a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by WanderingEng
WanderingEng  ·  2738 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Could I Get Lost? [A Usenet thread from 1991]

I should work on my compass skills.

I've made minor navigation errors but no major ones. The most notable was missing a junction that cost me like a tenth of a mile and a couple hundred feet elevation, so not bad. I had to stop and look at a map, because there should not have been a trail junction there. It didn't make sense in my head at all. Brains get fuzzy when fatigued. I feel it in myself running, too.

Maybe my proudest moment was turning back when I wasn't sure I could navigate above the tree line on one summit. I knew my limit. It was hard, but it was right. Two people spent two unplanned nights on that summit last winter.





ButterflyEffect  ·  2737 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I just took a 3 hour basic map and compass navigation course through REI, it was actually really well done. Went through map and field bearings and some useful rules of thumb for triangulation. I know exactly what you're talking about with that fuzzy feeling, if you're on a long hike or run in unfamiliar territory it's probably good to have a compass just in case.