cuts, short or long

[calimac]

I don't know if I can say this without being misunderstood. But as a person very sensitive to maps and geography I feel that I should try.

It was cartographic ignorance that stranded the Kim family. I'm not sure how much play this story has gotten outside CA and OR, but this is the San Francisco family who, driving home on I-5 from Seattle, missed the exit south of Roseburg that would have taken them out to the coast on a state highway for their hotel reservation in Gold Beach. So they drove on for a ways and then took a back road directly over the mountains. It was dark, cold, and wet; they lost their way and got stuck in the snow. The mother and children survived a week in the car and were rescued; the father had set out for help and died of hypothermia.

I am in awe of the courage and resourcefulness they showed while trapped in the mountains. I don't think I could have done half as well in the circumstances.

But I am terribly dismayed at the bad planning and overconfidence in their map-reading (apparently it was a state highway map) that got them into this situation in the first place.

First off, their intended plan was bad. To drive from Seattle to California there's no point in leaving I-5 at all unless you're deliberately taking the scenic route. If you are, you want to allow more time than they did, and you don't want their intended crossover route, Hwy 42, which is long, meandering, and twisty, a tricky road even in the daytime. There are other cross highways further north that are straighter and simpler, and will take you to the part of the coast with the dunes, which are neat. And you want to plan to do this in the daytime, instead of at night which is when the Kims left Roseburg. Both the cross highways and coast highways are one-lane winding country highways: more dangerous at night and pretty much pointless then anyway, because you miss all the gorgeous scenery.

I understand why they missed Hwy 42. This is not clear on all maps, but it actually comes off a branch highway and not I-5 at all, and as I recall the exit isn't well marked. That's understandable, but still - if you're not savvy to that level of map-reading you may make worse mistakes too.

But having missed the exit -- this is the part I really find dismaying. First, they continued south on I-5 almost to Grants Pass. This is a mountainous stretch of over 50 miles, full of mountain passes and valleys and curves with slow-down warnings, that takes well over an hour in good weather. Did they drive all this not realizing they'd missed their exit? When it took as long as it did even on a freeway, why didn't they realize that even if there was a good road to Gold Beach it would take forever to get there? (Had they taken Hwy 42, it would still have taken them more than an hour to reach the coast, and then another hour at least to Gold Beach.) When they turned off I-5, they were less than ten miles from Grants Pass, a big town with lots of motels. By this time it was 10:30 PM, and cold, and dark, and raining, no time to set off on a 95-mile drive over more mountains on an unfamiliar road. Time to quit, phone the hotel (they had a cell phone) to say they're not coming, and find a place to stay in Grants Pass.

Instead, they take this back road. Forest Road 23, it's called. Not a state highway, as some newspaper diagrams of the journey have had it. And requiring considerable map-reading skill to find from the freeway in the first place. Forest Road 23. The one that, on my state highway map of Oregon, says "Closed in Winter" on it.

Y'know, I consider myself pretty confident with back road driving. I've done a lot of it. I've been all over the Santa Cruz Mountains, which are twisty beyond belief. Even some in that part of Oregon, which I've visited a lot. I haven't driven that particular road very far into the mountains, though. It's not one I'd take for fun: it's very long, and mountainous, and tedious, judging from what I know of the area. (And I have been rafting on the Rogue River in those parts.)

But even considering myself fairly skilled at this, here are my rules for venturing off state highways onto back country roads. 1) Only in the daytime. 2) In good weather. 3) When I have lots of time to spare, because you never know what the road will be like. (I've had to give up and turn around a few times when the map insufficiently resembled the territory.) 4) A full gas tank.

5) And never, ever, without a much better and more detailed map than a state highway map. One mile = 1/4 inch on the map is about minimum scale. And I keep that map open and check it as often as necessary to establish exactly where I am at all times. (James Kim died because he was ten miles away from where he thought he was when he set off from the stranded car.) If you've been hiking with me you've seen me with my thumb on the exact spot on the trail map at all times, and my eyes more likely to watch the map than the trail. No, I don't drive that way, but I come pretty close.

