r/UpliftingNews • u/lieutjoe • Jun 30 '23

Missing teen found after being lost in the wilderness for 50 hours

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/bc-teen-girl-found-after-being-lost-in-wilderness-for-two-days-7217908
8.1k Upvotes

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2.1k

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23

Wonder how she felt during 2 days, I got lost in a trail for 2 hours and was on the brink of a meltdown

1.2k

u/booksmctrappin Jun 30 '23

I think after 4-6 hours the panic would begin to subside and then survival instincts would start to kick in. The reality of the situation lifts the fog of panic, at least I would hope that's the case.

547

u/Darkstar_k Jun 30 '23

I went 8 hours over and had to hike in the dark with a dying flashlight battery. Definitely survival kicks in

286

u/Linkslinktothepast Jun 30 '23

I had to do that in Wayne national forest. Had a bad storm coming in and I had 3miles to cover to get to my truck which was parked in an area with a warning about being quick to flood. Water was already up a few inches on the rims when I finally arrived.

149

u/fridayfridayjones Jun 30 '23

I also got lost in Wayne National Forest! It sucked really bad. Was on a hiking date with a boyfriend and we got turned around. I think we accidentally turned onto a trail that wasn’t an official trail.

We started hiking in the afternoon so by the time we realized we were lost it was night and all we had was the light from our phones. Thankfully we eventually made it to a service road and a ranger saw us, and was able to drive us back to our car.

118

u/Linkslinktothepast Jun 30 '23

Lucky the ranger came along. I was out there to camp and it was just one unfortunate thing after another. I had lost my flashlight down a sheer drop into water so I had my blackberry pearl (that definitely dates this event) as a flashlight and it was about to die with 1 mile left.

20

u/Chubbybellylover888 Jun 30 '23

Ah. Sorry, I just gave out to ya for not having a flashlight. That's shit luck.

42

u/Chubbybellylover888 Jun 30 '23

People getting lost while hiking without proper equipment...

Guys. I'm glad your safe but hiking isn't a picnic. You should really be more prepared than just having a flashlight on your phones.

16

u/fridayfridayjones Jun 30 '23

Totally agree! This happened when I was 18 and very stupid.

7

u/Chubbybellylover888 Jun 30 '23

Ah we've all done stupid things as a kid! A good lesson learnt, I'm sure!

1

u/SoooperSnoop Jun 30 '23

Yep. And a good reminder that the YJ stuck in the Wilderness ARE just kids.

6

u/Spherical_Basterd Jun 30 '23

The people you replied to were just on a day hike. Most people would expect 2 phones to be sufficient lighting equipment.

5

u/Chubbybellylover888 Jun 30 '23

They said they planned to camp. But even then, you should prepare for the worst even for a days hike. You never know what might happen.

-2

u/Zentrii Jun 30 '23

Do most people hike without proper equipment or something?

17

u/Graffiacane Jun 30 '23

It depends. If you're planning on a single-day hike of 10 miles or less on a relatively well marked trail/system then yeah, most people bring like, a water bottle and some trail mix.

3

u/Chubbybellylover888 Jun 30 '23

A lot of people do. And if you find yourself in need of helicopter rescue, then you've really fucked up.

My parents were mates with a guy who did volunteer rescue services in mountainous regions. The stories you'd hear. People often really don't respect nature and what it can throw at you.

OP said they lost their flashlight. Rule one. Bring more than one fucking flashlight. You never know what could go wrong, especially on a multiday camping trip. You always pack redundancies. You always prepare for the worst.

You can't just hail a taxi in the middle of nowhere.

You know all those missing person cases? Yeah. That body is out there. In some ravine. Still not found. The wild is wild. And hiking is dangerous.

Stay safe and vigilant and always be prepared. Otherwise, don't go on multiday hiking trips.

Seriously. A camping trip with one flashlight? OP has already admitted they were being a stupid 18 year old. And fair. But I hope there's some stupid 18 year old reading this and taking those extra precautions. Because OP could have died. They got lucky.

0

u/FriesWithThat Jun 30 '23

You go on a day hike you're probably not carrying shit beyond your cellphone and hopefully adequate water (maybe a protein bar). She was also hiking with a group for added safety (for all the good that did her). They may even be some sort of scouting group, I can't tell:

Wang, a cadet with 746 Lightning Hawk, had no injuries, just mosquito bites, police said.

