Backwoods Safety

With the official arrival of spring and warmer weather I’ve been looking forward to a return to the backwoods.  I’m not the only one.  Looked at booking a campsite in my favourite Ontario provincial park and all the sites are totally booked until late August.  Pandemic time has seen many folks turning to the great outdoors.  Long term this is great because people protect what they know.  If they have no personal experience in the backwoods it is harder for them to care about what happens to nature and the wild.  Short term it means a lot of inexperienced folks are loose in the forest.  Backwoods safety is something to think about before you end up lost in the wild.

As a wild crafter I am often out in the wild.  Even so, I got lost this fall.  Home in Nova Scotia and this recreation area had numerous signs telling folks to make sure they knew what they were doing and don’t get lost.  I, in a fit of hubris, scoffed at these warnings.  Me?  Lost in the woods?  Could not happen.  And yet, there I was turning on location services on my phone to figure out where I was.  This was within 5 km of a populated area.  This week I want to review backwoods safety and best practices.

Map and a compass. 

Aside from having a map and a compass you must know how to use it. You can use a GPS device or your cell phone but what if you drop your phone?  What if the battery dies?  I am sorry to this day that I didn’t understand what orienteering was back when I was in high school.  Don’t plan to learn how to use a map and compass for the first time in a crisis.  Practice at home to develop your skill.  Keep your map in a ziplock bag.

Stay on the trail.

I have been woods-walking over the winter.  This is a pond that one of my favourite trails runs alongside.  In this photo you can see the melt happening. During the winter it looks like a snowy field.  Step off the trail out into the “field” and there’s a good chance you fall through the ice.

Is there a pond there?

Information.  

Make sure someone knows where you are. Let them know when you’ll be expected back.  Before the pandemic my partner travelled a lot on business.  No one at home to miss me.  I leave a note on the dashboard of my car.  No one can know you’re missing if they don’t know when you were supposed to be back.  No one will know where to start looking when you’re overdue if they don’t know where you went.  Remember the movie 127 hours?  Could have been considerably fewer hours had anyone known where he was.

Stop. 

Many folks have made a bad situation worse by thinking that they knew the way, it is just over this way.  You’ll only use energy you might need.  If you are lost – stop where you are.

Know your limits.

Enthusiasm is not a replacement for fitness and experience.  Build up to the 14 km hike that is uphill both ways.  I canoe with a friend and the first time each season that we lift that canoe up and onto the roof of her car it’s a challenge.

Dress properly.

Wear layers and invest in fabric that will wick sweat away.  Jeans and a t-shirt are pretty much the worst thing you can wear.  Break in your new hiking boots by marching up and down your road – not a trail.

Know/Understand Potential Hazards.

Do you have a bear bell?  Is there Lyme disease in the area?  I hike in long pants all summer long – regardless of how hot it is – because Lyme disease is a concern in my area.  Tornadoes didn’t used to be a part of the Eastern Ontario weather experience but now they are.  Do you know what to do?

Food/Water.  

Carry a daypack with some snacks and extra water. Even if you think it will just be a short hike.  Not even a hike.  A ramble.  Take it with you anyways. I did a 10 km hike at Charleston lake once.  It would have been better if I hadn’t drunk all my water before the halfway mark.

I remember a few years ago harvesting goldthread.  It was fall and the day was a shimmering gold.  I moved off trail following patch after patch.  When I had enough I looked around.  It was an autumn forest ablaze in a carpet of orange and yellow leaves.  I knew which way was back to the trial because I had left my backpack on the trail.  And as I had moved farther off trail to harvest I had marked in my mind’s eye where the backpack was.  Time in the wild is nourishing to my herbalism.  I want to be safe while I embrace it.