orienteering

[ChadTower]

There are a couple long hikes I want to do but need to brush up on my navigation skills.  I have a lot of old old school techniques I learned from my grandfather but they are more survival than navigation.  I'd be just fine for quite a while if I get lost - but right now there is no guarantee I'll get where I mean to go.   

I figure picking up with some orienteering folks should solve this.  Anyone here into this? 

[shardian]

I have no clue what you are talking about, but:

GPS + solar charger = happy/safe wilderness hiker.

[ChadTower]

I have no clue what you are talking about, but:

GPS + solar charger = happy/safe wilderness hiker.

What fun is that?     Anyone can program a bunch of waypoints and turn right or left when the GPS tells them.  The GPS isn't going to tell them about the topography.  It would suck to follow that arrow to a 50foot drop or a 4 mile wide body of water.

[shardian]

Hell, that seems alot more fun and adventurous to me! 

[ChadTower]

I have a GPS and used it for a while for Geocaching.  It's great for straight line travel but that's really it.  Consider a trail like this one.  I don't even want to think about how many waypoints you'd have to calculate and program in order to use a GPS on that trail.

[ChadTower]

Sometimes I wonder if a certain set of folks just sit around waiting for people to suggest something they couldn't do themselves and then attack them on it.  It is pretty consistently the same group of people.   

[Hoopz]

WTF is the point of those pics? 

[ChadTower]

He's calling BS on a minor point in my original post.  This after dredging up a dead end 2004 usenet thread about how a bunch of games being sold openly were really stolen 25 years ago and after offering a guy 5 bucks for revenge photos of his soon to be ex wife. 

He's all class.

[Hoopz]

Got it.  And never mind...

I've a buddy who has done two tours in Iraq, is a Major in the Nat'l Guard and works for them full time.  I wouldnt trust him
to find his way out of his garage with a GPS.  I give him crap about that all the time.   

[ChadTower]

Got it.  And never mind...

I've a buddy who has done two tours in Iraq, is a Major in the Nat'l Guard and works for them full time.  I wouldnt trust him
to find his way out of his garage with a GPS.  I give him crap about that all the time.   

I imagine the topo map of Iraq is pretty nondistinct... 

"So, here are our points, and between it is sand.  Then we turn 30 degrees southeast and go 3 miles over sand.  Point three is 5 miles northeast from there but there is a ton of sand in the way."

[polaris]

There are a couple long hikes I want to do but need to brush up on my navigation skills.  I have a lot of old old school techniques I learned from my grandfather but they are more survival than navigation.  I'd be just fine for quite a while if I get lost - but right now there is no guarantee I'll get where I mean to go.   

I figure picking up with some orienteering folks should solve this.  Anyone here into this? 

not for a while but, map readings not hard, the key on the map gives you all you need to know , you still need to plan your waypoints but just on a map rather than gps. the thing i found difficult was trying to judge your speed and therefore estimate how far youve travelled and when to know youve walked past the checkpoint you were looking for, a step counter could assist with this.
i would say get some maps and have a little study of them. do you have good maps over there, im sure there are.( im not being rude its just our os maps are awesome for hikers ). try and get a map of local areas its easy to visit and go out once you know the map key a bit and try and relate your surroundings to the map.
just a bit of practice i would say is all thats needed.
there is a map scale best for hiking detail , have a look on the ordnance survey website and theyll have a range targeted to hikers, look for the scale on that and try and find some US ones.

[CCM]

I have a lot of old old school techniques I learned from my grandfather but they are more survival than navigation.

 

 

at least learn how to resize the pictures in your waste-of-time posts....

[Ed_McCarron]

There are a couple long hikes I want to do but need to brush up on my navigation skills.  I have a lot of old old school techniques I learned from my grandfather but they are more survival than navigation.  I'd be just fine for quite a while if I get lost - but right now there is no guarantee I'll get where I mean to go.   

I figure picking up with some orienteering folks should solve this.  Anyone here into this? 

Why bother?  GPS for the win!

[Ummon]

Pick up the Marine Corps BST/EST book of knowledge. Has good instructions on land nav.

[TOK]

I suggest brushing up on the old school techniques, but bring a GPS and cell phone. Nothing says --missioncontrol-- like your haggard picture in the paper being led out of the woods by a couple of park rangers.

My buddies and I ride dirt bikes in remote area's and basically use whatever means are available to tell what direction you're in. Know where you're facing in relation to the sun, if there are any main trails or roads that are visible pay attention if you're running parallel or perpendicular, and if there is an airport nearby, know the flight paths... We use air traffic into and out of Fort Dix as a guide when in the Pine Barrens.

I think it's really difficult to find somewhere to get good and truely lost in the northeast of the US... Maine is perhaps the last place you could die in the woods and not be found for months. 

[Dartful Dodger]

Stay on a trail preferably paved, go in one direction, when you get tired or bored turn around.

