Do you know how to use a compass? Other than knowing it points to the north, few people actually understand the benefits of a compass. This weekend Tracy and I took a Navigation course through the Mountaineers. It was very interesting.The first half of the day was spent in the classroom. This was the textbook portion of the class, with two table-top exercises with USGS maps. We learned how to navigate with a map and compass. Map skills include learning about types of maps; reading maps; and using the compass to determine direction of travel from a map. Then we went out into a park for a couple hours and practiced using our compasses to get from point to point. There were about 100 people in the class, but we split up into small teams for our exercises. We met some fun people.
I learned a bunch of new things like magnetic declination, taking bearings, orienting a map, reading a topographical map, selecting a compass, etc. For more infomation on navigation, check out this great book -- Wilderness Navigation: Finding Your Way Using Map, Compass, Altimeter, & GPS.
The Mountaineers have a couple other cool classes we want to take. There is an intense, week-end long wilderness first aid class. And they also have a spring alpine "scrambling" class. We will probably try and do the first aid class this year and the scrambling class next year.
3 comments:
I'm impressed!
I'm still working on left, right, up and down.
That should come in handy for sailing too although since sailboaters spend all their time zig zagging back an forth I don't know how that would work.
Wow, I'm surprised that you have had sail boats for years and haven't taken a navigation course! You need to find your local Coast Guard Auxilliary. They have a great coastal navigation program. Doesn't cost much and takes about 6 weeks.
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