It isn’t every day you hike miles into the wild forests and need to find your way back to the truck. Well, it isn’t for most people. For us, it is every day! We have gone into some fairly dense canopies only to look around and realize that we had no idea which way we came from. This feeling, the feeling that you are really lost, is unnerving.
Some of us on the team have the most amazing gift though. We like to call it our inner compass or personal GPS. Over the years it has astounded some and has even amazed us. We have been in the middle of nowhere where the trees and bushes all look the same – and we can point to North or exactly which tree we just passed! I know it sounds unbelievable – but believe me it’s true.
I can’t tell you how nice it is to always know where you are facing. It’s like I can never be lost – except the few times that my inner GPS didn’t work or I got sidetracked and was looking too closely at flowers and not the path. Those times, I felt so helpless. I felt lost. I felt confused.
What I have come to realize is that my inner GPS is based on the sun. Much like a bee (see past post) I think I rely on the angle of the sun to determine which way is north. I also know that I make a mental map of odd things we pass. It’s unconsciously done and I never am fully aware that I am doing unless I am talking to myself out loud (which I often do). The times I got lost were in rainy weather or dusk conditions.
There something though, something that happened to me when I got lost. I almost wanted to sit down and start all over. I wanted to go through the trip in my head to see where I had gone wrong – surely this would produce the map – certainly I would know where I was. No. It didn’t work. I tried with everything I had to recreate the day, relive the trip, re-walk the walk – re-drive the drive – but, to no avail. I was truly lost and couldn’t tell you where to go.
I found it interesting. I began to analyze those people I know who get lost and unnerved often. It made me feel sympathetic and even appalled that I never really understood. I wanted to reach out and tell them that I was sorry for being unfeeling. I now know what it is like feeling lost.
Please, don’t get these lost sessions confused with the times I truly want to get lost. There are times I want to keep walking into the swamp. I don’t ever want to turn around and re-walk the path – I want to see more, know more, risk more. There are places that I wish I could get lost in….I hope you know at least one place like that! If not, go find it. You will be drawn back a thousand times….or at least until you get lost.
I’m with Josh! I love getting lost….and I’m very good at it. It doesn’t feel ‘unnerving’ to me, instead it feels like now the adventure begins!
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Josh is always lost…in a great way! Since we go to some insanely remote and dangerous places – it’s not always “intriguing” to feel lost. But, on the flip side – we get the opportunity to see some amazing places that I never want to forget or leave! Thanks for sharing.
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Great blog…and funnily enough, it’s really true that you DO go around in circles when you’re lost in the woods! It’s happened to me twice now – Anyone have any ideas why that should actually be the case?? Amanda Hughes-Horan, Interpretive Insights.
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I also wonder if right handed people go in a clockwise or counterclockwise and lefties the other? Hmmmm – experiment is in order – let’s get a grant and do some research!! Means lots of adventures – we will have to get lost!
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For what it’s worth…..I’m left handed but was going around in clockwise circles…hmmmm!!
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Tracking the lost person (or yourself)
Left-handed, right handed, which direction, it really does not make a difference.
One of the primary factors of a “lost” person is the terrain, another is the sun!
Tracking, by “Cutting Sign” is the gathering of evidence indicting where a mobile object has passed, foot prints, boot prints, animal tracks, wheeled, dragged or otherwise leaving some sort of disturbance. Disturbance can be dogs, barking,birds flying, prints in the mud, dust disturbed, bruised plants etc.
The sun! Ah yes, the sun, provides shadows for cutting sign. Now, if you find tracks leading right into a cactus!!!!!! The there is a very high probability that person was walking on a moonless night!!
So, get out there and enjoy the “bush” I took a friend of mine (born raised, lived downtown Cleveland) After our daily hike, I asked him how he like being in the Superior National Forest?
He thought for a minute and then responded, “Great just like a great big Park”
Enjoy;
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I spent much of today “lost” in western St. Johns and Flagler County, Florida with my dear adventurous husband…after picking up field cameras at the hunt camp (fighting mosquitos and picking ticks when we got back to the truck) we wound up lazing on the dock with 6 pelicans at Bull Creek boat ramp overlooking Lake Crescent….then rolled around the corner to Pellicer Creek Landing and wandered around in the woods overlooking Pellicer Creek…somewhere in there, a need for decadence came over me and we had a Blizzard at Dairy Queen! A beautiful day here in sunny Florida, we so enjoyed it outdoors!
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Wow – I am insanely jealous – I spent today in meetings! You simply MUST share stories….this sounds like a wonderful guest post in the making Alicia! Thanks for staying with us.
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This is so zen. I am continually amazed when field work (which I love) and things I learn in martial arts training are so in sync. The Japanese.Zen term is mushin no shin (mind without mind) or in field work – lost without being lost.
I love your posts!
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That one is new to me and I will look into mushin no shin immediately! I find the most zen places and wish I could share them. That was the initial reason for this blog. I hope we do some of that at least. What type of work do you do? Thanks for being here!
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Thanks, I am a recent graduate (MS in Environmental Science and Biology) and am still looking for a full time position, but am taking seasonal ones when offered. keep the adventures coming,
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Best of luck – try LinkedIn – there are a lot of good networking resources….make sure you connect with me
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No matter where you go!———-there you are!. You are not lost unless you would rather be somewhere else. Most of us really and truly are “Horizon Chasers” We just want someone else to pay for it.
