NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Navigation - a state of mind?
From: Bruce J. Pennino
Date: 2016 Jun 3, 19:38 -0400
Bruce
From: Bruce J. Pennino
Date: 2016 Jun 3, 19:38 -0400
This all reminds me of the one time I was “lost” and got scared. I
was a young “savvy out doors person” snow shoeing or cross country skiing
in Rocky Mountain National Park. With an x military guy . Beautiful winter, blue
sky mountain day at 10,000 or 11,000 ft. Dressed for a winter
afternoon day outing, did not have compass or whistle. Extremely deep snow
with all trail signs covered. towering mountains all around.
Left parking lot at a trailhead, and away we went. Ski tracks going
every direction in new snow, but no one else around! After a brief while I
started feeling uneasy, so we “turned around” and headed back. But we could not
follow our tracks...too many tracks. Stopped!
We more or less knew we were only 15 or 20 minutes from the lot . We
marked a tree with something we could see and then systematically went in
various compass directions until we reached something we both recognized.
Retrieved marker and then went more in “sure “ direction. Again checking
somewhat in various directions. Always stayed in sight of each other and “know
for sure” point. Stumbled into parking lot after a relatively short
period. Scary... Probably never more than 30 minutes or 1/2-3/4 mile from
lot. Lesson learned!
Bruce
From: Ed Popko
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2016 2:23 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Navigation - a state of
mind?
When helping with Boy Scout Orienteering merit badge work, I was always amazed at how few times Scouts would turn around and see what the view would be when they retrac their path later in the day. Often they were so fixed on where they were headed, getting there, or distracted in chat that they failed to take note of their departure point or any visual cues when looking the opposite direction.
After drilling it into them a few dozen times, they would finally get it but not without getting lost a few times.
