PDA

View Full Version : How to Keep Your Course in the Wilderness



hawgrider
09-27-2017, 06:53 AM
Keeping a Course

When clouds obscure the sun or stars, you need other methods to help you maintain your direction.

a. In strange country, study outstanding terrain features as you travel, and concentrate on keeping your course. Climb to a high point and look at the general pattern of the land, character of the vegetation, the drainage patterns, and the trend of mountains and ridges. Choose a prominent landmark that you can see while you travel. As you near this landmark, line up another one.

b. If you are traveling in a dense forest, you probably won’t be able to spot distant landmarks. You can hold a course by lining up two trees forward of your position in your direction of travel. As soon as you pass the first one, line up another beyond the second. You might find it helpful to look back occasionally to check the relative positions of landmarks or ground slope and contour.

c. You can usually use streams, ridges, and trees as guides in open country and as a means of retracing your route. On overcast days, in areas where the vegetation is dense, or whenever the country appears the same, mark your route with bent bushes, rocks, http://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/15/keep-course-wilderness/

rstanek
09-27-2017, 07:17 AM
All good advice, have been lost a few times in my day , first of all , don't panic, when ever I go out in areas of significant expanses, I always take items with in case I have to spend more time then planned.....

hawgrider
09-27-2017, 07:47 AM
All good advice, have been lost a few times in my day , first of all , don't panic, when ever I go out in areas of significant expanses, I always take items with in case I have to spend more time then planned.....

I've never been lost...... I swear the compass was wrong!:)

Coastie dad
10-02-2017, 06:27 PM
This is why I carry a big bag of bread crumbs.

Dwight55
10-02-2017, 08:02 PM
This is why I carry a big bag of bread crumbs.

Don't work in Ohio or Ky, . . . too many blue jays and blackbirds, . . . eat em up faster than you can drop em.

May God bless,
Dwight

Dwight55
10-02-2017, 08:11 PM
There is only one place I've ever had trouble, . . . for the life of me I cannot telly you why, . . . up by Shawano, Wisconsin, . . . there is an area there that when I get in it, . . . I always think south is north and north is south.

Ten miles away, . . . I'm fine, . . . but that one localized area, . . . I could get turned around in my own shadow, . . . and there is absolutely no rhyme or reason for it. Never have been able to figure it out.

In my travels to twenty some states and several countries, . . . I've never encountered this phenomena anywhere else, . . . only that small locale, . . . where my uncle used to live.

When I left his house, . . . going back from vacation, . . . always felt like I was driving North for the first 5 or 6 miles, . . . then it would settle out, . . . and I was good.

I always thought it was just plain weird.

May God bless,
Dwight

BucketBack
10-03-2017, 06:47 AM
There is only one place I've ever had trouble, . . . for the life of me I cannot telly you why, . . . up by Shawano, Wisconsin, . . . there is an area there that when I get in it, . . . I always think south is north and north is south.

Ten miles away, . . . I'm fine, . . . but that one localized area, . . . I could get turned around in my own shadow, . . . and there is absolutely no rhyme or reason for it. Never have been able to figure it out.

In my travels to twenty some states and several countries, . . . I've never encountered this phenomena anywhere else, . . . only that small locale, . . . where my uncle used to live.

When I left his house, . . . going back from vacation, . . . always felt like I was driving North for the first 5 or 6 miles, . . . then it would settle out, . . . and I was good.

I always thought it was just plain weird.

May God bless,
Dwight

There is a place by me I call the enchanted forest. I get lost in there with a compass. Lots of things have happened there in the past, maybe it's a negative power zone.

hawgrider
10-03-2017, 07:36 AM
There is a place by me I call the enchanted forest. I get lost in there with a compass. Lots of things have happened there in the past, maybe it's a negative power zone.

Bermuda triangle.

Coastie dad
10-03-2017, 08:02 AM
Don't work in Ohio or Ky, . . . too many blue jays and blackbirds, . . . eat em up faster than you can drop em.

May God bless,
Dwight

It'll be just like my first marriage, a real Hansel and Gretel love story.
I get to tell a witch to eat me.