I'm taking JimShaw's suggestion and making a little informational post for those who are getting started.

Navigation is one of the most critical skills for any hiker or backpacker. I am not going to try to teach anyone how to navigate; there are plenty of good books on the subject, and classes available in many areas. But I want to emphasize something that I think is not always made clear in navigational instruction - and that is the attitude you ought to adopt. You can't just navigate every hour or so, or every time you come to a trail junction - it needs to be a constant awareness of your surroundings and of what the trail is doing (assuming you are on a trail, which as beginners I would expect you to be)and what the terrain is like. And you need to think well ahead of where you are at the moment. Before the trip, you need to study that topo map, so that it becomes familiar. Before you leave the trailhead, look over the part of the map that covers the first few miles of trail. You look at that and say to yourself: "okay, so we go along this valley floor for a ways, then we'll fade to the right and up the side of the valley, there's some switchbacks there, then we follow that draw up to the saddle, and there's a little peak off to the left of the trail as it goes through the saddle, and from there we ought to be able to see that first lake", (if you can't do that,then you don't know how to read a topo map and you ought not to be out there without someone to help you navigate). Now you're ready to go, because you know what to expect on the trail and if it doesn't look like that then you better wonder why not, and figure out why ther trial isn't going they way it seems to go on the map.
When you don't look ahead, you don't know what to expect and you're lost before you know it.
And you need to look at that map often - like really often. I keep my map in a little pouch on my shoulder strap where I can look at it any time - and I do look at it often. If you put your map in your pack, you might as well leave it at home. Same goes for the compass or GPS if you're using one. You want to make it easy to check. Here's what happens when you don't look at the map for a while: I usually cover 2 or 3 miles in an hour on the trail, maybe 1 or 2 off the trail. If I haven't looked at my map for an hour, I can be 1 to 3 miles away from where I thought I was before I have any idea. By paying constant attention, you'll know sooner that the trail you ought to have taken at the last junction was the one to the left, not the one to the right.
Basically the idea is to keep constantly checking your position in a rough and ready way - Should I be able to see that mountain yet, or that lake? shouldn't there be a junction along about here? Sometimes you'll come to a totally unmarked junction - no sign, no nothing. How can you tell if it's the junction you are looking for or just an old trail that's not shown on your map? If you've been paying attention, keeping an eye on things as you go, you'll know that you haven't crossed the stream that should be before that junction and so this must not be it. It's that sort of little clue that you need to be keeping track of.
Once you get used to it, this becomes second nature, and all those little glances at the map become a habit. And then navigating is just part of how you walk, rather than a separate thing.

Wow, excellent post. It is exactly what I recommend (no that that means anything). I always carry my topo in my hand, so that I can constantly check it. Reading a topo map is IMHO way more important than knowing how to use a compass, and the map is more valuable.

Good post. Especially where I hike in the woods of the East, it's rare to be able to do classic navigation, such as triangulating off two known points in the distance. Even on ridgetops, "the distance" is usually about 50 feet to the next really big tree (as opposed to the hundreds of regular trees all around me.)

Knowing what the terrain should feel like (uphill, downhill, level), where the streams cross, and where the trail junctions are will be much more useful when I head into an unfamiliar area.

The only thing I'd add for beginners, who should be hiking on-trails for now, is to pay attention to blazes. One nice thing about woods hiking is that there are plenty of places to put blazes, and most trails are well-marked. However, each trail will have a different color or shape of blaze, so you need to learn at the trailhead what blaze goes with what trail. Then as you walk, get in the habit (which soon becomes automatic) of looking for blazes; when you don't see any for a while, you're probably off your trail (following a game trail or unofficial side trail.)

At that point, you should do the Panic Dance, right? No. If you are still on a trail, just turn around and backtrack along it until you start seeing blazes again, then figure out what went wrong.

Combine that sense of blazes being present with a sense of what the terrain should feel like, and the compass becomes almost secondary in the navigational process - until you head off trail on purpose.

Thanks Paul.
I think people come here for advice because its easier and cheaper than reading a book, and who reads anyway?

I would ad this if I may? Whenever you come to a trail junction look at the map, orient it and see whether the trails seem to be going the same direction as they appear to be on the map. Trails change and some times you think you're on a different one than you actually are. If that happens, the angles of the intersection might be helpfull to figure out where you are.

Jim

There are a lot of ways to tackle the topic of navigation; I did some minor help at putting together a PCT FAQ, and I wrote the "navigation" entry for that.

I just checked, and the links given in that entry are all still valid. What I particularly liked doing there was the "how to get lost" piece --- knowing the failure modes can be useful in avoiding them! (Those particular "how to get lost" items were specific to long distance hikers on the PCT, there are certainly other ways ...)

Excellent posts! I'd just like to add that it's a good idea to turn around every now and then and look behind you, especially at obvious landmarks and at trail junctions. This is a big help in finding your way back. Things look different when you're going the other direction!

There are lots of sources on using map and compass. Getting involved with a local orienteering group can be lots of fun and teach you important skills!

Remember that a GPS has batteries prone to failure and can't tell you what direction you're going. Don't neglect the basic map and compass skills! If you have those, the GPS is a truly helpful addition, but one you can get along without if necessary.

