I meant to add a bit (to ‘Ultralight Hiking #102’) – actually quite a bit – about identifying and using ‘landmarks’. A ‘sense of direction’ needs to be learned and cultivated. I have spent so much of my life deep in the bush it seems to be almost unconscious to me, but it can be learned.
It is as important as just always keeping in mind the position of the sun. (I guess people may not be in the habit of doing this). And identifying the overall direction of ‘down’ – what I call ‘the lie of the land’.
As regards the last, so many times eg some novice hunter I have taken out has called me on the radio to say something like this, ‘I am at a/the creek but I don’t know which way to go’ ie to get back to the car etc. My first question is always ‘which direction is the water flowing?’ (eg from the right or the left when you are facing towards the sun).
From this simple piece of information I am instantly able to orient the misplaced hiker/hunter in my mind to the overall topography and sun position, then say something like, ‘OK, turn around so your back is to the stream (and the sun), then walk straight up the ridge which will be in front of you.’ It is always easier to walk up a ridge to arrive at a given point than to walk down one (as they tend to split going downwards).
You just can’t walk so very far in a single day as to get a long way off course. It really should be quite obvious to you at all times during the day almost exactly where your point of origin and destination are. If it is not, practice till it is!
When they were young I always made my kids point again and again ie every time we stopped for a breather, so that they remembered to concentrate on what they were doing as they walked along ie changes of direction, orientation to major landscape features, etc. Maybe if you are a novice in the bush you need to do this yourself every five minutes or so.
You should also practice retracing your footsteps back to the last ‘landmark’ feature you concentrated on (a white ant’s mound, a large dead tree, a cliff face, etc). You should always be in the habit of stopping every few minutes and looking around 360 degrees but particularly behind you, so that you remember what the landscape looked like in the direction you will later be returning in. This is vitally important.
People just so often get quite distressed when they are merely a few yards (often well less than a hundred) from where they think they are. I have so often encountered people (on the rare occasions I am ‘track walking’) who have followed a deer path (I presume) off the track and are calling out, ‘Help I’m lost’ when they are in the small distance (say 100 yards) between the track and a major stream (or similar gross landscape feature (the shore, a ridge, etc) when clearly the track is following eg that stream for days. It always amazes me how ignorant people can be and how unable to learn!
As an aside when people become distressed they often almost instantly dissolve into panic and irrationality so that they will do silly things (which they then forget) to compound their errors. They then can become truly lost and may well die – many do. You need to be remembering all the time exactly what course changes you have made (so that you can retrace them).
I have lost a single hearing aid or a small black coloured walky-talky in the trackless bush sometimes and hour or two back, yet I am always able to exactly retrace my steps so that I can find it. This knack is learned – but panic will quickly ‘unlearn’ it.
I have made this point again and again; If in doubt, stop and make a cuppa. Sitting down and relaxing for ten minutes will just do more good than all the desperate rushing around in the world will ever do! Time to think. Try ‘clearly and rationally’. It takes time to make (and consume) a cuppa (particularly if you have to light a fire), and it forces you to think about something else.
You need to be paying attention to the gross features of the landscape (not losing the woods for the trees). So many times I have encountered an individual or a group (usually on a track!) who don’t know where they are (my unhelpful reply is ever, ‘Why, you are here’) usually despite the fact that they have in their hands both a GPS, a compass and a topographical map – whilst I am carrying none of those yet am in no difficulties whatever.
They are failing to visualise the landscape through which they are traveling even though they have all these ‘aids’. The problem is they are meant to be just that, ‘aids’. You still have to learn how to do it. They are often quite astonished when (pointing at their map and then at some feature of the landscape), I say, ‘Look, there is that (thing)’, when it just jumps right off the map to me – because the map is a picture of the landscape,
Many people have difficulty visualizing rotating three dimensional shapes in multiple directions. I know this is not one of my great skills either so I have learned instead patience and care in doing so. It always makes visualising things so much easier if you agree on a ‘correct’ orientation at the outset. When working with car parts re-assembling an engine for example – decide on a ‘front’ and left-hand side, top and bottom. In the bush I always face the sun (North in the Southern Hemisphere) and orient my map in that direction too so that I do not have to tax myself with trying to rotate such perspectives in my head.
It always surprises me that some people don’t ‘understand’ topographical maps. They are not to understand. They are just pictures of the landscape. Two dimensional pictures of a three dimensional reality. Flicking backwards and forwards between a Google Maps topographical view and a satellite view of the same area may force you brain to ‘click’ to this reality. You should simply ‘see’ the features of the topographical map as three-dimensional shapes. Practice until you do.
