Navigation Exercise: Constant Awareness

Greg Davenport

Greg Davenport

Joined
Nov 29, 1999
Messages
632
We all read the recent post by GumDoc on how the hunter got lost and didn't have a compass. He could not use celestial aids to naviagate out and was thus left to wonder until he found his way out. He was lucky.
Perhaps if he had worked on his ability to be constantly aware of his cardinal directions (E/W/N/S) he would have been able to walk out.

Ever notice how easy it is to wonder around and lose track of which way North is? We do it in the city everyday....when we do it in the woods it could lead to devestating results.

I would like to challenge people to develop a constant awareness of their cardinal directions...starting now.

Stop what you are doing and point to the direction you think is north.

Check it and then post (accountability) here how close you were.

Note: if checking your accuracy with a compass don't forget to adjust your compasses northern heading to account for your locations magnetic variation.

Practice this on a regular basis (it makes you pay attention to landmarks, constellations, and other various things around you)... it will tune your abiltiy to be aware of your cardinal directions and will definately help you when traveling in the backcountry.


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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
I must say, sitting in my room, that I don't know where north is. But were I to go outside, I could tell you. I must say i don't think constant awareness is a necessity, and I'm stubborn enough not to check on my hunch...
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. Knowing how to find north is more important than knowing where it is all the time...


Stryver
 
Stryver,

Geez
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This is just an exercise to better hone your skills.... I'm just challenging you to work on a skill. Kinda like going in the back yard and playing with your metal match to ligth a tinder.

Also, I disagree with you about constant (meaning an ongoing awareness) awarness not being important (in the woods...on the couch, who cares). This is a fatal error made by many people who make that (oh so bad, except for the grace of god, therefore goes I) mistake and find themselves without the tools they need and no constillations to use.

Proper prior preperation means practicing all the skills of wilderness survival. Naviagtion is one of the "five survival essentials" and this include the ability to navigate with and without a map and compass (even when there are no constillations to use).

For those of you out there reading this post, take the exercise for what it is worth...
biggrin.gif


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Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
I am facing due south here at my computer as I type. North is right behind me.
smile.gif

I think you can break it down further. If you can find North, you can find E/W/S. For me, constant awareness comes easy, because I practice it regularly. I learned long ago how important that skill is. I rarely venture into the woods, or the city, without a map. A city map is something you can practice with a lot more regularly than your woods map. Plus, you can impress your significant other with knowing where you are and not needing to stop to ask directions. City navigation is easier than the woods (ie, streets generally run N/S, E/W) and it helps to keep the fundamentals. Try navigating using just intersections and landmarks (sounds like the woods, huh!?).

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you know you are into knives when you remember to clip them to your belt but forget to zip up your fly.
 
I am very guilty of this one at the moment! I am about 90 deg off here in Texas! I haven't been able to get it straightened out in over a year and a half. Most anywhere north of here and I'm fine.

Accordingly I ALWAYS have one if not two or three compasses on me and handy!! I never use to do that in ND.



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com


 
Originally posted by Greg Davenport:
Ever notice how easy it is to wonder around and lose track of which way North is? We do it in the city everyday....
Click to expand...
We do? I've never gotten lost in a foreign city because I lost track of direction, it's distances which are the tricky part, unless you've got good landmarks to see, which means knowing which direction to go may not be obvious.

Well, unless you count being underground, that is, then a couple of small turns and gradual twists can make things hard.

Stop what you are doing and point to the direction you think is north.
Click to expand...

I'm at home now, so how could I be uncertain?

Actually, when doing orienteering in school, I usually didn't use the compass and just followed the map. (It's not the way to win, which I never did, but I hardly ever was very far behind.)

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Urban Fredriksson
www.canit.se/%7Egriffon/

Some Swedish Chrismas traditions:

1. At 3 o'clock on Christmas Eve (Dec 25:th is hardly a
special day here) almost every one watches one hour of Disney
cartoons on the public service TV network, even though it's
been practically no changes in the content the last four
decades. The "highlight" is when the original Swedish
presenter sings along with Benjamin Cricket at the end.

2. Coca Cola usually has around 60% of the market in Sweden,
but around Christmas it drops to about half, as Swedes then
drink "julmust" instead.
 
Urban,

It appears that this exercise has a few people up in arms.... or perhaps I am just a little sensative
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I use the words we, and us as a generic term...
smile.gif


So how about a pole here... how many of you feel that having an ongoing awareness of your location (while in the woods) is foolish? Feel free to voice your openion. People have disagreed with me before (they are just wrong LOL
smile.gif
)

I have a lot of stories about individuals dropping their pack, going for a walk, and becouse they failed to pay attention... not making it back to the pack. Also, of people setting their map and compass down and forgeting it and ... lots of opportunity for the old "except for the grace of God, therefore goes I" to occur. Read my recent post about how my cockiness caused me great pain when evading capture by people who meant to do me harm
biggrin.gif
. Perhaps if they'd practice some constant awareness....

