View Full Version : Navigation Training
UofDoboe
09-22-2017, 12:01
I'm extremely tentatively eye-ing a CDT thru hike within the next say 3-5 years. I live in the mid-atlantic, the world of blazed and defined trails. I can read a topo map, know the very basics of a compass, and typically my useage of those skills amounts to trying to identify adjacent peaks from whatever trail vista I'm at. I've not had the need or made the opportunity to attempt true cross-country navigation for any significant stretch. I did complete an AT thru hike in 2016 and have backpacked extensively in the mid-atlantic, but none of this requires appreciable navigation skills.
I was looking for training or courses on navigation that would get me on track to be able to handle something like the CDT. Googling "backcountry navigation course", you seem to get 4-hour workshops at REI, a number of bushcraft guys and marines pitching navigation as a component of an overall "survival" type training, and a handful of inactive orienteering clubs. I acknowledge that this is a skill one develops through experience but by the same token I feel you do need a qualified, systematic introduction to these techniques.
Any organizations or individuals that anyone can recommend that offers instruction suitable for where I'm trying to get?
Traffic Jam
09-22-2017, 17:26
My local university offers map & compass and orienteering classes through their non-credit program.
I have signed up multiple times only to have them cancelled for lack of participation.
Traffic Jam
09-22-2017, 17:29
Everything I've learned has been from asking tons of questions of my hiking friends and from online sources.
https://randallsadventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/map-compass.pdf
illabelle
09-22-2017, 17:42
My local university offers map & compass and orienteering classes through their non-credit program.
I have signed up multiple times only to have them cancelled for lack of participation.
Would that be UTK? I'd be interested, never knew they offered orienteering. Will have to check it out...
Traffic Jam
09-22-2017, 17:52
Would that be UTK? I'd be interested, never knew they offered orienteering. Will have to check it out...
Yes, orienteering is 10/21 and 10/22.
UofDoboe
09-22-2017, 18:09
Everything I've learned has been from asking tons of questions of my hiking friends and from online sources.
https://randallsadventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/map-compass.pdf
This is exactly the sort of content I'd be after, except in a hands-on setting. I guess I'm skeptical that REI can cover near this quality in their usual timeframes. I suspect those sorts of short courses are just "here's what contour lines are".
illabelle
09-22-2017, 18:22
Yes, orienteering is 10/21 and 10/22.
Found it. Fits my schedule. I think I'm gonna sign up for the Sunday session. :)
cmoulder
09-22-2017, 18:40
Not sure what you're trying to find... something like a 2-3 day course where you're outside with map, compass and an instructor? Some of the bushcraft folks and marines are actually pretty good at this stuff.
Plenty of books on the topic if you're really interested in learning it. I've taught myself many things using books alone. Lots of online sources as well, but in the long run I prefer books because it's easy to go back a re-read something when needed.
Even though there's not a lot of off-trail travel here in the East, you can always take map and compass and learn to orient the map, correcting for declination, and identify peaks, lakes etc by taking bearings when you're at a high-elevation vista. I did just such an exercise with my nephew on West Mountain in Bear Mtn State Park in NY and he thought it was the coolest thing ever — and for a generation that grew up with smartphones and apps for everything, it is cool to see such a simple system in use. :sun
My personal favorite book on this subject is Kjellström's "Be Expert with Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook" (https://www.amazon.com/Be-Expert-Map-Compass-Orienteering/dp/0020292651/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506128054&sr=1-2). If you follow through and practice the skills as prescribed, it can be an excellent guide for self education.
Traffic Jam
09-22-2017, 21:04
Found it. Fits my schedule. I think I'm gonna sign up for the Sunday session. :)
Great, hope it goes through. If not, maybe we can team up for the next class.
TexasBob
09-23-2017, 08:52
My personal favorite book on this subject is Kjellström's "Be Expert with Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook" (https://www.amazon.com/Be-Expert-Map-Compass-Orienteering/dp/0020292651/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1506128054&sr=1-2). If you follow through and practice the skills as prescribed, it can be an excellent guide for self education.
This an excellent book and you really can teach yourself navigation with it.
I live in your next of the woods in Hershey and I believe you can practice right here in Pa. take a trail like the AT or MST and gets maps, watch and compass. Even with the blazes, you can start to get pacing and learn to establish location using compass. It is definitely easier out west with the longer sight lines but you can certainly practice here.
nsherry61
09-24-2017, 17:27
. . . take a trail like the AT or MST and gets maps, watch and compass. Even with the blazes, you can start to get pacing and learn to establish location using compass. . .you can certainly practice here.
For what it's worth Geocaching with a compass is great practice for many of the basic aspects of orienteering, and it's fun as well. Years ago I found my first 100 geocaches with a compass before an overly generous friend loaned me and the later bought me a gps as a gift.
I'd get a map, a compass and start practicing. It's not difficult once you learn the terminology. After all Tom Hanks navigated back to earth with only a sexton.
