Getting Lost On A Trail Run???

#383 - Have you ever gotten lost on a trail run, during a race? Most of us have at one time or another. Were you able to find your way back quickly? Most people do, but there may be that one time when you run into trouble. This week, I give you some help to keep you on the right path. Trail running takes focus and I know that's not so easy when the scenery is so amazing! But, it's worth taking your time because you'll have a better run if you do. 

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

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Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hidden West share stories you might not hear anywhere else. Want to know why the last chance grade might be the most dangerous bit of highway in California? Why did the Japanese drop bombs on the western part of the U.S.? And where is the state of Jefferson? All these stories and more about what makes the Western U.S. so great are here. There's a new story published every week. Check out Hidden West on YouTube. Welcome to Martha Runs the World, a podcast with a new take on running, fitness, and all things health-oriented. I'm Martha Hughes, your host, and each week I present a new topic that is of interest to all runners. Hi and welcome to episode 383 of Martha Runs the World. I'm not trying to frighten anyone. So if you're scared that you're going to get lost during a trail training run or a trail race, don't be afraid. There are things that we can do to make that next to impossible. For the record, I've never gotten lost during a race or even a trail run. I did manage to get very lost one day during a day hike long time ago. And that is when you are statistically that's a hard word to say, more likely to get lost during a day hike. And I'll talk about that more in a bit. And stay tuned to the end of the show when I have a few words about a short video on YouTube that I made last week. I want to get more into it. There's only so much you can say in a two-minute video. Over 1,180 people went missing in US national parks between 218 and early 223. That's everyone who went missing for whatever reasons. And here are four experienced trailrunners who went missing and who maybe were found or weren't found, and I'll tell you which ones were and weren't. Chad Palach, a 49-year-old trail runner, went missing in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado after failing to return from a run in september twenty seventh, twenty twenty three. Despite a comprehensive search by multiple agencies, the search was eventually scaled back. His body has yet to be found. Ian O'Brien, a twenty eight-year-old ultrarunner, disappeared while scouting a path up Hesperus Park in La Plata Mountains on june twenty fourth, twenty twenty three. After more than two weeks, the public search for O'Brien was concluded without success. Ian's body was found september 2023 in the West Mancoast River by a couple fishermen. La Plata Mountains are in Colorado. In another incident in the La Plata Mountains, David Lund, a twenty nine-year-old respected trail runner and rancher, had been missing since october first, twenty twenty two after going for a run on a remote La Plata Enchilada route. Local volunteer search and rescue teams have been involved in the search efforts, but I guess they haven't found him yet. David Lumtotch, an ultra runner, disappeared in 2022 and rescuers called off their efforts after finding only a cell phone after ten days of exhaustive searching. Now for me, though this is only me, it might be understandable how an inexperienced hiker who goes on an unknown trail just for a day hike gets lost and then is never found. I can wrap my head around that much easier than the disappearance of experienced runners. At least at first until I start getting into it. How did these experienced runners get lost? Well, we may never know for sure, but there are maybe a few ways that they could have gotten lost. Lack of familiarity with the trail can lead to confusion and wrong turns. Poor visibility due to weather conditions can obscure trail markers. Inadequate navigation tools like maps or GPS can result in misdirection and up in the mountains like that. I'm sure they don't work perfectly all the time. There can be some wrong directions given. GPS is not perfect as we know. There have been many, many instances where people have driven their cars into lakes and ponds because of incorrect GPS. I know when I have used GPS on cars, I have been given wrong directions and gone in the opposite direction and went out of my way many miles. Distractions from the environment or companions can lead runners to stray off course, maybe not paying enough attention. Distractions definitely, if you're looking at a beautiful uh sunrise or a beautiful view and you all of a sudden step off a cliff. I mean, I I'm not making