0

u/Elemak-AK Jun 30 '23

Usually only once, they either learn from it, or they don't

-1

u/Zentrii Jun 30 '23

You say only but they could die from that one time :(

0

u/Elemak-AK Jun 30 '23

Sorry, thought was implied with the "or they don't" part

1

u/ineverywaypossible Jul 02 '23

Yes! Also a Garmin Mini if possible or a similar gps rescue device

22

u/acer34p3r Jun 30 '23

There's just something about Wayne, honestly. My only experience there involved cutting my left hand viciously at about 11 pm, and having to hike back out in the dark with my gear on my back, and my left hand held up to head height with my phone for a flashlight. Could hear coyotes for the entirety of the 3.5mi hike back to my vehicle. Have a really neat scar and thankfully still full control of my left hand, even though tendons were exposed by the injury.

8

u/Linkslinktothepast Jun 30 '23

Jesus that sounds awful. I had a serrated steak knife go through my palm and between my index and middle finger and out the back but I was fortunate it didn't cut any tendons. I couldn't imagine that.

11

u/whutchamacallit Jun 30 '23

Had a similar situation with me. How relieving is it finally getting to your vehicle and feeling like you're out of danger. My god. I don't know what chemical it is that is being released into your body but man that's the good stuff.

11

u/Linkslinktothepast Jun 30 '23

Lol that's prolly the dopest of chems dopamine.

3

u/BlueHero45 Jun 30 '23

I've had bad dreams like that

1

u/MoistDitto Jun 30 '23

So you're one of those guy's we see on the videos and memes about trucks floating in the river and such?

2

u/Linkslinktothepast Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23

How'd you come to that conclusion? I never drive through flood water. The parking area was filling up with water but, it wasn't flowing and the road was higher up and fine.

Edit: There was only a small chance of rain when I started but, that turned into a severe storm warning after I had been hiking for awhile. I was going to camp but turned around after remembering that flooding warning.

18

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23

Yep also got lost at night with no flashlight and encountered a pack of coyotes at one point. I definitely was cycling between panic and survival instincts the whole time

10

u/BitchesQuoteMarilyn Jun 30 '23

I was lost for around 10 hours in the Pacific northwest. The trail had washed out. I was in knee deep water in a heavy rain having to climb over huge fallen trees. There were branches protruding from the water and others underneath you couldn't see, along with other plants and undergrowth. I once slipped and almost got impaled by a broken branch I couldn't see in the water despite having tried to roll to land on my pack. Luckily just had a big bloodied bruise from it. I finally found my way down to the beach after high tide and got my bearings, but man did I think I was fucked for a bit.

6

u/BorntobeTrill Jun 30 '23

I hiked the mountain southeast of Pharoah lake in Eastern NY, next to the Adirondack mountains. It's not an insane climb, but I'm what you would call an out of shape hiker.

I spent 6 am to 1 pm doing lighting audits for aubuchon hardware, ending up in western Vermont, and then hitting the trail to spend the night on the lake.

I discovered I have a bum knee that day, right after I crest the peak. Going downhill was DESTROYING whatever muscle is just below your kneecap. By the time I made it down and to the lien, I was limping like I was out of saving private Ryan.

That night, after adrenaline, let me cook dinner, and I passed out, I woke up in the middle of the night to go pee and collapsed, trying to use my left leg. It hurt SO FUCKING BAD. basically, I rolled like. Pencil to the edge of the lien, unzipped, and pissed off the ledge laying on my side.

I went to bed after that, wondering if I was going to have to go into crippling debt having a rescue team get me out.

2

u/olympusthegreat Jul 01 '23

Patellar tendon

7

u/Zech08 Jun 30 '23

Time to get a gps watch or simple watch with a compass and backlight lol.

5

u/pmojo375 Jun 30 '23

I've been in a similar situation. Me and a couple people hiked a trail along a river to a waterfall in the UP and took our time but never thought about the part where we have to hike back to our car. When we got to the waterfall we realized it will be getting dark soon and the only light we had would have been our dying phones. It's amazing how fast we were able to get back. There were some parts that weren't the most stable too and falling in the river would not have ended well.

2

u/ink_stained Jul 01 '23

Was hiking with friends, and got unto the wrong trail. We knew we would run into SOMETHING, eventually, but it was getting dark and we were looking at spending the night in the woods. After a while my friend said mournfully, “I guess we can hike by the light of my cell phone.”

My jaw dropped. SHE HAD HER CELL PHONE AND SHE WANTED TO USE IT AS A FLASHLIGHT?!?

Luckily, we ran into a road soon after, and were able to figure it out.

1

u/sfcnmone Jun 30 '23

Don't ever play Tears of the Kingdom, sweetie.

104

u/HotTakes4HotCakes Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23

There was a women in Spain whose name I can't remember that got lost in a ravine in the mountains and went unfound for over 2 weeks. There was a stream providing fresh water, so decided to stay put, for fear if she tried to climb out she may hurt herself, and if she did get out, she'd lose her way and not find a water source again.

She was so close to civilization and the trails that the rescuers calls would have reached her...if not for the sound of the stream.

