Doug Goodman

Count me as one of the parents who wants their children to have a cellphone on them, even at school.  We have strict guidelines on cellphone usage when it comes to school, though.  The phone is to be turned off while in school.  The last thing we want is for a phone to go off in the middle of the classroom, but it can come in very handy outside of school hours.

Case in point, yesterday I got a call from my daughter.  She had missed the bus and wanted to walk home with her friends (who had also missed the bus) 4 miles down a busy road.  This is the sort of thing that I would have done when I was her age and phones were not so easily accessible.  Instead, she called me and I got to say "Heck, no.  Stay where you are and I will come get you."  Ten/fifteen minutes later, I pulled up in the parking lot.  Crisis averted.

However, and this is the sticky point for me when it comes to cellphones, camping, and search work:  she had three other friends with her.  All of them had their cellphones, but none of them had called home because the phones were all dead.  My daughter had the only working phone, and even it was on its last bar.  Murphy's Law strikes again.

When it comes to camping, you should have your cellphone with you.  That does not mean you don't have to be alert of your surroundings, know where you are, or have a backup plan.  The time to pay attention and figure out the backup plan is not while in "panic" mode.  Case in point, none of the girls thought to call home from the school's phone.  They were happy to be out, a little scared and nervous, and it just didn't occur to them to walk back to the building and ask to use the phone to call their parents.  The same thing happens when out in the woods.  It is easy to play armchair quarterback to a situation once the outdoor crisis is over, but when you are in the middle of it, issues get clouded, solutions become less obvious.  Sometimes you forgot to charge the battery, or you left it on all night.  Or a cellphone tower is out of range.  Or the phone breaks.  What happens then?

That is why I recommend at least having a whistle.  With a whistle, you can be heard from much farther out than you yelling.  You will also not tire out as easily, and you will not lose your voice.  It would suck to shout for help til you are hoarse, and then when the help finally arrives, you not have the ability to call out "over here!" 

I applaud my daughter, who knew to call home before moving forward with the "newly revised backup plan."  That has always been our direction:  call us on your cell before you commit to something, and especially in the case of missing the bus, we can come get you.  Just keep it turned off during classroom hours, okay?