Guide to staying alive: Beware of shortcuts

Published 4:25 pm Tuesday, January 19, 2016

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Remember the tale about Little Red Riding Hood? In a hurry to get to Grandma’s house, she took a shortcut through the deep, dark woods, where she bumped into the Big Bad Wolf — the perfect beginning for a survival story.

Well, things haven’t changed much. Today we have folks (who represent Little Red Riding Hood) all in a hurry to get somewhere and willing to take shortcuts through Big Bad Wolf country to get there.

What the heck am I talking about? Well, for one, I’m talking about Jeramie Griffin, who loaded his family in the car and headed off across the Cascade Range, taking a shortcut to “Grandma’s” house (actually to his in-laws’ house) for the holidays. He programmed the GPS to take the shortest route. And in no time flat, the Big Bad Wolf showed up, the role being played by deep snow that stuck the car and left them stranded overnight. And wouldn’t you know it, they had an infant along and ran out of baby formula. When the situation started looking grim, they filmed a goodbye video.

But they were not the only Little Red Riding Hoods out there. Three Portland, Ore., residents and their small dog pulled a similar trick while using their GPS to locate a hot springs along a snow-covered forest road in the southern Willamette Valley.

After they got stuck, they walked 17 miles trying to find a spot where they would have cell phone coverage so they could call for help. When rescuers found them, they were exhausted, hypothermic and had no survival equipment with them. Can you say the word LUCKY?

It’s tempting, in this day of high-tech gadgets, to switch off our brains and let the electronics do our thinking for us. A Nevada couple followed the onboard GPS in their SUV as it led them into trouble. They were traveling across the desert of eastern Oregon, letting the GPS direct their route, and they ended up getting stranded for three days in deep snow on a remote forest service road.

Make no mistake about it, I am an advocate of GPS and other technology that can make life easier and safer. But it is unwise to mindlessly follow a digital voice as it tells us where to go. The GPS has no idea of conditions on the ground — a sudden snowfall, a rockslide, flooding or a tornado, or a forest fire or a chemical spill from a wrecked 18-wheeler.

That little device, as awesome as it is, can only do so much. The rest is left up to us to figure out. Don’t just plug in “shortest route” and then follow the digital voice while it tells you to turn left, turn right. If you do that, you are turning over to a bunch of diodes the responsibility for your life.

Shortcuts are sometimes the longest way to go. Not only shortcuts in a travel route, but shortcuts in all aspects of survival. Take the time to gain knowledge, obtain experience, increase good judgment, develop skills and carry the right equipment.

Take time in your planning and execution so it comes out right.

Sequim resident Rich Johnson is a former Special Forces survival expert and author of several books, including “The Ultimate Survival Manual,” and “Rich Johnson’s Guide To Wilderness Survival.” These and other books of his are available at Amazon. Reach him via e-mail at rhj@olypen.com.