Help needed to find missing cyclist

[dave303e]

45 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

very cool interview Paul Ingpen.

My takeaways from this as my only real source of info, and coming from the perspective of someone who does adventure racing, has put on adventure races and deals with maps/offline navigation (and is actually sending some rookies into the mountain this weekend). I've also done that trail both in the knysna mtb and just riding and some AR racing within that forest.

Context is that the "this could happen to any of us" mantra doesn't fly with me. He made some decisions that put himself in this situation and they were all avoidable. I'm not fingerpointing at Alan here, he did plenty right to get himself spotted but there should always be lessons to learn from these scenarios, myself definitely included. 

a)doing a metric mega ton of mtb races doesn't make you a navigator in a forest

b)when you get lost, and you don't have a map you go back to the last place you know where you were right. I figure he bombed down a forestry road or just a loose trail, backtrack when it runs out. 

c)don't be stubborn about your mistakes, so often people convince themselves they are right way before they know it for sure they are wrong.

d)look after your phone. He was lost and the battery died, this is your get out of jail free card so don't just let it die. Turn off wifi definitely, put on airplane mode while you find higher ground to get a signal. The phone will hunt for signal on full radio power constantly, so just toggle on to check then toggle it off. While he said he did try this, I am not convinced he wasn't that far from a spot that could have punched through an sms with details. moving on to

e)sms is king, old school but from when phones were crap but effective., The way the network works is that sms is a simple 140character burst of data that doesn't require a signal back to the phone. You can send an sms and not even know it got through. Everything from voicecall to anything internet based (ie. whatsapp) requires a solid 2 way communication channel. SMS also works effectively on lower tech 2G/3G signals that have higher ranges than whatsapp on 4g/5G(when available).

 

Some of these seem obvious now. I guess after 24hours he had no clue where he was or where to go so following the river was the right thing to do. heading dead south would have got him to people eventually if possible.

Using the gps co-ordinates he gave 33' 57' 22" as the position he left his dead gps unit on the sunday lunchtime in the river puts you on the blue star, and he probably went north somewhere into the river on the blue arrows before then to get to this point. if that's the case then starting from the red pentagon it shows that he never even started the Petrus se brand trail (orange). Assuming that's correct then he missioned on a long way before getting lost, He said he has done the trail before. it's marked and is easy to stay on once you've found it. Speaks to A, B and C here.

 

 

 

his takeaway is to get a GPS unit with livetracking - I assume that means basemaps. you can have that on you phone already. I highly suggest avenza if you are into this sort of thing. or the offline paper trail map is always handy, here is the one in question

 

 

secondly, I dunno about taking boating flares cycling as a good idea. If you really want to hail down a plane then a waterproof cigarette lighter probably more useful.

 

I hope this doesn't come across as condescending, mtb and exploring is cool fun and I want people to push boundaries and enjoy it. Oh and to repeat an earlier post a whistle could have been lifesaving cheap grams here. Secondly, not really for a 3 hour ride, but a space blanket in your camelback is a winner too. 

I think even as core experienced navigators it is always easy to say I should have just done X, Y, Z. We have all been there. I have an Hons degree in geographical information and I have done square circles in swazi forests with a map and 3 compasses in hand. My latest blunder involved walking a perfect bearing accross an open field for 2 km directly at a CP. The mist rolled in fast and it took 2 hours to find a cp which was 700m from where we were.

I haven't listened to the interview. I will listen a bit later over lunch.

Something that I have always done in terms of not getting lost is to know your handrails. In that area just head south as hard as you can and you will hit the N2 eventually. Better yet head east for the R339. It is easier with a supreme sense of direction and or a compass. But know a hand rail and hammer it all the way there. Again, easier said than done. Again just glad he is safe and sound

[Shebeen]

12 minutes ago, dave303e said:

I think even as core experienced navigators it is always easy to say I should have just done X, Y, Z. We have all been there. I have an Hons degree in geographical information and I have done square circles in swazi forests with a map and 3 compasses in hand. My latest blunder involved walking a perfect bearing accross an open field for 2 km directly at a CP. The mist rolled in fast and it took 2 hours to find a cp which was 700m from where we were.

I haven't listened to the interview. I will listen a bit later over lunch.

Something that I have always done in terms of not getting lost is to know your handrails. In that area just head south as hard as you can and you will hit the N2 eventually. Better yet head east for the R339. It is easier with a supreme sense of direction and or a compass. But know a hand rail and hammer it all the way there. Again, easier said than done. Again just glad he is safe and sound

With that combo you can probably blame the swazi maps last updated in 1960. got that t-shirt too!

one thing I wanted to say, was that clearly Alan wasn't prepared for a 3 day ordeal. He was just out for a simple 3hour ride, the lesson here is how quickly things can go wrong if you're not careful.

