I have been recently listening to several podcasts going back several years and a few of them caught my attention when it came to hiker safety on the trail. There have been several good ideas on the podcasts and I felt that it would be a benefit to all if I combined several of the ideas along with my own thoughts in one place. Maybe it will help someone put together a safety plan for your next trip.

I am certainly not an expert, but I have spent my fair time in the woods. I know there is always a careful balance between carrying extra weight for something you don’t use and finding yourself in an emergency and really wishing you had something that would help people find you.

Here is a list of several things to consider:

1. Create a clear plan on where you will start and end, with a time line for the trip. Leave a copy with people outside your hiking group.
2. Everyone carries a map and compass with the trail marked on it, and clearly showing where the water located and where are you going to camp.
3. Everyone carries a whistle and at least one other signal device.
4. Everyone in your group should have the contact numbers for all the people on the team and their designated emergency contacts.
5. Everyone carries identification in more than one place.
6. Medical conditions that could cause complications on the trail should be shared with your group.

I am going to go into detail on these suggestions through the rest of the article. Hopefully you will find some useful information.

1. Create a clear plan on where you will start and end, with a time line for the trip. Leave a copy with people outside your hiking group.

Having a clear plan is not just so you can get everyone excited about the trip. This is for the people left at home. Should you miss your time-line, it gives the people at home the knowledge needed to call for a search. The plan you leave at home is going to be the first information that first responders will use so they can narrow down a search. It should include all the team’s cell phone numbers, their emergency contact names and numbers, and lists of any known medical issues.

Designate one person at home as the home front contact person. If the hiking group doesn’t check in on time, the designated person should make contact with the various emergency home contacts. Email would probably be the best in this situation because this is for information gathering. Maybe someone checked in with a spouse and information like a delay on the trail could have been communicated. Make a decision before the trip how long the home team should wait before calling in the emergency personnel. 24 hours is a good start for multi day trips. For day trips this should be closer to 4 to 8 hours.

2. Everyone carries a map and compass with the trail marked on it, and clearly showing where the water located and where are you going to camp.

Carrying a map and compass is important, but they would be worthless if you didn’t know how to use them. At the minimum that means knowing where the trail they are walking is located on the map, where the camp sites and water sources are, and know how to orientate the map, take bearings, and triangulate your position on a map.

Some other important information to add to your map is locations of ranger stations, land-line phones, hospitals, fire stations, and police stations. Include phone numbers for the local emergency services. Not everyone responds to 911. Include the physical address as well as marking them on the map.

Take the time to laminate the maps. This will protect them from rain and getting dunked in a lake. Lamination can be as simple as clear packing tape. It doesn’t cost a lot of money and will insure planning markings don’t get rubbed off. Laminating will make it harder to draw on the map when you have to translate bearings to a map, so make plans for that.

Orientating a map means you can line the map up with true north. Each map should have a compass rose. Take your compass and place it on the map lined up with the compass rose and rotate the map until the compass and the compass rose both point North. Some people live in areas where the magnetic North on the compass is different than “True North”. Your map should give you a number of degrees from magnetic North than true North. You will have to adjust your compass to make up for that change. This is a difficult to explain in writing, so knowing how to do this before hitting the trail is vital.

Taking a bearing requires that you have visibility to something you can find on the map. Look for the highest mountain, radio towers, lakes, etc. You will need to find at least two of these landmarks to “Triangulate” your position on the map. Once again this is something that takes practice that needs to be done at home. When your out on your trip, take time to practice this and make sure you can find yourself on the map.

While on the subject of maps, I will mention GPS units. These can be lifesaving devices. They can do everything I have previously mentioned. The downside to GPS units is they don’t work everywhere in the woods. They can break, and batteries can die. Not to mention they are a lot heavier than a map and compass. I certainly would agree that having more than one way of navigating is going to be helpful in an emergency.

If you ever became lost, you can use these techniques to find yourself on the map. This can get you back to the trail, find water, or find the fastest way out of the woods.

3. Everyone carries a whistle and at least one other signal device while hiking on the trail.

Set up a plan to occasionally check in with your other hikers. One whistle blow, can be replied back by one or two blows. We certainly want to keep this to a minimum since we are in the woods to enjoy the sounds of nature. On the other side, should you lose contact with a fellow hiker, you can stop where you are and start to take actions to find your missing friend.

I mentioned stopping before taking actions to find your missing hiking friend. This is important. Make a plan before going back down the trail in the opposite direction. Consider dropping your pack and leaving a note on the side of the trail. Leave the date and time of your note, your name, who you are looking for and the last time you saw that person. Before heading in the opposite direction triangulate your position on your map. This serves two purposes. It validates where you are should you need to bring a rescue team back to where you are now, and it also allows extra time for your hike partner to catch up with you.

When you start your walk in the opposite direction make sure you carry water and some snacks. Then make sure to use your whistle check periodically. Be careful not to walk too long in the opposite direction. You will need to leave enough time to join the rest of the hiking team in camp. In a worst case scenario if you don’t find your fellow hiker, you will need the group resources of the rest of the hike team to make a plan to find your fellow hiker.