Per Diem is archaeological talk for Beer money!
On the serious side, I always carry a magnetic compass and a signal mirror and whistle. However, one has to be a bit careful like places in northern Minnesota due to the magnetic attractant iron ore. A that point is when the practice of “Land navigation becomes of value.
One experience, an old Oregonian of Naive American culture and I were lake wild ricing from a canoe,about 2 miles from any road, we had portaged the canoe and our gear in.
A warm, Minnesota fall day, a quiet lake surrounded by pine trees, conversing with a couple of loons (bids) sort of a Hamms beer commercial type day, when he slumped backward onto his back, with the back of his head right between my boots looking straight up at the sky.
We both realized he was having another heart attack, he directed me to his shirt pocket and to take out the nitro pill and place it in his mouth, which I did withe a multitude of thoughts, how am I going to get him out of here, closest hospital etc…He started to recover and told me not to worry, to relax and could I think of a better place to die? Being a bit of a bush baby, I could not, so I just leaned back, on the stern, place a cushion under my back and just let the gentle waves rock the stress out of both of us. He recovered sufficiently enough for us to walk out. and !yeah, I carried the canoe.
He died of cancer about 6 months later. The funeral was a combination of Lutheran and Ojibway ceremony.
So, no matter where you go, there you are!
dje
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What an amazing story. I would love to hear more about your adventures. I agree. There you are. We are usually working so have to focus on other things but we do get the opportunities to just lay in the grass or water and absorb what we spend our lives studying. These places have so much to teach us. Thanks for sharing and being here – help us remind people – GO ANYWHERE!!
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There is this canard that women do not have a good sense of direction….but most often it is the woman in the passenger seat or the driver’s seat who will take you exactly where you want to go.
I am one of them–excellent sense of place and direction and I am not boasting! It simply means that I am observant about places and landmarks. Women will notice an innocuous wall with a creeper with brilliant flowers, a shop with an attractive window display or a fruit seller in a cart.
I am an urban dweller and rarely get lost….but I can imagine that feeling.
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Don’t get me wrong – some misunderstood….we always have alternate navigational equip….just more fun to see if you can go without using it. And, there are some remarkable place where I just wish I could get lost! There have been a few urban settings that i found appealing as well….you should submit some you know and let us all see what urban jungles can be like! I think most people think they are start and boring….let us see the wild side!
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Your inner GPS truly is a gift. Mine is usually scrambled.
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I really enjoy your blog and all the pictures. That’s why I’ve awarded you The Kreativ Blogger Award. If you’ve received it already, just know I think you deserve another! You can receive it here:
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/kreativ-blogger-award/
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Most of the time the stories of when you are lost are better! I’ve been lost a few times in the field and sometimes is fun, other times not fun at all, what is always fun is that after all the adventure you can go and grab a cold beer and think: I deserved it!!
I have a curious problem though, I can get lost relatively easy in the city or urban areas, not as much in the field, I guess my GPS is just for rural areas!
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Interesting….more experiments!!! Get out there and try it!
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Just remember if you are ever truly lost, there is an ancient Native American tribe that has liberal membership requirements due to many years of intermarrying and migration. I was first initiated into this tribe during geology field camp in the Black Hills of S.D. in the mid ’80’s. My inner Brunton compass (this is way before GPS) had always functioned except one day in the really thick brush and under cover of a dense pine forest. Only for a moment, was I unfamiliar with what direction I was trekking. I came across a tribal elder who had given up himself on trying to navigate the terrain and was sitting down to a very early lunch in frustration at about 10:00. I asked the elder what he was doing eating so early. He replied “I’m completely lost and don’t have a frickin clue where I’m at”. I said that’s ok my brother, I’m too a little disoriented. It was then with great cultural significance and meaning that he initiated me as a member in full standing with the self proclaimed Fuqawi Tribe. I repeated the ritual with him “we’re the Fuqawi”. Then we found our way out.
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This, my friend, had me until the last!! Thank you for the charm and wit – good god it’s necessary!
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I love this post! I would FREAK and be lost and die. Then again, I did grow up in Southern CA and never visited the mountains or woods…was never a girl scout…I would be that “pain” of a person to have with you. You’d have to take care of me. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be willing to be “less helpless” If you told me to do something, I’d try my best to do it…gather wood, okay (I might not find the best pieces, but I’d try) start a fire (unless we had an igniter, I’d be hopeless) I’d definitely try, and fail, and probably cry out of frustration. I wouldn’t want to be helpless and make everyone else do the work.
So, I’m trying with my kids to at least take them to the mountains (for sledding) and camping (campgrounds) but small steps. Things I can handle…there must be a path and NO chance of being lost. Perhaps when my children are adults, they will venture out even more…and as generations pass, perhaps there will be someone, lost in the woods, and able to rely on their inner compass.
By the way, what a great metaphor to use writing in general. I might borrow that! We can all follow our inner compass.
Sandi
http://www.ahhsome.wordpress.com
Lake Forest, CA
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Sounds like you are braver than you think!! So proud that you are taking baby steps – once you get the walk – you may just start running….enjoy, take pictures, journal and blog about it and keep in touch! I can’t wait to hear the first story!
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Sandi, may I direct you on-line to the Friends of Calico, enjoy, Dan
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