 

plus one more thing. the trailhead/trurnoff is even on streetmaps! (google bakkies did a lot of backroads before FIFA2010!)

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9653889,23.1517056,3a,61.8y,202.81h,76.22t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sJLh_eZ-Fv4oPJyIaD3szaQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e4

 

[justinafrika]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I have successfully navigated with a compass and a map in places/countries/mountains/deserts I had never been to before.

 

18 minutes ago, Scary Rider said:

With this I must totally agree! I'm a bit oldschool myself and ordinary topographical maps along with knowing your north, etc will go a long way in getting out of a sticky situation. Been there myself.

I enjoy solo exploring forest and coastal and mountain pathways on bike and those long-ago (very, in my case) sport orienteering and military navigation skills have proven invaluable.  Also reassuring that my now-adult kids loved learning those skills as two of them frequently spend days out.

[dave303e]

2 minutes ago, justinafrika said:

 

I enjoy solo exploring forest and coastal and mountain pathways on bike and those long-ago (very, in my case) sport orienteering and military navigation skills have proven invaluable.  Also reassuring that my now-adult kids loved learning those skills as two of them frequently spend days out.

this is key. Kids need to learn to read maps. Maps are a bit like numbers, a good map can be read by any language.

The GPS generation is a real thing, a real useless thing...

[Jewbacca]

51 minutes ago, dave303e said:

I think even as core experienced navigators it is always easy to say I should have just done X, Y, Z. We have all been there. I have an Hons degree in geographical information and I have done square circles in swazi forests with a map and 3 compasses in hand. My latest blunder involved walking a perfect bearing accross an open field for 2 km directly at a CP. The mist rolled in fast and it took 2 hours to find a cp which was 700m from where we were.

I haven't listened to the interview. I will listen a bit later over lunch.

Something that I have always done in terms of not getting lost is to know your handrails. In that area just head south as hard as you can and you will hit the N2 eventually. Better yet head east for the R339. It is easier with a supreme sense of direction and or a compass. But know a hand rail and hammer it all the way there. Again, easier said than done. Again just glad he is safe and sound

This was what I was trying to refer to in an earlier post. Knowing where your easiest/nearest/busiest exit is and how to use it. 

The three of us are proper map dorks though, so probably not 'average users' in today's environment.

[W Smith]

3 hours ago, Shebeen said:

very cool interview Paul Ingpen.

My takeaways from this as my only real source of info, and coming from the perspective of someone who does adventure racing, has put on adventure races and deals with maps/offline navigation (and is actually sending some rookies into the mountain this weekend). I've also done that trail both in the knysna mtb and just riding and some AR racing within that forest.

Context is that the "this could happen to any of us" mantra doesn't fly with me. He made some decisions that put himself in this situation and they were all avoidable. I'm not fingerpointing at Alan here, he did plenty right to get himself spotted but there should always be lessons to learn from these scenarios, myself definitely included. 

a)doing a metric mega ton of mtb races doesn't make you a navigator in a forest

b)when you get lost, and you don't have a map you go back to the last place you know where you were right. I figure he bombed down a forestry road or just a loose trail, backtrack when it runs out. 

c)don't be stubborn about your mistakes, so often people convince themselves they are right way before they know it for sure they are wrong.

d)look after your phone. He was lost and the battery died, this is your get out of jail free card so don't just let it die. Turn off wifi definitely, put on airplane mode while you find higher ground to get a signal. The phone will hunt for signal on full radio power constantly, so just toggle on to check then toggle it off. While he said he did try this, I am not convinced he wasn't that far from a spot that could have punched through an sms with details. moving on to

e)sms is king, old school but from when phones were crap but effective., The way the network works is that sms is a simple 140character burst of data that doesn't require a signal back to the phone. You can send an sms and not even know it got through. Everything from voicecall to anything internet based (ie. whatsapp) requires a solid 2 way communication channel. SMS also works effectively on lower tech 2G/3G signals that have higher ranges than whatsapp on 4g/5G(when available).

 

Some of these seem obvious now. I guess after 24hours he had no clue where he was or where to go so following the river was the right thing to do. heading dead south would have got him to people eventually if possible.

Using the gps co-ordinates he gave 33' 57' 22" as the position he left his dead gps unit on the sunday lunchtime in the river puts you on the blue star, and he probably went north somewhere into the river on the blue arrows before then to get to this point. if that's the case then starting from the red pentagon it shows that he never even started the Petrus se brand trail (orange). Assuming that's correct then he missioned on a long way before getting lost, He said he has done the trail before. it's marked and is easy to stay on once you've found it. Speaks to A, B and C here.

