How I Navigate When I Get Lost on A Long Journey

My heart races as a rush of panic washes over me like a flooded stream after a torrential downpour. I feel the sharp inhalation of limited breath as it shoots in and out of my nostrils as though it was a frigid beverage traveling through a straw with a wide circumference, causing brain freeze. It is in those moments of brief existential dread and darting eyes of the realization of the apparent danger that I am in when I begin to rethink everything that I have ever done in life.

I always fear that I have gotten lost somewhere in the middle of my longer solo hikes. This usually happens after hours of climbing across difficult terrain when the pain in my legs from miles of pushing forward feels as though it melts into my very existence, and my exhausted mind becomes devoid of all thought. Nothing else seems to exist as I place one foot in front of the other beyond the point when my GPS tracker begins logging miles in the double digits.

A few minutes off of the trail usually shoves my mind into a cloud of immediate terror. However, it only lasts a moment. In the next few ticks from the clock, I shift my mind to more rational thoughts. I end up backtracking to return to the trail, and I trust in my abilities to navigate and continue with my hike. I’m never really lost, but because I allow my mind to dissipate from this dimension, I begin to…