While testing the Wilderness Traverse course with Bob ten days ago, my GPS tracker detached from my pack somehow. I noticed it missing right away and we searched the area where I thought it had fallen. If you have to lose something, this is a good choice since it broadcasts its location to a map. However, when I went home, I saw that it hadn't tracked since the moment it went missing. I figured it must be face down or waterlogged. I started looking at the new models at MEC - much lighter but $500+ including tax.
I checked the tracker map again a few days later and saw that it had started tracking again 32 hours after I dropped it. It continued tracking in the same location for 27 hours then said its battery was critically low and shut down. This wasn't a location we had searched thoroughly and I love a good mystery so I asked Coach LD to go up there with me today. I figured our chances of success were about 10% since I'd dropped it on a trail where someone else might have found it in the past week.
The fastest way to get to that spot was a bushwhack from a road. When we got to the area, I said, "I was standing just over there." I walked over, looked down and there it was. Boom - less than 60 seconds!
Unbelievable! I was getting ready for some kind of grid search since there was lots of low vegetation.
We took an efficient route in but on the way out, we took a more adventurous route around some wetlands. The forest was beautiful! Trekking time includes a long scenery break because why not?