 

 

 

his takeaway is to get a GPS unit with livetracking - I assume that means basemaps. you can have that on you phone already. I highly suggest avenza if you are into this sort of thing. or the offline paper trail map is always handy, here is the one in question

 

 

secondly, I dunno about taking boating flares cycling as a good idea. If you really want to hail down a plane then a waterproof cigarette lighter probably more useful.

 

I hope this doesn't come across as condescending, mtb and exploring is cool fun and I want people to push boundaries and enjoy it. Oh and to repeat an earlier post a whistle could have been lifesaving cheap grams here. Secondly, not really for a 3 hour ride, but a space blanket in your camelback is a winner too. 

Many thanks for this interesting post. Having cycled Petrus se brand on many occasions I could not figure out how Alan got lost since the trail is well marked and you cannot get lost if you stay on the road . 

You assumption that he never started on Petrus se brand in the first instance is very sound if regard is had to the location of the blue star on your map. When you leave  Diepwalle Forest Station,  cycling on the Uniondale road  towards Petrus se brand ,there is a jeep track on the left (approximately 1km from the turn off to Petrus se Brand) which I have on numerous occasions mistaken as Petrus se brand. This road is very overgrown with vegetation One can easily make the mistake to assume that this jeep track is Petrus se brand. As you have pointed out , this is in all probability the road that Allan took thinking he was on Petrus se brand .

Having listened to the interview with Allan on youtube it is apparent that he kept a cool head during this dreadful ordeal . Just proves how quickly things can go pear shape .

Be safe out there.

 

[dave303e]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

This was what I was trying to refer to in an earlier post. Knowing where your easiest/nearest/busiest exit is and how to use it. 

The three of us are proper map dorks though, so probably not 'average users' in today's environment.

guilty as charged, might have spent the last 40mins on the openstreetmap version of the SA topo maps and mentally traced along for the entire 2016 EA...

[Sprockets]

** Posted from Duran De Villiers Facebook **

I put together a basic map of area and events with Alan Broderick's route and location for those who are interested.

I was alerted on Sunday about Alan being lost, I know the forest fairly well having grown up here and also an avid cyclists and motorcyclist, I fueled up the helicopter and with the GPS pin of Alan's last known location along with some math and what I thought a cyclist would do thinking they are on the Petrus se Brand route but in fact riding a different ridgeline more north, which would appear nearly identical in direction, look and feel, which is a big factor to why and how Alan got lost.

I flew for about an hour and a half around the area that I believed Alan to be at the time, until it was too dark and needed to head back. Turns out my math was correct and I was in the right location but could simply not see Alan, who had heard and seen the helicopter overhead, I had the bright sun setting in my eyes, flying solo and with a dark and incredibly thick forest canopy making it near impossible to spot anyone.

The plan was to get airborne again early Monday morning, with my good friend and fellow pilot John Grant Bozman who I would pick up at Plett airport along with Marc Rodgers both part of NSRI and search and rescue in and around Plett. Around midday the weather cleared enough for me to leave the office and head up to the hanger, a quick flight to Plett to collect John and Marc, and we all agreed that the best flight route would be flying up the Bitou river to try and locate Alan, who by this time had spent three days and two nights in the cold, wet, incredibly thick forest floor, covered in leaches and ticks, arms and legs covered in cuts and bruises, with hypothermia setting in and energy running dangerously low.

It took all of around 45 second, flying around a bend in the river when we spotted someone sitting on a rock, waving a shirt frantically, we had spotter Alan! The relief and I guess surprise we all felt at that moment was intense, we are so stoked to have located Alan exactly where we had thought he would be, heading down river.

I hovered as low as I possible, safely could, to alert Alan that we had in fact seen him, John was waving back at him to ensure he stays right there and to be sure that he knows that we've seen him. I found a 'landing spot' just above the steep ravine, it was the only place I could manage to get the aircraft in, bushes and trees up to the windows! We called in AMS who was on site within about an hour, with the GPS location pin we had shared with the AMS crew, they quickly located Alan and dropped down to hoist him to safety, and straight to the Knysna Provincial Hospital.

It was an emotional success for John, Marc and myself, a very blessed and humbling experience, working with incredible people, willing to give up their time and even their own safety for others. Super thrilled to have Alan back with his family soon ready for his next adventure (with GPS and Flare next time!)

 

 

[Shebeen]

40 minutes ago, Sprockets said:

** Posted from Duran De Villiers Facebook **

I put together a basic map of area and events with Alan Broderick's route and location for those who are interested.

I was alerted on Sunday about Alan being lost, I know the forest fairly well having grown up here and also an avid cyclists and motorcyclist, I fueled up the helicopter and with the GPS pin of Alan's last known location along with some math and what I thought a cyclist would do thinking they are on the Petrus se Brand route but in fact riding a different ridgeline more north, which would appear nearly identical in direction, look and feel, which is a big factor to why and how Alan got lost.

