Close one yesterday

Man, that was close.

Yesterday I'm out on Seymour with my 12yo and dog. Park at Buck, up PL and GSM to BP. My usual ride is down Severed and I don't really know much else out that way (I'm on Cypress or Fromme mostly), but in my wisdom, I decide that Asian Adonis is probably a better choice for the boy. No sweat, I know where it is. NOPE. We turned first right instead of 2nd right to CBuster to AA, and ended up in uncharted territory for me. No problem, talked to someone and I changed the plan to Forever After, which was awesome. Pouring rain. 5 degrees and by the time we were down that we were soaked and getting cold. Turn left on Bridal Path and back to Old Buck.

We got F'ing lost. The touchscreen on my phone wouldn't work because of the water so everytime I tried to confirm what trail we were on via offline trailforks app, it was on no use. So even though we were not far from neighbourhoods, we may as well have been miles as I didn't know where anything was. We were starting to loose light and around 3:30 it was not looking good with no idea which way to go while cold and getting poured on.

Ended up finding our way into a neighbourhood, calling a cab (they couldn't come) and asking someone for directions. The directions back to Old Buck brought us back into the woods and was a decision that I wasn't sure was the right one. Got a bit lost again, but back-tracked and found our way to the golf course - which was like the yellow brick road back to the car. 15 or 20 minutes later and the forest would have been too dark, and we were freezing.

Looking back at our GPS track I can see where we made our directional mistakes but it goes to show you how easily getting lost can happen.

Ive made new rules!!!!

A good lesson learned, I guess but a bit surprised anyone would get lost along Bridle Path as there's usually so many trail runners and hikers.
Also, if you didn't know the trails Empress Bypass would be the descent to take if you need to get off the mountain quickly…

Yeah, made a couple mistakes including turning off of Bridal Path when I should not have. A jogger pointed me in the direction of a neighbourhood and I thought that that was a better idea than staying on a trail that I "thought" was Bridal Path (it was) - the jogger didn't know!

I assume it was near the Bridal/BP/R[HTML_REMOVED]R/Salamander junction where things got messed up?

Pretty much, and then again in the Blair Range trail area where I ended up on trails that kept getting smaller and smaller until they disappeared. ALl of these are pretty close to homes!

We were never lost in that we were totally screwed far in the woods. We were lost in that we were a little bit in the woods without a real idea of which direction to head, and with disappearing light. If it had have been 1hr earlier it wouldn't have been anything. But if it were 30min later it would have been significantly worse.

Aside from how the ride ended, the ride up and Forever After were awesome!

I always start my ride first thing in the morning, so I have more daylight if something bad does happen. Good idea to carry a flashlight in case. Glad you made it out.

super easy to get lost when it's cloudy and not familiar with the zone. Having a normal compass might be a good idea when venturing out.

Glad it worked out, things can get scary fast. If you don't have one, look at the Lifeproof cases for iPhones, I find they work a lot better in rain than the bare phone (you still have to shield it so if it's torrential the phone will be hard to operate).

Glad it worked out, things can get scary fast. If you don't have one, look at the Lifeproof cases for iPhones, I find they work a lot better in rain than the bare phone (you still have to shield it so if it's torrential the phone will be hard to operate).

Mines not a life proof (seidio), but I can in the rain, shower, whatever. Kind of a no brainer to get a waterproof case Imo.

Also nice to pack a light, I have a niterider Lumina in my pack 99% of the time.

Yes, things can get scary pretty quickly out there, even close to home. I haven't been truly lost on the Shore yet but have run out of day light a few times and had to grope my way out in the dark. Kudos for getting the young un' out on a very nasty day. Sounds like a trooper. Sure is fun riding with your kid isn't it?

I did that on my very first mountainbike ride ever. Circumstances not so dire though. UBC endowment lands as they were known then, now Pacific Spirit Park. Newt loop. Went left when I should have gone right. Three times I made the same mistake and it was getting dark. But I just bushwacked a whole 25 metres to Blanca. Easy to do in unfamiliar terrain. Did it ski touring once and we ended up at Fitzsimons creek. Got disoriented on top of cowboy ridge thinking we were on Oboe. Got suddenly whited out, wind ripped our map away but we couldn't see far enough for the map to be much use, but I had another one. Spent the night out under a fallen tree with my space blanket tarp and poles for a roof.

I always carry one of those foil emergency blankets [HTML_REMOVED] a toque in case I have to spend the night.

My Lifeproof case raw-dogs the screen for maximum feel. SealLine has fancy electronic baggies.

A lot of stuff mentioned already can help, extra food being one of them.

I always carry one of those foil emergency blankets [HTML_REMOVED] a toque in case I have to spend the night.

The "space blankets" is so light it never leaves my pack. The cap's a good idea. Darkness comes on so fast in the woods this time of year I always pack a light or two. All it takes is one mechanical and a daytime ride can morph into a night crawl.

Glad everything worked out for you, Ddean. I know most of Seymour but it wouldn't take me long to get lost if I strayed off Forever After.