Navigation Tips for Beginners

Put all your navigation skills together to create a route for a group activity/adventure. Using variables such as the group’s goals, needs and abilities, you can research and explore options for your activity. Acquire relevant maps (recreational/topographic), read about the route in a guidebook, and find some recent route descriptions from an online source. Select the best path to achieve your objective. Mind map: think about the route to take, the conditions that may affect your day (temperature, winds, second day of a trip) and how far you want to travel. Look at options; are there other routes or campsites available to use as a contingency plan? If you plan for the unexpected, and find yourself having to adapt during your day, you will have another

route to follow and succeed.

Your home contact person (HCP) is your lifeline and back-up plan. The HCP should have a good understanding of what you are planning to do and how you plan to do it, including alternative plans. If you are using a locator beacon to check in, the HCP should have an understanding of what the SPOT can tell them – your position, and a SPOT’s limitations – it is only a one-way communication device. If you have UTM co-ordinates listed as part of you route plan, your home contact must know what the coordinates are. Ensure your HCP has the information and training she needs to assist you.

Landmarks

Landmarks are distinctive features that you can find in your area as well as on the map. Examples include peaks, lakes while on land, the end of a small island or the mouth of a stream. Matching your map with landmarks is one of the foundations to all map reading.

Handrails

Handrails are linear features leading you in the direction you wish to go. Identify a handrail on the map and in the field and then follow it towards your objective. Trails and roads are the most obvious handrails but you can follow fences, streams, edges of fields and other long narrow features just as easily as long as they are both on the map and in the field.

A good example would be a stream: a good way to get to your destination is to first get to the stream then follow the stream to your to help you find your destination. Following a handrail takes much less concentration then following a compass bearing. Also since a handrail is illustrated on a map and a compass bearing isn’t following a handrail makes it much easier to keep track of where you are. Using the water’s edge as a handrail while navigating on water can be more difficult as every bay can look similar, and some portages can be hard to locate.

Aiming Off

Aiming off is a technique to ensure you find your final destination, once you have hit your handrail. If you walk out onto a road, which way do you turn to find the parking lot on this road? When you cross a lake, is your campsite to the left or right along the shoreline? When trying to hit a handrail, plan to intentionally veer a few degrees to one side of your objective, so that when you hit the handrail (the road or opposite shoreline), you will be confident in which direction you need to turn. If you aim off to the right slightly, when you hit your handrail, you would turn left to reach your destination.

Estimating Distance

Estimating the distance between two points can be done using the following methods:

● Measure the straight-line distance with the ruler on your compass, and compare with the scale chart on the bottom of the map.

● Use the string on your compass to measure the direct line, or curve it along a known trail: Start fingers at one spot, lay the string on the map/trail, mark the end point by pinching with your fingers. Pull the string straight and measure against the scale chart.

● A quick way to estimate distance is to count the UTM 1 km gridlines, although this will only be approximate. Always count both the gridline across and the gridline up as one each; never count a gridline diagonally as one. This can work very well for cross-country travel without trails (alpine or grassland), and when on the water. Meandering trails with numerous switchbacks will be more difficult to estimate distance for using this method. Although it may be easy to estimate distance over water, factors such as tides, currents, waves and wind will greatly affect your travel time.

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