I had an interesting adventure yesterday while hiking in the woods. I
was in an unfamiliar area and the trail was sketchy at best. So with
relative ease I got myself up the mountain. It was coming back down
that I ran into trouble. I thought I was going the right way, but it
became quite evident that that was not the case. After about an hour
from desending the peak I became quite unsure of my surroundings. I
finally said it is time to get some help. So now here starts the
adventure. 911 connects me to the State Police who then contact the
local rangers. Ranger Black then calls me on my cell and tries to
figure out my approximate location. After speaking to him my fears
eased, because at least now I know someone was looking for me. I had
food and water so that wasn't a problem. Anyway, he kept trying to
locate me by sounding his sirens, but I was too far away to hear them.
Then they had a firetruck sound it's siren, but still nothing. After
about 2 hours my cell phone battery was dying and the sun was going
down. They finally had a fix on my location so they directed me to walk
a certain direction according to my shadow. A helecopter was brought in
to help me direct myself to them. Good thing I knew enough about E W N
S to direct the copter to hover over my position. In a matter of
minutes I came crashing out of the woods to salvation. The rescue was a
success and I was very grateful for their assistance. After all was
said and done one of the firefighters asked me if I had ever been there
before. The obvious answer was of course "no". He told me that that
particular mountain was round and that no matter where I came down I
would hit a road. It may not have been by the car, but it would have
been a road.
So the moral of this story is, if at all possible know a little bit
about the area you are hiking and bring survival stuff.
Please understand that this is just a telling of a story and does not
require tons of postings about safety proceedures and the like. This
has never happened to me before and I certainly hope it is the last
time. I just want to let the list know that the rescures were a great
bunch of guys and I thank them very much in their persistance in finding
me even though I was only @ a 1/2 mile from my car. :-)

Happy Trails
Noelle