Don't go into the woods alone.

[Stirling]

A GPS yes...knowing how to use it YES....once while hunting near Mt Hood in Oregon..elk season I saw some fresh tracks crossing the road....so I took a short time knowing dark is coming on very soon...
About three hundred yards out I came to a spot knowing I was going no further....checked the GPS and compass...both told me to go straight ahead to get back to the truck......ABSOLUTELY WRONG...
something had both of those pieces of equipment telling me to head in to the canyon further....I back tracked my way out...
Equipment is invaluable if it works correctly at all times...but that glitch could have made a bad situation....being out there requires many skills...electronics help..terrain knowledge helps, but you need to be woodsy.........if everything else fails...confidence in yourself may save your life....stay in the game...

A few years ago I was hunting with a friend that had a GPS that was similar to mine. He had never used a GPS before and I was trying to show him how to use it. Once while we were out, I told him to pick our path back to the truck. He pulled out is GPS, selected the waypoint and it pointed in a very wrong direction. He handed it to me to check it out and it pointed the right direction. I handed it back and said lead the way and it started pointing in the wrong direction again. We spent a few minutes trying to figure out what was going on and then I pulled my GPS out and led the way. (The GPS wasn't really necessary but it did kept us on a straighter path in thick timber.)

A few days later he told me he figured out the problem. He was wearing a pair of mittens that were made for hunting and shooting . The part that covered the fingers folded back to expose the fingers. The folded back part was held in place by a magnet. That was throwing off the internal compass in the GPS which caused it to point in the wrong direction.

When I read 26Reload's story it reminded me of this.

 

[26Reload]

Dang...at least he figured it out....unfortunately I don't believe I had my Bushnell rangefinder which has a fliptop magnetic lid...that would have explained it...I am sure I hadn't owned one yet...maybe it was my magnetic personality..........lol...