This series is about how to manage when you and yours must walk a long way to get to your destination. Part I was about the psychological aspects of a long, challenging hike; while Part II was about managing the physical challenges. Here we focus on what does, or should, go on between the people: Communicating.
The first rule: Don’t split the party
I play role-playing games from time to time, and the first rule is Don’t Split the Party. When you do, invariably the situation degrades and you have a heck of a time re-uniting. Why? Because ‘the best-laid plans of mice and men often go astray’, as Burns almost said. Things come up and confusions intervene. It can be really hard communicating with someone who’s not there. If you can get your people together and keep them in one group, it’s generally better.
Also, in most circumstances its safer. Others are less likely to get aggressive with bigger groups. Also, if something bad happens, you have a higher likelihood of having the person with the skills or stuff you need on hand if everyone’s on hand.
Why ever break the first rule?
Sometimes you don’t have a choice. If it’s a bugout situation, you and yours might be separated when the time comes to boogie.
There are other times when it might be reasonable to split. Having someone — say, a stronger hiker — scout ahead could avoid risks or save effort. You might choose to have faster group members prepare a place for the night. And lets be honest: Sometimes when it’s really important to get gone, not everybody can keep up. To split or stay would be a hard choice that some random woman on the internet can’t possibly make for you. What I can say is that if you split, you probably want to be communicating first on how you might reunite later if possible.
If you start out split, you better have been communicating about it beforehand
I’m not a Luddite. If electronic communications are working, I’m all for them. I’m just not trusting enough to assume they will be working when necessary. I certainly hope you and yours have already communicated about how to handle the ‘moment of truth’ separation if normal communications are down … but while it’s an important topic it’s not today’s mission. You can read more about it here, with additional entries available if you search “communication”. So let’s move on to communication when the group starts the bugout together.
Communicating about how to reunite
I’ll assume here nobody’s dumb enough to just wander off from their group without communicating about it first. The main points are what in particular need to be part of those communications. Here are some things you’ll want understood all around before the split.
- Where you’ll reunite. It’s best if it’s a place personally known to all, or completely unmistakeable..because mistakes are surprisingly easy to make. Spice needs to fill a water bottle, so Doc goes on ahead. “Meet you at the restroom.” Then there’s a restroom off trail a bit at the campground. That one, or the one along the trail?
- When to know if you’ve gone too far. “Meet you at the restroom. Neither one of us will go farther than the bridge before we reunite.”
- What you’ll do if the connection was missed. “If I don’t see you by then, I’ll wait for you at the bridgehead.”
- What you’ll do if Up Ahead is not as expected. Salty and my default is “If we miss all other connections, we’ll meet back here where we parted.” Sometimes trail blocks prevent one of us from getting to the appointed places.
- How long you’ll wait before moving on to alternate plans. “If you don’t show up by moonset, I’ll come back for you.”
- If you must leave a message, where to look for it. “I’ll put any note taped to the nearest fire hydrant.”
Wait, what was that about communicating by note?
Sometimes if you can’t call, the best you can do is leave a note. So, does your bug-out bag have paper (in ziplock) and pencil? (Pens always fail me just when there’s no replacement at hand. Or, you know, when they’ve been stuck in a bugout bag in all weathers.) It can be really frustrating how hard it is to come up with a suitable replacement for paper and pencil.
Communicating when you’re Not split up
Sure, it’s easier to communicate when you’re all together — quite a bit easier. But not flawless. The biggest barriers? Pride, and different expectations.
As a cyclist, I know if I start too far above my pace, I’m going to explode spectacularly. How do I know? By being too danged prideful to tell my riding companions they were too fast for me. Once. I can be dumb, but I’m not too slow a learner. What’s kind of fun is how often when you admit the pace is too hot for you, others will admit they were pushing themselves too hard to keep that pace as well.
As for the different expectations — haven’t we all fallen for that? I bet you have your own examples to fill in. Just please consider how much more difficult it can be to fix in a high stress situation without cell phones. And how much more likely it is to happen when people are far from their best due to fatigue, low fuel, dehydration, stress, and uncertainty. Then be explicit.
Don’t go here
One of the worst communicating failures during a bugout is just letting someone slip off the back because they can’t keep up. The temptation can be to press on. Maybe you tire faster if you have to adjust your pace; or maybe you think they’ll catch up if you provide that motivation by disappearing down trail. Or (more charitably) that you’ll just move ahead and set up camp so they can just rest once they get there.
There are few lonelier sights on a long hike than watching your group leave you behind…particularly if you haven’t been communicating about how to reunite.
But what happens when they don’t show up? Do you go back for them? How long do you wait? Are they going to be along the backpath waiting for you to come back? How far back do you go before you decide they didn’t? It’s a complete mess.