[97thruhiker]

Well I'm a professional forester and wildland firefighter.  I manage / supervise approximately 35,000 acres of forest land here in Florida, pretty flat stuff.  Hardly use GPS even though I have access to multiple units, just prefer to use aerial photos and compass for cruising in the woods.  I've thru-hiked the entire Appalachian Trail in 1997 but you really need no navigation skills to do that, just mental willpower and a little luck not to get hurt.  What kind of hiking are you looking at doing?

[shmokes]

He's calling BS on a minor point in my original post.  This after dredging up a dead end 2004 usenet thread about how a bunch of games being sold openly were really stolen 25 years ago and after offering a guy 5 bucks for revenge photos of his soon to be ex wife. 

He's all class.

I still don't understand the pictures of the makeup artists.

[SavannahLion]

"So, here are our points, and between it is sand.  Then we turn 30 degrees southeast and go 3 miles over sand.  Point three is 5 miles northeast from there but there is a ton of sand in the way."

I was going to say that when I went hiking with my father, it was all landmark based. Things like, keep that mountain that looks like a castle on your right until you get to the river. The follow the river up stream until you reach the fork. Take the right fork until you get to the water fall. With the river on your right (never mind how to cross said river), continue following up stream, scale the nasty cliffs, watch out for the poison oak, and try to find the rock that looks like an old mans head....

When you've got a bunch of sand, I guess all of that goes out the door. 

He's calling BS on a minor point in my original post.  This after dredging up a dead end 2004 usenet thread about how a bunch of games being sold openly were really stolen 25 years ago and after offering a guy 5 bucks for revenge photos of his soon to be ex wife. 

He's all class.

I still don't understand the pictures of the makeup artists.

I have a theory, but I'd probably get banned for presenting it

[ChadTower]

That was jim's less than clever way of saying someone made something up.  Apparently I either made up having a grandfather or that he taught me anything.   

What kind of hiking are you looking at doing?

I've done a lot of day hikes in various places over the years but I want to try some longer ones.  The White Mountains have too many awesome places to see.  You may be right that for a lot of places you don't really need true navigation skills, just follow the markers, but it just makes sense to me to be prepared for lost markers.  I just discovered the this trail which would be a good long hike for practice.  No risk of getting lost, I've done most of those parts with my sons already, and it is very local.  Seems to be part of this much longer trail.

And if I can ever pull off large parts of that maybe something like what you did on some or all of the Appalachian eventually.  That's one of my life's goals - at least one really long through hike like that.

[shmokes]

OHHHHHHHHHHH!  Yeah . . . I wouldn't have got that.  Did you have a grandfather?

[ChadTower]

OHHHHHHHHHHH!  Yeah . . . I wouldn't have got that.  Did you have a grandfather?

Still have one!   

[ChadTower]

Liar is about the lowest term you can use in regards to somebody in this state -  as soon as Chad rips someone off, he's earned it.

Uh, jim... you bragged about sending someone to a dangerous area on a wild goose chase for kicks.  What exactly does that make you?

[ChadTower]

Mean?

Actually, it makes you the liar you just talked about.  The type that lies to hurt someone and apparently the lowest thing a Texan can be.  If you want to go spouting off about anyone else clean up your own act first.

[ChadTower]

Actually, that's all I have for jim.  He gets off on attention and isn't worth more than he has already received.  I sorta feel bad for the guy, to be honest. 

[danny_galaga]

Ah, orienteering. Doing that in primary school was one of the first times i realised i wasn't a natural at something. I thought i would be, and got hopelessly lost. Fast forward 14 years later, and my first flying nav exercise, i miscalculated crosswind and WOULD have gotten hopelessly lost. I don't think i was born to know where i am going...

[TOK]

Mean?

Actually, it makes you the liar you just talked about.  The type that lies to hurt someone and apparently the lowest thing a Texan can be.  If you want to go spouting off about anyone else clean up your own act first.

FULL POINT

[Edgedamage]

Sometimes I wonder if a certain set of folks just sit around waiting for people to suggest something they couldn't do themselves and then attack them on it.  It is pretty consistently the same group of people.   

A good waterproof map and a compass and a gps for backup and you are good to go. I swear that PJ must be saint, and just posts to stir the pot. Any other forums I visit a poster like PJ would get banned in about 5 posts.

[Ummon]

<blinks>   Saint is saint.

[saint]

I'm pretty tricky. You never know what I might do.

[Edgedamage]

I'm pretty tricky. You never know what I might do.

AH HA!! I knew it.

[Dartful Dodger]

I was watching a travel show this weekend and the host was going to a part of the country that was all unnamed dirt roads and no maps. 

He had some Google satalite photos of the area.

[Ummon]

I'm pretty tricky. You never know what I might do.

Hey, I won't keep you from any dirt, if you insist.  (E-HEHEHEHEHEHEHEEH.)