Last week, we looked at how to navigate the backcountry and what to do if you get off trail and completely lost. But what if you're not the lost one? What if it's your hiking partner or a member of your group? This week, let's look at the best way to reconnect with your hiking pal and how to prevent losing them in the first place. Let's get into it!

"Where the hell are they?"
This is a scenario we all dread: you’re on a group hike and one of the hikers in your group disappears.
How can you prevent something like this from happening?
What can you do to find them?
Prevention
Keep your group together during a hike. If you’re the trip leader or you’re in an unruly mob of hikers, talk and agree to a set of policies at the trail head before your hike that will keep the group together . For example,
Stop and wait for the rest of the group at all trail junctions and stream crossings.
If you stop for a pee, leave your backpack on the trail perpendicular to where you stepped off. This will alert people to the fact that you’ve taken a powder, and will provide a last known point if you fail to return.
Appoint a hiker to be a designated sweep (last person) in the group. This is a good place to put fast hikers who insist on leaving the group behind. Give them the job of looking out for slower hikers.
Bring extra whistles to the hike. Make sure that all hikers have a whistle – they are much louder than yelling if you need to find someone or get their attention.
Keep in sight of the hiker in front of you.
Avoid slinky stops – where the group sets off just as the last hiker catches up on a stop break.
Review the route on a map at the trail head before the hike starts, and call out significant landmarks or tricky turns along the route. (How many times have you been on a hike where only the leader knows the route?)-Bring extra copies of the map and make sure all hikers have one, as well as a compass.
Define a Time Control Plan before the hike or at the trail head (and pass out copies). This should include a turn around time where everyone agrees to hike out, even if the objective is not reached. Make sure that all hikers have a watch (incredible as it seems, many hikers don’t carry one.)
Keeping your group together is the most effective way to prevent a lost hiker scenario, but people still wander off or get lost. Here’s what to do when that happens.
Searching for a Lost Hiker
When you realize that someone is lost, the leader needs to take control of the group, explain to them what needs to be done and begin delegating responsibilities. If you are on a hike without a designated leader, don’t let people run off shouting for the lost hiker. You need to stay calm and define a plan of action before you waste time on ineffective searching.
The first thing you need to do is to figure out where the hiker was last seen. This should be a place where they were definitively seen, not where someone thinks they saw them. Mark this place on your map.
Ask the group when they last spoke to the individual and whether the lost hiker said anything about their physical condition (thirsty, dizzy, hot, had to go to the bathroom) or indicated a desire to do something not on the hike itinerary, like taking a quick detour to bag an adjacent peak or taking photos at a nearby viewpoint. These clues might give you an idea of where to start searching – mark them on your map for reference.
Gather any information about the lost individual, particularly heath-related issues, that you don’t know but others in the group do. Are they diabetic, allergic to bee stings, asthmatic, etc? It’s best to know these things before a hike, but many people often don’t share these details if they don’t feel they are relevant. Knowing this information up front, may influence your decision to call in external SAR assistance sooner, if your immediate search efforts do not yield results. Given that it takes most SAR teams can take several hours to mobilize and arrive at a backcountry scene, your group’s search efforts are probably the best chance that a lost hiker has if they have a major health issue.
Next, assess the state of your group and their condition, skills, fitness, supplies, the weather, amount of daylight left, and so forth. The last thing you want to do is to jeopardize the safety of the rest of the group and compound the situation with another potential accident or health issue. If the group is safe, determine who your strongest searchers are based on fitness, compass skills, backcountry skills, wilderness first aid experience, etc
Quickly examine your map and see if there is any easy way to cordon off the immediate area to keep the lost hiker from wandering farther. Lost hikers have a tendency to keep walking once they realize they are lost, rather than staying put. For example, send out hikers along adjacent trails with whistles and attach notes to trail head signs instructing the lost hiker to stop at them, rather than continuing to wander.
Next, draw two circles around the lost hiker’s last known location, one 3 miles in diameter and the other 6 miles in diameter: 50% of lost hikers are found within the inner circle and 90% are found without the outer circle (NOLS’s Wilderness Guide.)
Look at your map and identify potential off-trail accident scenes such as steep river banks, stream crossings, cliffs, and steep slopes. If you have a small group of strong searchers, you need to prioritize potential accident locations first.
If you have still not located the lost hiker and it is starting to get dark, it’s probably time to call for external assistance from a SAR team. You should do this earlier than later if the lost hiker has a life-threatening, pre-existing medical condition. Stop searching when it gets dark because off-trail searches will endanger your group and can further complicate the SAR scenario.
Sobering stuff, but these incidents do occur and it’s best to think through what you’d do if you need to find a hiker who’s wandered away from a group hike.
Written by Philip Werner for The Section Hiker, published on December 9, 2013
N.A.C. News
(Sunday, June 4, 2023)
Good Morning,

This past Friday, we headed out to the Cheltenham Badlands and hiked a 15km section of the Bruce Trail. In the Badlands, and on the 5kms of road work, we were exposed to the sun and it was dangerously hot. Please remember, when hiking in the summer, carry more water than usual. If you have one, bring a water filter of some sort. Before you head out, locate and take note of all possible water sources along the way by using resources like topographic maps and Google Maps. Remember, many streams and water sources dry up during the summer.
Also, make sure you wear appropriate, light clothing that will still protect you but keep you cool. Bring sunscreen, or wear clothing with built in SPF and a cooling towel in your backpack is always a great idea on hot hikes!
I have been quite busy with the final details of our Iceland expedition as well as starting the process of booking and such for the Yosemite expedition and so I have no had a chance to plan any new hikes. By next week's email, I promise I will have some more hikes planned and online.
In the meantime, make sure you check out the trips for this year! There is still a few spots available on the Bruce Peninsula Multiday Hike. We will be hiking through Bruce Peninsula National Park for 3 days with a stop at The Grotto Caves. We will have one night on the trail at a primitive camp on the shores of the Georgian Bay, and two nights at a paid campsite where we will have access to showers, toilets and many other amenities. Its a great trip for new and experienced backpackers, and an awesome opportunity to complete the Northern end of the Bruce Trail and finish at the Northern Cairn.
There is also a spot up for grabs for the Yosemite Loop Expedition. This is a last minute opening, and therefore must be filled quickly. This epic trip will take you to Yosemite, California where we will spend 5 days exploring Yosemite's Backcountry while summiting some of the most famous mountain peaks in North America. This trip is for intermediate and advanced backpackers with appropriate gear and clothing. Please contact me if you need more information.
That's all the news for this week. As always, stay safe, and happy hiking!
Lenny Burch