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An excerpt from The Book Of Woodcraft, by Ernest Thompson Seton, page 162-163.
The ability to travel somewhere in the wilderness, to get “there”,
wherever there is, and to come back again, is a vital skill. But just what does pathfinding, the ability
to find your way, mean?
The
National Wildlife Foundation, in 1977, published a list of eleven “General
Pathfinding Rules”, in Wildlife Country: How To Enjoy It. These rules can certainly help you find your way, but there is a lot to this list of eleven rules that was left
out, so let’s talk about them.
Round and
Round...Walking in Circles
Rule number one points out that human beings tend to walk in circles,
unless they are using a compass or practicing “beelining, which is when you
keep two easily identifiable landmarks, that both lie on the line you wish to
travel, constantly aligned. Researchers
believe that the reason that humans tend to walk in circles is not because of a
“biomechanical asymmetry [one leg being longer than the other—Author’s
Note] or functional dominance (eye, hand...)”1, but because
of vestibular imbalances of the inner ear.
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An excerpt from page 313 of the Professional Guide’s Manual, by George Leonard Herter.
You should always trust
your compass; humans are not
homing pigeons and do not have built-in sense of direction. In fact, many times when people are “misplaced”2
in the wilderness, they let their fears take over and they will begin to
disbelieve their compass and will instead insist that their compass must be
broken, because they believe they have a built-in sense of direction and know
better. This refusal to believe your compass
is simply a loss of spatial orientation, a bending of the map, as the person
frantically tries to fit their panicked, preconceived notions and mental model
of the world onto the landscape around them.
General
Compass Skills
Rules two and three are about general compass skills and it is obvious
that you must practice any skill to become good at it and to stay good
at it. Unfortunately, many people wander
into the wilderness with a compass and a map, that they don’t know how to use
or read. So, practice, practice,
practice with your compass and map every chance you get!
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An excerpt from Better Ways Of Pathfinding, by Robert S. Owendoff, page 34.
Have you ever stopped to wonder how a compass always points to
magnetic north? It is because the needle,
which is a small magnet, is free to swing in a horizontal circle around a central
pivot pin. When the needle is influenced
by a stronger magnet, it will turn in the direction of the lines of force of that
larger and stronger magnet. Since the
Earth itself acts as a large magnet, the needle in your compass will align
itself with the Earth’s magnetic lines of force and this is what causes the
compass’s needle to point north and south.
In just the same way, the needle in your compass will be attracted to
nearby concentrations of magnetic metals, such as steel or iron, or to electrical
sources, which create a magnetic field. That
is why, when you are reading your compass, you must stay away from cars or
trucks, about 60 feet, or 18 meters away; high tension lines, about 180 feet,
or 55 meters away; and rifles, shotguns, or axes, about two feet, or ½ meter
away3.
Landmarks...Looking
Back?!
Rules four, five and seven talk about the importance of paying
attention to distinctive trees, rocks, and other terrain features that are along
the path as travel through the wilderness.
You should always pay close attention to these landmarks as you pass by
them, on your way to “there”, wherever there is, because these landmarks
will be important clues to look for, on your way back. Memorize where distinctive landmarks are,
relative to where your starting point or camp is, so that you can find your way
back again.
Another thing that you should always do is to look back along the
trail as you travel, so that you will know what your return path will look
like. As you can see in the pictures
below, it always looks different.
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The same 30 feet, or 9 meters of trail. Notice how different the trail looks, looking forward (the picture on the left was taken from “a” while looking towards “b”), compared to when you are looking backwards (the picture on the right was taken at “b” while looking towards “a”). Graphics and photographs by the Author.
Rule number five also mentions “With your pocketknife, put a mark
on your compass baseplate 180 degrees around from the
index line to help you determine your return bearing
if you are walking out a compass bearing”. This is a clever idea, just scratch a mark on
the baseplate of your orienteering style compass, with your pocketknife, to
extend your index line/line of travel 180 degrees around from the index line
and you will be able to quickly determine the return bearing without using any
math.
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Marking a return bearing line on your orienteering style compass. Graphic and photograph by the Author.
Maps
and Bending the Map...
You should always have a map anytime that you travel in the
wilderness, and rules number six, eight and nine talk about maps.
Rule number six speaks to the importance of making sure that your map
agrees to the terrain that you see around you.
As soon as it doesn’t, S.T.O.P. and reorient yourself. Once you know exactly where you are and the
map now agrees with the terrain, you can either return to where you left your
path or continue on your way if you were only momentarily bewildered. For more on this read “The O in S. T. O. P. ©”,
HERE.
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The Boy Scouts of America S.T.O.P. card, photograph by the Author.
Rule number eight talks about what to do if for some reason you’re
hiking out without a map. And that is to
make your own map as you go! In a notebook
write down the compass directions and distances (if you don’t know the length
of your pace, assume that a left foot to left foot pace equals 5 feet or, 1.5
meters) that you travel and any landmarks you pass by, this way if you get “misplaced”
you will be able to find your way back to your starting point.
 |
It is always good to carry a pad of paper, you never know when you need to write something down or start a fire! Photograph by the Author.
Rule number nine talks about local trail guides, and how they can help
you by giving you more information than will be found in a USGS topographic
map. If they are available, study them,
before you head out! Also, satellite
pictures (thank you Google Maps) can be very helpful, for more on this read “Being
Bewildered and Bending the Map©”, HERE.
