Then be perfectly honest and admit you have no clue. Putting a flare out is as simple as stubbing it out just like a big cigarette in bare dirt. (Gee, seems like I already pointed that out before.)

Map, compass, sextant, and clock set to GMT, along with proper sight reduction charts and an almanac. You want to carry all that instead of a GPS, go ahead.

When I've gone to extinguish road flares, they seem pernicious, like a smoldering cigarrette. just what an injured person wants in the woods. oh, but you'll need 3 of them to make the universal distress array.

you might play with safety flares, KD5NRH, but there's no call to have safety flares in pannier on a bike trip to start a signal fire.

either learn how to set signal fires and other methods to signal for aid, or play with flares at home, but don't play with safety flares in the woods.

you are setting up a disaster waiting to happen.


lets try to keep the forum appraised of actual tips and tricks versus the "redundant GPS" version of forest service road touring, eh?

Actually you need two clocks. One set to GMT and one set to local if you want to establish your longitude. But GMT wasn't even established in Great Britain until 1880. And using time to establish longitude wasn't developed until Harrison built his marine clocks around 1741. And, even then, it took until 1800 for those to be in general use.

And compasses weren't invented until 250 BC by the Chinese and about 150 years later by the Europeans. People had been sailing for several centuries before that. The Polynesians and other Pacific peoples had been sailing for centuries before that without aid of compass, charts, sextant or written language. And, unlike Columbus, they were aiming for tiny little fly specks in the middle of a vast ocean, not a huge land mass.

And, lets not forget, that hominids have been wandering all over this planet for thousands of years before that. No compass, no writing, no charts and, probably, only a rudimentary language.

And let's go back even further and even further down the evolutionary ladder. Whales (okay not down the ladder) and other cetaceans navigate vast distances without technology. Birds navigate vast distances without technology. Going back further, there is even evidence that dinosaurs migrated vast distances. And let's not forget monarch butterflies. They navigate thousands of miles and even generations with only a rudimentary brain.

I've tromped the wilds of Colorado for decades and I've never carried a compass. I seldom carry anything other than the map in my head. I don't need a sextant or almanacs or mathematical tables. Nor do I need a GPS (much less 2) to navigate. I rely on my knowledge of drainage basins, peaks, landmarks and where the sun is to get around. I've only ever been 'lost' once and, even then, by keeping a calm head and a keen eye, I was able to back track to my original route and get out of the forest.

Bears are mythical creatures! I put them in the same category as snipes. I've been moving around the forest for far longer than I want to admit and I've never seen one. I think the ones at zoos are built by Disney.

Everywhere I go, people around me say "Did you see the bear?!". I think it's just a huge camp prank I even had a whole trainload of people asking me excitedly about seeing the bear. I was taking pictures and there was no bear



Lots of bear poop...probably just a big dog... but no bear. Not a one! They don't exist. I'm not falling for the snipe hunt thing...again

x2! I've used both the large hand-held flares, and those shot from guns. The hand-held flares can be used in a controlled environment, but if you're traumatized by being lost/injured during the summertime dry woods environment they are a very high risk situation.

re bears--I see it just like risk in motorsport (or as I said riding a bike in a city) nearly all times you can have incidents and nothing happens, but like crashes in motorsport, once in a while stuff just goes weird and bad stuff happens. Yesterday and today I was watching the 24 hours of Lemans race, and an early crash had photogs being lucky as fricken hell with a crash that nearly took a bunch of them out--it so could have been very tragic.
You can run into bears many times and no issue, then a situation could happen where you surprise a bear with a kill, or with cubs, or its in a pissy mood, or its in a "human stalking" mood--you know what I mean, 9 times out of 10 its ok, its that 1 time where things can get dicey.

touch wood

flares--I always remember being at a friends in Vancouver, he was going through old hiking stuff and there was a flare gun and a "shell" that was super old, he decided to get some new flares anyway, so was curious to see if it was still fireable (it might have over 10 yrs old, I dont recall, just that it was old) He leveled the gun at his back fence maybe 30 ft from us, fired, it shot out, hit the fence, bounced back at us and into the neighbors garden where it immediately set a fire. After jumping out of its way on the return trip, we put it out, dont remember with what, but was impressed how hot it must have been. It wasnt that easy to put out if I recall too.

given that, Id sure as heck be careful with them in a forest setting, as with a signal fire, but smokey fires are easy to handle as there generally isnt that much open flame and the goal would be to make lots of smoke anyway in the day wouldnt it?

Carrying flares on bike tour? Hmmm it seems to me that most of the trees along the forest service roads are taller than the altitude most flares would reach. If you make it to a clearing, if the weather was ok, then you should be able to reorient yourself. If the weather is typically, well, Washington State, then a flare won't be seen in any case. I'd suggest leaving the flares at home, use the space saved by carrying a bit of food.

This has been a good thread. I am living vicariously as I am too busy with work and family for travel for long tours. I can get a three day at most. Thanks. Blues Frog

KD5NRH isn't talking about short lived aerial flares but about fusees. Like you see around automobile accidents. Aerial flares would be incredibly useless and stupid. Fusees are merely unnecessary and useless.

Actually most of my trips will likely be over a weekend, maybe a long weekend if I can get it, three days. Just enough to get out in the woods, get away from the city, and recharge for the next work week.

Thanks for all of the information and help thus far. I will look into the suggestions and maybe start to plan a trip when I am sure that the roads I will be traveling will be clear of snow.

Nice older thread
Time to bump it up again and see what tips/suggestions are added