The amount of overconfidence it takes to set off on a road like that, even without knowing how tough a road it really is, without a decent map, in a snowstorm at night and late to get to a hotel a hundred miles away ... I find it hard to imagine, I really do. As hard as I find to imagine the guts for survival the Kims showed afterwards.

Does this mean it's their fault? Well, no, not exactly ... except that this is why one shouldn't do things like this. Because when the map is bad and you get lost, the cold and the snow and the dark don't care if it's your fault or not.

Update: Jon Carroll discusses some of the same points, with the added complication that hadn't occurred to me: mindless Internet map-service directions. Of the road across the mountains and its appearance on a road map, he says: "[It] wasn't even on the map. Oh, wait, yes it was, a faint trace of gray across the mountains, the universal language for 'we have to put this one here because it's a road, but it'll take forever and not be fun and besides, rattlesnakes.' Doesn't mean I wouldn't ever take that road; I sometimes like the rattlesnake routes. But I sure wouldn't take it at night, with two small kids in the car, hurrying to get to my holiday motel." Pretty much my point.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I understand your point; I've thought of it myself, as someone who spent a lot of hours off-road in the desert back in the day. (And, yes, once the person navigating and driving--my first husband--made a mistake that could have been disastrous, but it didn't come from faulty map-reading. Rather, it came from believing a USGS topo map's notation of a river crossing without checking it by walking all the way across the river first.)

But I don't think it took overconfidence at all to set off on that road. As someone who has been in the car, trying to get somewhere by a certain time, with tired and cranky kids, I can fully understand what they did. And I think most people have had the experience, in some situation or other, of being so focused on a goal, and becoming tired and stressed trying to meet it, that they become oblivious to more rational alternatives.

I'll bet these folks grew up someplace that doesn't have treacherous winter weather, and had no concept of how fast things can go very, very bad. Though even that is no guarantee; every year people who live in the Midwest die after ignoring the most elementary, heard-every-year-since-you-started-driving precautions for winter travel.

Nature doesn't care, as you say. But most people have little or no experience in dealing with unforgiving Nature in the raw. The lives most of us lead in the U.S. today are so sheltered from the weather that even if we know, even if we have been taught, we forget. And lots of people have never been taught--certainly not in school, and usually not at home. (Makes note to review this with her kids.)

[jerrykaufman.livejournal.com]

The story got a lot of play here, since they were visiting folks in this area.

One additional wrinkle I've seen (at the time you poted this, the detail may no have hit the news) is that the road they took should have been closed, but a vandal cut the chain on the gate closing it, and opened the gate.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Jesus, I hope the "vandal" was someone who actually wanted to use the road themselves, because it seems pretty pointless as an act of vandalism. Still, it fits with the "Closed in Winter" note on David's map.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The road that says "closed in winter" on my map is not the road with the gate. The road with the gate was a logging road that they turned off on by mistake in the snow and dark.

The articles I read says the "closed in winter" road is left unblocked for cross-country skiiers. It was impassable by cars, and apparently the Kims had already discovered this and turned around _before_ they wandered off onto the logging road.

My point was about unwise planning, not either the mistake of missing their exit or of getting on the logging road.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, I saw that. The road that should have had the gate was the logging road they turned off on by mistake and got stuck on, not the road they were trying to cross the mountains on, which was itself impassable.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the thoughtful write-up on this. I felt very similarly about this situation. When they were first reported missing, I think I remember thinking, "They've got off the main road and got lost/stuck, and it's going to end badly."

My home town is Challenge, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills. My father was a US Forest Service officer, and I lived with him on a series of USFS bases. I know a bit about back-country roads. But I also know that years of city living have made me a bit soft, and I don't think I'd try taking a debatable road like that. It's easy to say in retrospect, though.

