Wireless technology in wilderness has risks, rewards

It was a beautiful summer day when an assistant park manager in Minnesota rescued a hiker from getting lost — without ever leaving his office.

"I got a call from the sheriff, who said I had a lost hiker in the park," Gary Hoeft said. "I said, I do? Usually, I'm telling you that."

The hiker had dialed 911 from his cell phone two hours into a hike. He was connected to the Tettegouche State Park office, and Hoeft was able to locate him and talk him out of the woods. "Within 15 minutes, he was in our park office," Hoeft said. "It was the easiest rescue I never went out on."

The experience led Hoeft to believe that every hiker should take a cell phone into the wilderness. But he and other wilderness experts also say that phones and technology such as personal locator beacons can cause problems.

There's the nuisance factor: Calls that come in from folks who aren't really lost, and the potential for chatter on otherwise quiet trails. And there's a serious risk in the false sense of security that technology can give.

"Having a cell phone doesn't cover not being prepared," Hoeft said.

As technology expands into wilderness areas, including state and national parks, it has made the promise of a rescue seem so simple that some hikers fail to prepare properly, and they take more risks.

Visitors to Grand Canyon National Park can listen to two-minute narrations from park rangers via cell phone. But that's also where a group attempting a difficult hike last fall summoned helicopters with a personal locator beacon — because the drinking water was too salty. Without the beacon, one of the hikers said, they would not have attempted the hike.

"Some days it saves lives, and some days it makes headlines like this," said Jeffrey Olson, spokesman for the National Park Service. "They can be useful, but when you get into wilderness situations in national parks, there's no guarantee of cell phone service. People should be really careful about relying on it for emergency locators."

There's no national policy on cell phone usage in national parks.

In remote Yellowstone National Park, the debate has become heated because service is dependent on cell towers within park limits. A tower near Old Faithful will be relocated to preserve the natural view, but Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash says visitor expectations have changed.