• The Stoned Hacker@lemmy.world
    12·
    2 days ago

    others are saying stick to the trail because you’ll get lost, but really you should stick to the trail so you don’t damage the local ecosystem and cause harm.

    going off trail doesn’t just make you an idiot, it also makes you an asshole.

    • ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world
      8·
      1 day ago

      Yep bits of your body everywhere can severely disrupt and unbalance an ecosystem, gnomes are not as tidy as everyone thinks

  • village604@adultswim.fanEnglish
    36·
    2 days ago

    But seriously, stay on the trail. People have died from being lost in the woods who were only a few yards from a trail.

    If you get lost, stay where you are. It’s harder to find you if you keep moving.

    • blarghly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      331·
      2 days ago

      I’ve heard this advice for years, but as someone who has spent a lot of time outside, my take is that it is oversimplified. If you are lost, you absolutely should not just sit down where ever you happen to be and wait for rescue. That rescue will take days to get started, and could take days more to find you - if they ever do. You can almost always solve this problem in 5 minutes or less by simply exploring the local environment and finding the trail again or noticing landmarks that lead you back to the trail. Wandering 100 yards off trail to take a poop and then getting a bit disoriented shouldn’t result in 6 nights of shiver-bivy in your rainjacket and a 100 person search party. It should result in you being mildly annoyed that you walked up and down the same hill a few times before you found the trail again.

      • musubibreakfast@lemmy.world
        19·
        2 days ago

        My advice is to pick a direction and chop down every tree in front of you. If you continue chopping down trees you’ll eventually spot the trail.

      • ChilledPeppers@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        5·
        2 days ago

        Really depends on where you are. Only once have I got lost in a trail, and I knew it was a small park, so we just chose a direction and walked forward until we left it. Was very tiresome because of the dense vegetation, but we made it out safely.