[pct-l] Navigation without GPS

[Chris Anderson]

I will be hiking without a gps...but in all my years of hiking i have carried a map and compass and used them, even when unnecessary, to check where I am, to read the terrain.  If you learn to read a map and use a compass you should have no problem on a trail...just orient your map to north, adjust for declination, and you know which path to take at an unmarked junction.  However, on snow or in fog or going cross country, you need to know how to use a map and compass correctly, precisely, and be right.  That is where practice comes in.  I would suggest finding books or internet sites that teach the correct way to use a map and compass, then get out and practice.  Once you feel comfortable on a trail, plan a few cross country trips that require you to shoot for landmarks, find catches in case you overshoot, and reach your destination...nothing beats practice, especially cross country where you don't have a trail to follow and you have to be right.
 
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Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat!



________________________________
 From: Dan Jacobs <youroldpaldan at gmail.com>
To: pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2013 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: [pct-l] Navigation without GPS
 
On Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 7:43 AM, Martin M. Clark
<martin.m.clark at gmail.com> wrote:
> Fellow PCT hikers,
>
> I gave a question regarding navigation without a gps. I am planning on hiking the PCT starting may 13th and have little experience with map and compass reading. I am planningnon printing and carrying halfmiles maps and am wondering what suggestions the community has for someone wanting to develop traditional navigation skills. Thought about taming a class but rei wants 80 bucks for their intro class.
>
> Any suggestions are appreciated!
>
> Martin M. Clark

Go to library.
Borrow a book and wilderness navigation.
Go outside and practice.
Return book when confident you have acquired the new skill.
Hit the trail with a map and a a compass.

Dan Jacobs
Washougal
-- 
"Loud motorcycle stereos save lives."
Motorcycle to hike, hike to motorcycle.
A student of philosophy, eager to display his powers of argument,
approached Diogenes, introduced himself and said, "If it pleases you,
sir, let me prove to you that there is no such thing as motion."
Whereupon Diogenes immediately got up and left.
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