[pct-l] Getting lost

[rbelshee]

Getting lost in the wild and getting lost in town do not always correlate. I frequently miss turns when driving in towns, which seems like a struggle to remember and recognize street names and landmarks. 

I rarely get lost in the wild, or stated more accurately, I nearly always know where I am on a map. There are zillions of hints on a map, and developing instinctive map reading skills is great asset. A good topo map, a known steady pace and a watch are your primary tools. 

I recall Boy Scouts learning navigation. They reached a point where the trail disappeared into light brush, and couldn't tell where to go. They first consulted their compasses and searched for the trail at the predicted bearing. No luck. Then they swept a range both left and right looking for the trail, with similar results. Then they observed that the trail followed contour lines so tried searching ahead at our current level. Then they spotted a pattern in the topo lines suggesting a ravine and began looking farther ahead from a nearby lookout. Lastly they observed a small white area surrounded by green on the map and correctly matched it to a rockslide up about a half mile. Putting it all together, they determined that they would follow the contour to the rockslide and pick up the trail where it was pinched together in a saddle. They'd watch for the small ravine in perhaps five minutes, a steeper side slope in ten, and the rockslide in fifteen, and they would frequently look back over their shoulder to keep track of the lookout rock they stood on to they maintain the same elevation. Worked great. 

Now most of the PCT presents no navigational challenge at all. Just follow the wide trail, and at junctions just take the direction where all of the footprints are going the same direction. Most miscues are at junctions, often with dirt roads, and frequently when chattering in groups, assuming someone else is paying attention. 

But sometimes the trail is less obvious and having good map skills can be helpful and it can be fun. 

Other times the visibility is rough (e.g. fog) and you can use GPS or compass skills. I didn't carry a GPS, but even so rarely consulted my compass, probably less than weekly. I found directional sense from the sun and time of day sufficient. That's pretty easy and accurate enough since your shadow points west at 6am, north at noon and east at 6pm, and everything is in equal steps.

A key skill is staying found, rather than trying to find yourself. By that I mean constant awareness such as expecting that there should be a trail junction at 8:20, a dry stream at 8:35, and a westerly shift in the predominant trail direction at 8:45. Keep checking off those items and added new ones from your map. Then when the trail disappears you already know exactly where you are on the map.

Stories of getting two miles off trail imply missing a trail junction and not observing it for 40 minutes. That does not happen if you anticipate what time you should see various markers. If you biff, you know it very soon.

There are other terrain specific techniques (look for dirty scuff marks on granite, look for trees trimmed on one side in dense forests,...) but again on the PCT navigation is really quite easy unless you are chattering in a group and no one is paying attention. 

To me the keys are learning to read all the hints on your maps, and knowing your pace and checking off landmarks as you pass. Those do not correlate to skills navigating in town so you may find your success in the wild differs from that in towns.

Of course there it's also the possibility that I can navigate just fine at 3 mph, but in towns I can drive faster than I can think. ;-)

Rod "Steady" Belshee
hikepaddle.blogspot.com