LF hikers ― is “Map & Compass” a dying art?

[Jmarmck]

I guess I am getting on in age, and it is beginning to show. As a teenager I was always heading somewhere out in the wilds of Northern Arkansas. I took an Outward Bound Excursion fresh out of high school and learned to navigate via topographic map and compass. These skills were reinforced with the extended trips into the Ozark Mountains the Buffalo River, and with a degree in Geography/Cerography/Remote sensing. 30+ years later and I am now working with Geographic Systems and water resources. I have a team out mapping agricultural irrigation systems, wells, and springs using $5000+ GPS systems. One thing that happens is that when a unit is close to a place with much electromagnetic noise, like a power sub-station, or under a dense canopy of trees, or even a thick cloud cover; these systems tend to fail to varying degrees. All my mapping teams have hardcopy maps for such instances. These are backups.

The point is that these system do fail for any number of reasons. Also, the degree of accuracy is highly variable depending upon service available and age/condition of the GPS unit. That said, I have GPS on my phone. It is turned off.......unless I dial 911. I do not have any kind of GPS in my vehicle. I don't need any more distractions while driving.

Though, I am curious. Does the unit tell you to turn left when you are 10 miles off the trail?

[Drew Bedo]

There is an excellent school for land navigation with a strong emphasis on map-and-compass in Quantico Virginia.

[ROL]

I learned compass and map hiking through my father as a child.

He must have matured exceptionally early!

What I did not get into was navigating by the stars.

Oh yes, everybody does that when in Hollywood.




...

[paulr]

Though, I am curious. Does the unit tell you to turn left when you are 10 miles off the trail?

Ha! Not sure, but I think turn-by-turn navigation is only available on streets and sidewalks. One day, though, the google lady eill say things like "reach with your left foot to a toe-hold at knee level 30 centimeters to the left."

In your experience mapping around sources of interference, to what degree do you find magnetic compasses are effected?

I have a compass program on my iphone, which is astonishing in all the things it can do, except that around the city it can be off by as much as 30 degrees ... which is to say, arguably worse than no compass at all. After reading a bit, I learned that electronic compasses are sensitive to all the electromagnetic noise that abounds in a city. And I found that my magnetic compass is fairly innacurate too (although better than the phone). The handful of times I've relied on a compas, it never crossed my mind to question its accuracy.

[Jmarmck]

lol yes any magnetic metal near the compass will pull the needle. Belt buckles, steel blades are the most common hiking items. But if the map is oriented close enough to mag north then one should be able identify the major landmark you are using as a guide or destination as long as the declination is not too bad. A foot or so should be enough distance. If you look at a USGS topo map in the lower right corner there is an angle drawn off the north arrow. That is the declination for that map. It is the angular difference between true north and magnetic north. It changes with distance.

As for electromagnetic sources. I guess it would depend upon the strength and proximity. I have had some mappers data right on within a hundred feet but some screwed up a few hundred yards. It depends on the source. Power lines can cause problem too. Often times there is no reason to it......at least none that I can find.

As to the iphone, I have not a clue how those operate. I don't know if they have a micro compass or whether it is an orientation off the towers and/or satellites.

[Drew Wiley]

Things can get pretty funny if the trail happens to wrap around a big outcrop of hematite or something like that, with a lot of iron in it.

[hoffner]

Things can get pretty funny if the trail happens to wrap around a big outcrop of hematite or something like that, with a lot of iron in it.

Hematite does not attract a compass needle, magnetite does. It is one of the way how you can recognise hematite from magnetite. So "something like that" should better be magnetite.

[IanG]

I'm no longer young, I was trained to use a good British OS map (usually 1" to a mile) and a compass, but I often have the metric equivalent of 2.5" to a mile with me. I do always carry a compass but the maps are so good I've never needed to use it.

Ian

[Drew Wiley]

You're right.... hematite usually occurs in clay form anyway, as an oxide.

[koh303]

When i learned to naviagte GPS was a military only technology, and accuracy was about 1m radius at best. The "hand held" unit was about the size of a closed speed graphic and had a 2X10 LCD panel which read codes out to you, programming it or getting around the screens was harder then programming a VCR to auto record your favorite show. The batteries did not last that long (definitely not more then a day) on a single charge, and they were not light either. Still, cloudless nights, when you cant see squat, or moonless couldy nights where the fog so thick your hand holding the compass disappear when you extend it meant that when i had a chance to not have to rely on using a plotted course on a paper map (wrapped in nylon...) with an azimuth reader and compass i took it. Does it mean i could not do without it? probably not, but did it mean i did not waste hours and kilomteres for no good reason? absolutely.

Some things, like technology makes life easier, and in the process eliminates what was once a skill saved for a few talented enough to learn it, but in return, many more can now do that thing that was once the privilege of the few. I guess its almost like the the effect the mechanical press had on the world of knowledge, or what digital cameras did to photography. If this is a good or bad thing is probably a discussion for another place.