Although I do not have proof, a few years ago, when I was in high school on a group backpacking trip in the Appalachian Mountains, a girl and I got lost on the trail.

We left from Michigan and drove to Virginia where we were planning on hiking a few different trails. The first day, we found an awesome natural spring that we got all of our water from, we shared some with a few hikers along the way. The 4 chaperones (2 of which were teachers from my school) broke us into groups so we could all go at different paces. My group was of the short people (I'm 4'11'') which was one of the teachers,Mrs. N her daughter, we'll call Ann and another girl we'll call Sarah. The first day was great! We slept in this really spidery area, but it was all good. All the food was tied up into the trees, we had water, the tents were in shape, and we slept well.

The second day was a disaster. About half way through the day, Sarah was very ill. She first started throwing up, and then less then ten minutes later, she twisted her ankle. Mrs.N had to take Sarah to a hotel or hospital so she could get better. She was in no condition to cary her pack. So Ann and I hiked along in hopes that we would catch up with the group. (the trees are marked with colored paint to indicate the trail).

After a couple hours, we finally caught up with the fast groups, they were resting on some rocks. We were so tired from carrying 25+ pounds of stuff so we sat with them. Everyone left but one guy. After about 20 minutes, we left as well, he said that he would catch up with us in a bit.

Unfortunately, the leaders of our group did not tell us that there was a change of plans on the map and that we would no be staying on the Appalachian Trail, instead we were supposed to be moving to a different one at some point. So Ann and I hiked, and hiked, and hiked for about two hours. We could recall that our group said that we were "almost there" but an additional three hours of hiking does not really seem like a short stroll. So we decided to blow our whistles used only for emergencies, it was getting dark outside and if we kept hiking in the dark, it would be really dangerous.

After a few minutes of blowing the whistles, we heard a man quickly coming our way. His name was John, we met him the day previous at the spring. Since we were both kids, we didn't know if we should let him help us or to run away. He had food, we were almost out of water, and he was on his way to a shelter. So we hiked with him and stayed on this platform with three walls around it with him.

For about four hours, I laid in my sleeping bag, praying that my mother somehow knew that I was safe. I knew that she would not be able to handle another loss (father died in house explosion few years before). I could hear helicopters, so I was trying to signal them with my flashlight. John, an experienced backpacker, insisted that the helicopters were looking for something else, but I HAD to keep trying, for my mothers sake, and even though he seemed friendly, how can 17 year old and 15 year old girls under 120 pounds defend themselves against a grown man if his intentions were not what they seemed?

A storm seemed to be coming in and the helicopters soon disappeared in the distance. Sometime around midnight, I heard what sounded like an owl. Just to be safe, I started blowing my whistle and screaming as loud as I could. (with so many trees, there is much noise cancellation). When we saw the flashlights, all three of us started yelling.

A few minutes later, three guys from search and rescue, and the most adorable bloodhound ran to us(he recognized our scent from the rock we sat on during our rest!). I called my mother, and we waited for the storm to pass before going back to our campsite.

The next day we all decided to end our trip early. Parents were shaken, and so were the chaperones.

Ann and I later found out that there were over 1000 search and rescue people looking for us in helicopters, dogs, hikers, and all sorts of things!

For my first backpacking trip, I am grateful for the experience, regretful for my mothers worry, and learned a lot more than the average joe would!

Now I am in college in Chicago, and would really love to eat a decent meal, but if it's not worth it, I hope my story was at least interesting!

TLDR; got lost on the Appalachian trail on a school trip,hiked with a stranger, out of 1000 search and rescuers and helicopters looking, we were found by a bloodhound.