If you are in the middle of nowhere with no cell service...

[sign_of_Grace]

What do you do? I left a highlighted map showing exactly where I was going, but my husband still had a fit when I got home 2 hours late due to the terrain being a little more difficult than expected.

When you ride out, does anyone use any type of emergency tracker? I bring my GPS and my cell phone, however if I cannot call out…it obviously doesn’t matter if I have it or not. And riding to the “top of a high hill/mountain” is also not an option as I still would not have service.

I looked into a satellite phone, but they are extremely expensive.

So, other than “not riding in those areas”, what do you guys do when you are out for 5-6 hours with no cell service and you want to let someone know you are ok?

[twofatponies]

Homing pigeons might be cheaper than sat phone. But seriously, what did people do before cell phones? I think you just had to deal with fretting, or you waited to worry until it got dark and you hadn’t heard anything from the person.

Can you ride with a partner (or dog) when you go into more remote areas?

[Beverley]

Well, yeah, you just do what you did before cell phones, tell someone where you are going, when you expect to be back, and let them fret if need be. Mind you I learned decades ago to tell the hubby I’d be back oh, 2-3 hours later than I expected to be back, to cut down on the fretting. (Conversely I also tell him that the party is at 6, when it’s really at 7, and that way we are fashionably only a few minutes late.:))

I do carry the cell phone and GPS anyhow. Worst case, if someone is hurt, you gallop like heck if need be to get to a patch with service and relay GPS coordinates to the emergency folks. Without those coordinates, they won’t dispatch a helicopter for you, and in some places, ambulances are hours away, if they could even get to you.

[prudence]

You can’t really. If you ride with someone else and/or tell someone when to start worrying, that is best. You can’t account for every possibility but you can figure on turning around if the ride looks like it will take too long.

For you SoCal people; I am queen of the get lost crowd. When I was a teenager my dad dropped me off for a conditioning ride by myself. I was supposed to end up in Tehachapi; made a wrong turn however and ended up in the San Fernando Valley many miles from where I was supposed to be. Fortunately I ran into a very friendly group of riders and rode with them back to their stable. They quickly gathered me and my horse up and trailered us up to a now-frantic dad (I was about 4 hours overdue).

[Painted_Horse]

A lot of the place I ride, cell phones don’t work. It’s just a fact of life.

I tell my wife where I plan to ride, If I change my mind on the way, I call and update. At least she has an idea of where to start looking for me if I don’t come home tonight. She can send the county sheriff out to look for me tomorrow.

I had a good friend come off his horse this past January. He broke his pelvis and laid on the ground in 16* temps for 13 hours before they found and airlifted him to emergency care. He wasn’t comfortable, but he did survive.

I had a horse knock me down and I blew out a ligament in my wrist. Thought I had broken my wrist. I was riding one and leading a pack horse. I had to get on and ride 3 hours before I got back to the truck and drove home. Spent the next 8 weeks with 4 stainless steel pins in my wrist. Even if I had a signal for my cell phone. I’d still had to ride out of the mountains to get back to the parking lot.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/wrist.jpg

Cell phones are great, but life goes on with or with out them.

When you ride in country like this, there is no cell service.
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/Willis3.jpg
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p259/Painted-Horse/Sheep%20Hunt/Sept4-1.jpg

[katarine]

I rarely ride with a phone. If I do it’s by accident LOL. We spend a week in the mountains of MT every summer, not a phone in sight. It’s PERFECT.

Let peeps know where you’re going, and about when you’ll be home.

for the OP I’d suggest adding a 2hr pad to your arrival times, so the SO can relax

[Kementari]

If regularly riding in the boonies alone, it might be worth getting a personal locator beacon.

(I don’t own one - I have cell service most of the places I ride and hike - but I do pad my “If I’m not back by ___, worry about me” times by a couple of hours. ;))

Hiker slinking back to eventing forum now… :winkgrin:

[ReSomething]

If I didn’t go anywhere there was no cell service I wouldn’t have been able to go for walks around my own home, down in the bottom of a canyon. There is a limit to just how connected we all can be.

I’d suggest doubling your estimated ride times.

[prudence]

Painted Horse -

Those are incredible photos - well one just awful, and two beautiful! How is the wrist today? Jeez…

Fortunately where I live today there are many rider and hiker folks. When my horse fell, we ended up with about 25 people to help sled a 17 hand horse up hill through bushes. Ever so grateful.

[saratoga]

I just dont worry about it. I dont even always take a cell phone, I’m bad like that.
I did a lot of conditioning by myself in the early 90s, before cell phones so its not that unusual to me.

[CosMonster]

I don’t worry about it, either. I ride in a lot of places where cell service is sketchy at best, and while I (almost) always have mine on me, it is off. I’m bad and don’t even always let people know exactly where I’m going, since I ride out where there aren’t specific trails a lot (I give a general idea, like “I’ll be heading across the BLM land northwest of the farm” or whatever, but that’s a heck of a big place). I try to wear bright clothing and I do carry a mirror to signal with so at least I’ll be easier to find if they have to search for me. :lol: Actually, I’ve got a whole little survival keychain including a whistle, compass, mirror, swiss army knife and multi-tool. I keep it clipped to my trail horse’s saddle when I’m not riding but transfer it to a belt loop or pocket when I’m heading out. I also usually ride with a pack so I can carry water on me (I use a camelbak type system plus a small spare metal bottle), so I keep a little survival and first aid kit in there. I ride across some really rough, lonely country so I try to be prepared.

I usually add 4-5 hours extra time to my ride if it is going to be an all day or multi day thing, or a couple of hours if I’m only going out for an hour or so. I figure I can survive laying there with most injuries that wouldn’t kill me anyway for that long, and that way people don’t freak out and call the searchers out. :lol:

[Auventera_Two]

Switch to Verizon. Seriously! I always had trouble with cell phone service in the woods but with Verizon I seriously think I would have a signal in a goat herder’s shack in Uganda.

[sign_of_Grace]

Some pics

Here is where we rode…if you look closely you’ll see the narrow little trails. The big pile of rocks where my friend went down first is the trail in the first pic.

I did tell my husband where we were going and when to expect us back, but he’s still a worrier. He’s not a rider, so I think it’s hard for him to understand why I would want to go riding for 13 miles just for fun.

http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/23433/2026309380083035800S425x425Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/44521/2891336020083035800S425x425Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb63.webshots.com/43710/2542379820083035800S425x425Q85.jpg
http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/43242/2913263250083035800S425x425Q85.jpg

[Guilherme]

[QUOTE=Auventera Two;4059867]
Switch to Verizon. Seriously! I always had trouble with cell phone service in the woods but with Verizon I seriously think I would have a signal in a goat herder’s shack in Uganda.[/QUOTE]

You would not have a signal in my house. You would have one in the barn, back fields, the top of the mountain, etc. :lol:

If you don’t have cell service then do what you used to do before you had a cell phone.

G.

[Painted_Horse]

Prudence,
wrist is fine. I don’t have as much range of motion as before and It’ll never be as strong as it was. but it works

We ride so many places where there just is no service.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-8/807323/Bryce2.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-8/807323/Bryce-Ears.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-8/807323/Rocky-Trail.jpg

Even if you got up on the ridge tops, You probably wouldn’t get a signal
But when you are below the rim of the canyon or int he bottom of a canyon. There is no chance of using a cell phone.

Especially in some of the crack canyons
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-8/807323/Sheep-Creek-2.jpg