Handheld GPS Units

Two handheld gps units were given to the seven scouts before beginning one of the final directives leading to earning the rank of Eagle. The scouts were taken twenty miles into the interior of a large Washington state forest and asked to find their way to a ranger outlook within twenty four hours. They had been trained in the use of the global positioning satellite devices and the equipment was packed in one of the seven backpacks to be passed out once the scouts were left alone. In all of the excitement of one of their final missions, the gps units which were rather small and did not weigh over a pound for the two of them, were left in the bottom of that backpack covered up with rations for the seven during the next twenty four hours. In the first eight hours of the trip, they were required to navigate by compass alone, and then for three hours by stars. Each of these young people was very intelligent and very savvy in their knowledge of the outdoors, but no person could foresee the fall one of them would take soon after dark. There was a small ridgeline hiding a fifty foot chasm which the scout carrying the gps units did not see.

The fall happened after dark and was quick and actually silent. The young man was unconscious but breathing, but none of the others knew the young man's condition. The others called for him repeatedly, but the brush was very heavy and even strong willed flashlights could not reveal the young man's location. The requirement for this part of the Eagle badge had been planned well by adult leaders who knew the terrain. For most of the trip, unbeknownst to the hikers, the group was always within two miles of a major road. But the road could have been a million miles away and the now critically needed gps units could have been simply discount handheld gps units that only had a few capabilities, such as the ability to reverse the track log and enable the holder to end up back exactly at the starting point.

But the tracking devices the scouts were given were world class global positioning satellite units. These units, costing over five hundred dollars each, had capabilities far more sophisticated than the discount handheld gps devices that can be purchased for less than one hundred dollars. Capabilities such as a constant 3D picture of the surrounding terrain, and topographical downloads of the entire United States. The options are too many and many very technical in nature, but those were the gps units that were in the young man's backpack one hundred feet straight down in high brush and the dark of night. Wisely, the remaining scouts knew that they had to remain where they were until morning. Attempts to try and find a way down in the black of night to the injured scout would have been foolhardy. So, a fire was built, three scouts of faith got together and prayed for their comrade and then a vigil began for the morning light. "But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:12)

Even the so called discount handheld gps units are designed to communicate with 24 medium earth orbiting satellites that send out microwave signals all over the world. After the downing of the Korean Air jet, President Reagan asked that the gps technology be given to the world of the assistance of humanity, and so the military gps satellites were made available from the Defense Department to civilian use. The cost of maintaining these orbiting bodies is about a billion dollars each year, but these satellites now provide precise guidance for the military, construction projects, mapping, surveying, for athletic events, and even assist golfers in knowing how far their ball is from the hole... They do not find lost golf balls!

Discount handheld gps units are perfect for casual hikers who fear becoming lost. Most enable the carrier to retrace a person's steps to go back to the beginning of their hike. One of the scouts could have taken any of the hundred dollar discount handheld gps units that are sold online or in retail stores and found his way back to the starting point to get help. But the seven units lay in a backpack at the bottom of a ravine strapped to a scout who was very much alive, and slowly coming out of a very dazed condition, just as the very early stages of dawn as beginning to appear. The young man had been spared his life by landing on very heavy brush, cushioning his fall. A nine foot final drop to the ground had knocked him out and brought on a concussion. But the most amazing part of the story was just about to occur.

Out of the horizon appeared a state police helicopter that hovered right over the young men. Within an hour, the scouts were out of the woods, and the fallen young man on the way to a local hospital. This very happy ending was all due to a worry wart mother who wanted to feel at peace about her son entering the woods. Against the rules, she had secretly slipped a discount gps unit in the bottom of her son's backpack after he had gone to bed the night before the long hike. This particular unit was built to be more of a beacon unit to emit a constant signal to the gps system for location purposes. When the scouts had not checked in at the midway checkpoint, by three am, the call went out to find them via the tracking unit.

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