light of this. I'm really not, but that this can happen. It has happened to people. Trail markers may be missing or unclear, making it hard to stay oriented. Once we get into the less traveled trails, the less likely they are to be well marked. So you may think that something is marked, and you may think that that's the right trail, but it may not be. Overconfidence in their abilities can lead runners to take risks and venture off established trails. This can happen to any of us, especially if we're on a particular trail before and we think we know what we're doing. We may think we know all the nuances of the trail, but there can be surprises that the trail has in store for us. If we think we know, oh yeah, we know all the turns and and all this signals on this trail, all the rocks and everything, but then if something changes and we don't know what it isn't, and all of a sudden we're in a place that we've never seen before, that can happen. Many runners who do get lost wander off the trail. I'm not sure why they do that. Perhaps they're trying to get to a particular spot that can't be found on the trail that they want to see or that they saw from the trail and they say, Oh, that looks cool, let me go find it. And then they go off. Or they see something they want to get to closer, or they want to get back to the car closer. I I don't know why they do that. I have gone off trail myself because I thought it was a shortcut, but I was wrong, so I had to go all the way back to the trail. It's always better to stay on the trail. It really is, unless you really, really know what's going on and you really, really know the area. It is really better, especially in the areas of ticks and poison oak and poison ivy. Not always a good idea to go off trail. I'm sure there is no one reason why people get lost. Sometimes it's a slip, sometimes it's not paying attention, and then boom, gone. Please understand I am not making light of this. I really am not. But it's a phenomenon in our world that I personally am having a hard time wrapping my head around. It really is difficult to understand how someone can just vanish and not be seen again. It just is so strange to me. Even after reading the book The Cold Vanish by John Billman, that's John J-O-N-B-I-L-L-M-A-N, and I will talk about that later on, and watching probably hundreds of videos of missing people from our parks and natural lands, it still boggles my mind. It really does. I think one of the things is that the wilderness is well wild, hence the name, and it has its own set of rules. If we don't follow nature's rules and we don't respect the wildness of nature, we could be in trouble. We have to follow nature's rules. The mountains don't care about us, the trails don't care about us. We have to care about ourselves enough to follow the rules set in nature. One time I got very lost on a hike. I was on Mount Tamil Pius in Marin County, and that's just north of San Francisco. You can get there by car, up where I was, it's about a half an hour drive, or you can reach it by Golden Gate Transit, which is the Marin County bus system. And this was way before GPS was really good. You couldn't really use GPS on your phones at that point. So I always had a uh paper map of the area and all the trails. And I was following a really good trail that I thought turned left at the spot, so I thought I was on the trail. It turned out I was not. I was a little bit far off from the trail. The trail actually was a little bit farther away from me. I turned out the trail was a little bit farther down from where I was. I turned on a deer trail, or what is also known as a ghost trail. I kept following it through a brushy area that was not well maintained, and I should have r realized right then and there that this wasn't right. Had I discovered it now, I wouldn't keep going on it. But back then I was really inexperienced, I wasn't used to going on hikes. This was before I started trail running. I wasn't used to going on long hikes or being on my own out there, so I really didn't know what was a good trail and what wasn't. So I was just trying to follow something, and I follow kept going and I kept going, and it just started getting more sketchy, and I just kept going. I followed it into a brushy area. I wasn't sure how long I'd followed it, but I followed it into this little glen, and it was actually a really pretty area, and then all of a sudden the trail stopped. It just ended, and then I tried to find the trail again, and I couldn't find it. It disappeared. That's why they call them ghost trails. You follow them, and then all of a sudden you want to find them again, and they're gone. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find it. Or I would have taken it back out again to the main to the real trail.

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(Cont.) Getting Lost On A Trail Run???

