I was still hunting deep in a remote Colorado canyon on a cold sleet/snowy day about 30 years ago when I slowly entered a clearing, in thick conifers near a stream.
it had snowed all nite and elk tracks were fresh in most of the area , as I slowly walked thru the timber near the stream in the canyon bottom, I was rather amazed too find a guy sitting on a snow & ice covered log. A guy that was obviously not all that busy looking over the area or concerned with hunting.
he looked like he was about to cry until he spotted me, the guy jumped up, but acted clumsy almost drunk, I was a bit worried he had been drinking, or on drugs as his speech seemed, both erratic and not clear and a bit slurred, but it soon became obvious that he had spent the night in the canyon lost and alone , lost and half freezing ,and hypothermia had set in, I gave him a couple granola bars and made a tiny camp fire with a tri-oxane tab
and I then made him a cup of coco/coffee mix, in a stainless coffee cup I carried in my pack, that I carried for breaks on really cold days.
It always amazed me that guys who get lost, spend the night lost, wandering , and don,t stop, build a fire to keep warm and make finding them easier and wait for daylight.
he was thrilled to see another human, he thought he was MANY MILES from any roads and was very reluctant to leave me, and un-willing to walk to the closest road when I just pointed up-slope to where it was located, about 2-3 miles away, so I offered to guide him back to a road where he could thumb a ride into town and call his buddies to come get him,or drive him back to his camp site, if he thought they still might be there, because he was about 12 miles from where he said he started , but only about 2-3 miles from an access road to the area, he had walked up a narrow canyon and decided to sit and watch the far slope but had some how fallen asleep, he woke to find it was dark, and he freaked out and got totally lost during the nite while he could barely see, as it was very overcast and snowed most of the night and in under the trees far from city lights its a bit darker than most guys are used to dealing with.
I told him to stick close and Id guide him back to the road, as I still hunted back up the slope, the guy kept asking why I was going up-hill when he was always told to follow a stream down hill when lost as most streams eventually cross roads or lead to rivers and civilization.
It took me awhile to convince him I was anything but lost as I had hunted the area for over a dozen years and had to show him on a topo map and with a compass where we were headed. (this guy had ZERO sense of direction other than( up & down hill) It took us about 3 hours to slowly climb & walk out of the canyon.
I got to the truck in our camp left a note for the other guys and drove him back to his camp, there was no one there, but the other guys had notified the local game warden because I flagged him down as he was driving by and he was thrilled that he didn,t need to do more than call some guys, and his ranger buddy's on a car phone, who were searching for this lost dude on horseback. he then transferred to the rangers truck, and that was the last I saw of him.
now some of you guys might ask what I was doing hunting 2-3 miles in a canyon all by my self, well I was not by myself my companion was several hundred yards up slope walking parallel to my course and we talked before I walked the dude out to the road and we met later that day back in the canyon at a large rock formation, before spending the nite and hunting the upper canyon the next day
the pictures of this canyon I hunt are rather deceptive in that it takes about 2-2.5 hours to walk to the bottom and 3-4 hours to hike out of one of these canyons, on most trips and thats not counting any distance you might hunt along its slopes, and its common to find only limited access to areas in and out where you can walk carrying a heavy pack and rifle
it had snowed all nite and elk tracks were fresh in most of the area , as I slowly walked thru the timber near the stream in the canyon bottom, I was rather amazed too find a guy sitting on a snow & ice covered log. A guy that was obviously not all that busy looking over the area or concerned with hunting.
he looked like he was about to cry until he spotted me, the guy jumped up, but acted clumsy almost drunk, I was a bit worried he had been drinking, or on drugs as his speech seemed, both erratic and not clear and a bit slurred, but it soon became obvious that he had spent the night in the canyon lost and alone , lost and half freezing ,and hypothermia had set in, I gave him a couple granola bars and made a tiny camp fire with a tri-oxane tab
and I then made him a cup of coco/coffee mix, in a stainless coffee cup I carried in my pack, that I carried for breaks on really cold days.
It always amazed me that guys who get lost, spend the night lost, wandering , and don,t stop, build a fire to keep warm and make finding them easier and wait for daylight.
he was thrilled to see another human, he thought he was MANY MILES from any roads and was very reluctant to leave me, and un-willing to walk to the closest road when I just pointed up-slope to where it was located, about 2-3 miles away, so I offered to guide him back to a road where he could thumb a ride into town and call his buddies to come get him,or drive him back to his camp site, if he thought they still might be there, because he was about 12 miles from where he said he started , but only about 2-3 miles from an access road to the area, he had walked up a narrow canyon and decided to sit and watch the far slope but had some how fallen asleep, he woke to find it was dark, and he freaked out and got totally lost during the nite while he could barely see, as it was very overcast and snowed most of the night and in under the trees far from city lights its a bit darker than most guys are used to dealing with.
I told him to stick close and Id guide him back to the road, as I still hunted back up the slope, the guy kept asking why I was going up-hill when he was always told to follow a stream down hill when lost as most streams eventually cross roads or lead to rivers and civilization.
It took me awhile to convince him I was anything but lost as I had hunted the area for over a dozen years and had to show him on a topo map and with a compass where we were headed. (this guy had ZERO sense of direction other than( up & down hill) It took us about 3 hours to slowly climb & walk out of the canyon.
I got to the truck in our camp left a note for the other guys and drove him back to his camp, there was no one there, but the other guys had notified the local game warden because I flagged him down as he was driving by and he was thrilled that he didn,t need to do more than call some guys, and his ranger buddy's on a car phone, who were searching for this lost dude on horseback. he then transferred to the rangers truck, and that was the last I saw of him.
now some of you guys might ask what I was doing hunting 2-3 miles in a canyon all by my self, well I was not by myself my companion was several hundred yards up slope walking parallel to my course and we talked before I walked the dude out to the road and we met later that day back in the canyon at a large rock formation, before spending the nite and hunting the upper canyon the next day
the pictures of this canyon I hunt are rather deceptive in that it takes about 2-2.5 hours to walk to the bottom and 3-4 hours to hike out of one of these canyons, on most trips and thats not counting any distance you might hunt along its slopes, and its common to find only limited access to areas in and out where you can walk carrying a heavy pack and rifle