Some years ago, Lisa and I were driving up I-5 through Oregon in that same general area. (She doesn't go that way very often, as she prefers the US-97/OR-58 route, which, while not a freeway, is still a main highway.) During the day, we got the idea of trying to follow a minor road indicated on our AAA map that appears to follow more closely the railroad. (The railroad in this area is the original Southern Pacific route to Oregon; SP built a better route via Klamath Falls later, and this "Siskyou Route" is now operated by a short-line railroad, Central Oregon & Pacific.) We got off the freeway where the map seemed to indicate, and hunted around for the road on the map. We found several places, none of which resembled the road we wanted. When pavement ran out and we found ourselves with a choice of dirt roads, neither of which appeared to be going the direction we wanted to go, we turned around and drove back to I-5, grumbling about AAA. I wrote to AAA complaining about that phantom road on their map. When the next edition of the Oregon highway map appeared, I looked at it, and found that the phantom road had vanished. So I guess I'd done a good deed by reporting an inaccuracy and getting it corrected.

Oh, I do carry a several-days emergency survival pack in my van, too -- it doubles as the earthquake-preparedness kit. And besides my cell phone (which probably won't work too far beyond the narrow I-5 band), I have my amateur radio and CB radio. So while I hope to never be in such a dire situation as the Kims, I also have made preparations to try and survive and recover from it should it ever happen.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

97/58? I've driven both those roads, and they're good roads, but it never occurred to me to use them as a substitute for that tiresome stretch of I-5 between Roseburg and Grants Pass. I'll consider trying that next time I don't want to go through Ashland (which is a great place to stop for dinner even if the theatres are closed.)

I've done what you did: taken some obscure road that looked interesting on the map. But I'm always prepared to give up on it, because often enough it doesn't work out like the map implies it should.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I-5 approximately follows the original Siskyou line of the Southern Pacific between Weed and Eugene, while 97/58 follows the longer-but-gentler route that SP built years later and which is now their main line. Lisa prefers this route for various reasons and dislikes the I-5 route.

My grandfather was one of the construction workers on I-5 through this area, and back in 1969-70 he and my grandmother rented a house in Weed (it's still visible from the freeway), as it saved him having to rent a motel room for months. I came and stayed for them for some period of time -- I don't remember how long it was -- when I was, I guess, between 4 and 5 years old. (It must have been before I was five because my parents divorced when I was five and I ended up living with my grandparents for the next seven years thereafter, but it was after the time in Weed. I mainly remember that the railroad tracks ran right outside the back yard and the trains crews would wave to me.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

I agree with you in every respect there.

On a local radio show yesterday, there was a Dutch journalist who commented that she had not known that you could die in the wilderness in the United States, that no Dutch person would ever think of that because there is no wild land in the Netherlands. I suppose that's possible, though it takes my breath away: a whole country without untamed land. Then again, though she didn't say so, it can't be possible for any Dutch person to go to the beach without being aware that the ocean can kill them and completely wipe out all the land they live on. We don't ever really get away from wild.

Glenn said he keeps thinking about a time a few years back when he took a road through the hills at Neah Bay. We had one of the daughters and all three grandchildren with us, and we kept going long past the point where it became clear that the road we were on wasn't going where the map suggested it was going. We finally turned around and retraced our path, rejoining the other daughter and our friend Katherine about an hour after they expected us.

Glenn still beats himself up about that one, but there were a lot of big differences. It was summer. It was daylight, early afternoon with many hours of light before the sun would finally set. We had lots of food, spare clothing, sleeping bags, tents, and two boats on top of the van (okay, the kayaks would not be useful in getting us off the mountain, but we had them with us). Just because the road wasn't taking us where we thought it would didn't mean it was deserted; there were plenty of locals who passed us at the pullouts. Our give-up and turn-back point, as late as it seemed to the cranky kids in the car and to the people waiting for us, still got us where we needed to be only an hour late.

Tragedies like this make me think about close calls. They also make me check to make sure the space blanket is still in the car. And the emergency flares and first-aid supplies. And that poncho that has been used once, by John Berry in non-life-threatening circumstances. And the hatchet.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

When I've gone out to the Olympic peninsula, or elsewhere in the wilderness, I take some good maps of back roads that I got from the AAA. Even if I stay only on highways, they're reassuring.