Re tree blazes: in the western US, the classic US Forest Service blaze was a short blaze with long blaze beneath it, like an inverted exclamation point (!). They face the trail in either direction. While these blazes are no longer used in most places, the old blazes fill in to just a vertical long line beneath with short line on top. I have followed completely abandoned trails just by following the scars of old blazes and checking the opposite side of the tree for changes in direction. In open meadows, the usual practice was to pile up one large rock (or a small cairn) with a smaller rock on top.

Mouse I know you don't use a GPS but I do not know of a single model without a built in compass, I could be wrong. Its one of the reasons I prefer the GPS. And the nice thing about a gps compass is there is no regional offset, they point to true north.
Jim

My little bare bones Foretrex 101 gives me the option of setting it for True North, Magnetic North, Grid North, or User North (would that be an Untrue North?). It gives a bearing when I am moving, but not when I stand still. I am pretty sure the more fully featured models can do at least this much, but this is plenty of tech for me. I still like to check the stars to be sure of my direction.

But do you really want something as basic to your survival as a compass to depend on batteries? I don't! Of course there are ways of determining the direction without using a compass, but out here in the Northwest where the moss grows on all sides of the trees, it's a bit more difficult!

If I were in a real "Survival" situation I'd very much rather have a GPS than not.

Having a "Track" of your wanderings to help guide you back, or a "Route" to help get you to your end point is pretty handy. So is finding the nearest hospital, police station, or gas station.

That argument that a GPS can fail or run out of batteries is only valid if that's all you took with you, it completely ignores that they are actually very reliable, and that if you only turn them on when you want or need to check your location the batteries will last for weeks while your wondering around.

There is also a wealth of other info you can obtain from your GPS, like Sun and Moon rise and set times, high and low tides, elevation, and ETA's, which can also help you survive.

OM, you can still take a map and a compass too, there are no rules against that, I do it every time

Considering the fact that I'm still trying to master the functions of my 3-year-old digital camera, I doubt that I'll live long enough to figure out how to use a GPS! On the other hand, I have considerable skills in navigating via map and compass and exploring terrain, developed over many years. I've actually been lost only once, due to (1) inadequate map, (2) compass that had reversed polarity and (3) panic produced by oncoming thunderstorm, with me on top of the highest hill for miles around. I also, thanks to #3, forgot most of my French so misinterpreted what the party I met just before the storm hit said to me! Once I sat down, had a snack and analyzed everything (had to wait out the thunderstorm crouched under some bushes anyway), I was fine, and squished my way back to the trailhead without problems.

The moral of this is that your best defense against getting lost is not so much gear items but common sense and staying in one place until the initial panic has subsided!

I can relate to staying put until the panic subsides. Many years ago (dirt was still new), I was one my second-ever backpack trip, and my first-ever solo trip. I had been carefully following the trail, and knew it was crossing a wide meadow. It wasn't a well-used trail, and there wasn't a discernible track or other markings - but I could see where the woods started on the other side, and knew I'd find blazes again. I also knew the topo map showed the trail going pretty straight across the open area. So, off I went.

Got to the other side, and walked about a hundred yards each direction along the tree line - no blazes! With panic rising, I repeated the process - still no blazes. At that point, I knew I was lost, and the sun was getting low in the sky. As the panic built, I did retain enough sense to tell myself: "you're not lost; at worst, you'll just camp here and backtrack to the car tomorrow. Sit down, have a snack, and figure it out." So, I leaned back against the nearest tree and took about 15 minutes to eat, drink, and think.

Now calm again, I stood up and turned around - and found that my missing blaze was on the side of the tree I'd been sitting against!

I've never had a problem with being lost since - the attitude I decided to adopt was "Me not lost - trail lost." and "Wherever you go, there you are." My trips haven't always gone exactly according to plan, but they've never failed to please me.

OM, I kind of figured that it was mostly a matter of not caring to learn how to use one, and not needing one, than the reliability of a GPS. And I don't blame you one bit.

There's really not a lot a GPS could do for you other than add weight and maybe provide amusement. Probably not a good trade off for you as I doubt you'd be much amused




I completely agree. That's is a very important point. It's a simple thing but it is often overlooked by people new to hiking.

I've learned to make friends I take out stop and do this because it prevents panic when we're rushing out around sunset and they're not sure I have them going the right way. "Remember that tree with big broken branch I pointed out? See, we're fine, just another mile or so to go." You can see their relief instantly.

Works for me too

I thought I was the only one who checked the map frequently, but because I couldn't remember any details. I use my legs to counter any mistakes, good exercise.:) If you have an idea of how many miles an hour you travel, you can use a watch to figure out where any side trails or old trails should be. I have a trail to the west of Desolation Wilderness in California which I have been over parts of it almost three times now. Luckily, this one meadow I have hit all three times and that is without a compass, fun trying to follow old blaze marks and trying to detemine if a mark is a blaze mark, slow going at times because of windfalls also.

oldranger,
well I'll be dipped in - your choice. There are 4 different compass settings on my 101. I really do not believe that the 101 has a magnetic flux gate, therefore it must look up your location and check a reference table and offset it. Personally I really like my compass to point true north, but how wold that be different from Grid north I wonder?

I know there is a lot of functionality that I don't use, and being an engineer the manual is no doubt still sealed in cellophane somewhere. So can you put routes into the 101? I always just set a bunch of way points
and go for them individually. Of course I am almost always off trail, so I don't really follow routes anyway.
Jim

I know you can put routes into the 101 because the manual sez so...but I never have.

I set my unit to TN, and let it go at that. My understanding is that grid north is pretty close to TN, usually off by just a degree or so.