I'm leaving for the mountains ...I'm long overdue to get lost

I’m leaving today for the mountains.

I hope I can find my way home.

There’s an app for that, I’m sure.

But while disappearing into the mountains for a week means going off the grid for most folks, I’m kind of off the grid anyway. Oh yeah, I have a facebook account and a bad online shopping habit, however, those are at-home activities for me. I’m still content to head into the woods without any “devices.”

It could be my failing memory, but I can’t ever remember getting lost. I know I’ve never spent an unplanned night out.

I like to think it’s one of my skills -- finding my way back to camp or home. It could just be luck, though, and I’m long overdue to get lost.

I came to Montana when I was 18, got a job with an outfitter in Cooke City, and soon was turned loose alone in the mountains. It was easy to get around in the Beartooths. All I had to do was locate Pilot and Index, the two most prominent peaks in the area, and I knew where I was.

A few years later I spent a fall guiding hunters near Wisdom in the Pioneer Mountains where few of the peaks rose above timberline and the country was heavily forested. I always made it back to camp by dark, but spent much of the day clueless as to where I might be.

These day GPS and smart phones make it much easier to navigate the wilderness and call for help when things go wrong.

According to a recent story by the Associated Press, rangers in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks conducted nearly 90 search and rescue operations this summer.

I’ll be back in the Beartooths again this week, hunting mountain grouse with the dogs, and fishing for trout. I doubt I’ll get lost. It’s country I know well.

Montana used to feel bigger before I crossed much of it. Now that I know what’s on the other side of a particular mountain range or where a certain drainage begins, it’s become less intimidating, less mysterious, but no less captivating.

I suppose I should start carrying my GPS which shows me the way to go. All I have to do is follow the arrow. However, I’d rather pay attention to the country, turn around occasionally to look back the way I came, and get myself home without any help.

All I need is a little luck.

Parker Heinlein is at

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