If someone named you

Someone trusts you enough to put your name on this.

Here’s exactly what that means, in full, so you can decide. It is less than you’re probably imagining.

What you’ll get

One message when they head out. Then nothing — unless they don’t check in, in which case you get their plan, their vehicle and plate, a photo of what they were wearing, their route, and the phone number of the agency that covers where they went. Only four kinds of message exist: the one asking you to say yes, the start notice, the overdue notice, and the all-clear when they’re back. Nothing else is ever sent.

What we’ll never ask you to do

Download anything. Make an account. Reply to confirm every trip. Watch a map. Be awake at a particular time. If you miss a message, we tell someone else — you are not a single point of failure, and you were never meant to be.

What we’d like you to do, if it happens

Try calling them. That’s genuinely most of it — people come back into signal on the drive out. If you can’t reach them, the page we send you tells you when to call the sheriff and why. Nobody will fault you for a call that turns out to be nothing.

How to stop

Reply STOP to any message, or text MANAGE to change how often you hear from us — both work from the number the messages come from, no login. We’ll tell them you’ve opted out, so they know to name someone else — we won’t quietly let them think they’re covered.

A start notice, in full
John set out at 8:04am for Glacier Gorge, back by 4:00pm. You’ll only hear from us again if he doesn’t check in.

His plan, and a way to tell him you’ve seen this: porchlighted.com/r/k4m2p

That’s the whole message. No app, no login, no reply needed.

Roughly how often
Someone who hikes most weekends will send you around forty start notices a year and, statistically, close to zero overdue notices. They all arrive on the one channel you were added on — text or email, whichever they gave, never both. If forty is too many, switch yourself to overdue only and you’ll hear nothing at all unless something is actually wrong.
Be clear about what we are not

Porchlight is not a rescue service. We don’t contact search and rescue — we tell you, and you decide what to do. In an emergency, call 911.