THIS is how to navigate in a forest – correctly

Comments · 681

• TH

  @TheMapReadingCompany · 2 weeks ago · pinned

  If you’d like to support The Map Reading Channel, please consider buying one of our weatherproof notebooks — the same notebooks we provide to participants on our navigation courses. <br> <br>Each notebook costs £12 plus postage and can be shipped worldwide. &nbsp; <br> <br>Postage, along with any import taxes, tariffs, or fees imposed by your government, is handled through eBay’s International Shipping Programme. The total cost is calculated automatically at checkout. <br> <br>To find the notebook <br><a href="http://ebay.co.uk/">EBay.co.uk</a> (UK only) <a href="https://ebay.io/m/U4eual">https://ebay.io/m/U4eual </a><br><a href="http://ebay.com/">EBay.com</a> (most other places) &nbsp;<a href="https://ebay.io/m/KWNMwH">https://ebay.io/m/KWNMwH </a><br> <br>Thanks, &nbsp;Wayne.

• DC

  @DCS_World_Japan · 2 years ago

  The hiker knows where he is, because he knows where he isn&apos;t.

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• TA

  @tawnyard4649 · 2 years ago

  As a Welsh bog-hopper, my navigation is all about avoiding the suck, keeping to high/dry ground and often following the rivers because I’ve got no choice. I’ve done so much wading icy “streams” that have become torrents due to heavy rainfall, that I always expect the worst. Felled sections can sometimes be even harder going, unless you’re lucky enough to find the caterpillar tracks the loggers have surfaced with branches. A forest mile on the map for me is often three miles on the ground. Keep up the great work. I’m loving your videos.

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• TR

  @tracyrreed · 2 years ago

  My favorite forest navigation tip: Moss grows on the north side of the bodies of those who forgot their compass.

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• BO

  @bobpourri9647 · 2 years ago

  One needs to keep in mind when walking in the forest that obstructions are often encountered and really must be avoided by going around. Marshes, bogs, lakes and other wet areas are the worst, but even fairly large hills will take their toll on you if you try to go straight over. Areas of thick brush or areas that have been logged with tops laying every which-way can be tough. What often looks like a straight line A-to-B on a map is often very, very different when you are out there walking it!

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• IN

  @infinitenex8165 · 2 years ago

  Your &quot;studio&quot; being a clearing in a forest is much more appreciated than a boring stale studio like most other content creators. I like your style very much.

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• CA

  @cagedraptor · 2 years ago

  I stupidly wondered off a path in a National Forest in Kentucky without a map or compass, and worse 1st time ever there. &nbsp;First time I had ever truly got lost. &nbsp;I was lost for about 20 minutes. &nbsp;What kept me from horribly getting in very deep dodo was I kept calm and before I walked off the path I looked up at the Sun. &nbsp;After about 15 minutes of a bit of wondering about I looked back up and from the position it was when I got started and at that point, I knew which way to go and when I walked back onto the path, I was about 5&apos; away from where I first walked off it. &nbsp;True story.

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• DA

  @darbyl3872 · 2 years ago (edited)

  Good video. You covered the most important stuff. These are what I know about orienteering:<br>1. Handrails. You covered it.<br>2. Aiming Off. Aiming for the left of a handrail, then turning right when you get there (or right, left).<br>3. Attack Points / Collecting Features. You covered that.<br>4. Point To Point Navigation. You covered.<br>5. Pacing, Estimated. I can hike 100 meters on flat smooth ground in 59 paces (118 steps). It could take a lot more for elevation and rough terrain, but never less.<br>6. Boxing. To go around a big obstacle, turn 90 degrees, go X paces, turn 90, go X, turn 90, X paces, turn 90. You are X paces from your starting point, and avoided the obstacle.<br>7. Safety Direction. When you leave your car / the road, take a bearing backwards toward the road. That&apos;s your safety direction. If all else fails, hopefully you have a working compass, and can bushwhack (off-trail) straight back to the road. One or two small button compasses are nice to have as backup, in case one of them breaks or gets lost.

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• HA

  @HardwayRanch · 2 years ago

  I was a Forward Observer attached to the Lite Infantry at Fr. Wainwright, AK, and so land navigation is what we did all the time. &nbsp;I loved it - those were the times I could go do my thing and be left alone without some overbearing jackass micromanaging or second guessing everything! &nbsp;As you know, when you get good at it then navigation in an unknown forest is as easy as following a highway map on a road trip. &nbsp;Practice practice practice!

