Three of anything tells searchers you need help

Quick answer: Three of anything (whistle blasts, flashes, fires) is the recognized distress signal. Two in reply means somebody heard you. Signal in bursts when searchers are likely close, not nonstop until you're hoarse and exhausted.

The best signal gets sent before you leave

Tell one person where you're going, which trailhead you'll use and what time they should worry. Write it down for them. That single act does more than any mirror in your pack, because it starts the search at the right place and the right hour.

Everything below is for the case where that wasn't enough. If you're lost or hurt, the first hour matters, and we cover it in what to do in the first hour you're lost in the woods. Short version: stop, stay put, and make yourself easy to find. Moving around turns a small search area into a big one.

Why three

Searchers hear whistles, shouts and gunshots all day in the backcountry. Hunters, hikers, kids and a guy dropping a tailgate all make noise. One blast means nothing. Three evenly spaced blasts, a pause, then three more is a pattern a person doesn't make by accident. The same goes for three flashes of light or three small fires.

The reply is two. If you hear two whistle blasts or two shots back, answer with three again and stay where you are. Let them walk to you.

The whistle: your cheapest insurance

A whistle carries farther than your voice and costs almost nothing to use. Your voice gives out in twenty minutes of yelling. A whistle doesn't.

Buy a pealess whistle, the kind with no little ball inside. Fox 40 makes a common one. Expect to pay under ten dollars. A pea can freeze or jam in cold and wet. A pealess whistle just works.

Clip it to the shoulder strap of your pack or your jacket zipper. Not inside the pack. If you've fallen and the pack is ten feet away, the whistle is useless. Buy a few and put one on every coat and every kid's backpack.

What goes wrong: people save the whistle for when they're desperate, then blow it nonstop for an hour. Use it in sets of three when it's quiet and you've got reason to think someone is within a mile or two. Listen between sets. Wind and running water swallow sound, so go again when it dies down.

The mirror: the long-range option

A signal mirror throws a flash that can be seen from much farther away than smoke or a voice, and it needs no fuel. It's the best daytime tool for aircraft and for ridges across a valley. A purpose-built one runs about ten to fifteen dollars and weighs next to nothing. A phone screen, a CD, a car mirror or the bottom of a polished metal can will do a weak version of the job.

Aiming is the whole trick, and the reason you should try it once in your backyard:

1. Hold the mirror close to your eye. Reflect the sun onto your other hand, held out at arm's length.
2. Make a V with two fingers and line the target (an aircraft, a vehicle, a distant ridge) up in the V.
3. Tilt the mirror so the bright spot lands on your fingers. If you can see the spot between them, it's pointed at the target too.
4. Give short flashes in sets of three. Sweep slowly across the horizon even when you see nothing. A flash can be seen by someone you can't.

Honest limits: you need sun. You need a clear line of sight. And a pilot passing at speed may catch only a second of your flash, so aim carefully and don't flood a cockpit with a steady beam. Short, deliberate flashes do the job.

Smoke and fire: the big, slow signal

Smoke says "somebody's here" over a wide area. A fire gives you a night signal and a reason to stay warm and calm. But it's also the one signal that can hurt you, so the rules come before the technique.

• Check for fire restrictions before any trip. In a burn ban or high fire danger, a signal fire is a last resort and not a convenience.
• Clear a ring down to bare dirt, at least ten feet across. Have water or soil within reach.
• Never leave it unattended and put it fully out when rescue arrives.

Prepare the fire first and light it only when you hear an engine, see a plane or a helicopter, or know searchers are near. Build a ready pile of tinder and kindling and keep it dry under a tarp or a flat of bark. That way you spend thirty seconds lighting it and not twenty minutes scrambling while the aircraft passes.

Smoke needs contrast. Against dark forest, you want white smoke, which comes from green boughs, damp leaves and moss on a hot fire. Against snow or pale ground, you want darker smoke. Don't burn tires, plastic or oil to get it. The fumes are toxic, and in a vehicle or near brush you can start a bigger problem than the one you've got.

Three fires, spaced apart in a triangle or a line, is the classic distress marker. If you're alone and short on fuel, one well-fed fire still beats nothing.

Make the ground say it too

Aircraft see shapes and color against the background long before they see a person. Lay out a big X or a straight-line pattern in an open spot: tramped snow, rocks, logs, gear. Keep the lines wide and straight, and make it as large as you can manage, because nature has few straight lines and the eye catches them. A bright orange or red tarp spread flat is worth about twenty dollars and doubles as shelter. Pack it in a color that stands out and not in olive green.

Shots, if you carry

Three spaced shots are a recognized distress signal, and a lawful gun owner may think of it first. Treat it as a backup. In hunting season, other shots are normal and yours may be ignored. A whistle cuts through that confusion. If you do use it, you're still bound by every one of the four rules: treat every gun as loaded, keep your muzzle in a safe direction, keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to shoot, and know your target and what's beyond it. Shoot into a safe backstop or an open sky with nothing downrange, and know where bullets come down.

Carrying lawfully is a right and a responsibility. The responsibility part includes locked storage at home away from children, and real instruction. If you haven't had a hands-on class from a qualified instructor, your first firearms class isn't a test you can fail. Laws on carrying, discharging a firearm and what counts as legal on public land vary by state, province and city. Nothing here is legal advice. Check local law and a qualified attorney or instructor.

The electronics, and when to learn from a pro

A personal locator beacon or a satellite messenger is the strongest tool on this list. A PLB runs roughly three hundred dollars with no subscription. Satellite messengers cost about the same up front, plus a monthly plan. Either sends your position to rescuers when you've got no cell service. Register the device, learn its buttons at home, and carry it where you can reach it with one hand. A phone can help, but save the battery: airplane mode, low brightness, and texts over calls, since a text can get through on a weak signal.

None of this replaces hands-on learning. A wilderness first aid course and a navigation class from a qualified instructor teach what a article can't, like how a mirror feels in your hand and how a fire behaves in the wet. Take them before you need them.

Put the whistle on your pack tonight. That's the step that costs you nothing and might one day bring somebody walking toward you.