When to bed down?

T

TemplarKnight21c

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Mar 5, 2007
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Assuming you yourself get lost lost on a hike, when do you decide, 'Okay, I'm not going to make it out before midnight, time to set up camp'? Do you keep trying to get to somewhere you know and risk injury, or do you play it safe and put all that gear to use and rough it for a night when the sun starts going down?
 
I would rough it for the night. I am confident that I would have the right gear and the knowledge to use it, so even if I was "roughing it" I have faith that I would be able to have a suitable shelter, fire, etc... I think there is just too much injury risk while hiking at night. It would really suck to just be lost and try and hike through the night, only to fall and break something and then really be in some serious trouble.
 
if your lost the best thing to do is to stop and assess the situation .. if you had folks that knew where your at roughly stay put set up camp get comfortable till help arrives ..

your mind can play tricks on at the end of the day and your stressed ..calm down get comfortable for the night when daylight comes you might have great insight of where you are at and where to head out to safety .

i carry a bottle of reflective thumb tacks and roll of construction tape so if i do have hike out in the dark i can leave a small trail so i dont double back .. works great when your tracking at night as well .
 
As both an experienced outdoorsman and a member of a SAR team we recommend the acronym STOP.

Stop
Think
Observe
Plan
(Equiped.org explains this in detail)

Basically the idea is to sit down clear your head and calmly think through the situation. Asses your situation and carefully plan your next step. If you decide you are indeed lost it is better to stay put and prepare for the night while there is still plenty of daylight to prepare your shelter for the evening. Waiting till midnight to make a decision is ill advised. Not only is it more difficult to build a shelter in the dark there the fact that fatigue leads to poor decision making. Also moving at night in heavy cover can be very difficult to accomplish safety unless properly equipped. Another risk of waiting to late to stop and build a shelter for the night is that a person can ravel even further from the area in which they were last seen and/or trailhead. The other issue is that if SAR teams are deployed to find you our job is made easier if you stay put. The more moving around that a subject does the tougher it is for us to do our job. Our probability of detection is much greater if the lost person stays put and undertakes activities to increase their ability to be found. Signal fires, whistle blasts, etc. Also it is not unknown for a lost person to walk out of the search area or to walk into an area that has already been cleared. Also a SAR team travels at a slower pace than a regular hiker. This is the nature of searching so that an area can be effectively covered and still have the highest probability of detection. By continuing to move it is possible to travel far enough that it takes a SAR team two days to find the subject instead of one. Or it could take even longer depending on the distances that need to be traveled.
 
It takes a good long hour to build a shelter if you do not have a tent or similar setup, plus the time to gather fireweood if needed for the night.

A good night's sleep, in a dry warm shelter and a good meal if you have the option will set you up better for getting out the next day.

Plan for the worst and if it get's better, then your on a role.
 
I'd hopefully find a good spot to bed dow for the night and start looking for that spot at least a couple hours before dark. Shelter, fire, and wood gathering before darkness comes.

Stumbing around in the dark is usually a bad idea, even with good lights.
 
It depends on the situation. Weather, location, and the gear I have on me are all going to dictate when I say enough is enough and decide to make camp. But in general. I would want a least 1-1/2 hours to make a decent shelter.
 
If I know that I cannot make it out before night fall, I would start making camp 2 hours before sunset. That gives me the time to build shelter and gather enough wood for the fire.

If the weather is deteriorating, I would want to set up camp before the weather turns wet and ugly and have a dry place ready before rain/snow.

Another factor is fatique. This would be the deciding factor before anything else. If I felt that I could go no further I would make camp regardless of the time of day. Then get rest and decide what to do after that.
 
Definitely safer to make camp rather than wander around in the dark. Gathering shelter and fire materials as quickly as possible would be my choice.
 
tknife said:
Definitely safer to make camp rather than wander around in the dark. Gathering shelter and fire materials as quickly as possible would be my choice.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and even if you cant find all the materials, at least you have a place to call home base.
 
Better a night sleeping rough than risking an injury, unless hypothermia is an imidiate concern at least.
 
At least two hours before dusk is when I'd stop and start setting up camp.

