Diana
Totten grew up in Southern Humboldt County and is very familiar with the King
Range and the Lost Coast. She has been on many missing persons and search and
rescue cases in the past twenty years.
Below is my interview with Diana in which I ask her about her experiences with search and rescue, her thoughts about why people get lost (and how to not get lost), and why the wilderness experience is so important for young people and all of us.
How did you get involved with search and rescue
(SAR) and tracking?
I was the
oldest of 3 kids and I was always busy and always outside. To help relieve my
mom I was raised part of the summer with an Indian grandmother. This was a
perfect place to drop me off because there were a lot of woods for me to run
amok and my grandmother and I got along really well. One of the things Indian
grandmothers start to teach you when you start to show interest in Native ways is
tracking. I was 6 or 7 years old running around the woods all day without ever
having to check in - If I was able to be aware of the sights and sounds, what’s
on the ground and what’s around me - I’d never get lost. In doing this she
created awareness in me in which I’d start to see things that other people
usually don’t see very often – I’d start to see details.
When she
took it to the next level she’d have me start to track animals. She’d say to
me, “there’s 3 deer and I want you to track that small on.” I would spend the
day tracking it then come back and give her a report. She’d ask me specific
questions about the animal. By the middle of the summer I knew what it ate,
where it slept, if it was a boy or a girl and other nuances. This is how I
started tracking – being super aware of everything that is on the ground and
tracking animals. Eventually, I learned to track myself - meaning that I
followed my foot prints and studied them. My grandmother said that foot prints
will tell you everything you need to know about somebody. So I started looking
at foot prints differently. I could tell my father’s foot prints from the
others even if they were the same boots. The funny part is, when I started
studying foot prints – tracking people – I felt guilty or sneaky because I felt
like I was invading their privacy. But I learned so much about how somebody
moves because their footprints start to reveal, for example, their weight and
where they put their weight. Later in life I also took professional classes on
tracking to develop the skills I already had. I think some of the most awesome
things are that some of the skills that my grandmother taught me were identical
to what I learned in the classes.
I started
working locally with the Sherriff’s office and having success finding people –
especially in Southern Humboldt and the Lost Coast. Often times the Sherriff
will look for only 24 hours because they don’t have the manpower or the time to
look any longer so a family will hire me or I’ll volunteer. Each time I track I
learn more about people’s minds and how they do things and my capabilities
become a little bit more honed.
Do you talk with the family members to try to
figure out something about the missing person to help you in your search?
Yes. And a
lot of times – this is kind of strange – they tell you things that aren’t
really that accurate or that don’t have that much depth in who their family
member is. The biggest things I’ve learned is that when you’re looking for
someone that’s lost they’re not the same person [as they were before they
became lost]. When they become lost they’ve gone to their primitive
personality. The more you learn about what that primitive personality is the
easier it will be to find them because you’ll know where to look.
Psychologically, often times it’s a life and death struggle for them once they
realize they're lost. Most people don’t deal with life and death situations so
it’s a new feeling for them. You can assume that they are going to panic and
they are going to do things that are going to lead them to places that really
aren’t a good place to be.
What do you think some of the main reasons are
that people get lost?
One thing
is that they rely too much on their electronics. I think GPS and cell phones
are things that people may use instead of preparing mentally and
physically. A lot of times, The people that get lost – the people on the Lost
Coast that we’ve looked for – just weren’t prepared. I think sometimes people
aren’t prepared for the ruggedness. Doing 2 miles on some of these trails is
like doing twenty on another trail that’s more level.
One of the
things I’ve noticed is a lack of common sense sometimes which leads people to
getting lost. One of the other things I believe is that in the older days we
were raised in the woods or around rural areas; people went camping more and
were more used to being outside. Even many kids that are raised in Southern
Humboldt that come to the Lost Coast are baffled about how to be in the woods.
When I say “be in the woods” I mean there are several ways to be in the woods.
You can be part of it or you can be separate from it. My goal [when teaching
kids about being in the woods] is to be a part of it, to become a part of your
surroundings so they aren’t so foreign. This is when you also feel comfortable
with yourself I think.
We’ve also
looked for people that have lost themselves on purpose and the Lost Coast is a
place that they feel like they can go and hide from the world. It [the Lost
Coast] is not that forgiving when you’re not in your right mind. Those are the
bodies that we find.
Do you think there are more people getting lost
now than when you first got involved with SARs 20 years ago?
Yes, but
not always in the wilderness. In Humboldt Country there are almost 300 missing
people reported a year. Nationwide it’s about 2,000 people a day – according to
the FBI. Not all of them are lost in the woods, but they’re lost somehow –
runaways, for example. The highest rate of missing persons was in 2008 when the
economy crashed – that reverts back to the fact that some people go missing on
purpose because they’re overwhelmed with life.
To me I almost think that there is a
correlation with the disconnection with the natural world and the lack of
common sense that you’ve noticed and the ability to handle difficult
situations.
Exactly.
Again, we rely a lot on the electronic world and we’ve learned not to rely on
our own instinct. You can learn common sense in a city if you learn how to
practice it or where it’s at. Just because you’re in a city doesn’t mean you’re
not going to have an awareness of your surroundings.
