Latest / Wildlands Podcast — National Parks, Public Lands & Survival / #020 - Field Skills: Navigation | Map, Compass & When the Phone Dies

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#020 - Field Skills: Navigation | Map, Compass & When the Phone Dies · Wildlands Podcast — National Parks, Public Lands & Survival

0:11
At some point on a trail, in dense forest, or
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in cloud on a ridge line, or in a section of
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terrain that stopped looking like it matched
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your memory of the map 20 minutes ago, the phone
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in your pocket becomes a small, dark, powerless
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rectangle. Maybe the battery died. Maybe the
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app lost its cache tiles. Maybe the cell signal
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that was keeping your GPS honest simply stopped.
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And suddenly you are navigating the way human
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beings have navigated for most of history, by
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what you can actually see in front of you and
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what you can read on a piece of paper. I spent
0:50
years in the army navigating in exactly that
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condition. No GPS, at least not in the early
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years. Topo maps. lensatic compass, terrain association,
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and a system drilled into you until it was reflex
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rather than thought. That training did not make
1:08
navigation easy. It made it reliable, and reliable
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is what you need when the phone is dead and the
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light is fading and you are not entirely certain
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which ridge you are standing on. This is Wildlands.
1:21
I'm Sean. Know the land before you reach it.
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Field Skills Navigation. Map. Compass. and what
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to do when the phone dies. We are going to cover
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reading a topo map, taking and following a bearing,
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terrain association, handrails and catch features,
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staying found, and the protocol for when you
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are already lost. None of this requires a military
1:46
background. It requires a map, a compass, and
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the willingness to practice before you need it
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because the field is not where you want to be
1:54
learning this for the first time. Start with
1:58
the map, because everything else in this episode
2:00
depends on being able to read one. A topographic
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map shows you the three -dimensional shape of
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the Earth on a two -dimensional surface using
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contour lines, lines that connect all points
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at the same elevation. Every contour line on
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a standard USGS topo map represents a fixed vertical
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interval, typically 40 feet on the most common
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scale. When those lines are spread far apart,
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you are looking at gentle, gradual terrain. When
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they are compressed tightly together, you are
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looking at a steep slope or a cliff. When they
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form closed loops, you are looking at a hill
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or a summit. The innermost loop is the highest
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point. When the loops are nested in a U or V
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shape, pointing uphill, you are looking at a
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drainage or a valley. When the loops point downhill,
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you are looking at a ridge. This is the fundamental
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skill that separates people who actually navigate
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from people who follow a blue dot on a screen.
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Learning to see the landscape in the lines before
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you ever leave the trailhead. Before a hike,
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I spend time with the topo asking specific questions.
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Where does the ridge I am crossing drop away,
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on the far side, gradually, or steeply? If I
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veer off route to the left, what do I hit first?
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Is there a stream below me that I can follow
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out if I need to bail? The map is telling you
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all of this in advance, if you know how to read
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it. The most common scale for hiking maps is
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1 to 24 ,000, meaning 1 inch on the map equals
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2 ,000 feet on the ground. Knowing the scale
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matters because it tells you how to estimate
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distances half an inch between two features means
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roughly a quarter mile, and in steep terrain,
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every quarter mile is more effort than the flat
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number suggests. The other thing to look for
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before you leave, identify your bailout routes.
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Not just your planned route, but the answers
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to what happens if I cannot continue, which way
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do I go to reach a road, a river, a known landmark
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where someone might look for me, or where I have
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cell signal. Mark those on your map. The Army
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drills this before every movement, and it applies
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in the backcountry just as directly. Know your
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way out. before you commit to going in. Now the
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compass, specifically the one piece of the compass
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that most recreational hikers never think about
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until it sends them the wrong direction. Magnetic
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declination is the angle between magnetic north
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where your compass needle actually points and
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true north, which is what your topo map is oriented
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to. Those two norths are not the same, and the
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difference between them varies significantly
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depending on where in the country you are. In
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much of the western United States, declination
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runs between 10 and 15 degrees east. In the northeast,
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it runs several degrees west. Here is why that
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matters in practice. An uncorrected 15 -degree
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error compounds over distance. Per kilometer
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traveled, a 15 -degree declination error puts
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you roughly... 270 meters off your intended line.