I know how long it takes to set up camp even when you have all the ideal gear like tent, sleeping bag, firewood, and lighter, and it takes a while. If I have to set up camp without that stuff then I'm going to want at least two hours to do so. I'd rather be relaxing by a fire, then wondering around in the dark, while I'm cold and tired. Or trying to finish setting up camp in the dark, while I'm cold and tired. That's when accidents happen. I'd much rather try and find my way out in the morning when I'm rested and fresh.

Besides, if you are supposed to be back before dark, and you aren't, most likely your significant other will have someone out there looking for you by midnight, and you are unlikely to have to even stay the entire night.

Unless of course I know were I'm at and know I can get out even in the dark, or if I know the perimeter of the woods I'm in is small and I can get out by just walking straight in any direction for a half hour.
 
This time of year, I typically hike into an area in the dark, and don't plan on leaving until after dark. Hunting season is too short and the elk sometimes don't appear until the last few minutes of legal shooting.

As such, I prepare to move in the dark and carry the gear for a night out if necessary. If I ever do get lost in that situation, and for some reason cannot get myself "unlost" in short order, I'll find a suitable place to put up my tarp shelter and get some much needed sleep. On the plus side, I'll be closer to the elk in the morning! :D

I usually camp with at least one other hunter but often hunt alone. We usually set up a communication schedule, agreeing when to turn radios on to contact each other.

-- FLIX
 
I would bed down as soon as I realized I was in deep shit, unless I heard a road or people then I might move. I would start fire and build a shelter depending on weather or specific needs.
 
speaking of communication , i like to carry a rhino 110 with gps and radio built in when my partner keys up it gives me his exact location on my radio .. check your lcal laws though as we cannot use them while hunting but to and from camp here in alaska ..

but the safest thing to do in the dark is evaluate your situation weather /location and get ready to bed down for the night and try again in the morning while your fresh ..

i find 4 hours of sleep in the woods is like 8 hrs of sleep back home ..
 
Two or three hours before sundown at least - it might take me 45 minutes just to find an ideal spot (naturally protected from the wind, not subject to cold air pooling into the bottom of a valley, near water, etc.). If I didn't have an expedient shelter like a tarp, it'd take more than an hour to construct something. Even with a shelter, I'd need to gather up some bedding. I'd want to spend at least an hour collecting firewood. Then I'd need to start hauling water and either treating, filtering or boiling it.

It all depends on conditions and circumstance. But generally speaking you want to think about settling in for the night long before the sun reaches the horizon.
 
At least 2 hours before sundown for normal camping. Gives you time to set up camp, start a fire if allowed and get supper started. You would be surprised what you miss when you set up camp in the dark using only a flashlight. An old Ranger trick is to stop and then move a couple of hundred yards form your original stopping point. This is for E&E only.
 
I'm lost, so I'm gonna find a place in the open to call home and make myself comfortable. Since I had the forethought to let people know where I would be and when I would be back, help should be on the way if I don't make it. Now, if I can just find that darn map, maybe I can figure out a path home. But I'll worry about that after finding a water source and putting up some sort of shelter.
 
I went packpacking to the high sierra about 8 years ago. It was on saturday morning when i got there and for some reason i didnt feel like going that day. I made a dicision of going on a hike on some back trail. I took some water and left the car. That was before i joined this forum or any other one for that matter. I walked around taken pics with the camera when it was getting dark i relized that i had no idea where im. I knew when i left what direction the sun was. I could also see where the sun was setting. That told me about where i want to be heading. I started to walk fast but stoping everyonce in a while to keep my bearings. I didnt want to stop and the main reason for that i felt that if i do stop it would show me that im afraid and i quit with the slight trouble. The hardest part was that i had to walk around mountains and it would be harder to keep the proper direction. I walked for about 4 hours and i had a pace of 3-3.5mph . I ended walking to a road that i did know and it was about 2 miles from my car. I got to the car after 10pm. Made some dinner and did think about what happend. I do understand my mistakes the bigest one was i didnt pay attention to where im walking. I were thinking about my camera and the pics i were trying to take. The second was lack of compasse. That would have helped me to keep the direction. I did do it again in the desert walking and taken pics of cactus in bloom and ended up in the wrong canyon but found my way in less then an hour. Knowing my self i know i wont stop and make camp, i would keep going. Its just the way i think. Never count on someone else to help you do everything your self, dont ever quit. I just cant see my self ever stoping and waiting for help.

Sasha
 
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