'Death by GPS' in desert
By Tom Knudson
tknudson@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Five harrowing days after becoming stuck on a remote backcountry road in Death Valley National Park in August 2009, Alicia Sanchez lay down next to her Jeep Cherokee and prepared to die.
Then she heard a voice.
"I called as I approached, asking if she was okay," wrote Ranger Amber Nattrass in a park report. "She was waving frantically and screaming, 'My baby is dead, my baby is dead.' "
Read the full article at the link. (This is not a recommendation of articles written by Knudson.)
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/Many years ago Sunset Magazine published an article which included a map of a small manmade lake created by a dam. A wannabe fisherman magazine in hand drove into the mountains looking for the lake. He could not find the lake and he came across me and asked me where the lake was. I should note that he was very close to the location of a proposed dam and lake.
He became very angry with me when I told him the lake did not exist on the ground. I told him that the lake was only a concept, and was not real. He showed me the article and it said the lake existed.
Funding for the contruction of the dam never came about, but the fisherman accused me of keeping the lake as my own secrete fishing hole. He was wrong. That was over forty years ago and the dam and the lakes do not exist.
I started learning about roads in the outdoors as a little guy riding with my Dad out in the woods. His 1950 Chevy six was a great hunting rig but it could not navigate all tracks in the mountains. Come hunting season or pre-season scouting time the old pickup had a large heavy box put in it containing tire chains, tow chain, shove, box saw, and emergency food. A ten gallon milk can filled with fresh water was tied down in the bed of the pickup.
My first real introduction to maps was at the County fair; BLM, Forest Service, and the State of California Fish and Game gave out maps at the fair. Admittedly the maps I like the most came from the Fish and Game because they pointed out the different high mountain lakes in the Salmon-Trinity Mountains, and the Marble Mountain Wilderness. One of my first adventures was into Taylor Lake, and from there Hogan and Big Blue Lakes. Now days part of the Pacific Crest trail cuts across that country, but in the mid 1950's anything after Taylor Lake was a rock scramble. The map indicated a trail, but it was a tough go after Taylor Lake.
A USGS topo map would show a trail, but it does not tell the adventure if the trail has been maintained, with rock slides remove, and fallen trees that block the trail cut out. That is part of the outdoor adventure.
I have two automotive gps units, my first one is a Garmin Street Pilot c550, and my newest as of last week is a Nuvi 1490T. Referencing waypoints first generated on my handheld gps and transferred to the automotive gps units I checked out some nasty roads when it comes down to vehicle travel. The maintenance of the roads in the areas of interest is dependent on timber sale activity to pay the cost of maintenance. The areas were heavily logged back in the early 1970’s so the amount of logging now days is very limited. Even in the best of times some of these roads that show on the automotive gps are a rough go. In fact some are over grown with brush or a boulder pact.
I recall my Dad’s last deer hunt with me, we were in my Toyota Landcrusier we had forded a stream a couple hundred yards back, and I put it in 4-wheel drive to easy over the rocks that had been was cleaned by water in what was and still is the roadway. As we neared the deadend I had to climb a couple of larger rocks. This shows as a road on my gps, but it is really a road to No-Where. We turned around and enjoyed the scenery and the light snow fall. I pulled out heated some can food and made a fresh pot of coffee. We had a great time because we were prepared for most events.
This past December my hunting partner and I were back in the woods in an area he was not familiar with and I had not been in since 1970. In this case I was using my handheld gps and I had Topo 2008 showing. We knew that snow was going to be a controlling element and that the 4000 foot elevation was critical regarding snow depth and a logging road junction at that elevation was our goal. If we could make the gap we would then take a downhill logging road into a main drainage that had a paved road at the bottom. In the back of my mind was that in 1965 my wife were stuck the snow on the road in the bottom. In those days it was dirt.
I should note that we never encountered another vehicle high on the mountain that day, and the first vehicle we encounter was down in the bottom on pavement.
To me getting stuck in snow, or sand is part of the adventure and you need to be ready to deal with it. The night before my hunting partner told his wife where we were going. We had a shovel, chains, food, coffee and water. On this trip Topo 2008 in my Rino HCx gave us all the information we needed. The junction at the gap had five, logging roads radiating from it. Vandals’ had destroyed any signing but the gps kept us on track. The nice thing about the handheld gps is that I had it setup to create a track. We knew what was behind us, and we hoped for clearing sailing ahead. We had been travelling on the South slope of the mountain but when we dropped over to the Northslope the snow depth immediately increased.
The value of the Topo software over the City Navigator was the elevation and landmark information.
I can see how people in a rental car can be lead down the path, but those who venture into the outdoors should be prepared. Depending on a cellphone in the outdoors in many cases is a false hope. When out hunting different areas we will do cellphone checks, and in most locations there is no service. I miss the day of the old bag phone in camp. But the cellphone companies cut out that good rural service and narrow banded to increase profits.
A lot of things happen in the outdoors, trees fall across roads, roads show no maps but are no longer maintained, and the adventure of going down a two track might put you in an area where others do not journey.
Have you ever been stuck in wet ashes, I have. One March I had the kids and wife with me and we heard for the woods in the Landcrusier. This was long before the gps enter my world. We had extra’s with us, but we (I) failed to let the father-in-law or anybody else know where we’re headed that morning. It was a nice sunny day and we got up to the about 5000 foot elevation when we turn around because of deep snow. On the way back down the mountain I pulled in to a flat, which is used as a log landing at times. The loggers will also burn large piles of logging slash in the flat. We had a great time playing in the snow, and when it came time to go and did not back track but cut across to the main road. The Landcrusier started settling down and I could not go forward or back. I got the Handy-Man jack out, jacked up the vehicle and put large slabs of bark from a dead pine under the tires. When I let the jack down the slabs and bark sunk. I had the wife on watch for any vehicle and I made numerous efforts of getting enough bark under the tires to hold the vehicle up.
It was getting dark and I started a large warming fire, and we got ready for the night. We got lucky and a guy with a ¾ Ford 4x4 with a winch came along. For twenty dollars he was happy to pull us out. I returned to the spot later when the snow was gone and realized we had parked on ashes from a burn pile.
