Are you planning a hike, going somewhere remote or where the weather can be extreme and terrain challenging? It’s important to tell other people about your trip and leave a map, so they can contact Police if something goes wrong.
As part of your hike planning I recommend you prepare a route map that includes details of your group and emergency contacts. In addition to sending this map to your emergency contact, leave a map or a copy of these documents in your vehicle at the trail head so that rescuers know your intended route and will have greater success at locating you if something goes wrong. Reminder again, a copy of these documents should also be left with your reliable emergency contact.
In addition to registering my trip intentions, the information I generally include on my map are:
- Dates of hike
- Summary of hike including distance, duration, grade, direction of travel, group size and experience, equipment
- Start and end point
- Intended campsites
- Known or potential water sources
- Possibly emergency extraction/evacuation points
- Summary of group members including name, age and mobile phone number
The Emergency+ app is also very good as it sends coordinates of your location directly to emergency services. (Assuming the phone is working)