Hey, it’s Jimbo here on behalf of my business partner Bob Pierce and the rest of the crew, who’ve asked me to pass along their undying love. (Okay, it was really more of a nod and mumbling “hey”).

Today this most-manly-of-manly-newsletters covers a skill that every guy thinks he knows something about, but one that few men can actually pull-off in real life…

…land navigation.

• Land Navigation: The skill of rugged men.
• What you can do. More than just finding North.
• The Equipment: Specific simple hand tools.

Land Navigation:

Skill for the rugged mountain man.

If the thought of pulling a map from your backpack and unfurling it on a rustic log-cabin table… taking a slug of brandy, (for medicinal purposes of course)… dialing-in a few bearings on your compass… penciling a few azimuth lines on the map… before finally announcing to your befuddled friends, “we hike exactly 4.5 miles on a 22-degree bearing to reach Bison Meadows”…

…then land navigation is for you.

(“Bison Meadows” is that awesome beer-and-buffalo-wings joint just outside of town).

Because frankly, getting lost sucks.

One of my homes is in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. I want to believe that I know the nearby wilderness like the back of my hand, (until I realized that I’ve never actually taken a good look at the back of my hand).

Lots of hunters, campers, and hikers think the same thing. They overestimate their “Grizzly Adams” skills. They get a little too cocky and it lands them in trouble. (Wait a second… isn’t that what’s so fun about being a guy?).

Like Shawn Higgins. He went hunting with son in the Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon. It was an area he knew well, (like the back of his hand), but family and friends soon became concerned when Shawn failed to show up at an agreed-upon rally point.

Weeks later search and rescue teams finally gave up hope. Shawn was never seen again.

It happens more than you may think. In this same wilderness area, a family from San Francisco made a wrong turn and got their station wagon stuck in the snow. (So far this is sounding a lot like my childhood in Wisconsin).

The man went for help and soon became hopelessly lost. His wife and two kids survived, but the father’s body was found four days later in an icy creek.

In another incident, (in the same area weirdly enough), a nature lover became lost and stranded in the woods for nine weeks before finally starving to death.

These aren’t isolated incidents. Over a period of 10 years, some 1,100 people had to be rescued from the Oregon wild, with 156 confirmed dead or never seen again. And that’s just in Oregon. (Okay, what the hell is going on over there? Is this a Sasquatch thing?)

So I did myself a favor and learned some basic land navigation skills. It’s pretty easy. I also carry the simple navigation tools anytime I head off into the wild, (even in areas I know like the back-of-my-hand).

Because it’s easy to get turned around and lose the amazing homing-pigeon sense of direction that all guys possess, (the same one that has passengers begging you to stop and ask for directions).

And when every tree and rock starts looking the same… and you get the sinking realization that you’re lost… aimlessly slogging knee-deep through a cold swamp, with darkness fast approaching and a winter storm moving in…

…you’ll suddenly understand the heartbreak that Shawn Higgins must have experienced.

There’s no need for a simple screw-up to take your life.

Because with just three simple low-tech tools (that can fit in a pocket) and some easy-to-learn skills, Shawn, (and thousands like him), would be back with his family laughing about the time he almost got lost.

Side Note: If I suddenly “disappear” during a trek into the wilderness, please check with Bison Meadows before doing anything else. Thanks.

What You Can Do With This.

Navigation Not Just For The “Lost”.

Land navigation involves more than just knowing basic directions. (Sure, you may be hopelessly lost in the hinterlands without food and water, but by God you know the sun comes up over there, goes down there. The North Pole is that way, Antarctica that way. What’s there to worry about?).

The first trick is to use your navigation skills NOT to get lost. Think of it like Tarzan swinging through the trees. He doesn’t let go of one vine until he’s got a firm hold of the next one.

In other words, before stepping into the unknown, nail down your precise location first. Then move methodically to your next plot point. Confirm that one before moving on to the next, and so on. This is also known as ”Tarzan Navigation”. (Okay, I just made that up.)

You’ll need a topo map, a specific type compass, (not your grandpas), and a way to track distance — all of which I’ll tell you about in a just a bit.

And here’s just a sample of what you can do with some basic land navigation skills:

Find a cabin or a cache of supplies: With a GPS location you can find anything — by hand and without needing some fancy-dancy GPS device, (which won’t work anyway when you drop it in a river, or the batteries go dead, or after the Chinese hack our satellites).

Mark a cache: Means you can stash vital supplies in the wild, then calculate their precise location and retrieve them later on. I’ve done this with the moose-head my wife threw out of the house. It’s safely hidden and will someday regain its place of honor in the living room, (just after hell freezes over).

Planning an “escape” route: Take your time and meticulously create a getaway plan. Get your map out, mark your starting and endpoints, calculate the azimuths for each leg, distance, and catching features between travel points… and then jot down all the details on a waterproof navigation log that you tuck away in your bugout bag. Best part is that you can complete the plan at your kitchen table without even getting your boots dirty.