SPEAKER_00 10:28

I couldn't find it. I looked all around for it, I looked and looked, and I could not find it. For the life of me, I couldn't find it. And by that point, of course, I was looking all over and my I was all turned around. Um my navigation, I I didn't know what was south and what was north, and I was in this glen and it was covered by these oak trees all uh so I couldn't really see the sky. It was very, it was very dense in there. It was open glen, but all around were oak trees and there were rocks there, and and I believe it was late summer because there were leaves on the ground, and there was also a little very, very small creek with very little water going moving downhill. And I started to panic, actually. I was kind of freaked out. I didn't know what I should do because I was stuck here and I just didn't know. Oh my gosh, it was kind of late. It was getting late. I had been out hiking all day. I'd been seeing some really cool stuff. I'd gone to the top of Mount Tam and I had done some really cool stuff. So I'd already hiked about six or seven miles. So I was, you know, I was kind of tired and I wasn't used to doing all this hiking. So I was ready to get back and take the bus back and get home. But I couldn't do that because I didn't know how to get back out. So I just sat there and I said, okay, what do I do? If I can't find my way back out, what do I do? So I um I stopped and I sat on a rock and I said, okay, I had to calm myself down so I didn't keep panicking. So I just sat there for a minute. Uh it was probably more than minutes. It was probably like 15 minutes because I just didn't I I had to start thinking straight and had to calm my heart down and calm everything down. And I sat there for a little while and I said, Okay, the water is running downstream, it's running towards Lake Alpine, which I knew was somewhere near. I knew that it wasn't too far away, and I knew if the water was running downhill, it was running towards Alpine Lake. Not Lake Alpine, but Alpine Lake. And so, okay, I'll follow that way. That's going the opposite direction of what I wanted, and I'm not going to catch my bus, but I can go out of my way and walk down to Ross, the little town below. There's a bus down there that I can catch, and I can get that bus back to uh to uh I can get that to Mill Valley and then transfer to another bus and take that bus home. It was a pain in the neck, but I did it. I got to see some really cool stuff. I was tired as as heck. Um I was able to catch a bus back home, and it took me a couple hours, and I went out of my way about five or six miles. It seemed farther, I swear, it seemed like ten or fifteen miles I went out of my way, but I knew it wasn't that far. It just seemed that way to me. And I was so tired and exhausted by the time I got home. You know, I know it was fall because it was dark by the time I got home, and it it was like six or seven and it was dark, so I knew it wasn't like in spring or anything like that. I knew it was in the fall. It was also weekday because I know I wasn't working because I know I think I'd lost my job and I had all this free time, so that's why I was up in Mount Tam. And I had pictured myself in my near panic earlier, I had pictured myself having to stay up there at Mount Tam overnight, shivering under a tree. Now I had a jacket with me so I I could use that jacket, and I was wearing, I think, my long hiking pants that I had at the time, so I wouldn't be totally cold. And I did have a little food with me on a head water, so I wouldn't like starve overnight. You're not gonna starve to death anyway, but I had all this in my mind saying, oh my god, what am I gonna do? Do I have to stay up here overnight? Well, you really never will have to up there unless you're injured and you can't move, and that can happen. It can happen when you're close to a civilization like I was. I was very close to everything, but you would know where I was, and I did everything wrong on that little excursion anyway, so but that's because I was a new a fairly new solo hiker at the time, and I learned how to do things right afterwards. Now, if I haven't frightened you away yet, what can trail runners do to make sure that if on the off chance something does happen, you wander off trail, you miss your turn off, you're suddenly in an area you don't recognize and you're lost. What can you do to prepare for this possible inopportune moment, shall we say? There's no perfect packing list that's right for every trail runner. Some of us don't want to take anything with us, so you just take the minimum. While others of us like to take everything with us to make sure that we're prepared. Many runners I see in the headlands, they don't take anything with them. And maybe they're only going three miles and that's fine. But what happens if they get injured or something like that and they can't move and they're far away and they're not going to see someone for a few hours? It would be nice to have a at least a handheld uh water bottle. They can get at least a little water in them, especially if it's warm weather out there. That would be good to have, I I would think. I mean, it's if they don't want to take a vest, then at least carry a waste pack or a handheld bottle, something with you. I feel it's important, even if you're going just for three miles. I think it's just really important to take something with you. You can take uh your stash, your ID in case something happens where you you aren't able to communicate, and maybe get it put a goo in there in case you need that if you're gonna be stuck for a while. It's just being prepared. I know it's not pleasant to think of the negatives that could happen, but sometimes they do happen. And we have to be ready for them, I believe. So here's a list of some things that you should carry with you. You don't have to, but some things you should. I think you should carry some water with you. I think that's important, and maybe some food, even if it's just a packet of goo or chews or something. Bright clothing and multiple layers. I don't think it hurts to carry a windbreaker with you. Just stash that in your running vest if you're not going to use it. Running vests are great, you can just stash things in there. They tell you to take a bivy sack or trash bag for shel shelter and warmth. They pack really small, and um you can put that in there, and that's something that