Stay with your stranded car
We have all heard the lectures, “When you break down offroad, it can be a very long hike back to town. So wear good hiking boots, proper clothing, and bring lots of water…”
NOPE! Although the advice about good footwear, proper clothing, and water is correct — ignore that talk about hiking back to civilization.
Friends of ours are members of SNORR (Southern Nevada Offroad Recovery) as well as Red Rock Search & Rescue. Repeatedly, they have lectured our club and other local clubs about the danger of wandering away from your stranded vehicle.
Frequently, they get the call to assist in searches for missing hikers or offroad motorists. Sometimes, these searches change from Rescue to Recovery (of the body).
Besides suicides, which are prevalent — the leading cause of fatality is a lone hiker getting lost after abandoning their stuck vehicle. Usually, these people on foot are not prepared for wilderness conditions. The hot sun dehydrates them, and the cool nights bring on hypothermia. Heat exhaustion or freezing temps. Nasty, to say the least.
Wrong clothing for the desert or mountains. Shorts, flip-flops, sandals. Tank tops, skimpy T’s. Maybe a baseball cap for shade. A small plastic bottle of water.
Navigation? Google Maps won’t help you much when you are outside of cellular coverage. But even the GPS navi programs depend on a functioning cell phone — and cell phone batteries can drain after a few hours. Without a compass, humans tend to walk in circles!
But you saw, while you still had a working GPS, that there were a lot of paths that led back to the main highways…
However, as you walk along the trail — you discover that there are forks in the road and small side trails. Which way should you go? Is there a shorter and faster route to get you out of this wilderness?
Then, things get even worse. You trip on a rock and injure yourself. Walking becomes painful or even impossible. Find some shade or protective rocks and settle in to rest. But that cozy nook also means that your prone or sedate body becomes hidden from sight.
Remember all that Boy Scout stuff about building shelters out of leafy tree limbs and covering yourself with leaves to keep warm? The same strategies work for Marine Snipers to avoid detection!
Hopefully, you were able to get a message out to Search & Rescue. Or you left a note on your car, which was read by a passing offroader and they contacted Emergency Services on your behalf.
If you were really diligent, you would have shared your offroad itinerary with a home-bound friend, with instructions to call for help if you failed to check in by a certain time.
Search & Rescue call up their volunteers and search parties begin combing the area. First in are usually helicopters and drones. It takes them relatively short time to spot your vehicle from the air, even at night. Night vision with thermal imaging is affordable and common these days.
If you stay with your vehicle, they will find you. Even if it takes a few days, and you are low on water, you will survive.
But if you tried to hike out, SAR has to keep searching in wider and wider circles, while trying to spot a small target (you) who might be hidden, passed out, in camouflaged shelter and in earth-tone colored clothing. Logic would dictate that they should focus in the direction towards civilization, since that would be the way you were headed. But maybe you lost your bearings when the path you were following twisted around, causing you to march off in the wrong direction.
Additional advice.
Avoid this situation entirely by following the Golden Rule of Offroading… NEVER head out alone; always go with at least one other vehicle.
But if you are stubborn and do wheel by yourself, follow a few precautions.
Leave your itinerary with a friend and promise to check in with them by a certain time or the end of the day.
Always top off your fuel tank before a run. Even if the run is short, and only requires a couple gallons, having a full tank means that you can idle your engine as long as possible. Heat, air conditioning, bright lights, phone charger.
Bring plenty of water and some energy snacks. Extra clothing. A brightly colored, highly visible bedsheet or blanket. First aid kit.
Some sort of satellite communicator, such as a Garmin InReach/Messenger or a newer phone with satellite connectivity such as iPhones 14 and higher.