Rework your plan on the fly: Things look different on the ground vs a topo map, so you may want to test out your escape route in the real world, (because you never see those elevation lines on the hills. Weird, huh?). So after you create the plan, if you’re so inclined, pack up your gear and head off into the wild to see if the route is a viable one. Use your tools and skills to alter your navigation log as need be. (Hey… where did this mountain come from?)

Getting a “fix” on a position: I like this. Let’s say you’re in the wild with your most trusted buddies and trying to avoid contact with other people during a meltdown situation, (or maybe you’re on the run from all those parking tickets, I dunno). Suddenly you spot the smoke of a distant campfire. You pull out your gear and quickly triangulate that distant position and then radio the coordinates to your buddies. They now know what area to avoid, (or where to pinpoint the artillery). There are a million other (much more boring) advantages to getting a fixed position on an object, so this is an important tactic to learn.

The Equipment.

So here’s what you need.

Alright, you probably won’t be able to navigate your way around the wilderness based on the meager scraps of info I’m throwing you here in this short newsletter. (If you can then congratulations. You are officially the smartest person in the world. If you can’t, well… we’ll just chalk-up another win for Sasquatch).

Which is why TRS Survival has put together a “Navigation Kit” that spells it all out in detail. This WILL teach you all you need to know. Even includes a proper navigation compass.

You’ll be like the famous antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, (oh wait, not him, he froze to death in the wilderness).

More like Frank Arthur Worsley, Captain Shackleton’s sidekick from the Endurance who navigated over the stormy South Atlantic Ocean in a broken down rowboat and then across the mountains of South Georgia to save all 26 of his penguin-eating buddies who had gotten hopelessly stranded on Elephant Island. Yeah, that guy.

Anyway, you can discover more about this kit HERE.

Whether you get the kit or not, here are some more basics you’ll need to know.

Navigation Compass: This isn’t a standard compass. A navigation compass is a specialized piece of equipment that looks something like this:

While a regular old compass can clue you into which way is “magnetic north”… a navigator’s compass, (designed to work in conjunction with a topo map), can do so much more.

Here are some more tantalizing scraps:

Establishing azimuths: A “azimuth” is a simple line of travel from an object or person to a distant location. A “back azimuth” is a line of travel from a distant object back to an object or a person.

An azimuth due south (180 degrees) is different than “headin’ south”, as two people walking 20 feet apart at 180 degrees are on different azimuths. (“Hey bud, get off my azimuth!”)

Magnetic Declination: Strange as it sounds, due north on a compass is not really due north on the planet, (the planet Earth that is). In other words, your compass isn’t pointing at the North Pole.

Nope, “magnetic north” is a little off — and that amount of difference is known as Magnetic Declination and is expressed in degrees.

Thing is, the degree of Magnetic Declination is different depending on where you are on the planet. (Again, we’re talking about Earth here).

To make matters worse, the Earth’s magnetic north keeps shifting around, so whatever Magnetic Declination you were using from a specific location a few years ago may no longer apply. (Yeah, this is a real hassle and someone needs to fix this crazy planet).

Anyway, when you’re trying to pinpoint an exact location, being off by a degree or two could mean missing your target by miles. If you’re dying of thirst and working your way to a small lake, sloppy navigation work could be fatal. But with a navigation compass and a little skill you can be shockingly accurate, even over long distances.

Topo maps: Also called contour maps or topographic maps, they conventionally show land contours by means of contour lines. A single contour line will represent a specific altitude. The distance between the lines represents an equal distance, say 10 feet or 100 feet, depending on the scale of your map.

So, for example, multiple lines close together means a steep slope. Lines further apart represent a more gradual slope.

These maps also display streams, lakes, forest cover, even roads and individual buildings (depending on scale). A scale of 1:24,000 means 1 inch equals 24,000 inches. (I just say 2,000 feet because I hate navigating the backcountry using a 12-inch ruler).

The trick is to have a decent topo map of the area you’re planning to hike. You can find one HERE. (My company is not associated with these guys, but I’ve gotten a lot of good maps from them).

Navigation Beads. For accurate navigation, it’s important for you to keep track of exactly how far you’ve traveled. I mean if Bison Meadows is 4.5 miles at 22 degrees you’ll want to start sniffing the air for buffalo-wings at 4.4 miles.

So how do you keep track of exactly how far you’ve walked? Well, long-range recon scouts use Navigation Beads.

It’s like an abacus on a string that allows you to count your steps without forgetting, (was that 1,000 steps or 2,000?). As you can imagine, losing count, (which is easy to do), could effectively screw up your orientation.

Okay, there’s a lot more to this.

If you feel your eyes rolling back into your head I only ask that you not give up on the idea of owning a skill you’ll have for the rest of your life, (kinda like malaria).

There’s a reason most guys can’t do this. Watching reruns of Seinfeld is easier (and a lot funnier) than spending an hour or so learning the basics of how to navigate your way around the backcountry.

But I can attest from experience that having this skill will infuse you with a new sense of confidence, knowing that if and when you ever decided, you could grab your gear and head off to Bison Meadows for the time of your life.

More to come.

Stay Manly,

Jimbo, Editor
Man Skills

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