Another Reminder on Being Prepared

[PastorLarryT]

This news report from WSFA TV is a reminder that a little preparation goes a long-way in preventing very unpleasant circumstances... 

3 women located in Ala. national forest

Associated Press - April 20, 2010 9:04 AM ET

HEFLIN, Ala. (AP) - Cleburne County officials say three women who were reported lost in the Talladega National Forest have been found.

Jeff Edwards, spokesman for the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Team, says none of the women were injured and all were in fair condition when searchers found them near Adam's Gap on Monday. Edwards says the women were being treated by Cleburne County Emergency Medical Services.

The women were reported missing Sunday night. A car belonging to 1 of the women was located at Chinabee Lake.

Edwards says the Alabama Department of Public Safety supplied a helicopter for the search.

Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com/

[trailtigger]

Thanks for the update on this, I had read something about this yesterday but wasnt able to find an update at the time(I actually looked on here first as I expected someone on here to know about this). Glad they were ok but you cant help but wonder what they were doing/thinking.

[Cuffs]

Theres also alot to be said for knowing your own limitations and skills...  I cant even begin to count how many people ive passed on trails who (IMO) were ill-prepared for where I found them.  toting an infant on a 5 mile day hike with only 1 small bottle of water for 3 adults, is just one example. 

When I talked to the rangers at Shoal Creek and told them I had just hiked 12 miles after dark (on purpose) they got a surprised look on their faces.  I also started with shorter (2 & 5 miles) hikes to get accustomed to hiking at night.  I think I have found my new summer time activity!

[PastorLarryT]

I like your idea of night time summer hiking Cuffs.  I know the amount of wildlife to be seen would be much greater at night. 

Curious to know your thoughts about a few things...?

- snake encounters after dark?
- Do you use a "red light" etc. to aid in navigation?
- Any other special precautions you take related to night time hiking?

I hiked the Circumference Trail at Piestewa Peak in Phoenix AZ after dark a few years back (out of self defense - the day time high was 114 degrees!).  The terrain/physiography of the land is quite different from here and I found trail identification difficult (even though I did have a trail map).  As a matter of fact, I unintentionally hiked out on a different trail than I had planned.  You can imagine the surprise when I emerged from the trail in a housing development rather than the Apache Trailhead!  (That's another story though.)

[Cuffs]

PLT, it was a blast!

Things Ive learned/thought about/practiced...
~start just before sunset, it lets your eyes adjust to the fading light and youre not just thrown into the darkness

~I walked until it was absolutely necessary to use the headlamp.  This was usually several hours into the hike and when entering areas of dense tree cover that blocked out the ambient moon light.  If it was light enough, I turned it back off.  One way to ease the adjustment is to close your eyes just prior to turning the light off...

~I took all the dayhiking essentials...  water, first aid kit, fire starter, matches, poncho/tarp, rain coat & pants, thin insulating layer (Patagonia Cap 3 top), food/snax, pocket knife.  I think that was all...

~hiking partner and I made 'contingency plans.'  I tend to think of oddball circumstances and plan out what I/we would do...  since there had been prescribed burns and forest fires in the area, we made plans for that.  What do we do should we encounter a fire that was too large for us to extinguish?  What direction do we head?  Where do we meet up at?  I have to admit, this was the first time I actually planned for such an emergency, but its now been added to the check list in the back of the brain just in case.

~it was cool enough at night still that snakes were not on the agenda.  It was cool enough to see our breath in the lower/cooler areas.

~only when needed, I did use the red lamp on my light.  Since we were working on the mapping project, I did use the white light on occasion, but only to determine how good water sources were, size of campsites, etc.  it went off or back to red immediately.

~when doing the road walks, we walked single file, front person with their white light on and the person in back had their red light on flash on the back of their head.

~hearing is heightened at night, compensating for the vision loss.  its amazing what you can hear out there!  Its also amazing what eyes you can see, but cant see the animal!  Whippoorwills are amazingly loud! 

~even tho you may not be able to see the trail bed precisely, your hearing again plays here.  the leaf litter off the trail is fluffy and 'crunchy.'   The moment you step off the trail, you hear it!

~We traveled a tad slower than we do during the daytime.  We chalked this up to not being able to see our foot placement and to taking copious notes.

Otherwise we had a great time and plan to do this thru out the summer!

[jaybird]

This news report from WSFA TV is a reminder that a little preparation goes a long-way in preventing very unpleasant circumstances...  

3 women located in Ala. national forest

Associated Press - April 20, 2010 9:04 AM ET

HEFLIN, Ala. (AP) - Cleburne County officials say three women who were reported lost in the Talladega National Forest have been found.

Jeff Edwards, spokesman for the Cleburne County Search and Rescue Team, says none of the women were injured and all were in fair condition when searchers found them near Adam's Gap on Monday. Edwards says the women were being treated by Cleburne County Emergency Medical Services.

The women were reported missing Sunday night. A car belonging to 1 of the women was located at Chinabee Lake.

Edwards says the Alabama Department of Public Safety supplied a helicopter for the search.

Information from: The Anniston Star, http://www.annistonstar.com/

Oops, a double post, as a link was posted Monday.

http://www.alatrails.com/...php/topic,2413.0.html#new