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You might want to get a copy of the book "The Essential Wilderness Navigator". It does a great job of explaining map and compass work without sounding boring. After reading it, I almost wanted to get lost, just so I could find my way back. Trouble is, once you learn how to navigate well it's really hard to get lost in the first place. <_<

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Well, I could suggest reading one of the chapters of my geocaching book which will be out next month <_< , or, if you're in a real rush, go to www.learn-orienteering.org, which has Kjetil Kjernsmo's illustrated guide on how to use a compass. When I just checked, I couldn't get to the page, but also found http://www.chasetrek.org.uk/tutorial/compass.html, which is another tutorial.

 

You should also brush up on map reading (the combation of compass and map is great), and if you are in the mood for another gadget, an altimeter can make an excellent auxiliary tool for distinguishing between several different suspected locations by known height.

 

Best thing to do is to get a topo map of where you live, then trying some of the compass techniques of taking bearings, moving between map and real world, and keeping your navigation on track as you are moving. That way, you have some sense of where you are and it makes it easier to grasp the compass work.

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Aye I agree. Being from the military I try not to use GPS as much as possible. Some items and key points I would consider are:

 

Pace Count

Find an accurate 100 meters, ie highschool track works great. I usually count everytime my left foot hits the ground (average about 75 paces). *NOTE: on rough terrain you will have to add a few steps into this, while in the woods. To keep track on long legs, you can get or make pace-counter beads. Another method is carry a bunch of pebbles in one pocket and every 100 meters place one in your other pocket. Its easy to lose track out there while jumping over creeks andplowing through sticker bushes.

 

Topo map with gridlines.

With this you can find a known point on the map like a parking lot. Then use the coodinates of the way point and plot the point on your map.

 

Map Reader/Ruler (make sure you have one with a scale that matches your map like 1:24,000)

Use this tool to accurately plot the cache or waypoint. Center the reader on your start point and lay a piece of paper down online with your waypoint to get the direction. Also use the scale to determine distance.

 

Magnetic/Grid Deviation

Generally at the bottom of the map you will see the the Grid/Magnetic deviation for that area. It reads sort of like a clock. Use this chart to convert your grid(map) direction to magnetic(compass) direction. Its hard to explain but going from GRID->MAGNETIC: if the magnetic arrow is to the right of truenorth then you SUBTRACT the degrees from the one you got off your map. Basically just imagine how the direction would be impacted if you rotated your mapreader to be alligned with magnetic north instead of true(easiest way I can describe it).

 

Basic compass Usage

Rotate the outerring to the exact degrees you want to head. Hold it around sternum level and rotate yourself until you see the RED portion of the needle(magnetic north) line up with the arrow on the baseplate underneath it. Start walking =).

 

Terrain Association

Distance and direction are great to have, but knowing where you are on the map and what terrain you should be seeing is key. e.g. Okay, in 200meters I should come to a fork in this creek.

 

Just some basics...

Oh, and I cant shake military style, so I convert and plot all of my waypoints in MGRS format. And on a side note, the topo I got from REI of a local state park, stated that the Grid to Magnetic was -8 1/2 Degrees. Well, after heading to one waypoint, I noticed something was fishy(it was off). I have another map of the area with magnetic north lines built in, so I plotted 2 knownpoints on both maps and determined that the REI topo was really only -5 1/2 Degrees variance.

 

Hope this helps....

 

Rangerlump

Edited by RangerLump
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Well, I could suggest reading one of the chapters of my geocaching book which will be out next month <_< ,

So that we can watch for it, what's the title of the book (and author, if you are so inclined)? May I ask who the publisher is, or are you self-publishing it, or using POD publisher? What's the topic spread? More info, please.

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So that we can watch for it, what's the title of the book (and author, if you are so inclined)? May I ask who the publisher is, or are you self-publishing it, or using POD publisher? What's the topic spread? More info, please.

I'm the author - Erik Sherman - and the book is called "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with your GPS". It's being published by Apress (normally a computer book publisher, but I talked them into it). Markwell is the technical editor, and besides the obvious geocaching stuff, it also has sections on navigation, hiking, safety, technology, map reading, and other such things.

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So that we can watch for it, what's the title of the book (and author, if you are so inclined)? May I ask who the publisher is, or are you self-publishing it, or using POD publisher? What's the topic spread? More info, please.

