A recent incident in which a hiker lost their keys during the hike, made think that everybody should assess their backup plan if they lose their keys. What will you do if your keys are lost during a hike? It’s easy to think it won’t happen to you, but everybody thinks that. Losing your keys on a hike is usually compounded by the fact that you are often in a remote place with no ability to call anybody for help.
Pockets of your pants or shorts are always an option, but many times it’s not convenient for a number of reasons. Comfort, security, damage, and loss are just a few of the reasons people don’t put their keys in the clothing pockets. A pack seems like a great place to put your keys. Most packs have hooks or loops that are perfect for securing keys in your pack.
Storing your keys in your pack isn’t a guarantee, though. A hiker had their keys in the top pocket of their pack, but the keys fell out when they leaned over and, of course, it fell right into a crack in the rocks. After about a half hour of attempts to retrieve the keys, they were finally retrieved by the ingenuity of one of the other hikers.
If you lose your keys during a hike, you’re likely to be shoved out of the way as everybody else tries to lend a hand. And you’ll be subject to unlimited and repetitive questions about how it happened. In the case of a loss of keys, people will indiscriminately scour the area, even while you tell them that you’ve already looked there.
The Ashdown Gorge hike from top to bottom is a one way hike that requires shuttling of cars. On a hike like that, you don’t want to lose your keys. About half way down, a hiker from our group discovered that she had lost her keys. Her car was one of the shuttled vehicles, so it was a huge concern. How would we be able to retrieve the car we left at the top without the keys to her car that was left at the bottom? Retracing her steps back up to the top was a terrible idea, yet became more and more of a reality as we all tried to find the keys in her pack.
Numerous people, one by one, searched her pack while she was subjected to the inevitable interviews about what she did with the keys, when was the last time she remembered them, etc. Finally, another search was done of the pack, where the keys were found in a pocket, under another item.
Losing your keys on a hike is always a concern that can be complicated by circumstances that weren’t considered. On an evening hike, one of our group took his keys with him while he ran up and down a hill, just for some extra exercise. Upon returning to his car in the parking lot, he discovered that he had lost his keys. It was still light and the entire group, step by step, walked the whole hill up and down and never found the keys. He was unable to get his car out of the parking lot and rangers came and closed his car in the parking lot, requiring him to come back the following day with another set of keys to retrieve the car.
What if you discover your keys are missing after a hike and you’re not sure if you lost them on the hike? It has happened to us twice in the Mojave desert, far away from any help. On one occasion we sent a search party to retrace the steps of the hike, only to find them carefully hidden in a pack, meant to secure them from being lost.
On another occasion, after making it down from the dunes, we discovered missing keys. The keys were used to open a vehicle upon the return, so we knew they weren’t lost on the dunes, but the person had walked all over the area, so it still required a search of the whole area, which included the dreaded thought the keys had fallen into the campfire. Even though the pack had been searched by many people, we decided to do further searches of the pack, remembering the Ashdown Gorge situation. Sure enough, the keys were found in the pack behind another item.
Even with modern technology, you can still have a problem. On a recent hike, one our hikers realized that she had left her phone in her car. Normally, it’s not a big deal to leave your phone behind, but this phone was the key to her electric vehicle. Worse, the car won’t lock with the phone in it, making it very vulnerable to theft.Luckily, other members of the group were able to reach the hiker’s spouse, who was able to drive to the trail head and secure the vehicle without incident.
Because the loss of keys is not absolutely preventable, you have to ask yourself, what will you do if you are in a remote area with no ability to contact anybody, and you can’t find your keys? Do you have a second set of keys? Where are they? How will you get them? Is it possible to hide a key someplace on your vehicle? Maybe hide a second key in your pack in case of emergency?
Whatever the case, if you lose your keys in a remote location, you may have to retrace your steps, or you may have to drive for hours to retrieve another set of keys. The problem could be compounded by circumstances that are normally not considered to be a problem.
So the question is: What’s Your Backup Plan?
