Here is the situation: You have come to the conclusion that you are off the trail and can’t find your way back. You took a moment to collect your thoughts and discussed the situation with the rest of the group. You took reasonable steps to try to find your way back or to get your bearings, and after attempting to make a call yourself you make the difficult decision to stay where you are and wait for help.
Your partner at home is expecting you to return in time for a late dinner, but you don’t show up. They wait a while longer, knowing you probably just forgot to call or are delayed just a little but you will be home shortly.
It is now well past the time you should have been home and still no word. Your partner does not want to call anyone because they know as soon as they do you will walk in the door.
Finally, not knowing what else to do, they make the call. The best thing to do is simply dial 911 and explain the situation to the dispatcher. The dispatcher most likely will put them in contact with the Maine Warden Service. Because you had a written plan, all the important information is written down and your partner is able to give accurate, detailed information, including the trailhead, trail name, planned route, number in your group, vehicle descriptions, etc.
The wardens will arrive at the place you were supposed to have started your trip and locate your vehicle. At about the same time a warden will meet with your partner at home and begin a more detailed interview. A large part of the search has nothing to do with looking in the woods but involves gathering useful, accurate information to help guide the resources on the ground. We can’t search if we don’t know where to look.
The wardens on the scene will check the most likely areas first. One common method would be to hike your intended route backward — or if enough resources are available to hike your route from both directions and meet in the middle. They also would investigate any short side trails and points of interest and trailhead sign-in logs.
After eliminating the most likely areas and realizing that the search needs to expand the warden would contact the Maine Association for Search and Rescue duty officer and request assistance. One of the first groups that would be requested would be Maine Search and Rescue Dogs.
Because of how scent works, the dogs work very well at night. The MESARD teams are made up of a handler, flanker and specially trained and certified dog. If the conditions are favorable, aircraft may be called in to assist. As the search progresses and more resources are needed, other MASAR teams would be requested and a more intense search of surrounding areas would be conducted.
One of the many valuable tools that would be implemented is a book called “Lost Person Behavior.” The data in this particular book are compiled from thousands of searches and based on statistics that can give insight into how a person would typically behave in this situation. The book is broken into many different categories, including hikers, hunters, berry pickers, small children, elderly and many others.
The behavioral data will help predict how far the person would travel from the last known point, whether or not they would go uphill, downhill, follow a path or other handrail or strike off through the woods. With this information, they can look at a map of the area, break it up into blocks, determine the highest probability areas and focus resources in those areas.
If everyone involved — from you to your partner at home to the Maine Warden Service, the Maine Search and Rescue Dogs and the Maine Association for Search and Rescue teams — does what they are supposed to do, then you will be found and helped out of the woods in short order.
To prevent having to set this kind of rescue into motion, folks who plan to be out in the woods — no matter how well they know the area — are encouraged to take the most prudent safety precautions, such as creating a safe plan, telling friends and family about the plan, sticking to the plan, and making sure to bring enough food, water and first aid equipment for the number of people involved with the trip.
For more information, check out the following resources:
— Maine Association for Search and Rescue, at emainehosting.com/masar.
— Maine Search and Rescue Dogs, at mesard.org.
— Pine Tree Search and Rescue, at pinetreesar.com.
— Maine Wilderness Guides Organization, at mainewildernessguides.org.
— Pine Tree Search and Rescue Facebook page, at facebook.com/PineTreeSearchAndRescue.
Bryan Courtois is a hiker and camper who is an active registered Maine guide, head of Pine Tree Search and Rescue, a volunteer search and rescue responder and the statewide education director and a member of the board of directors for Maine Association Search and Rescue.