Spirit Walker
09-25-2017, 11:58
Before our first CDT hike, we took a land nav class through one of the trail maintenance/hiking clubs (PATC). It had one day of class work and then several field sessions. I'm glad I did it, for the confidence it gave if nothing else.
Most of the navigation we did on the CDT was very simple. "We're hiking north-west and we're supposed to be hiking north-east - did we take a wrong turn?" Or, "this isn't the right trail, but it's heading in the right direction, should we continue or not?" Or we would miss a turn and need to decide whether to backtrack or if we could get to our destination by an alternate route. We paid such close attention to the maps and guidebook we rarely needed to truly orient ourselves. We knew where we were. The problem was out of date maps that didn't show new roads or trails. (Our first hike was pre-Ley.) Being able to read a map was essential, but we also developed a 6th sense as to where the trail should be. Our biggest problems came when crossing burnt areas where the trail disappeared in the deadfall or when hiking in deep snow when the trail disappeared altogether and it turned out the trail zigged while we zagged. A little concentrated thought eventually got us right.
DownEaster
09-25-2017, 12:03
After all Tom Hanks navigated back to earth with only a sexton (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sexton).
Divine guidance?
sexton
-noun
1. an official of a church charged with taking care of the edifice and its contents, ringing the bell, etc., and sometimes with burying the dead.
cmoulder
09-25-2017, 12:24
Maybe a sextant?
(Of course.)
Divine guidance?
My bad. Looks like you've graduated from hall monitor to crossing guard to president of your HOA, congrats
garlic08
09-25-2017, 16:37
Like Spirit Walker, I found CDT navigation as much a matter of paying attention as anything else. To that end, I set my digital watch to chime on the hour, and I would make a mark on my map with my pen at the best estimate of my location. So I had a set of points 2 to 3 miles apart and I never got more than an hour off trail.
I also made good use of range fences and corners which are often on section lines. Transmission lines show up on topo maps, too.
Cross country navigation was mentioned in the OP. Is that really necessary on the CDT now?
Wayne
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garlic08
09-25-2017, 17:50
I sometimes crossed range land (usually on the Wolf route) where I hiked toward a landmark or a fence corner. Once a fire closure put me on a confusing system of unmapped logging roads, and it was easier to hike off trail up to treeline to get back on the Divide.
The CDT offers options to purposely travel off trail. On an exceptional day above treeline, you may choose to take a high ridge route rather than the mapped route down in the valley below.
Sometimes the trail is so faint or (snow-covered) where it enters the trees, some orienteering is helpful.
All the XC travel I remember was with good views and it was easy to stay oriented on the map as long as you paid attention. It was seldom necessary to take a bearing, but once or twice it was a good skill to have.
Fair enough. I understand. Thanks.
Wayne
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dickdurk
09-26-2017, 06:53
There should be a "breadcrumb" data base somewhere in the Backpacker Magazine archives with GPS coordinates for the CDT. Not the sort of thing to depend on, for sure, but reassuring all the same to be able to pull your unit out and find out where you are and where you should be.
I was part of a team a few years back that did a Gila National Forest (New Mexico) section for that project. This was back at the tail end of a multi year drought, but I would be more concerned with water supply than getting lost. One of the guys had cached water along our expected route, that really saved the trip. I still have a picture of a tank (an earth dam) with the remains of a dead cow in it. That was the only water for quite a distance.
Hopefully drought conditions are over.
cmoulder
09-26-2017, 07:17
breadcrumb data base (http://caltopo.com/m/HK06) courtesy of caltopo :sun
CalTopo is a vastly under appreciated resource.
Wayne
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Alleghanian Orogeny
09-26-2017, 11:39
This an excellent book and you really can teach yourself navigation with it.
x 3 on the Map and Compass book. It's a classic.
AO
Alleghanian Orogeny
09-26-2017, 11:48
..........I've generally found it easier to remain located on a map in the Northern Rockies than in the Blue Ridge/Smokies. Most often the forest vegetation is thinner to nonexistent, making it easier to see the topography around you. And that topography is at a far grander scale, so you remain in or on this feature, that feature, or the other for a longer time.
The above being completely old-school field geologist's and 1970s backpacker's experiences.
AO
Agreed. It's very comforting to come over a rise and see the trail that you're following stretch out in the distance. Dipping. Weaving. Twisting. Turning. Yet always able to put it all together into the distance.
I love the Rockies. Always have. Always will.
Wayne
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In prep for my 2010 CDT thru I refreshed my map and compass navigation by retaking the REI Advanced navigation class, which included 1/2 a day in the field, reread some in a Navigation handbook, became a member of an Orienteering Racing Team,(for one race) and solo thru hiked both the Sierra High Route and Hayduke Trails.
FWIW, most of those I currently observe on the CDT and PCT use their devices for GPS. I personally like to be able to use both paper maps and compass and GPS.