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Over several kilometers of dense forest navigation,
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that is enough to miss a trail junction entirely
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or exit the woods well away from where your car
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is parked. Most modern baseplate compasses have
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an adjustable declination, setting a small screw
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or mechanism that rotates the bezel so the orienting
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arrow inside the housing is offset from magnetic
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north by the exact amount of your local declination.
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meaning when you align the needle, you are automatically
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corrected for the difference. Look up the declination
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for your specific location before every trip.
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The NOAA magnetic declination tool gives you
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the exact current value for any coordinates in
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the country. Set it on your compass, mark it
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on your map, and do not assume last year's value
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is exactly right this year, since declination
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shifts slowly over time. Some people compensate
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manually instead. adding or subtracting the declination
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from every bearing. Both methods work. The mistake
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is ignoring it entirely, which is exactly what
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most people who carry a compass but have not
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actually trained with one tend to do. Taking
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a bearing in the field is a sequential process
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that is genuinely simple once you have done it
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a few times, and genuinely confusing to describe
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in words without a map in your hands. The short
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version, point the direction of travel arrow
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at your target, Rotate the bezel until the orienting
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lines align with the north -south lines on your
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map. Read the bearing in degrees at the index
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line, correct for declination. Then, hold the
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compass flat in front of you and rotate your
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whole body until the magnetic needle sits exactly
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inside the orienting arrow. The direction of
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travel arrow now points where you need to go.
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Pick an object along that line, a distinctive
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tree, a rock, a point on a ridgeline. Walk to
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it. and repeat this technique lets you travel
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in a straight line across terrain where there
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is no trail without staring at the compass constantly
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the army called it walking on a bearing it is
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one of the most useful single skills in wilderness
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navigation terrain association is the preferred
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method of experienced navigators and once you
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build the habit it is faster and more intuitive
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than strict bearing travel for most on -trail
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hiking The concept is simple. You match what
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you see in the landscape in front of you to the
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features on your map, continuously, as you move.
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That ridge on your right corresponds to this
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set of closely spaced contour lines here. That
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drainage you just crossed is the one shown cutting
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between these two hills on the map. The summit
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you are looking at to the northwest is the high
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point at this grid coordinate. You are constantly
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triangulating between the ground and the paper.
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keeping them in agreement. When they stop agreeing
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when the terrain in front of you does not match
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what the map says should be there, that is information.
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It means either you have misread the map or you
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have drifted from your intended route. And either
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way, you want to know it early, not a mile later
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when the gap has had time to compound. This is
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the skill that actually tells you where you are
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without looking at a GPS. It requires attention
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and regular check -ins, not just navigation when
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you feel uncertain. Many people only look at
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their map when they already suspect something
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is wrong, by which point they may have been off
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route for 20 or 30 minutes. The discipline is
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checking in proactively, at every junction, every
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significant terrain feature, every meaningful
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change in the trail's direction, confirming that
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what you see matches what the map predicted you
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would see. I developed this as a reflex in the
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Army, because the consequences of not doing it
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were real and immediate. In the civilian backcountry,
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the consequences are usually less severe, but
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the habit is just as worth building. Two concepts
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worth having in your vocabulary before you head
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out. Handrails and catch features. A handrail
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is a linear terrain feature, a river, a ridgeline,
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a fence line, a trail that runs roughly parallel
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to your route and that you keep to one side as
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you travel. It acts as a reference that tells
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you, you have not drifted past a certain point
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without requiring you to constantly take bearings.
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If the river should be on your left and it is
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suddenly on your right, you have crossed it and
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you know immediately that something has gone
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wrong with your direction. The Army explicitly
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teaches handrail navigation because it dramatically
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reduces the number of bearing checks required
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to stay oriented and it works just as well for
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a day hiker moving through dense forest. as it
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does for a military unit moving at night. Before
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every route, look at the map and identify your
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handrails, the features you will keep to your
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side or cross at predictable points that confirm
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you are on track. A catch feature is the opposite,
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something on the far side of your objective that
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tells you that you have gone too far. If you
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are navigating to a trail junction, maybe the
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catch feature is a river crossing that appears
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half a mile past the junction. If you hit the
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river, you know you have overshot and need to
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backtrack. Planning catch features in advance
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means you have a built -in alarm system for overshoot,
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which is one of the most common navigation errors
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in terrain where one feature looks like another
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dense conifer forest. For instance, where ridgelines
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can be difficult to distinguish from each other
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in poor visibility. A catch feature does not
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let you get lost. It just limits how lost you
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can get before you know it has happened. And
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now the part people least want to think about
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before they need it and most need to have thought
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about. What do you do when you are genuinely
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uncertain where you are? The framework used in
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wilderness survival education is called STOP.