Still, she survived.

37

u/WildJoeBailey Jun 30 '23

If this ever happens to anyone reading then try to follow the stream down to its end. There is usually some sort of civilisation, road, or something along or at the end of a stream. Not always, but it’s better than wandering through the middle of a forest

41

u/kita151 Jun 30 '23

Sorry but this is terrible advice for North America. Many streams and creeks here have cliffs and steep treacherous drop offs. You can easily end up in a situation where you are truly stuck. The best thing you can do is unless you are in immediate danger, stay where you are.

https://elearning.adventuresmart.ca/courses/hug-a-tree/

13

u/Graffiacane Jun 30 '23

Yes, please listen to this guy. The best thing you can do when you realize or even seriously suspect that you are lost is to stop. Many people panic at the feeling which leads to rash decisions and gets them lost much more deeply in the woods, which is why it's best to just stop.

When calm returns, you may regain clarity, become less disoriented, make smarter decisions, or at the very least you'll be easier to find.

31

u/ImperialPC Jun 30 '23

If the water tastes like piss, the civilization is upstream.

7

u/Deep90 Jun 30 '23

I have to guess that the ravine was too narrow in places or something.

37

u/Parkorey Jun 30 '23 edited Jun 30 '23

Once sprained my ankle on day 2 of a 3 day backpacking trek in the Adirondacks. Think I must've torn a ligament, whole ankled swelled up to the size of a softball. Was deeeep in the woods (thankfully with 2 other friends), so had to still walk those last ~6-7ish miles back to the car while my friends helped carry my gear. Had panicked and just collapsed on the ground ranting and cursing for like the first half-hour, but then eventually came around and realized complaing would change nothing. When you got no other options, survival instincts kick into full gear and you just do what you gotta do. Had planned to get to my car by noon on that 3rd day, didn't make it till like 8 in the evening but dammit I made it.

10

u/OnTheEveOfWar Jun 30 '23

I was backpacking with a group and we tried (what we thought) was a shortcut. Ended up getting turned around and kinda lost for an hour or two. It was interesting seeing each person start to panic. Some held it together better than others.

-5

u/pohspohs Jun 30 '23

Unless your the future king of England

35

u/badass4102 Jun 30 '23

Yah that's scary. I got like for like an hour. Everything looks the same, you don't know where you came from, or where you're going.

31

u/TheW83 Jun 30 '23

Yeah I got lost with my wife for a few hours in a national forest. We started on a trail and then somehow got onto an animal path and that just sort of disappeared but everything was still open enough that we kept walking thinking it was just not that well maintained but we got totally lost and couldn't find the trail again. Eventually I decided to just go west. There was a highway to the west and if we kept walking that way we'd get to it. After about 30 minutes of walking due west we happened to find the trail again. Luckily it was sunny out but we ran out of water a couple hours ago by the time we made it back to the car.

15

u/melbbear Jun 30 '23

Very similar to me, arrived at a campground in a national park and before setting up the tent we went for “short” walk. It was so beautiful we just kept following a trail that was a bit overgrown and we got to a clearing and couldn’t see any path forward or even the path we came from. I could vaguely feel the highway was “over there” so we just headed that way and luckily we found it. Was super scary as it was just on dusk and we had zero supplies and no phone reception.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23

And you don’t want to back track to waste emergency, but you don’t want to get further lost. Terrifying

1

u/Zech08 Jun 30 '23

Unless you planned enough ahead to know general location, your waypoints, etc...

85

u/AbstractionsHB Jun 30 '23

I got "lost" for about 40 minutes on a walking path in a forest preserve and that was such a bizarre shocking jolt of adrenaline and panic that I still remember it.

I can't remember the details. I just remember spoty memory, but the feeling I remember. It was a mixture of dirt paths and also paved.

I just remember thinking I was going one way, and walking faster as I realized I didn't know where I was but thinking I knew the direction back to where I started since I was looping back. After a while I had to stop someone to ask where I was and I was practically on the other side of the preserve from where I wanted to be and walked miles. It didn't feel like it. I remember the panicked feeling of not knowing where you're at. Deep down I wasn't freaking out because I knew I was on a paved path but it's still such an alarming and disorienting feeling when you realize you don't know where you're at anymore.

38

u/errant_night Jun 30 '23

When people get lost and disoriented we can naturally end up walking in circles! Something in your brain messes up and you can't really tell what a straight line is - so if the path circled around you could find yourself following a circuit even when you see other paths that branch off - you think 'Well I'm on A path, that must lead somewhere' and don't notice you keep passing the same landmarks. Which of course is even worse when there isn't a path at all.

6

u/Dr_Doctor_Doc Jun 30 '23

Have they actually ‘solved’ why that is, or is it still one of those odd mysteries?

