Made a trip yesterday to Falling Water Crrek and to Longpool Falls. Longpool has little flow but the secondary falls below it looked nice. Fuzzybutt looked great and the little canyon it is in is magical. Flow in Falling Water Creek is not too bad and there should be several more days of photo ops for those who can make the trip. The flow does not show Six Finger in all its' glory but you can wade the creek and get to Fuzzybutt easily. A pretty boring day for me as ..I did not get lost, I did not forget or lose anything,the new S.P.O.T. device worked as advertised sending messages to loved ones showing my location on a Google map. My seventeen year old son came with me and declined to give Fuzzybutt the iconic pose that Ernst has established.
Just to make sure we keep this SPOT thing into perspective - calling the helicopter is not an option unless it is a life-threatening situation. Use button #2 to let folks know where you are and that you are OK, but watch out for button #4 - pushing it could cost you 20 grand or more! (a recent evac from the Glory Hole was $23 grand - and a friend of mine pushed this button once by mistake while playing with the unit at home and got a very irate phone call from the Air Force a couple of minutes later)
Hey Bob - I've had scores of photos sent to me over the years of the Fuzzybutt pose - the one from a hiking club with many fuzzybutts was not very attractive!
My biggest concern with that button is that it is at the same location as the on/off button if you have the unit upside down, which is easy to do - I've had my finger on #4 a few times when trying to turn the unit off - thankfully you have to hold it down for a few seconds to activate it. Duck tape would solve that issue.
I also have the original version of this type of rescue unit, but it is 911 only - it has two buttons that you must engage at the same time using two different hands - something that might not be possible if you have just fallen off of a cliff!
Let's hope that none of us ever have to push button #4...
By the way, just FYI, if you do ever press button #4, what happens is that the signal is beamed off of the satellites to get a location fix, then that info is routed to an Air Force command center at Scott AFB in O'Fallon, IL (I've been inside this room and it is kind of freaky!). Someone calls the emergency phone numbers that you have listed with your application - they do this to see if you are actually just sitting in your living room instead of at the bottom of a cliff (and you had BETTER be at the bottom of the cliff or will get yelled at). If it is determined to be an actual emergency then your location and other personal information is routed to the nearest county sheriff's office - they are responsible for all search and rescue - who then dispatches a chopper and/or ground crew to your location. That brings up another point - IF you ever do need this, DON'T change your location once you push the button! (although it will beam the signal up for 24 hours, but a new location would just confuse everyone)
Discussion
6 repliesGlad you didn't get lost
Hey Bob - I've had scores of photos sent to me over the years of the Fuzzybutt pose - the one from a hiking club with many fuzzybutts was not very attractive!
I also have the original version of this type of rescue unit, but it is 911 only - it has two buttons that you must engage at the same time using two different hands - something that might not be possible if you have just fallen off of a cliff!
Let's hope that none of us ever have to push button #4...
By the way, just FYI, if you do ever press button #4, what happens is that the signal is beamed off of the satellites to get a location fix, then that info is routed to an Air Force command center at Scott AFB in O'Fallon, IL (I've been inside this room and it is kind of freaky!). Someone calls the emergency phone numbers that you have listed with your application - they do this to see if you are actually just sitting in your living room instead of at the bottom of a cliff (and you had BETTER be at the bottom of the cliff or will get yelled at). If it is determined to be an actual emergency then your location and other personal information is routed to the nearest county sheriff's office - they are responsible for all search and rescue - who then dispatches a chopper and/or ground crew to your location. That brings up another point - IF you ever do need this, DON'T change your location once you push the button! (although it will beam the signal up for 24 hours, but a new location would just confuse everyone)