Hey Buddy... Are You Lost?

[magtech]

Compass... dont use one. Sun rises and sets everyday. Its never not done this. Thats the only compass I need. If I'm in the mountains I've already mapped the mountain and roads mentally so I don't need a paper map. If I'm that lost ill just climb a ridge and spot a road and go from there...

Seriously, is this supposed to be hard?

 

[Lionhound1975]

I would give myself a solid 2, I've had formal training and then used it a lot for years. I feel much more comfortable with a good map and compass than I do trying to sort through the menu on a GPS using little arrow buttons. I jus got OnX Hunt last year, it is cool to play with but I have had electronics crap out before so I like having a paper map along for the ride.

GPS can lose their signal, I spent some time in triple canopy jungle in South America where you cannot get a signal on a hand held GPS. The Garmins with an external antenna did a little better than units like the Oregon with no external antenna. But sometimes the canopy was just too thick and none of the GPS we had worked. But a compass and map can be hard to use in thick forest too with no recognizable landmarks or creeks where you have to use dead reckoning.

If you use are going to use a compass, I think it wise to get a good one like a Silva, Brunton, or Suunto. I have seen the cheap Walmart compasses freeze, crack, develop air bubbles, and needles lose their charge. The best compass I have ever used is a German made K&R baseplate compass with sighting mirror. The dial plastic has a little give to it so it won't crack or freeze like some of the rigid plastic dials. I like baseplate compasses more than lensatic since its a lot easier to adjust for declination and you don't have to carry some protractor around if you want to triangulate your position.

Another overlooked way to avoid getting lost it to improve your tracking skills so you can always backtrack your own trail out of the woods if you get turned around.

 

[Elkfitness]

I’d put myself as a solid 2. Hunted for many years with just a map and compass. I have a gps now but still love the paper maps and always have them and use them.


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[Wetwork]

I'd say I'm a 2....Spent more years in the service before they invented GPS than after it was. I "liked" exactly one post so far in this thread, and the person mentioned fog. Fog is right up there with night to me. If you can't nav in the dark or fog without GPS than you are hunting areas you've hunted for years. Where I hunt in the fall, the clouds drop sometimes and you can't see ten yards. Rather than hug a tree or get deeper in the suck, I've learned to make sure its no problem. Other than the hunt is really over if you can't see ten yards. Cant pick out topography in the fog or dark. All you have is time...how far you walked over a certain amount of time. If you didn't mark exactly when you left...LOL.

New ground...with fog/night you are just wanting to spend a night or two on the hill roughing it. Met a guy off the trail in the fog who was pretty upset his GPS battery died.

New country, I get out get my old school compass out and get a heading. Set a way point on my GPS and my phone and start walking. Me personally...generally I hunt a hour in and a hour back. A hour in I shoot a reciprocal course back to my starting point. Then I dig out my gps and click my watch to take me home. I know if I walk my reciprocal course for a hour I should be back to camp/pickup. A few hundred yards off I should still be fine.

What got me once was which switch back road I'd parked off? Left the rig, and crossed a bunch of switch backs that all looked the same. Came time to come back to the rig and had lost my pickup. Passed it going down hill and had to hike back up to it. I hate that.

I'm lazy I hunt uphill, and walk back to camp or pickup downhill. -WW

 

[OutHeavy]

2, although I"m still struggling to find the downside of getting lost in the elk woods. It takes all of 30 minutes on that drive home before i start wishing I was back in it again. it can't be so bad if you keep going back.

 

[Missahba]

This should be a relative not absolute question. I was relatively good in the paper/magnet era. We’re all the same now on digital. And I’ll call BS on all the Daniel Boones on here who know every tree. Try that walking in cold, new area, in the dark, get caught in a white out blizzard miles in. Sun? Trees? Landmarks? No. A shed hunter might find you. Next Spring.

 

[Anglo-American]

Just curious to see who feels they are ready if their GPS croaked on them deep, deep in the elk woods. Individual, non-electron, land navigation skills i.e., using a compass, map, and terrain association (minimum skills) are essential in the elk woods in my opinion. Possessing good non-electronic based navigation skills can certainly help avoid some bad things if the GPS decides takes a dump. Army Field Manual 3-25.26 (Map Reading and Land Navigation) is not classified and you can actually download it for free from many sites. If a hunter does not possess some of the basic "non-electronic" land navigation skills, he/she probably shouldn't venture too far from a road/trail system until they do. These are my opinions and may not reflect yours.



