Family safety plan

Much as I hate to say this, the ONLY plan for "you are missing" is to dispatch SAR. 

There are three major inReach features which you should use: tracking, messaging, and SOS. Tracking gives the folks at home an idea of your location. (Also gives SAR a starting place if you are unable to send an SOS.) Messaging allows you to update others on your status. SOS allows you to summon emergency assistance.

Loss of tracking data or missing an expected status message is a reason for the folks at home to contact emergency services on your behalf. Anything less than that is literally risking your life. Yes, there are a lot of innocent reasons for failures - oops, I forgot; my battery died; and on and on. But you might also be disabled and unable to communicate. Caution dictates that the folks at home assume the worst.

I would add that your family should learn to use the inReach “Locate” function on MapShare. Then, if they do need to contact the local Search and Rescue (SAR) organization, a ‘last known position’ could be provided. The Garmin IERCC can (and should) do the same thing, but there will be a delay as they must first obtain authorization from the SAR unit involved.

Locate can take a very long time to register your location on the map. And if the device is off, or has a poor sky view, it will literally never complete. This is why you should be tracking whenever you are in the back country. The most recent track point is the best you have as a SAR starting point.

Sorry to learn about the time lag involving use of “Locate”, still hope it might (eventually) prove useful for SAR purposes. And emphatically yes, notification of ‘overdue/missing’ status to first responders should never be delayed.