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• ON

  @on_the_off_beat · 2 years ago

  Long-time forest roamer here from the pacific Northwest of the USA, a region &nbsp;where Sitka spruce, Douglas fir, and Lodgepole pine (plantation species of the Keidler forest) &nbsp;grow natively. I agree with your take on forest navigation. &nbsp;It&apos;s a lot about interpreting map features and topography, and rough-and-ready bearings. &nbsp;And one frequently doesn&apos;t know exactly where one is. &nbsp;Which is not the same thing as being lost, I should note. One point I occasionally make to the trail-dependent, is that most trail-walkers don&apos;t know exactly where they are either, but they have an algorithm (following the trail) for getting to a known destination. &nbsp;So they&apos;re not lost, unless they lose the trail. &nbsp;Similarly, if I preserve general orientation in the woods and know that If I keep going in a given direction, I will eventually emerge at a known or identifiable spot, I am not lost, even if I am unsure within a kilometer of where I am.<br><br>I applaud you for being invested in map and compass usage rather than a GPS device, or a mobile phone screen. &nbsp;It&apos;s more skill-demanding, sure, but it&apos;s much more robust. &nbsp;And I do believe also that over time it aids in developing terrain intuition, a &quot;mental map&quot;, so that one does not need to consult map or compass often, or even at all in familiar terrain. &nbsp;And I think that&apos;s a good objective to work towards. &nbsp;Fiddle-faddling around with the map and compass takes time and breaks the rhythm. &nbsp;It&apos;s often much more satisfying to intuitively follow terrain. &nbsp;One should strive for efficiency, ease of movement, and that means navigating enough, but not too much. &nbsp;Use the heavyweight tools, such as precisely and slavishly following a compass bearing, only if you really need that precision. &nbsp;Most of the time, in woods or obstructed terrain, it&apos;ll just slow you down and drive you nuts. &nbsp;Follow the bearing sloppily, letting obstacles and terrain influence your path, and check once in a while to make sure you&apos;re not deviating too much. &nbsp; <br><br>One thing I would note explicitly is that orientation is hardest in relatively featureless terrain with relatively poor visibility. In landscapes where the topography gives off strong signals, even if forested or with otherwise limited visibility (fog, dark) one can frequently rely just rely on topography &nbsp;without much reference to compass. &nbsp;One could say, in fact that the relative importance of compass vis-a-vis topographic map varies with terrain and visibility.<br><br>Your instructional example relies on streams a lot as identifiable features. &nbsp;Over here in the US, even the best topographic maps we have, at 1:24000 scale, not infrequently get streams wrong, something I have learned the hard way. &nbsp;Mostly I think there is little field verification used on those maps, it is largely photographic interpretation, so a stream under unbroken &nbsp;tree cover may be missed or misplaced. Quite possibly UK ordnance survey &nbsp;map-making is more painstaking and better-funded. &nbsp;But the lesson still applies, I think, that one should learn what can be expected of one&apos;s maps. &nbsp;In large parts of Canada (British Columbia is what I know), the remoter and more interesting parts, naturally, the largest scale available is 1:50000, which takes a bit of getting used to.<br><br>One striking and interesting and near-universal &nbsp;phenomenon which you do not mention is what I like to call (with apologies to Kenneth Grahame) &quot;the terror of the wild wood&quot;. &nbsp;Being in trailless woods, particularly in situations of obstructed visibility (head-high brush, dark) has the capacity to really freak people out. &nbsp;It&apos;s built in, I think: we are visual creatures, and who knows what might be lurking out there? &nbsp;Bears? Tigers? Woozles? It is all very well for the rational mind to point out that there are no free-roaming bears, tigers, or woozles in the UK, the older and more primitive parts of our minds are still convinced that they are out there. &nbsp;The proper response to this fear is to condition it out through repeated exposure; over time one is as easy as Mr Darcy might be lounging in his deer park.

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• KI

  @kingrichard3929 · 1 year ago

  This instructor is absolutely brilliant. He knows his stuff.

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• CH

  @chrisragner3882 · 2 years ago

  It’s been 45 years since I trudged through the woods. &nbsp;Inspiring wisdom. &nbsp;Thank you

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