I should probably take with me. A first aid kit with an elastic wrap or blister protection. I always take a little bitty first aid kit with me, just a very small one. It doesn't take up any space and it's pretty easy to put together. And if you're going really far into if you're like running 10 or 20 miles way out in the middle nowhere, take a GPS SOS locator or a Garmin Mini inReach or something similar like that that you can get a hold of somebody without cell service. It's really important. I know they're expensive, but I think saving your life or taking care of yourself is worth it. Don't you? I mean I really think it's worth it. A whistle. Now, see, running vests have those built in. Or most do anyway. I don't know if the cheap ones do. I I don't know that, but the ones that I've always bought and have those built in. I would say if your running vest doesn't have one built in, then buy one, or if you don't like running vests, then buy one and just put it in your pocket, just have it right there for you. What is it, a couple bucks? Yeah. And here are some good basics to review, make a plan and share it with someone, or put it on your Facebook. Say I'm going up to the headlands today, or I'm going to such and such today, and just put that in your Facebook so everybody on your Facebook list knows where you're gonna be. Charge your cell phone even or and and your watch, uh, even on low battery, constantly pinging cell towers in the area and can be affected by temperature extremes. Bring a paper trail map or a spare charger as a backup. It just really helps to have, especially if you're going to a big area out in the wilderness, it always helps to have a paper map and make sure everything's charged. I'm kind of fanatical about my things being charged. So whenever I go out, everything's charged 100%. That's just kind of how I am. And yeah, if I go out to do a bunch of miles, a lot of miles in the headlands, I will bring my my little um extra charger with me. I have a big one and a little one, I take the little one with me because it doesn't waste so much. Don't set out until you check the weather forecast. And if you can find an accurate forecast, make sure you prepare for it. If it's going to be raining, make sure you take your rain jacket, running jacket with you. And if you need to wear longer pants, that's fine or whatever. Just be prepared. And above all, don't wander off the trail if you don't have the training and skills to stay alert for that. Don't go off trail unless you're really good at that and you know what you're gonna come in contact with. Because a lot of places have have cliffs and they're very steep, and you don't even know how steep it is when you step into the bushes because you don't know that that's a cliff because you can't tell because there's so many bushes there. It can be very dangerous and it's um it can be a very frightening thing. Um so just be careful of that. So just be careful when things are foggy and stuff and you can't really see ahead of you. You just have to stay alert and just make sure that you are prepared for every step that you take. Respect the wilderness. It like I said, you have to follow the wilderness's rules, not your own. Now I did mention the book called The Cold Vanish by John Billman. This is a great book and I highly recommend it. He goes over many, many different missing people in the wilderness areas, and he talks about different cases. It's a really good book. I wanted to say a few last words about a short video I made over the weekend. I I release short videos on Saturdays on YouTube, so if you want to check those out, please do. They're either three minutes and short or shorter in the short video form that they have, and I do release those, like I said, on Saturdays. I talked about how unmotivated I am to run. I'm still running, but I don't get to go out and run as often as I wish because of my job. My job hours are kind of difficult, so it makes it difficult to run as as often as I wish, so I kind of have to cut back on my running. Um, so I'm not making the progress in my running that I want to. But there is an end to this. I mean, I have a goal in sight. My goal right now is next year, about a year and four months, I am going to be retiring. And that is no small thing for me. That is a huge event, and I have to keep that in mind. The eye on the prize, as they say. Eye on the prize. So that is a huge turn in my life, and I have to keep preparing for that. And what I'm doing right now is going through things, and I've been in this apartment for over 20 years. 25 years. So that's a long time. So I'm going through things here, getting rid of stuff, uh, cleaning out stuff. Slowly and surely, every week I clean out something and get rid of things. Um, I've got, like I said, a year and a half to do it about, and I'm saving up money. I don't owe any debt, so uh anything I'm making right now goes into my savings. I try not to spend money. It's hard not to spend money. It really is. So I'm really trying not to do any races. I was gonna do Ruth Anderson, but I'm not see, I'm not prepared for it, and I can't prepare for it. That made me kind of sad. And I think that's one of the things that kind of deflated my motivation was that you know, I'm there's no way I'm gonna be prepared for that race, and I don't want to be just a death march race. So I don't think I'm gonna do that. I just might do the turkey trot on Thanksgiving and call it a day and just wait until I retire to do any races. And when I retire I can um run every day if I want. See, these are different things, but I have to work up to it. I have to get everything in order for that. So one thing at a time. So it's it's alright. This is a good thing, this is not a bad thing. Everything's okay. Things will happen and they will happen in good time. So I just have to remember, just get what's in front of you done, and then you'll have time for everything else. So I just have to keep myself going, and I have to keep the prize in front of me. That little light at the end of the tunnel, I have to keep that in front of me and not lose it. That's what I wanted to explain to you and tell you what was really going on. Alright, so that is it for this week, and thank you so much. I really appreciate you being listeners. I appreciate you each and every week. You guys rock. And until next week, let's tie up a shoelaces and go for a run.