What would you have done?

"Can you tell me where the trail to Virginia Pass is?" he asked, a little desperately."

Hard to mind your own business when a man with small kids asks this question…

Answer, "Sorry, I don't know where the trail is."

Reply, "We are lost and need help!" Would then indicate they need help.

Or, "Are lost and unable to navigate? Do you need me to help you ?"

One unusually warm winter evening in the Blue Ridge mountains we were camping at a lean-to. After dark from across a small valley we saw a light and heard a voice. My wife went to investigate and came across an older woman on a day hike who had stumbled and lost her glasses…without them she was unable to follow the trail (lesson: bring spare glasses!). For some reason she carried a sleeping bag so we just set her up amongst us and our kids in the lean-to, fed her and walked her down the trail the next morning to where she couldn't miss the trail any more. She had to be convinced not to continue in the dark…she thought once we put her back on the trail she'd be ok, but we would have nothing of that.

Her husband was supposed to pick her up at the end of the trail, I wonder what he was thinking when she didn't show that evening? I was fully expecting to see a search-and-rescue team come through that night…