Hiking: 'Boogeyman' Is A Complex

This week's rescue of 11-year-old Cub Scout Brennan Hawkins, who was lost in the rugged mountains of Utah for four days, was made more difficiult because of his reluctance to declare himself to strangers, namely, the very people who were looking for him.

That tendency is referred to by professional trackers and wilderness experts as "the Boogeyman Complex," according to Tom Brown Jr., an outdoor survival guide and founder of The Tracker School.

"(The Boogeyman Complex) even happens to adults," Brown

But Hawkins should have made his presence known to the searchers, Brown says. "He's lost, so he's going to have to get help any way he can. The things he could have done are: get to a clear area and write out letters with branches, so search helicopters overhead could see it, or build a fire."

Brown offered other advice on getting spotted if you get lost while hiking, and on avoiding losing your way to begin with. His suggestions were meant for kids, in particular.

Even if you're going out with your family on a short hike for 40 minutes or an hour or so, you should always carry some sort of survival kit, Hawkins says: "Especially with kids, (put one together) that they can wear on their back or a belt bag. (It should contain) water, a couple of granola bars, trail mix, that kind of thing. Maybe a signaling mirror. If the child is old enough, matches. Anything that the child can use if they get caught out overnight."Also, be aware of the area you're going to. "Most people, they get into a trail or a hiking area, and they have no idea of the topography or the roads that are around," Brown explains. "I always suggest that people look at a map. Know the direction of the nearest town, the major highways, and especially the trail system. So if you do get turned around, you might be able to hike out if you can walk a straight line."

Perhaps a surprising tip: Tell kids to keep looking behind them. "So many tracking cases where I've recovered the child, you know, the post-tracking interview, they said, 'Well, the trail didn't look the same when I came back. That mountain wasn't there, that grove of trees.' Well, yes, it was. It just looks different upon the return trip," says Brown. "So what I have the kids do is look behind them. And that way, they know what the trail is going to look like on their return trip."

What's the most common way that kids get lost? "They get sidetracked. They go off the trail.They see something, a raccoon or a salamander. And that leads them to something else. And all of a sudden, they're all turned around. They don't know where they are. So they have to stay aware of their position. And you know, it's hard to get that ingrained into a child, but they can be trained."

A rule of thumb: more clothes is better than less, in case the weather suddenly turns bad.

"Make sure (kids are) overdressed," Brown urges. "If they have to take a coat off or something and wrap it around their waist, that's fine. But a person can freeze to death at 50 degrees if it's raining and if it's windy. So we've got to make sure our kids have enough clothes."

Then, there's "the scarecrow game," where kids are taught to stuff whatever they can inside their clothes to stay warm, whether it's leaves, pine needles, grasses, anyting to fill dead air space.

If child gets lost, "I'm an advocate of having them stay put," Brown says, "because it makes searchers' jobs a lot more difficult (if they move around). If they can stay put and mark the position so searchers can find them, that's the best alternative."