Active Travel Adventures podcast I Inspiring Multi-Day Adventure Trips Around the World · Kit Parks

Hiking Guide: What to Do if your Get Lost in the Woods

August 21, 2025·24 min·1 clip

The STOP method means stay put, think, observe, and plan when you realize you're lost.

1. Active Travel Adventures podcast uses Geri Largay’s disappearance to teach what to do if you get lost in the woods. 2. Host Kit Parks says Geri, trail name Inchworm, was her friend and hiking buddy from the Appalachian Trail Institute in Virginia in the mid-1990s. 3. The episode asks how a hiker can stay calm, make decisions, and help searchers find them after losing the trail. 4. Parks says Geri stepped off the Appalachian Trail near Stratton, Maine, in 2013 and became disoriented after going to the bathroom. 5. Parks lays out the STOP method: stay put, think, observe, and plan. 6. She says staying calm matters because panic makes it harder to find the trail and harder for searchers to find you. 7. The episode advises hikers to remember trail features, heading direction, streams, rocks, and decision points. 8. Parks says to check food, water, and phone battery, and to use airplane mode to conserve power. 9. She suggests keeping surveyor’s tape, rocks, sticks, and broken branches to mark a base and search spokes. 10. Parks says that if the first search pattern fails, hikers can return to base and fan out in a wheel-spoke pattern. 11. The episode says that if movement is necessary, hikers should listen for traffic, church bells, rivers, or quarry sounds and use a whistle. 12. Parks says three sharp whistle blasts are a universal distress signal. 13. She also suggests following streams toward rivers and towns, while avoiding bogs, treacherous ground, and risky nighttime water edges. 14. The episode says higher ground can improve visibility, help with map-and-compass triangulation, and sometimes restore cell reception. 15. Parks recommends signaling aircraft with a mirror, making an SOS from rocks and branches, and building a smoky fire with green pine needles or green leaves. 16. She adds practical self-rescue advice about resting when tired, staying hydrated, treating hot spots, and avoiding unnecessary sweating. 17. The tone is personal and instructional, with Parks repeatedly referring to her own hikes, emergency kit habits, and lessons learned from research. 18. The format mixes memorial storytelling, route-specific examples, and direct how-to guidance for hikers. 19. Listeners who hike remote trails or want backcountry safety tips will get the most from it. 20. Listeners seeking entertainment without survival advice may skip it.

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