Soooo.. let’s do this kind of like a poll. "I rate my map/compass skills as follows":



1. Exceptional - I am a human compass needle.. Just follow me.

2. Good - I use a map/compass effectively with no issues.

3. Poor - I'm a bit too reliant on my GPS. Need some work on my map/compass/map reading/terrain association skills.

4. No so good - Call for the search party; I'm not making it out of the woods if my GPS dies.

5. Other… (please provide comments).

6. Does RJ do anything productive besides starting these threads?

Other: I roughly know where I am, and possible routes out.
But exactly? Not really.
But do I always find my way? Yes.
Other than my phone I don't own a GPS.
My phone stays in the car.
...I've never been in "Elk woods".

 

[mbv3]

3.5 - i'd be in trouble

 

[HighUintas]

Number 2.

I ran into a lost hunter in the uintas a couple of weekends ago that I think would be a number 11. I had to give him some water and directions. Poor guy.

 

[corey006]

I carry GPS, PHONE(with maps), and Compass.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Redundancy isn't bad. And I usually have my phone too...

I'll buy about 10 of these cheap compasses at a pop for a couple bucks... These aren't precisión, but are sufficient.

I also know one of more guardrails when I'm afield. E.g. Last weekend a river to my east, north was out (would find a trail or road). Out west, the trails may be other landmarks (Peaks, valleys, etc).

I'll take a 2... Heck even a 3 is ok (there is always work to do)

Similar but won’t say I am a 2. Haven’t had any instructions on land Nav since I was in scouts. Then I would have said a 2.

I carry my phone which has a compass plus my Silva compass and orient where the road is and when in Colorado I know the direction of the ridges and how many I went over.

When we were there in 2019 my OnX went on the fritz and suddenly said I was almost 10 miles from where we were in the Zirkels. I knew the direction to the road and when we saw the road I couldn’t believe it but we came out 100 yards from our camp. That was great and sucked at the same time because that meant I had to walk a 1000 ft vertical and about 3 miles to retrieve my truck in 92 degree temps at 8500 feet.


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[bradr3367]

2. There's definately a difference between carrying a compass and knowing how to actually use it in conjunction with a topo map.

 

[mtnbiker208]

I just did a 100 mile remote float in alaska. it was the 4th day, before i pulled the lat and long off of the gps and looked on my map to see where i was. ran 4 days with out looking or caring.

 

[Indian Summer]

Getting lost in the hills is… or can be serious business.

A friend was hunting a weekend up the road from the ranch. When he got to the trailhead there were a bunch of frantic people. A search party that had been out all night. They said a hunter from Philadelphia never made it to the trailhead the night before.

It had rained all day. Cold and miserable. Classic hypothermia conditions. Toward the end of the day he looked down into a timbered draw and there was a guy sitting on a log with his head hanging down. Motionless. My buddy yelled several times but the guy didn’t move a muscle. He thought he might be dead. Finally he yelled “Hey Philadelphia!” and the guy looked up. He bounced down the hill and sure enough it was the lost hunter. He asked why are you just sitting here like this? The guy looked up and said I tried but I gave up finding my way out of these mountains and I was just waiting to die. Don’t be that guy!

Shit happens. Blizzards roll in without warning. Fog is like a blindfold. The Boy Scouts said it best: Be Prepared!!!

I shake my head when I hear guys say “Map? I don’t need no stinkin map!”

I carry not 1 but 3 lighters, fire starter, 2 headlamps and more batteries than I could possibly need. And more importantly my partner knows which neck of the woods I’m hunting. Last year I got a Garmin Inreach so I can take more risks. Lmao. Seriously having that definitely gives me a good feeling. I can call my partner… or a search and rescue chopper!

 

[jmez]

Fog, and especially blizzards can be a problem. Other than that it is pretty much impossible to be lost in the mountains. Walk downhill in a straight line. If you have nothing better to do you can walk a looooong ways in a day. If near water, walk downstream.

Downhill and downstream you will walk out.

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