It doesn't happen often, but it does sometimes happen. Because our trails in the jungle are unknown to everyone that is on it until it is determined by the people running it, it is perfectly acceptable for people to not know where they are going. It's kind of the entire point and that is what makes the runs so interesting.
The jungle opening up in front of you and you feeling your way though to a destination that you don't know exactly what it is has a real sense of adventure to it. There are indicators along the pathway that indicate that you are still going to correct direction but there are situations, which are rare but still happen, where a person wanders too far from the pack and next thing you know, you are alone in the quiet jungles of Thailand - which isn't actually a very good thing.
We put forth some sort of safeguards to prevent this but we aren't all hardcore about it and certainly don't enforce that anyone take any precautions at all actually. We, in the past 4 years or so, have only had 3 people that got lost and in all of those situations only one of them became a bit concerning to us.
In that one bad situation we had to get Thai search and rescue involved and it was kind of funny when they did come to help because it took them so long to mobilize their unit, that by the time got moving, the commotion of all the vesicles created enough of a spectacle that the lost person in question actually was able to make their way back to "camp" just as the search and rescue were finalizing their plan to go and find the guy. I suppose a good plan is important, but they took so long in the planning stages that their services were no longer needed just moments after they took off in their high-vis vests.
These days they probably use drones and that would have been much more effective especially if it is one of those fancy ones that can detect body heat on the ground.
So here is how you can manage to not get lost if you are on a trail with us and take warning! Because we are not going to brief people on this nor are we going to enforce any of this:
Unless you are intimately familiar with the area, which is highly unlikely, make sure you are always within sight of the other members of the group. We have had individuals get lost in the jungle, but we have never had the entire group get lost. There is power in numbers and if you are with the group there is going to be at least one person that has a GPS map program on their phone that can easily get you back to the start point. This is probably a good one to remember as it will get you out of 90% of these very rare sitations.
The 2nd thing you could do is even if you are going to buddy up with just one person, make sure that one of you has a phone. We provide the phone number or WA of one of the people that is managing a run to anyone that wants it at the start, and that person has spent the past week or two scouting the area and will likely be able to help you back should you get separated.
The most important thing though, is that if you simply lose sight of the group and need to re-establish connection with them just stand still and shout "How you?" or something that sounds like that. It is standard, globally, in the Hash House Harriers that when someone separated from the pack shouts this that someone who is already with the pack is meant to replay loudly with "On On!" and now the people towards the back of that pack are now charged with making sure that they retain connection with whoever is off trail.
I'm not saying that last one always gets honored but the key here is that if you find yourself alone in the jungle all of a sudden, one of the worst things you can do is to turn back in the direction where you last saw the group because they have moved on since then and you could actually be putting yourself further away from where they currently are.
This isn't that much of an issue in most of our runs because as you can tell from the above satellite photo, we are normally quite near to civilization. This is a city of over a million people after all and in most situations even though we try to ensure that we get as much nature as possible, we are likely still very close to a neighborhood.
I suppose the worst thing that someone could do would be to take off into the jungle without any contact information with anyone else that is there. We do our best to look after new people who don't know how the whole thing operates, but at the end of the day you are in charge of your own safety.
We will find you if you go missing though, but I would be lying if I said that we weren't going to hold this against you. There's normally 30 of us all departing at the same time so I think you have to be a special kind of stupid to manage to lose contact with that many people in a mere 5-7km.
On On!
we continue to do at least 3 runs per week here in Chaing Mai and all people, members or not, are welcome to come and join us