What do you think some of the benefits of experiencing the wilderness are – for an individual or for
society?
We live in
a hostile world. Cities are hostile. We’re surrounded by television and news
media that’s telling us everything that’s wrong and there’s death and
destruction and global warming and everything is just bad and we’re inundated
with that. When I’ve worked with kids from cities the scariest thing they could
think of was being lost in the woods - So there may be no refuge for them other
than a cell phone or a computer game. My goal would be to show them that the
wilderness is a place of refuge – a
place to find that peacefulness that is inside yourself because it’s there but
you just don’t know how to access it sometimes; the wilderness gives you that
access. You take part of that with you when you go home – that refuge. You will know
that it isn’t such a chaotic and destructive world that we live in.
What would be your advice to someone that is planning their first backpacking trip to the lost coast – or anywhere?
My advice
is to go really slow and to take only what you need. Walk without just watching
your feet – not just watching your boot laces for 4 days. There is a different
way to hike.
Learn to
use your other senses - Not just your eyes. Learn to use your ears and your
smells. All the smells that the lost coast has to offer – coastal smells,
vegetation smells, mountain smells; it’s an amazing thing that you can take
home with you. It’s more that the pictures you take and the things that you
see.
Go slow and
don’t take too many miles – don’t try to do 30 miles in 2 days. Take a smaller
trip and soak in the environment.
Do you think there is an appropriate time or
place or balance for technology in the wilderness?
My answer
is no. I go the farthest away from man-made stuff in the wilderness and I think
that is where you can truly find that peaceful place. I don’t even really like
cameras in the wilderness because that only captures a little bit of a picture
that doesn’t really make any sense because there is no smell or sound or
anything else with it. If you rely on that then that is all you get. But if you
go with a little more openness - with all your senses - you’ll be able to take
something more home with you.
One of the
things I have done is to take a hike every month of the year on the Lost Coast.
So many people try to cram it into a certain period of time. I’ve been up there
in storms and it’s different – it gives you a different feeling. But it also
pushes your limit – to be comfortable when it’s storming and you find out a
little bit more of what you’re made of.
After
you’re in a wilderness for a while you can have a real good sense of which is
which and where is where. I think in our lives these days we limit ourselves so
much. Until you’re cold, you don’t know what it’s like to be warm. Until you
walk in the dark you don’t know how great it is to have light - That sort of
thing.
One of the things I think is important about the
wilderness experience is that the pace of civilization, of everything, is going
faster and faster and I think that all the technology around us is limiting
people’s ability to think – there’s just constant stimulation. What I find many
people are scared of is being by themselves. Very few people are truly ever
alone. Even if we’re by ourselves we have something to occupy our time - to
entertain us. Many people are scared to be alone with their own thoughts.
Yes, Yes.
And being alone is so awesome and yet
it’s something people hardly ever experience.
I think that if everyone had that experience –
especially at a young age – they’d be better people.
When you
look at the world as a hostile place it’s hard to find a place where you can
find that peace. And yet when you find it you’re able to take it with you
throughout life. That’s something that I think is the key ingredient.
Can you tell me the story about the person who
was lost in the snow?
His vehicle
became stuck in the snow so he started walking and had gotten lost. He started
walking downhill and was eventually in the rain, so he was wet. He came across
a little line-shack rancher’s cabin that had been half fallen down but there was
still a stove in there and some supplies. Yet they found him dead in the cabin.
He had tried lighting a fire with 3 wet pieces of wood from outside. He had a
whole box of matches that had been used. No kindling or understanding of how to
start a fire which would have saved his life.
Just the
understanding of how to build a fire is huge. What I’ve always done with my
kids is one match – everyone gets one match. So you have to have everything set
up just right. Even now we could go walk in the woods [it’s raining out during
this interview] and I’d show you dry wood, but it’s not easy to find. It’s
using the same eyes to see the world differently.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
When you’re
in the wilderness you have the ability to look at the world differently. Look
at the woods as a place of refuge – as a place of comfort – instead of as a
place of fear. Take that with you back to the city and use that feeling when
you get overwhelmed.
I remember
when we got our first wet suits when I was a teenager. We used to fish all day
then go and swim around the bell buoy at Shelter Cove in the afternoon or
evening. We weren’t afraid. Why would we be afraid? We didn’t have televisions.
And after I saw Jaws I couldn’t even go waist deep in the water. When I was a
commercial fisherman I used to hit great white sharks the size of this table
with my oars just to keep them away from the boat because I thought they
were going to scare the fish. But after I saw Jaws when I’d even see a fin in
the water I’d go move to another part of the ocean. I think of when we were teenagers and when we
used to go swim around the bell buoy and of all the sharks that watched us go
by. Now I can’t even wade out past my belly-button without thinking, ‘was that
seaweed or was that a shark?’
You see
this is what electronics do to you. Yet when I went to Universal Studios with
the kids I saw that the whole thing is fake – it’s just a machine. Yet, it
changed the way I go in the water. So can you imagine all these other images
that the kids are watching that are changing what they do.
Yeah, we
need to unplug.
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