There’s a difference between being lost and not knowing your whereabouts. Throughout my wilderness travels I’ve succumbed to the second more than the first. On river trips I’ve been totally mystified on which twist or turn of the river I was propelling myself around. I’ve crossed countless lakes, clueless of which bay I was drifting across. I’ve wandered off more portage trails than I care to admit. I even once guided a film crew to the wrong access point on a familiar river—how embarrassing!
Lost and found: Lessons learned from getting lost on trip
Fortunately, being totally lost has been rare. But it has happened. And when it does, the anxiety factor increases dramatically. They say not to panic but when you are truly lost it’s hard not to run through the woods in a cold sweat, waving your arms around, screaming, “I’m going to die! I’m going to die!” at the top of your lungs. At least for me anyway.
He who walks with wolves will learn to howl
My worst case was during a solo trip down the Missinaibi River in my early twenties. It was on an early morning drift when I noticed a lone wolf lapping up water along the bank. As I snapped open my camera box, the wolf took flight into the thick boreal forest. Keyed up from the sighting, I beached my canoe and ran through the bush in hopes of catching up to the animal and capturing it on film.
Ten minutes into the chase I realized the wolf was long gone and I hadn’t a clue where I was. My compass and map, of course, were sitting on the deck of my canoe. Suddenly, each jack pine surrounding me looked identical to the next, the mosquito population seemed to increase considerably and the forest became deafeningly silent. Yes, I began to panic. Who wouldn’t?
My days as a Boy Scout didn’t help much. I retained little from our meetings at the community church every second week, except that moss grows on the north side of the tree. Apparently, it doesn’t. Moss was growing on all sides of the trees where I was standing.
Looking to life’s great teacher: television
In my youth we didn’t have television shows like Survivor Man or Man vs. Wild. I gathered my woods lore through shows like Grizzly Adams and Gentle Ben.
It was an old episode of The Forest Rangers that saved me. I recalled Joe Two Rivers telling the gang that you can deduce direction from the sun. I remembered that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Since it was early morning and the wolf was sighted on the west bank of the river, I figured that if I walked toward the rising sun, I would eventually get back to the river. I did. And there to greet me was the wolf standing a few feet from my canoe.
This time, when I unsnapped my camera box and the animal dashed into the woods again, I decided to stay put. I jumped back into my canoe and spent the rest of the day being slightly unsure of my whereabouts, but not lost.
Fun fact: Although Kevin Callan is known for his longtime Butt End column in Canoeroots, his debut article was published in the second issue of Rapid in the spring of 1999. His Butt End column kicked off in the Spring 2006 issue of Canoeroots.
This article was first published in the Summer/Fall 2011 issue of Canoeroots Magazine and was republished in the 2023 Paddling Buyer’s Guide. Someone tell Kevin the river is behind him and the correct direction is “down.” | Feature photo: Kevin Callan
How can you get lost with a cell phone it has built in GPS no signal required. Granted your story was before cell phones BUT now you cant .