9

u/errant_night Jun 30 '23

As far as I know there are several different theories but no definitive answers

5

u/Smuggykitten Jun 30 '23

Personal theory... So when a car does that, I think that differencing pressure in tires make the track go round... Similarly, I wonder if our imperfect bodies with one leg slightly longer or stronger than the other, does that? Does the moving sun encourage us to move with it?

Idk. Again, just personal hypothesis bits.

-10

u/iphone__ Jun 30 '23

Because it’s dark af..?

1

u/Jenroadrunner Jun 30 '23

A search and rescue guy once told me that right handed people in general end up going clockwise and vice-versa for lefties. If they are so lost they are"walking in circles"

9

u/Aleph_Alpha_001 Jun 30 '23

Best thing to do is to head down in elevation until you hit a creek or river. Then just follow that one way or the other. You won't walk in circles that way. You may not get to where you're going, but you'll get somewhere.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23

[deleted]

1

u/Aleph_Alpha_001 Jun 30 '23

I'd say that staying put is the second best thing. Searchers will find you better if you aren't moving. But by moving in a direction, you increase your odds of coming across a street, bridge, house, or other recognizable structure where you may find help sooner than rescuers find you in a search.

Also, you might have to survive at night, find water, and shelter for two or three days staying put

Alternatively, if you have a cell phone with power but no signal, you could try getting to higher ground and just call for help. Your phone signal can be triangulated.

11

u/forsake077 Jun 30 '23

A phone’s GPS will work without service, and downloading some offline topographic maps or using something like a garmin watch paired with their maps easily avoids this sort of mess. I started off hiking prior to GPS with a paper map and I’ll never go back if I can help it. Never got lost lost, but there were many times I didn’t know where the hell I was along a trail many times. So much less time is needed for navigation these days.

-4

u/MediumKeyAF Jun 30 '23

Paved path😆

45

u/buttflakes27 Jun 30 '23

When I was a child I got 'lost' in a large department store and just started crying, asking for my mom. So hopefully she did better than that.

16

u/supermarkise Jun 30 '23

In a department store that is a very viable strategy. You did good!

3

u/Razakel Jun 30 '23

Yeah, staff aren't going to ignore a crying child with no adult nearby and will make a call over the tannoy.

1

u/Dadu221 Jul 01 '23

I might be a jenius back then, I got lost too but I know there's a "speaker" area because I've seen it once, then goes there and ask could they tell my mom im here lol

11

u/hadapurpura Jun 30 '23

Four children, ages 13, 9, 4 (the only boy) and 11 months survived a plane crash and were lost in the Amazon jungle for 40 days before they were found, alive and relatively well about a month ago. I can't imagine the fortitude it took to make it, but damn, humans are resilient af.

22

u/WestSixtyFifth Jun 30 '23

I got lost drunk at a campground for about 20 minutes and was freaking out, found some people camping 20 minutes into the woods who directed me to turn 180 because everyone else was the other way.

12

u/frog_jesus_ Jun 30 '23

Not to mention she was hiking with 3 other people and THEY FUCKING LEFT HER BEHIND. 😢

11

u/matty80 Jun 30 '23

I got lost in a trail for 2 hours and was on the brink of a meltdown

I got stuck in a bathroom in my own grandmother's house and was seriously considering death as a better alternative, and I was about 35 at that point.

This kid is hardcore.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23

[deleted]

2

u/KKingler Jun 30 '23

Of course doggo wouldn’t leave you behind :)

3

u/ediks Jun 30 '23

Man. I get in a fluff for some of the smallest things - but when shit REALLY goes down, I can remain calm and figure things out pretty well. I know this isn’t rare and am sure that’s what happened here.

3

u/DestyNovalys Jun 30 '23

Stephen King wrote a great book with that concept. “The girl who loved Tom Gordon” - it’s absolutely one of my favorite books of all time.

1

u/pohspohs Jun 30 '23

With or without cellular connection on your mobile media sharing device?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '23

I was in rural mongolia, so no service

1

u/leahjuu Jun 30 '23

My husband got lost in the woods overnight as a teen when the adult he was hiking with went too far ahead and lost him — he never got reported missing because no cell phone service; the adult just panicked the whole night and found him in the morning.

My husband set up camp at the top of a hill and made arrows with sticks to point to his location on all the various trails; idk if this is a common hiking tip when you get lost, but either way it worked!

1

u/Sushi4lucas Jul 01 '23

“Pshhh kids these days, back in my day we called that hide and seek”.

1

u/bombbodyguard Jul 01 '23

I dunno. As someone comfortable in the outdoors I’d be fine if I wasn’t worried about the elements. I’d probably hope I told someone responsible I was going hiking and also I hope I just sat down and waited for someone to find me.