GPS Search

At 5 AM, ready to start survey #20 by Petrolia Lake, I reached into my backpack for my GPS, and it wasn’t there.

1). Tore my backpack apart.

2). Tore the truck apart.

3). Drove 3 hours south (the last place I had it was on the final point of the survey yesterday).

4). I worried about waking up the rancher, but wanted him to know I was back on the property, so I called. Didn’t answer. Left a message.

5). Drove through the gate and back up to the plateau.

I thought I could walk back to the final point - #14 - from memory, no problem.

I found #13 because it was by a downed log I had set my stuff on. From there, I walked west, but things didn’t look the same.

It felt like I was too low in elevation, and I had a hard time feeling for how far 250 meters was (the points are 250 meters apart).

I went back to the truck, got the topo map, the veg sheet I had filled out, my running watch that keeps track of distance, and the compass. I went back to #13, walked exactly west on the compass, and tried to use the watch to gauge distance, but it was in miles not kilometers and nothing looked right.

I decided to try dropping down on #14.

See how there’s a nob southeast of #13. And a smaller nob south of #14. I walked up top, went along the edge of the plateau until I thought I was straight south of #14, and then walked lines down and up the hill.

The veg sheet said there were 3 snags on the point. But I couldn’t find them.

Row 14: 3 Snags

I remembered the Gooseberry bush by the point, but I couldn’t find it.

Row 14: Gooseberry 5%.

I walked around for a few hours, needed a different solution, and called my boss. I was afraid he would tell me to drive back to Missoula (5 hours away) and get his extra GPS.

But, thankfully, he didn’t have one.

So I drove a half hour to Billings to buy one.

I drove a half hour back to the survey and called the rancher. He laughed and then asked if I wanted him to come help with his ATV. No, but thank you.

Put batteries in the new GPS, changed it from Lat Longs to UTMs, plugged in the coordinates for #14, and walked right to it.

When I saw the orange flagging, I sat down and cried from relief.

There’s the Gooseberry bush.

And there are the 3 snags.

Then I drove 3 hours north back to Petrolia Lake.