If you ever find yourself lost, you can only yell so long. A whistle is much louder and easier to hear over longer distances. A universal distress sign is three of anything. For example: Three whistle blows, pause three seconds, three whistle blows, pause three more seconds and three more blows. Anyone in the area will have a good chance to hear you and come to your aid.

I suggested that each hiker carry at least one other signal device. Examples of these devices are signal mirrors, ability to build a fire quickly, flares, fire crackers, and/or strobe flasher. Carrying the items are great, but knowing how to use them is important.

A signal mirror is a good example, if you can’t flash the search aircraft, you could lose the chance to be found quickly. Hold the mirror in one hand, hold it close to your face. Close the one eye that matches the hand holding the mirror. If your mirror is in the right hand, close the right eye. Now stick your other hand out straight in front of you. Put your thumb out like your going to hitch hike. Put the thumb over the place your trying to flash. Now slowly move the mirror to shine light on your thumb. Each time you now move the light across your thumb you are flashing your target. Practice, practice, practice.

Fires are important signal devices too. Remember that a bright fire works better at night, and smoky fires work better during the day. During the night, avoid leaves because they cover the flame and cause lots of smoke. Remember that trick for the morning though.

Flares are maybe a little strange sounding, but they have been used by boaters for years, not to mention its part of the Air Force survival vest. You can pick up a 12 gauge flare gun for boating at lots of locations, including some Wal-Mart’s, Bass Pro Shops, etc. When paired up with flares, these can weigh a fair amount though. No these can’t shoot a regular 12 gauge shotgun shell, so don’t try.

Another option is to use a pen flare gun. These are harder to find, but I did find one company selling new ones on the Internet. https://www.kodiakcanada.com/ I have not purchased form them because I already own one of the standard boaters flare guns, but I have considered purchasing the pen flare gun to save weight. This company sells to Canada and the United States. You will have to pay a hazardous materials fee for the flares to be shipped to you, but it’s not too bad. Make sure you choose the correct currency when dealing on the site.

Some final notes on flare guns. These might be considered illegal in some areas. Make sure you check with local regulations before packing these. Also if you plan to fly, you may run into issues. Flares are dangerous and need to be packed safely. If handled improperly they can explode. So please plan accordingly. They can certainly save your life.

Strobe lights are great at night. The United States Air Force issues these as part of the survival vest as well. There are several issues with strobes. They are only good at night, and they are heavy. Also they are electronic and as such they are subject to failure at the worst time.

4. Everyone in your group should have the contact numbers for all the people on the team and their designated emergency contacts.

This gives each member of the hiking team all the information they need to start the communications process in case of an emergency. I am sure you have heard stories where a hiker is lost, and the hiking group wants to reach out to that hikers family to see if they have heard from them. This list makes it easy.

We should also take opportunities when possible to get messages home while you hike. This may sound kind of silly to remind people to check in with loved ones at home, but these communications can be used in the event the whole hiking team is late in reporting in.

5. Everyone carries identification in more than one place.

This might sound silly to, but I have known people to go out hiking without their wallet, or identification. Or it gets stuck down in the backpack where it could be missed on a quick inspection. Keep your primary identification in your clothing where its likely to be found quickly.

Consider wearing an identification band around your wrist or ankle. You can find these bands at REI, and running stores. You might even use the poor man method and write the information some duck tape and wrap it around your boot or ankle. Consider adding important information such as blood type, special medication needs and allergies.

While on the subject of identification, don't forget photographs. Consider getting photos of all your hikers prior to the trip and leaving them with your primary home contact. Photos of the team members could be very useful to first responders. In addition take photos of the hiking group before you start and every now and then during the trip. We all like having a group shot at the end of the trip, but it could also be an important safety item. Imagine trying to remember exactly what a fellow hiker was wearing when they got lost. A photograph is worth a thousand words, not to mention the picture can be distributed to first responders.

6. Medical conditions that could cause complications on the trail should be shared with your group.

Talk about medical conditions before the hike. Some people maybe embarrassed about revealing medical information and this can be a touchy subject. A solution for this is to have the information for each team member left in a sealed envelope at home with the designated home contact person. At the end of the trip, simply mail the sealed envelopes back home to their respective owners. In an emergency the envelopes can be handed over to first responders.

Another area of concern to first responders when it comes to known medical conditions is what medicines does the person need and how much did the have when they started. Diabetes is one situation where the supply of medicine can greatly affect a persons ability to survive. First responders can be prepared with diabetic supplies when the hiker is found. Imagine a search team finding a lost hiker several hours from the closest road, only to find out they need insulin to help the hiker. Information is power in these cases.

If you are hiking and you know you have a special condition requiring special medications, make sure you carry enough for your trip, plus a couple of extra days. Also make sure someone in the group knows how to administer it. Make a notation in the envelope left with the home bound primary contact person the amount of medicine you are carrying with you too. Make sure its clear that you have one, two, etc days of spare medicine.

EpiPen’s would be a classic example of a special medication that might need to be administered by a fellow hiker. Insulin is another. If your unable to do it yourself, you need to make sure someone can do it for you.

I have certainly presented a lot of information in this article, and I am sure others will have other suggestions. I hope this will help someone starting out and get them going in the right direction.

I am going to follow this article with one on what to do if you become lost. In the mean time hike safely.