Re: try to avoid disturbing your family back home
Posted: Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:22 am
We use the two day rule; if we're two days overdue, feel free to make calls. I also leave an extremely detailed itinerary that lets them know where I will be, and when I plan to be there. If two days hasn't gone by, you sit on it. I carry an ACR. If I have a problem, I'll "hit the button". If I'm dead, what are you going to do, come collect my carcass so that there's more to cremate than if animals ate part of me?
This is a really touchy subject around here. Is it that I'm old (I'll still outhike you, sweetheart) or really in any more danger of dying or being seriously injured while I'm hiking than I am when I'm dealing with work stress or heavy traffic? I get paid to do that, and my time out is my joy and respite from it. Call me mean and heartless, or even lacking in empathy, and I get all this worrying about people we love, but is it that I need to carry 2 lbs of extra communication equipment to assuage your generally baseless concerns on a daily basis, or is it that you need to get a handle on your fears and realize that, statistically and realistically, I'm probably better off than you are at this moment, and hearing from me or SAR is when you actually then need to get really worried, not when I'm obviously somewhere that I don't have the cell signal that you take for granted as being a given? Maybe that extra couple pounds would serve me better if it went into something like enhancing my first aid kit than hauling around a bunch of questionably useful electronic junk. Really, for those of us with kids that are older and not living at home, does not hearing from them every day instantly cause you to start calling the CHP and all the hospitals you've programmed on your speed dial?...that's your problem, not anyone else's. "Sorry honey, wrap your mind around it and deal."
Aside from the strict adherence to the two day rule at my house, in knowing me, my loved ones also know full well that if they pull the trigger and launch a SAR incident on my supposed behalf, and I find out about it, I'm going to get home, not even bother to pull my gear out of the car, storm into the house, and instantly let them have it with both barrels. So, in order to make sure that things remain in the proper perspective (a real safety net that serves us much better than a daily blah, blah, blah text), fear my wrath over pulling a BS stunt like that more than you should ever allow yourself to fear what frightens you with the unknown. I'll come home and they'll wish I was still gone, and they know it. I'm the given. Bam! Actual problem solved.
And even better yet, if you can't get over the worry, I'll instead spend all that money for a comm subscription or sat phone on buying you your own gear, and if you really love me and don't want to worry, you can strap on your own pack and come with me. We'll either have a great time together, or we'll face whatever it is that happens together. And if I do die, oh well, that's just destiny, and I would rather get it doing something I love than at the hands of some impatient jerk that thinks their life depends on getting to the mall 3 minutes faster.
This is a really touchy subject around here. Is it that I'm old (I'll still outhike you, sweetheart) or really in any more danger of dying or being seriously injured while I'm hiking than I am when I'm dealing with work stress or heavy traffic? I get paid to do that, and my time out is my joy and respite from it. Call me mean and heartless, or even lacking in empathy, and I get all this worrying about people we love, but is it that I need to carry 2 lbs of extra communication equipment to assuage your generally baseless concerns on a daily basis, or is it that you need to get a handle on your fears and realize that, statistically and realistically, I'm probably better off than you are at this moment, and hearing from me or SAR is when you actually then need to get really worried, not when I'm obviously somewhere that I don't have the cell signal that you take for granted as being a given? Maybe that extra couple pounds would serve me better if it went into something like enhancing my first aid kit than hauling around a bunch of questionably useful electronic junk. Really, for those of us with kids that are older and not living at home, does not hearing from them every day instantly cause you to start calling the CHP and all the hospitals you've programmed on your speed dial?...that's your problem, not anyone else's. "Sorry honey, wrap your mind around it and deal."
Aside from the strict adherence to the two day rule at my house, in knowing me, my loved ones also know full well that if they pull the trigger and launch a SAR incident on my supposed behalf, and I find out about it, I'm going to get home, not even bother to pull my gear out of the car, storm into the house, and instantly let them have it with both barrels. So, in order to make sure that things remain in the proper perspective (a real safety net that serves us much better than a daily blah, blah, blah text), fear my wrath over pulling a BS stunt like that more than you should ever allow yourself to fear what frightens you with the unknown. I'll come home and they'll wish I was still gone, and they know it. I'm the given. Bam! Actual problem solved.
And even better yet, if you can't get over the worry, I'll instead spend all that money for a comm subscription or sat phone on buying you your own gear, and if you really love me and don't want to worry, you can strap on your own pack and come with me. We'll either have a great time together, or we'll face whatever it is that happens together. And if I do die, oh well, that's just destiny, and I would rather get it doing something I love than at the hands of some impatient jerk that thinks their life depends on getting to the mall 3 minutes faster.