I'm the author - Erik Sherman - and the book is called "Geocaching: Hike and Seek with your GPS". It's being published by Apress (normally a computer book publisher, but I talked them into it). Markwell is the technical editor, and besides the obvious geocaching stuff, it also has sections on navigation, hiking, safety, technology, map reading, and other such things.

Thanks and Congratulations! :) Found the listing on Amazon. Looks like you're a busy guy. I'll look forward to picking it up.

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Aye I agree. Being from the military I try not to use GPS as much as possible. Some items and key points I would consider are...

 

Oh, and I cant shake military style, so I convert and plot all of my waypoints in MGRS format...

Hello everyone, new guy here, first post, haven't even gone out looking for my first cache yet. I'd like to ask RangerLump a few things based on his reply... since I spent 7 years in the Army and had plenty of time to get used to using a map & compass the Army way (and only using a GPS during one exercise) I strongly agree with what he has recommended. Knowing how to read a map & use a compass along with understanding the terrain you are navigating will make life so much easier. Following a little arrow on an electronic gizmo is only going to teach you how to follow a little arrow, it can't teach you how to really understand "where on earth" you are, which is what you need to know if you ever get lost (or need to find the enemy, whichever situation applies to you most often).

 

I fear that I'll be extremely frustrated if I try to use a GPS using anything other than the UTM/MGRS format, I fully understand a good old-fashioned 6-digit grid. I can look at a map with my destination plotted and find the (hopefully) best route before ever taking a single step. I can stop along my route and find my location based on terrain association, and I can tell how far I am away from my destination just by looking at the 6-digit grid. If I try to navigate with the coordinates I see on my GPS I can't make heads or tails of where I am, nor can I use those numbers to judge distance. I don't use the metric system most of the time, but I know what a "click" or a "K" is, and it's easy to figure out distance on properly marked up map when given a 6-digit grid... the coordinates on my GPS may as well be written in a foreign language.

 

My question to RangerLump (and anyone familiar with land navigation "the military way") is this - should I try to forget what I already know & just go with this new coordinate system, or should I jump through some hoops to make conversions and keep using a map & compass to get me around? I think the only benefit of using a GPS is to verify my current location, that's all I ever used it for that one time (actually a 2 week period, multiple times, but I kept it turned off 99% of the time I was navigating and never got lost, and always got where I need to go - alive). For caches in areas I'm familiar with I probably won't need a map & compass, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable finding remote sites reading a map & compass the way I'm used to.

 

Are there any suggestions on software to make the conversions easy, methods of switching systems on the GPS to input one way & read another, places to buy maps like I used in the Army? Anything will be helpful, thanks!

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Are there any suggestions on software to make the conversions easy, methods of switching systems on the GPS to input one way & read another, places to buy maps like I used in the Army? Anything will be helpful, thanks!

I know on my Garmin eTrex Venture that I can enter the coords as dd mm.mmm and go to Main Menu-->Setup --> Units and change it to UTM or a number of other formats.

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Also, the Magellan 330 and 315 I use have a setup for showing / using a secondary coordinates system in 12 different formats - lat/lon; UTM; OSGB; Irish; Swiss; Swedish; Finnish; Gerrman; French; USNG; MGRS; User Grid. You can have any one item as the Primary and UTM ( or any one of the other Coord systems) as the Secondary. Or UTM as the Primary. And from there you have a choice of 76 different map datums. If you use the lat/lon as the primary, the maggies will convert to the secondary coordinate system automatically for you.

 

This was more then likely more information then you wanted but I posted it just incase it is of use.

 

logscaler.

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look on the internet for your local orienteering club (or PM me with where you live) and go to one of their meets. O-Clubs are allways very helpful to newbies and have a few courses designed just for you. They will hold a (usually free) begginers clinic before every meet. Usually enterence fees are only 5-10 bucks. I am a very active competative orienteer and am not a map drafter and a course setter

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Thanks for the replies so far, I have a plain old yellow eTrex, I'll look into switching between the 2 coordinate systems with it... I recall it being possible but I don't think I have the Primary/Seconday option, that would be nice!

 

Thanks for that tip wildearth2001, I'll have a look around... I've seen that there's a pretty active Geocacher community in my neck of the woods (NE Florida), if I hook up with them maybe I'll find my way into the orienteering thing too, that sounds very interesting. Any links that you know of, feel free to pass them on. I see you must be a cyclist too... here's a great Armstrong quote:

"This is my body. And I can do whatever I want to it. I can push it. Study it. Tweak it. Listen to it. Everybody wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my a** six hours a day. What are you on?"

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