Where the $)#%! is my phone??

My sister recently lost her phone while hiking solo, and the ensuing adventure brought to light several ideas for solo travelers, to help stay safe and to help in a situation like this.

The story is that my sister, who is from the southeast Wisconsin area, was “up north” on a solo weekend with her dog and went for a hike at the beautiful but very remote O Kun-de-kun Falls in the upper peninsula of Michigan. This is almost to Lake Superior and is in a deep section of forest.

While she was on her hike, her young dog got excited because they came across some rabbit hunters who had their catch of the day with them. The dog pulled and tugged and brought her into some 2-foot-deep snow to visit with the rabbit hunters and their dog.

This occurred, of course, near the location of the falls, which is at the end of about a 1.5-mile hike in from the highway. This is early March, and there is snow everywhere, so the hike in was a bit more difficult than normal, the snow was packed on the trail, but the dog was running into the woods to follow every deer path.

When she got back to her car, she realized her phone was gone. She didn’t know where it fell, and backtracked the entire 1.5 miles back, scouring the ground. She paid special attention at the end, where the rabbit hunters had been, but no luck.

So, after 6 miles of walking in snow, she left, and headed an hour away to the place she was staying. Even at the cabin, there is no internet connection, so she picked up her laptop and headed in town to a grocery store parking lot. She connected with family and let them know why they couldn’t get ahold of her.

This started a flurry of activity, most of which my sister was unaware of while she was back at the cabin with no internet. Her husband tracked some of their 6 kids' phones, but not hers, and some of the kids tracked each other. Luckily for my sister, one of her adult children (who is now living on the east coast and who was the last one contacted) still had tracking enabled for my sister’s phone. That child had added it when she was in high school, so she had some warning when mom was headed home. I guess that’s a story for later.

With the tracking, my niece was able to get exact coordinates for the phone, and emailed them to my sister. She got the info when she went back to the grocery store parking lot with her laptop. The next day, armed with a small shovel and a metal detector, my sister found her phone – right where the rabbit hunters had been, but in a few feet of snow. So after hiking 9 miles in the snow, cross country communication and the admission of one child's covert acts, the story ended happily.

This story involved finding a phone, but when walking alone in the woods, it’s not unheard of to twist an ankle or to get turned around. The method used to find her phone easily could have been used to find my sister, had something happened in the woods to make it so she couldn’t get out.

1. Put your phone and your keys in zippered pockets or use a carabiner to attach them somehow to yourself.

2. Make sure someone knows where you are. Give your itinerary to someone. If you are more of a spur of the moment type traveler, shoot a text to someone to let them know where you are at – especially if you will be alone in a wilderness type area.

3. Allow for a close family member to track your devices.

4. Keep your devices fully charged.

5. Do all the other normal safety things – dress appropriately, have some water and a few granola bars, a few first aid type things and a pocketknife. You never know when these things can help you or someone you come across.

6. Don’t let your dog chase rabbit hunters.