I flew for about an hour and a half around the area that I believed Alan to be at the time, until it was too dark and needed to head back. Turns out my math was correct and I was in the right location but could simply not see Alan, who had heard and seen the helicopter overhead, I had the bright sun setting in my eyes, flying solo and with a dark and incredibly thick forest canopy making it near impossible to spot anyone.

The plan was to get airborne again early Monday morning, with my good friend and fellow pilot John Grant Bozman who I would pick up at Plett airport along with Marc Rodgers both part of NSRI and search and rescue in and around Plett. Around midday the weather cleared enough for me to leave the office and head up to the hanger, a quick flight to Plett to collect John and Marc, and we all agreed that the best flight route would be flying up the Bitou river to try and locate Alan, who by this time had spent three days and two nights in the cold, wet, incredibly thick forest floor, covered in leaches and ticks, arms and legs covered in cuts and bruises, with hypothermia setting in and energy running dangerously low.

It took all of around 45 second, flying around a bend in the river when we spotted someone sitting on a rock, waving a shirt frantically, we had spotter Alan! The relief and I guess surprise we all felt at that moment was intense, we are so stoked to have located Alan exactly where we had thought he would be, heading down river.

I hovered as low as I possible, safely could, to alert Alan that we had in fact seen him, John was waving back at him to ensure he stays right there and to be sure that he knows that we've seen him. I found a 'landing spot' just above the steep ravine, it was the only place I could manage to get the aircraft in, bushes and trees up to the windows! We called in AMS who was on site within about an hour, with the GPS location pin we had shared with the AMS crew, they quickly located Alan and dropped down to hoist him to safety, and straight to the Knysna Provincial Hospital.

It was an emotional success for John, Marc and myself, a very blessed and humbling experience, working with incredible people, willing to give up their time and even their own safety for others. Super thrilled to have Alan back with his family soon ready for his next adventure (with GPS and Flare next time!)

 

 

Thanks, so all seems rather logical now from a search perspective, they really had a needle in a haystack. good luck finding the bike. maybe go get the GPS first and download the track data

 

here is the wrong turn he took.

https://www.google.com/maps/@-33.9614785,23.1591785,3a,90y,154.78h,96.33t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s_78HPN3vrQPlqiEl9lKe0w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!5m1!1e4

 

 

[tinmug]

Alan made one mistake: when the trail petered out he tried to find where it went instead of doing a 180.

Apart from that he remained calm and for the most part sounds like he was pretty much in control of the situation. Following the screens above it's crazy how tantalisingly close he was to farm land. 

An emergency blanket is not a bad thing to carry in your tool baggie: weighs nothing, takes up little space and has a huge range of uses, including high reflectivity. 

Following a river downstream was probably the best possible idea (especially once establishing no cell reception on the ridge lines – very tall tree cover in this area). If only he'd followed the trail back when it started running thin ... 

[SwissVan]

On 12/8/2022 at 2:03 PM, wolver said:

Crazy story! Very close to home and makes you realise how easily this can happen.

Worth a listen: https://www.bikeruntri.co.za/post/alan-broderick-s-tale-of-survival

Very true, thanks for the link!

As someone who rides mtb mostly alone often in forested areas it’s reiterated the need to have some sort of tracking available for my wife in the event something goes wrong on the ride.

Luckily the cell phone signal coverage here is very good, so it should be quite simple.

 

[mazambaan]

Very good interview with Alan and he did keep a cool head after committing a few thoughtless errors; pushing on off piste (easy to do - I know this). I don't know that area but do know that you can get lost very, very quickly. In Lesotho there are so many ridges, mountains and valleys that it is easy to lose track and there is always something in between what looks like an easy walk. The bushveld is obviously different, no high ground, meandering tracks and, to many of "us", featureless, no water and very hot. Without local guides I, and a few of us, would have been in deep trouble in N Namibia/Angola. A jaunt in the Namib dunes makes one keep the guide very firmly in sight all the time.

What to carry; not flares I think; they expire and not sure what rubbing and rattling in an mrb bag would do to them. I always have a space blanket (I have spent a few nights with one in Lesotho; it doesn't help as much as one would like ☺️ but better than nothing), one energy bar minimum, CD for a mirror, will check for a lighter (I usually have one) and a few other things (thermal top and light rain jacket if in Lesotho). There have been threads with good lists and the adventure racers rule but they are not mere mortals.  What you do have, guard with your life.

Great advice on the mapping apps etc for a phone and Garmin InReach is calling but expensive and I am not taking the risks I used to.

[Robbie Stewart]

My uncle lived on a smallholding in Rheenendal against the forest. His neighbour entered the forest one day as he'd done many times before and got lost. He stumbled out of that forest 8 days later.

Don't underestimate how fast you get lost in that forest.