Badly turned around 4 times.
1. Squirrel hunting in Southern In when in my teens.
2. In a huge cornfield in N. IN
3. Elk hunting near Kremmling, CO
4. Elk hunting north of Fort Collins, CO
I found my own way in each of the situations. Neither time was I turned around for more than 60 minutes but it was a bad feeling knowing I was going to be terribly inconvenienced until I found my way.
Ironically, I spent 3 months in Colorado as a forester after college using aerial photos and compass every day in very remote areas conducting timber inventories. During August, 1977 I never saw a person for 3 weeks. I never one time got turned around (lost) during those months because I always knew where I was on those maps.
Both the times in Colorado I got in a hurry and left my compass in one spot and took off on a "quick" trip to another. One of them I had just returned to the woods from emergency surgery for kidney stone removal and was packing an elk hind quarter. It was only 300 yards to the truck and I tried a short-cut -- missed the truck by less than 50 yards but it took me 60 minutes to find it the long way.
The time in Kremmling I saw elk about 3/4 mile away from our camp which was on the continental divide (nearly 11,000 feet). I figured I could get down to them and back to camp in just a bit. To move quick I discarded my pack (compass, map, fire starter, whistle, space blanket, and emergency food inside). Turned out I followed those elk all day long and towards evening all the "up courses" looked the same. As I came to the top of the last gulley I had the strength to climb I was about to simply lay in the rocks (it was going to be very cold -- it started to snow) and then I heard my campmates less than 100 yards away!
The cornfield was strange. It was big and late in the season so I couldn't see over it. Of course I could follow the rows and get out but it bummed me out because I came out on a road more than 1/2 mile from the truck.
The squirrel hunt was classic. I passed a set of deer tracks in an anthill. On my way out I passed the same anthill track two more times--that's when I knew that I was circling.
The feeling is always the same for me: 1st embarrassement that folks waiting on me may have to wonder where I am. 2nd a tinge of "panic" that I'm no longer in complete control of the day. 3. Logical thinking which direction will take me to landmarks, road, or location where I can see.