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Stop, think, observe, plan. Stop means exactly
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that. Stop moving. Every step you take while
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disoriented has a chance of moving you further
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from your last known position. And your last
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known position is your most valuable piece of
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information. Motion feels like action. Staying
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put feels like surrender. In most lost scenarios,
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staying put is the better choice, especially
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if anyone knows your planned route and expected
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return time. Think. What do you actually know?
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When did you last have a definitive fix on your
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location? A trail junction? A summit? A stream
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crossing you can identify on the map? How long
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ago was that? Which direction have you been moving
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since then? That mental reconstruction of your
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recent movement is the beginning of figuring
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out roughly where you might be now. Observe.
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Look at your surroundings with fresh eyes and
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match them to the map. Not the surroundings as
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you have been seeing them for the past confused
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hour, but as they actually are. What is the slope
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aspect? Which direction is it facing? Is there
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a drainage below you? What can you see on the
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horizon that might be identifiable? Even in heavy
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forest, elevation and slope direction give you
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constraints. You may not be able to pinpoint
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your exact position, but you can often narrow
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it down to a plausible area which ridge you are
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on, which drainage is below you. Plan. Given
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what you know, what is the most sensible next
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move? Not the most ambitious move, the most sensible
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one. In most backcountry disorientation scenarios,
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That means backtracking toward your last known
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position rather than pushing forward on a guess.
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A guess is how lost turns into very lost. The
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additional overlay on all of this, and something
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I want to say directly, navigation is a continuous
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process, not an emergency response. The stop
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protocol exists for when things have already
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gone wrong. What keeps things from going wrong
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is checking in regularly. while you are still
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oriented at every junction, every significant
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feature, every change in direction, so that disorientation,
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if it comes at all, comes as a small drift you
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catch quickly, rather than a large confusion
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you suddenly find yourself inside. The military
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saying that has stayed with me is, Always know
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where you are. Not mostly know. Not roughly know.
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Know. The discipline of maintaining that continuous
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awareness. is the habit that keeps the stop protocol
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from ever being necessary. Let me close with
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a practical pre -trip checklist, because a lot
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of this only works if you set it up before you
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leave the trailhead. Download your topo map to
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your phone app before you lose signal, and download
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the relevant paper map too, either printed at
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home or purchased at a gear shop or visitor center.
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Mark your planned route, your keyway points,
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your bailout routes, and your catch features.
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before you start hiking. Look up the magnetic
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declination for your location and set it on your
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compass or write it on your map. Know the scale.
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Know the contour interval. And then practice.
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Not on the tricky day when the fog comes in and
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the trail disappears and the stakes are real.
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Practice on an easy day, on a trail you know
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well. Navigating by the map rather than the blue
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dot, confirming that your map reading matches
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what you are actually seeing in the terrain.
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That is how you build the muscle memory that
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makes the skill available when you actually need
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it. A physical map and a compass that you actually
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know how to use are, combined, about the size
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of a paperback book and the weight of nothing.
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There is no serious argument for leaving them
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behind when the alternative is depending entirely
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on a battery -powered device in a landscape that
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has no chargers. Next episode, we are heading
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to Acadia National Park, Part 1, The History.
15:24
The Wabanaki people who have called this coast
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home for thousands of years, the Gilded Age rusticators
15:30
who discovered it, the carriage roads John D.,
15:33
Rockefeller Jr., built by hand through the granite
15:37
hills, and how a summer colony became one of
15:40
the most beloved parks in the country. Everything
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for this episode. A downloadable pre -trip navigation
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checklist and links to NOAA's declination tool
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and offline map apps is at wildlandsnews .com.
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I'm Sean Spanauer. This has been Wildlands. Know
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the land before you reach it. See you Thursday.