Posted on 08/26/2017 12:03:08 PM PDT by Aliska
Caked in mud and covered with bug bites, a shivering group of six friends from the Quad-Cities huddled together in the dark this past Sunday, stranded in the woods of northeast Iowa.
(Excerpt) Read more at qctimes.com ...
There are simple ways of determining true north and from that all the other directions and if one has even a rough mental map of the general area you know where the nearest town is. Boy Scout stuff. Moss on the north side of tree trunks, you don’t even need the sun or stars.
I ran into a couple on the Uwharrie Trail one evening in the early fall.
Flip Flops, shorts, no gear, no maps, no water bottles.
Asked then if they knew where they were. They said “Dutchman’s Trail.” I said “No, you’re on the Uwharrie Trail”. In that section of the forest the two trails make a figure 8 with the Uwharrie Trail continuing to the north.
I took out my extra map, pointed out where they were on it, pointed to the gravel road just to the east of us and said it would take you to the parking lot at the trail head in about 4 miles, told them the Uwharrie Trail was marked in white and the Dutchman’s Trail was marked in yellow - and gave them the map.
THEY WALKED OFF DEEPER INTO THE WOODS.
I was wondering how they would enjoy themselves in the woods overnight. Wouldn’t kill them but they sure would spend an uncomfortable night.
My son as a teen went on a tubing trip to somewhere in Southern MN, it seemed safe enough at the time and a large group.
I don't want to be too critical of those women. I googled lots of articles about men lost in the wilderness, CO, MT, CA, nothing in IA due to intentional adventuring though.
“Men get lost,”
Um...what universe are you living in?
Hmmm... a three hour tour. Where have I heard that before? The only remaining question is whether they will get a TV show out of it.
In Girl Scouts we just sold cookies.
Paper maps from .gov?
Go to this site. Takes a while to figure it out but you can print out 1:50,000 maps on four sheets of paper and tape them together.
http://www.natgeomaps.com/trail-maps/pdf-quads
I think this may be a bogus story.
There’s no woods in Iowa. Just corn.
Everywhere, corn. Corn everywhere. All is corn.
And demon possessed scarecrows, Corn Monsters, spooky spirits in the corn fields, etc so on and so forth.
But no woods. No room because corn.
Actually we do have regular Coast Guard here.
They patrol the Mississippi river.
Every woman knows they stubbornly resist asking for directions while driving.
Not if they’re, ‘hangry!’ ;)
He said there were woods. Take him to the cornfield!
Impossible.
Why would they name a river in Iowa the Mississippi River?
It would be the Iowa River.
Or maybe a river named after their state mascot, The Buckeye River.
Well, we do have an Iowa River.
Buckeyes? Everyone knows that Iowa is where potatoes come from.
There’s lots of soybeans, too. But still there are truly remote areas when the terrain isn’t conducive to farming. Like Maquoketa Caves State Park where my grandson is going with his school soon. Just one dinky road at the northern end. If you can make your way back out, you will eventually come to some road.
Never been lost, was a bit confused in Africa for a couple of days, but not lost.
Sometimes you know you’re here - and there is there - but you just can’t get from here to there.
Rain, triple canopy jungle, getting dark, two Americans and two local troops - and the one just had to tell of rogue elephants and leopards wandering this neck of the woods just as darkness fell and the rain got harder.
That was one fun night.
With that many rivers, and potatoes, I can see why you’d have a Coast Guard.
How about an Air Force?
Does Iowa have an Air Force?
I’ll bet there’s lots of air there.
And Phi Phi Island.
Yep, weather can make a big diference.
I’ve got a friend who got lost just north of this same area back in the 80’s. He was deer hunting and a blizzard set in. He was not a complete newbie to the woods, but it took him about 5 exhasting hours to get out of the timber and locate a farm house. By then he was not only dealing with the blizzard but also darkness.
They have islands in Iowa?
I’m gonna go find my old 7th grade Geography teacher, Mr. Andrews and punch him right in the nose.
I’ll bet they have one of those all-inclusive Sandals resorts there.
Probably with potatoes.
That “All Inclusive” motto is for the birds.
I didn’t have any money or credit cards and they threw me right back onto the plane.
In baggage.
Got some new underwear, though.
Well, it was new to me.
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