AMC Outdoors, Web Exclusive, November 2002

Last fall, well-known Boston radio announcer Ted O'Brien was lost for three days in the White Mountains. AMC Outdoors spoke with Ted about the experience and what he learned.

Q. Were you fined under the reckless hiker law?
A. It's not really a fine. What happens is that if the hiker is found to be reckless he or she can be billed for the cost of the search.

Q. O.K. Were you billed for the cost of the search?
A. The short answer is "no." New Hampshire declined to bill me following Fish and Game's monthlong review process.

Q. What was the worst part of the experience?
A. In addition to the pain and fear I put my family through, the fact that a lot of good people were put at risk. Light planes can crash — or helicopters, as we saw in a recent rescue effort in the West. Search and rescue people can fall, get hurt, or get ill. Even professionals are not immune. If anything had happened to anybody else as a consequence of my actions I'd feel a lot worse than I do.

Q. Have you been hiking since then?
A. Yes. Most recently part way up Mont Albert, in Quebec's Parc de Gaspesie which I understand is a part of the northernmost point of the Appalachian Trail.

Q. What did you do differently?
A. I didn't go alone. And my pack was filled with the things on the list. [See the AMC's three-season and winter hiking gear lists.]

Q. Any recommendations?
A. Number one: Never go hiking alone. And that applies to a two-hour walk on the Blue Hill. Never. Anywhere. Anybody can have an accident, fall down, get taken ill, even the strongest most experienced hiker. Then what? At a minimum you're stuck and maybe a whole lot worse. Also two brains are better than one (and in my case the other brain is almost certainly better!). In retrospect I believe that had I been with someone else, we might have decided to turn back at the five-mile or six-mile marks, when the trail first began to get sketchy. But because I was alone, I felt no responsibility for anyone else and figured I'd just keep going. Also the second person doubles your chances of getting out if you do lose the trail.

Number 2: Listen to the experts. They make those lists for a reason. As I learned on my second trip down that trail, you may need everything at some point. Don't take them just because they say to. Take them because they know what they're talking about. As [New Hampshire Fish and Game] Lieutenant Estes said in the NPR piece, "You've got to have the things you need so that if things go wrong, you can make a stand." [See the full text of the radio piece, "Lost Hiker," that aired on National Public Radio's Living on Earth program.]

Q. Did you learn anything else?
A. I learned that nature is utterly indifferent to outcomes. And I learned that people, family and friends and even complete strangers, are not. And I am grateful to them all.