“…two
compasses -- not one…”!
Rule number ten talked of the importance of carrying two compasses,
not one. There are two good reasons for always
having a spare compass, the first is in case you lose or break one compass and
the second is best explained by Emerson Hough who wrote Out Of Doors in 1915,
for more by Mr. Hough read “Getting Lost And What To Do About It”, Circa 1915 ©”,
HERE.
Mr. Hough when writing about what to do if you were “misplaced”
noted that, “If you have two compasses look at both of them”. The author explained this point with the
following short story: “… ‘One compass is of no use’, said one
gentleman. ‘For that reason I always
carry two.’…He went on to explain: ‘I know of this being tried,’ said he. ‘When a man has the panic of being lost fully
upon him he never believes his compass; but when he takes out his second
compass and sees it is pointing just the way his first one does, somehow his
reason gets a sudden jolt and he concludes that the majority must be
right. That starts him to reasoning
again, and then he is usually safe’…”
The psychology behind the author’s two compass wrinkle, or tip to use
the more modern term, is that when a misplaced person is bending the map to fit
his preconceived notion of where he thinks he is, he may believe that one of his
compasses is broken, but not that both are broken!
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The Author’s survival kit with his spare compass, photograph by the Author.
Your
directions can be found in the sky!
The last rule, number eleven, talks about being able to find your cardinal
direction points by using clues in the world around you. The best clues to use are either the stars at
night or the Sun during the day.
Remember, because of the Earth’s rotation, the
sun and the stars all rise in the east and set towards the west, in a clockwise
fashion. However,
the Sun only rises exactly in the east and sets exactly in the west on two days
during the year, the spring and fall equinoxes. On all other days, the Sun rises somewhere
between north-east and south-east and sets somewhere between north-west and
south-west. For more on using the Sun to
find your cardinal directions read “How to Find Your Way Without A Compass,
Part One, Orientation By The Sun©”, HERE,
and “How To Find Your Way Without A Compass, Part Three, The Shadow-tip Method©”,
HERE.
At night, in the northern hemisphere you can find your cardinal
directions by finding the North Star or, as it sometimes called Polaris. In the southern hemisphere you can find north
and south by finding the Southern Cross.
 |
To find the North Star, first find the Big Dipper, which is also called the Great Bear, count five times the distance between the pointer stars, on the side of the dipper and then you will find the North Star, adapted by the Author from The Air Ministry Survival Guide, pages 111-113.
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Finding the Southern Cross, an excerpt from The Air Ministry Survival Guide, page 111-113.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “There
and Back Again...What in the Blazes©”, where since it is fall, and hiking
and hunting season, we will talk about trail marking and blazes! Also continue to come back, because this is
the first
of a series of articles where we
will be discussing some of the points raised in this article in greater depth.
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Trail marks, photograph by the Author.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 “Is ‘Circling’ Behavior in Humans Related to Postural
Asymmetry”, by Emma Bestaven, Etienne Guillaud and Jean-René
Cazalets
2
For more on the difference between being “misplaced” and being “lost” read “You
Are Never Lost, Only Misplaced…©”, HERE.
3 FM
3-25.26 Map Reading and Land Navigation, Department of the Army, page 9-2.
Sources
Air
Ministry, The Air Ministry Survival Guide, [Michael Joseph, Penguin
Random House, UK, 2018], pages 111-113
Bestaven, Emma; Guillaud, Etienne; Cazalets,
Jean-René; “Is ‘Circling’ Behavior in Humans Related to Postural Asymmetry”,
September 2012, Volume 7, Issue 9, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0043861, accessed on September 15, 2021
Department
of the Army, FM 3-25.26 Map Reading and Land Navigation, [Department of
the Army, Headquarters, Washington, DC, July 20, 2021], page 9-2, https://books.google.com/books?id=rpotRDNjO60C&pg=PR1&dq=map+reading+and+land+navigation+fm+3-25.26&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCubGa-_7yAhXGITQIHeL0Ai8Q6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=map%20reading%20and%20land%20navigation%20fm%203-25.26&f=false,
accessed September 14, 2021
Herter,
George Leonard; Professional Guide’s Manual,
[Herter’s Inc., Waseca, Minnesota, 1971], pages 312-313
Emerson
Hough, Out Of Doors, (D. Appleton and Company, New York, New York
[1915]) p. 269 - 282, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadnZNQ1xrsbkS3T4VJlC_uZQ8t4yj2UNH5POGbNio-1SDyFM8TAqUfl7ciDY5CuNZxvnnE0Pcxf1j6Thu_zOs5kz8rgR9MOtsbTxVgRVa3bwaKo0-D5YX2T4JaBO_z6G8vgwFNgLiJ9XCfBVnn9K4qR7ZFa0faNe3zmvfWDfmEo049sqXQlw697XIHDWNblRJj9niiabZoBB7aQHl82tf4y03cpU2hMdLVADF-7P2pvJKsZbLDnJN8ncLZ9IftMudapmn8E,
(accessed 11/8/18)
Owendoff, Robert S.; Better Ways Of
Pathfinding, [The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1964], page
34
National Wildlife Foundation;
Wildlife Country: How To Enjoy It, [National
Wildlife Foundation, Washington, DC, 1977], page 90
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