Ditch which gear?

[BuckeyeBill]

With a combination of a good compass and map you can find your location on the map by using two known reference points. Then using said map, find where you want to be and take a bearing to where you want to be and start walking.

[cmoulder]

With a combination of a good compass and map you can find your location on the map by using two known reference points. Then using said map, find where you want to be and take a bearing to where you want to be and start walking.

Yes, you can, but it's not all that easy to do in the middle of a green thicket with no sight lines, and nigh impossible when combined with a milky overcast. Local magnetic declination can also vary greatly from True North. Lots of ways to mess up unless you really know what you're doing.

A good (if dated) adjunct to navigation reading is Harold Gatty's Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass, which stresses using natural features and patterns to assist navigation... sort of the ol' 'moss on the North side of trees' but with a bunch of other clues (celestial, weather, smells, birds) I hadn't thunk of before.

Harold Gatty was Wiley Post's navigator on their 'round-the-world' flight in 1931, so he knew whereof he spoke... back in those days mistakes were quite often fatal.

[swjohnsey]

With a combination of a good compass and map you can find your location on the map by using two known reference points. Then using said map, find where you want to be and take a bearing to where you want to be and start walking.

Yep, on the trail you are lucky to be able to see 100 yards.

[BuckeyeBill]

OK I will agree with you on the AT, but a map & compass requires no battery or signal to work. On the AT you can also walk to a clearer view. I also get tired of people who say "I have an app for that".

[cmoulder]

OK I will agree with you on the AT, but a map & compass requires no battery or signal to work. On the AT you can also walk to a clearer view. I also get tired of people who say "I have an app for that".

I agree with map and compass 100%, but people need to realize it's far from being a no-brainer to use them properly.

And to understand that 'northbound' trails can, quite often, run east, west and south for significant stretches.

[Starchild]

OK I will agree with you on the AT, but a map & compass requires no battery or signal to work. On the AT you can also walk to a clearer view. I also get tired of people who say "I have an app for that".

Just to point out that many of these don’t require a cell signal to work. If it can’t get gps then it’s as good as a map and compass. Yes it needs to have some charge to work.


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