I've often taken the wrong road. (I had a heck of a time getting onto West Marginal from the West Seattle bridge on my way to Amy T's house.) But my talent is to realize immediately that it is wrong. And then I stop and look at the map, and if "proceed on" appears to be an option, I may do that, but only if I have time to retrack if it turns out to be wrong, because it often does.

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

It's the standard story. Something goes a little wrong, and then something else is a little wrong, and then something else is a little wrong, and suddenly you're in deep.

This happens to EVERYONE. The Naval Safety Center publishes a magazine called APPROACH that has stories of highly trained naval aviators making those little steps, and sometimes stopping short of disaster, and sometimes not.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying this. I think that (not that anyone here is saying this!) "I know so much about ____ that it can't possibly happen to me" is a dangerous mindset in regard to just about anything.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I have a different mindset. I know how much I know and how much I don't know. That's why the "something wrong - and then something else wrong - and then something else" won't happen to me.

I don't know, but I fear the Kims' problem was overconfidence, an unwarrented sureness that they could get through anything. I've known people like that.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but it could just as easily have been overtiredness and stress. If you have never, because of overtiredness, stress, or something similar, made a bad judgment that (had a couple things gone the wrong way) could have had disastrous consequences for you or others, you are--IMHO, of course--a rare human.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Some wrong decisions are just too obviously wrong. At least if made by people who aren't immature.

[n6tqs.livejournal.com]

Regarding internet mapping services- That's one I'd never fall into, since I've gotten directions twice that left out big chunks of the directions (such as "get on 24 and then make a right onto 101", for the locals).

Also, they don't know where I live, and refuse to accept corrections; as well as showing a road through not 200 yards from here that's not possible for an automobile.

But, this doesn't seem to actually been a factor in the Kim's case.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I plot "shortest route" mapping service directions just for the amusement value. I know one service whose San Jose-Fresno directions take you over the Panoche Pass towards Mendota. That was one of the funniest.

There are lots of other problems with these things: the "enter on the exit ramp" problem; the "drive 742.6 miles and then turn right" problem ...

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine was an artist in residence in the Marin Headlands this past summer. She took a walk to the beach in the evening without a flashlight, got caught in darkness on her way back, and spent the night less than a mile from her warm bed, completely lost in the outdoors. She came out mostly okay, though with a case of poison oak that was pretty astonishing. One night in the outdoors won't kill most healthy people (and she's a dancer/choreographer by profession, so healthier than most), but it served to remind her (and me) of just how close the danger is.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

It was sad what happened to that family. I get lots of AAA maps and usually stick to the main roads. But every once in a while we got wondering around in California, when the weather is decent. I definitely would have stuck to the main roads in bad weather. Just because.
On concerning Internet Maps. I always go an consult a real map after getting directions from one of them. But I think the wackiest was the map to MythCon this summer in Norman OK. Basically once we got on I-40 it was head east for 1200 miles. By the By, we could have technically done the trip in 24 hours, if we didn't stop for anything, according to the driving directions. :)

[nwl.livejournal.com]

This was a major news story on the East coast. The local news broke in when the man was found. There were articles in The Washington Post and USA Today following the progress of the search.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Just a very general comment, and years out of date....

We did a lot of travelling in the 1980s, camping for weeks as far off the main roads as we could without 4-wheel drive. We started from Texas, spiraled out through NM, CO, Smoky Mountain area, then up and down the West Coast, usually on Hwy 1. We never had any problems (did a LOT of map study), so we must have been doing something right. Spent a lot of time around Nederland, CO. Various highway maps, Forest Service topo maps, etc.

Between I-5 and 101, say from Mendocino north, things got strange by our standards. Also in Western WA, iirc. In the non-coastal states, if a road was shown as paved, that usually meant it was a pretty good road in other respects also, and had a bit of traffic. Out here they pave something a goat would use once every 10 years for logging. :-) And there seemed to be a different standard about where and how they even BUILT roads.

My point is that things do differ from one area to another -- including, I suspect, map conventions. The judgment that has worked in one area may not work in another -- even within the US.