Since I go to many wilderness locations throughout the world... I still contend that this is a great exercise... proper prior preperation prevents poor performance.

Ron what is your angle on this? When you were in Peru, did you periodically stop and orient your mind to your location (when hunting birds)?

------------------
Greg Davenport
http://www.ssurvival.com
Are You Ready For The Challenge?
Are You Ready To Learn The Art Of Wilderness Survival?

 
Greg,
Sorry if I came across wrong in my last post, no offense taken or meant... I just don't keep track of cardinal directions normally.
However, I can normally go back to wherever I cam from, even if I don't follow the same trail. And I can normally find the cardinals by stopping and looking around me. I lived in Denver for so long, where the mountains were always _that_ way, and never moved, and that probably got me lazy. But even at my house there, I was always off in my directions, I think it was cause the street we were on was curved weird...

I apologize if I came across badly, when I re-read the post, it did sound rather harsh... Not what I meant...


Stryver
 
In my very limited experience I almost always used the sun and my watch, combined with the shadow method. I also used the stars (however I found stars more difficult to identify when plenty, happened where visibility was so good). Of course, besides the compass. Constant awareness is not necessarily my second nature but comes qiute natural.

My opinion is that it is important to know constantly where you are (like with everything in this life) relative to the map and main landmarks or whatever helps you to get back or to your destination. It might be subjective what you use but it has to identify your three space coordinates and the time.
I like to know when hike (ex.): where North is, what time it is, where I am on the map, how long (time, distance) has been going since start and how much is left.
If you know the area (or at least you think like the hunters in the other thread or Mark in Greg's intro) you might rely on that. Compass and watch just made measuring all these more accurate and standardized.

After all these said, DARN I still keep forgetting to add the magnetic variation (basic reason: I learnt it back in Hungary, where variation is ~1 degree, therefore none uses it).

Answer to original question: within +/- 20 degrees I think I can tell. Sounds quite a bit..but that's life.

Just a opinion,

HM
 
In my opinion, constant awareness of your surroundings is is a practiced skill and one that ranks among the top of all survival skills.

Awareness of direction, although crucial, is just a small part of your overall suvivability. General awareness (not paranoia) of every aspect of life should be practiced every day, whether you're in a familiar city, foreign country, or a wilderness area.

Especially in foreign countries, awareness should be increased by paying attention to the locals and the gossip, since rumor is usually just premature fact.

Many dangers are avoidable if you learn how to listen to your gut response and raise your sense of observation just a bit. Avoiding potential danger may not be the macho thing to do but in my opinion there is no cowardice in staying alive. - Jeff

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Randall's Adventure & Training
jeff@jungletraining.com

 
Greg,

Merry Christmas and I am happy to be on this new list. I love this question because it comes up often in my shop(I work with life support, what do you expect?). Recently with no sun, cloudy, and no compass I was asked how would you find North? Simple SA! I knew which way North was from the terrain, the ridges running N-S, a previously identified northerly point, and the wind coming from due South. It is all up to you to maintain that. The only time I have gotten lost(muddy creek area) I did not maintain my SA and was lost (with students). A GPS is great but should only be the back-up, let me check to see how good I am, tool. Take care to everyone and Happy New Year!

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Yol bolsun,
Jamie
 
Greg,
I was about 15 degrees off sitting here in my office at the computer. I think is a great exercise! Situational awareness is enormously important to survival(woods,city, driving, crossing the street etc.) and directional awareness is built right into it. I drive alot and recently started to track cardinal points by sun, stars, pointing big watch hand at sun and finding south etc. This has helped keep me on track and save travel time with work. I constantly need to work on this(as well as all other skills).

John
 
I'm always doing this reguardless of where I'm at or going. Develouped this habit years ago visiting foregin country's I always had a excape plan in mind (direction/distance), and now working out in the middle of nowhere it does come in handy.

Was out driving around in a blinding snow storm last month that had not much for snow accumulation but 50mph winds.
The vis was down to about 3-5 feet past the hood of my truck. more than once I missed the correct turn as could not see them, ended up in a part of the country I've never seen, but by keeping track of what direction I was going and approx miles ended up less than 2 miles north of where I wanted to go. And this was after driving for 3 hours on a normal 1 hour drive.
 
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