Now that I’ve discovered the RSS feed to Tom Stienstra’s outdoors columns it looks like I’ll have to post to all of them. His latest tells searchers how to find folks who’ve lost their way.

Recreate victim’s thoughts: Many people lack basic woodsmanship and survival skills — how to make fire, stay dry and warm, stay hydrated, and obtain and conserve food. That is why you have to get inside of the mind of the victim, even if those thoughts do not make sense to a skilled woodsman.

And here’s a good tip of you’re the one who’s lost:

Search teams will look for pieces of clothing, candy wrappers (especially when searching for lost youngsters), pages of a book, broken and collected piles of branches, paper refuse from a wallet, anything that will provide a trail that could lead to rescue.

Read the whole thing, it has many more worthwhile suggestions.