Backcountry College – Navigation II

[Clay Hayes]

#5663

Happy thanksgiving all. Here’s the second part of the navigation video. Have a good one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-FsuV_3RLw

Backcountry College – Navigation II

[Fallguy]

#44226

Once again great job Clay. The one thing you touched on that I always try to get across in our Bowhunter Ed classes is get a paper map and study it. It amazes me how many people want to rely on the 2X2 screen of there GPS for there map.

[David Coulter]

#44313

Clay, I look forward to watching this video. I’ve enjoyed all of yours so far and I’m sure this will be a good one also.

Fallguy’s comment on the paper map is a valuable one. I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, but try to learn from them. I was hiking ( fell walking ) in the Lake District of England some years ago. The kiosk guide said the hike we were about to take was about 4 hours long. Four hours later when were about 2/3 the way, the weather turned sour and got dark real fast. I studied the map in the remaining light and was able to guide us down a steep trail and out to the town, remembering not to follow the lights of the town, but up a cow path a half mile to the bridge.

Nobody got hurt, so it was an adventure instead of a misadventure. I remain grateful for that map and getting oriented when I had a chance. Other things, like a flashlight, I wish I had, but we did have full gore-tex and polar fleece so we were warm and dry.

[Anonymous]

#47751

Clay, again, well done!

Now, go find the buck that’s rubbing those telephone poles… 😉

[James Harvey]

#56772

Clay that was excellent mate. If someone told me they were going to address those nav concepts in a video I would have said ‘you’re wasting your time, you need to get guys out in the field’. But you did a good job of it, clearer and more concise than our army nav lessons on the same subject.

The use of landscape over lays while looking at contours on a map and and overlays of contour maps with routes being marked out on them while you’re looking at terrain and discussing your planned route I reckon would be super helpful for people trying to tie it all together in their mind before getting out in the field to give it a go.

Well done.

Jim

[David Petersen]

#56930

Thanks for an excellent review of the basics that will never change.

Any chance of taking the skill set back all the way, to no map or compass and survival “lost proofing.” That is, determining direction by celestial clues day and night, then once oriented to north, using terrain features to reach major valleys where the roads etc. will be. That stuff is beyond me, though I knew it once, so long ago.

[tailfeather]

#57087

These are really nice.

I’m teaching compass use, orienteering, and pacing as part of a course this next semester. You’d be amazed how many young folks with degrees in the natural resources field are completely clueless on how to find their way around without a gps. It doesn’t seem to be emphasized much anymore. Like Clay pointed out, they pay so much attention to the the screen they have no context for where they are in relation to where they started, or where they’re going.

Anyhoo….if it is ok (and I assume it is), I plan to show these two vids in class to drive the point home and break up my monotonous instruction. Thanks.

[Clay Hayes]

#57128

tailfeather wrote: Anyhoo….if it is ok (and I assume it is), I plan to show these two vids in class to drive the point home and break up my monotonous instruction. Thanks.

That’d be fine by me.

Good suggestion Dave. I think I could put together a pretty neat vid on “other” ways to find true north, etc. All sorts of cool tricks our there.

While out hunting a few weeks ago I decided to try’n find the time by using my compass. I’d never tried it before but figured that if you could find true north with a watch, you should be able to find the time with a compass. Once i had it all drawn out in the sand, i checked my estimation and was about 10 minutes off. not bad..

[Anonymous]

#57557

David Petersen wrote: Thanks for an excellent review of the basics that will never change.

Any chance of taking the skill set back all the way, to no map or compass and survival “lost proofing.” That is, determining direction by celestial clues day and night, then once oriented to north, using terrain features to reach major valleys where the roads etc. will be. That stuff is beyond me, though I knew it once, so long ago.

Great suggestion! Oh, and it’s not beyond you – if you knew it, then you still know it. The problem is finding or accessing that file… 😉

[Anonymous]

#57559

Clay Hayes wrote:

While out hunting a few weeks ago I decided to try’n find the time by using my compass. I’d never tried it before but figured that if you could find true north with a watch, you should be able to find the time with a compass. Once i had it all drawn out in the sand, i checked my estimation and was about 10 minutes off. not bad..

Okay, now how did you do that?

[Col Mike]

#57899

Check out “The Natural Navigator” Tristan Gooley. Some neat stuff from the old ones, a good read, and it even has pictures to illustrate, so Dave and Bruce should be able to follow along:D.

Telling time: your arm extended with index and little finger spread wide subtends an arc on the sky of 15 degrees. The distance of the sun’s apparent movement in one hour (hence our time zones). Using your fingers as dividers you can walk the sun down to sunrise or sunset and calculate the time to either event if you know time of sunrise/set. More useful you can estimate remaining daylight hours for construction of shelter. and gathering firewood. If horizon is behind mountains just guesstimate where it is.

Mike

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#57929

colmike wrote: …. and it even has pictures to illustrate, so Dave and Bruce should be able to follow along:D.

Mike

Derr….that sounds like my kinda book!

[paleoman]

#57957

colmike wrote: Check out “The Natural Navigator” Tristan Gooley. Some neat stuff from the old ones, a good read, and it even has pictures to illustrate, so Dave and Bruce should be able to follow along:D.

Telling time: your arm extended with index and little finger spread wide subtends an arc on the sky of 15 degrees. The distance of the sun’s apparent movement in one hour (hence our time zones). Using your fingers as dividers you can walk the sun down to sunrise or sunset and calculate the time to either event if you know time of sunrise/set. More useful you can estimate remaining daylight hours for construction of shelter. and gathering firewood. If horizon is behind mountains just guesstimate where it is.

Mike

I never knew that. Thanks!

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