Seems that this year there are more and more people taking themselves outdoors and getting closer to nature and their version of THPL. This is wonderful and for sure the right thing to do. Yet, it seems that good intentions are creating issues. More people are heading into the wilderness unprepared, without the right equipment and without the right skills. This leads to them getting lost or hurt and it is not only making it harder on themselves it is harder for first responders and anyone else who will come to their aid. The suggestion then is to do more preparation before taking on a big effort, have the right gear, build a program for safety and support, and most of all don’t go beyond what is reasonable for the skill and experience that each of us has. We can have an awesome time with just the right prep – let’s make it important enough that we get it right and we can then leave the search and rescue teams at home taking it easy.

Loving life when I don’t need search and rescue