What to do if you're lost on a hike with kids

If lost, don't panic. Simply stop walking and see if you
can determine your location and how to get back
to your trail.

Q: How do you know you’re lost?

A: When you don’t know where you are and you don’t know which way to go.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

You could be hiking along a trail and not be able to pinpoint on a map exactly where you are yet still be confident that you’re heading in the right direction simply because no other trails have branched off yours and because key landmarks are easily identifiable on the horizon.

Stop walking
As soon as you’re uncertain where you are and whether or not you’re heading in the right direction, stop walking. It’s time to figure out where you are.

As when searching for someone lost, don’t panic. It’s the greatest danger to anyone who is lost. Just take a rest stop and pull out your maps. Check the topo map and see if you can spot any obvious landmarks. These could include prominent peaks, roads, water towers, power lines or waterways.

If you can’t locate an obvious landmark, consider tracing your way back to the last spot you checked your map and knew you were going in the right direction. From there, either head in the correct direction or return to your vehicle before you get lost again.

Should you see other hikers, don’t hesitate to tell them you’re lost. They’ll probably be able to help you find your bearings. At the very least, they can take you to a trailhead and then hopefully back to your vehicle.

Locate main trail
If lost, you’re probably not too far away from your trail. Experienced hikers know the odds are good that they can get back to the trail.

As Melissa F., of Moab, Utah, advises: “Estimate how much time has passed since you last knew where you were, then estimate how far you probably can walk in that amount of time. If you cover a mile every half hour, and 15 minutes have passed since you last saw a landmark that you knew was on your trail, at worse you’re only a half-mile off course. By knowing the compass direction of a landmark you can identify, you can estimate which direction the trail is.”

Fair warning, though: It’s probably not a good idea to go back to the trail but best to stay where you are and take comfort in knowing that you’ll be fairly easy for rescuers to find. If you keep walking in the wrong direction, you likely will increase the time rescuers need to locate you.

Should you rescue yourself while a search operation is underway, be sure to let a park ranger or the authorities know. There’s no need to continue the search once you’re safe. Such operations are expensive and you may needlessly be draining manpower and resources away from another rescue.

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Search strategies for children lost on hike

If a child is lost, search nearby waterways. Kids often are drawn to water.

Use safety whistle
to help locate
one another

There perhaps is no greater fear among parents than not knowing where their child is. All of us have experienced moments when our child has wandered off when we had turned away only for a second, leaving us feeling totally helpless as we scanned the busy street or mall but couldn’t locate him or her.

When day hiking with children, the potential for a child to amble off and become lost are high. The wilds are full of intriguing sights that can grab a child’s attention while we’re fiddling with gear, trying to reload our backpack, or find ourselves enamored by some vista. Once lost, we know the child is at the mercy of the elements and faces any number of dangers from drowning in water to suffering an injury in a bad fall.

You can decrease the chances of a child becoming lost by taking some precautionary steps. Before heading onto the trail, discuss with your child the importance of always staying in sight of you and of always remaining on the trail. In addition, go over with them what to do if lost: He should stop walking, remain in that spot, and know that you’re looking for him. Finally, always have your child carry a safety whistle, which he should blow on upon realizing he’s lost.

Even then, your child may wander away during a day hike. So what should you do then?

First rule: Don't panic
The first rule is don’t panic. By keeping a cool head, you’ll be able to make the best decisions about finding your child. The odds favor him being very nearby, and if he stopped walking once he realized he was lost and blows on his safety whistle, you’ll find him very quickly.

Next, begin the search by blowing on your whistle to let the child know you’re nearby. The whistle’s sound will travel farther than your voice. Hopefully he will whistle back, and then you can go to him.

If the child does not respond, contact officials immediately, if at all possible, without leaving the area. Even though you may find your child shortly thereafter, he may be injured and need medical attention. With a rescue team on the way, your injured child will receive help sooner.

If there’s no response to the whistle, begin a circular search of the immediate area, walking in a spiral pattern from a central point, known as “home.” If there are others with you, always search in teams, and never send young children to conduct a search. Make sure some of the party stays at “home” so more of you don’t become lost. Have the party at home shout the lost child’s names, and if darkness falls, keep a light shining there.

Pay close attention to bodies of water such as streams and lakes. Children often are attracted to bodies of water and simply may have wandered off to take a look.

Keep child's shirt in vehicle
When rescuers arrive, work with them. Don’t withhold any information and do as they ask. They have a lot of experience at rescue work and really are using the best strategies to quickly find your children.

You also should know what your child was wearing so you can provide good descriptions of them to rescuers.

Also, always keep one of the child’s belongings, such as a recently worn shirt, in your vehicle. Search dogs can use this to get the child’s scent. Some parents even take pictures of the kids’ boot soles so they’ll be easier to locate during a search.

With a little luck, you’ll quickly find your child, and the experience won’t be traumatic. When researching my book Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Children, many parents told me that they found their lost child within a minute or two, and that often their child couldn’t understand what all of the fuss was about – he was just over there looking at an interesting bug.

This blog entry originally appeared in the Jan. 18, 2012, edition of Seattle Backpackers Magazine.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.