Protect Yourself

• Stay calm, first and foremost. Look at your immediate area and determine what your threats are. If you are in the wilderness, you need to be conscious not only of animals but also of potential weather hazards and the temperature drop that will probably come with nightfall. You may need to consider finding some sort of shelter, if you do not already have one. Use tree branches and moss, if available, to make a lean-to against a rock or tree. This will help provide cover. Keep an eye out for any potential sources of water. Most importantly, as long as you do not feel you are in any immediate danger, stay where you are.
  
  

Get Proactive

• Cities are much easier to get lost in than the woods because you can wander around trying to locate yourself with little risk--if worse comes to worst, you can ask someone for directions or find a map and usually solve your problem. But in the wilderness, you're on your own. It is wise to stay in one place, but it doesn't hurt to help any potential search parties find you. Build a fire to try and draw attention with the smoke. Yell for help every so often and listen for a response. Put colorful clothing or objects up in trees or other visible locations that might be easy to spot from afar. Begin foraging for nuts, berries or other foods that are edible. Because you can't know if you will be found in an hour or a week, it is best to plan long-term. If it is hot and you have no water source, keep shaded as best as possible and scout out a water source--but do not enter blindly into hot, unshaded territory in search of water. This can be a fatal gamble.
  
  

Be Patient

• Many individuals spend the time they are lost counting the seconds until they are found. It is much better to resist the temptation to wait and instead get comfortable. Coming to terms with your situation and trying to make the best of it will improve your morale and your ability to think, and it will make time fly by. Remember that the longer you survive and stay in one spot, the better the odds are you will be found.