example lies in an experience of three hunting friends of mine. Guys 1, 2 and 3 plunged into the big woods before dark on a bowhunting excursion. Guys 1 and 2 dropped off Guy 3 at a chosen site where the latter set about getting his climbing tree stand up a convenient oak.

Once Guy 3 was in place in his stand, he watched Guys 1 and 2 by the glow of their flashlights as they cut a wide circle around a timbered basin. A lengthy walk later, they again were approaching the position of Guy 3 when he pulled out his own flashlight and signaled to the circular hikers.

Upon seeing the illumination from the other flashlight, Guy 1 said to Guy 2, "Oh, no, there's already somebody else way back in here."

They obviously got turned around because their left legs walked at a different pace than their right legs. The result: considerably less than a straight line of travel.

It happens with fair regularity, especially for those who journey overland in the dark. Particularly in heavily wooded and brushy areas where long-range visibility is limited, it's tough to go from Point A to Point B without occasional unintentional side trips to Points C and D -- or maybe stumbling back up on Point A.

There's something rather disheartening about walking up to a landmark and realizing it's the same feature you walked by earlier. That can make your head spin. If nothing else, it tells you that the walking you did over the past so-many minutes didn't really accomplish anything.

The redeeming factor is that, at least in this part of the world, getting turned around usually is more a matter of inconvenience than danger. There are few unbroken areas of even semi-wilderness where a person could stay lost in for very long.

An inconvenience of temporary disorientation becomes a more hazardous matter usually only if there are complicating factors like wet, chilly weather or when lost souls are wearing clothing that is inadequate for the conditions. In those instances the effects of hypothermia, the loss of body heat, can become life-threatening.

There are some basics to help prevent and/or minimize the difficulties of getting misplaced out there. To begin with, the outback trekker should pack a compass. The sun and moon are pretty good indicators of direction, but they move with time, and cloud cover can shroud these celestial reference points.

Secondly, a woodland walker should have a general idea of the lay of the land before plunging into it -- which directions the surrounding roads run, which direction leads in and, conversely, which direction leads in and conversely, which direction is out. One might want to avoid being forced to navigate a swamp or other nasty route so knowing something about what's out there helps.

With a compass in hand, a quick review of prime directions before setting out and, if possible and a look at a topographical map to get a fix on things, it's still possible to get semi-lost. That's a condition which might be defined as not knowing exactly where one is at, but having a solid understanding of which direction -- north, southeast or whatever -- one needs to go to get completely unlost.

The most important thing about using a compass after checking bearings and plunging into the bush is believing the instrument later. It won't lie. When your own addled sense of direction tells you that south is one way and the compass says another, go with the compass. It won't be nearly as confused.

As long as one understands enough directions to find what he's looking for, being just a little lost doesn't matter a great deal. In that respect, it's better to be bit lost than totally turned around.

~Steve Vantreese is outdoors editor of The Paducah Sun.