It is not unlike practicing the vision trick I talk about in Sambar Deer Stalking #101 of looking ‘through’ the vegetation so you can see the shapes of the land (not to mention the quarry!) It is a vital skill to develop if you are going to spend much time outdoors – certainly if you plan to become a successful hunter. Until you teach your brain/eyes to do this, you will ever see the trees for the woods.
Here is the relevant quote from that article,
“It is good if you can see through the bush. You need to train yourself to look through it anyway. Your eyes/brain naturally want to focus on the nearest objects which means you are not seeing the deer through the trees; you are just seeing the trees.
You can practice looking through the cracks in paling fences as you walk around the town streets, or looking through hedges as you drive along until you are used to focusing on the things that are on the other side of the screen of vegetation. You have to look into the distance. You have to put your eyes out of focus. It is a trick worth learning.
Then too you will be better able to see the lie of the land, which is supremely important in finding your way and assessing a deer’s likely path. I can guarantee you that the critters which live in the bush always do this ie look through the bush – which is why they (almost) always see you first unless you are moving very slowly! Really thick bush is a pain anyway, and it will be harder to shoot a deer in it – unless you are hound hunting perhaps.
When a deer honks at you but doesn’t run off is an excellent opportunity to test your ability to see through the bush. You can guarantee it is watching you, and will respond to your every movement, so its eyes (at least) must be visible to you. Practice finding those eyes; maybe an ear: they will be behind vegetation perhaps, but are in clear view. Deer will stand still for an hour! Believe me, but they are also past masters at sneaking off!”
It always helps if you start out from some identifiable landmark rather than the most convenient place to park your car by the way. The top of a hill, the junction of two watersheds or a clear saddle might be good points to begin. Before you set out identify some prominent landmarks in the landscape.
Also note any prominent features in the bush roundabout you will recognise as you approach this spot on your return journey. A giant tree with a broken top or a boll, a large rock outcrop, etc. Something very clear that you will certainly recognise. It is very annoying if you walk right past (your car, canoe etc) at your point of origin! I have been wool-gathering and done this. I’m sure you will too.
Of course note the position of the sun (north). (I have several times indicated this trick for finding the sun’s position on a cloudy day. I know you need a knife, though something else can be substituted, but if you don’t carry a knife you are lost anyway!)
A large and peculiarly shaped mountain in the distance, a prominent valley – anyway something which will remain visible at a great distance and be recognisable from different perspectives. A Landmark. It is a important to have chosen your destination in relation to your point of origin and your landmark/s at the outset.
After you have gone a little distance turn around making sure that you can identify the prominent features of your point of origin, and the landmarks you have chosen to orient yourself. Keep doing this.
As one landmark or selected object slowly disappears from view chose another to replace it and remember its position in relation to the former. This is the same trick you use to keep walking in a given direction – something which I have called Walking the Line. Revision exercise.
Always remember to look behind you so you can remember what it all will look like on your return journey – even if you do not approach from quite the same direction as you are now taking. If you are hunting then you won’t.
Your mapping/GPS folks maybe have a bit of an obsession with precision. The bush is just not very precise. It is rough, lumpy, irregular. You will not be able to walk in precise straight lines without deviating. Things will get in the way. You just have to be able to maintain a generalised direction. I doubt I use variations of direction as precise as the major (hour) points of a clock-face but that might be a good starting point to attempt. You could use your two hands held out with fingers spread out as direction indicators to remember if you want.
Probably dividing the compass into 8 will be enough. As I said before you can rarely walk so far in a single day that such precision is necessary. When you arrive near your destination (or your point of origin) you should recognise it by the landmarks you have previously noted.
Go back to the exercise I set you in the previous post and use this method to navigate around your chosen piece of bush. If you don’t see a suitable area with a road all around it, perhaps choose one with a road along a ridge together with tracks descending down side ridges to a river at the bottom so you are bounded by the major stream at the bottom (where you might camp for the night) the two side tracks and the main road at the top.
You can see from all of this is that I do not envisage you becoming just a ‘track walker. How boring is that pass-time when there is a whole world to explore. A million places to be (and camp) where you can feel as if you are the very first person to have ever been there. Unlikely that will be the case, but it is a great feeling. At least while you are there other people are unlikely to come along – which is how I always like it to be.
Good luck with your exploring – and have fun!
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