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Nav 101 -- Low-Tech Wilderness Navigation
You don't have to be a GPS techie to navigate. If the
ancient Polynesians
could find their way from Tahiti to Hawaii without instruments, you can find your way across a few kilometers of terrain the same way.
The sun, the moon, and the stars are nature's signposts in the sky. If you know how to read them, you can determine direction to a satisfactory degree of accuracy.
This 16-hour course is based largely on Chapter 8 of my book,
Surviving the Wilds of Florida.
Course topics include:
- Baselines and checkpoints
- Being truly lost versus temporarily "bewildered"
- Finding your way back to a baseline
- Aiming off
- Introduction of the orienteering compass
- Finding direction with a compass
- Finding direction from the sun
- Finding direction from the moon
- Finding direction from the stars
- Elements of cross-country navigation
- Imaginary cross-country "travel corridors"
- Navigating with baselines and general direction
- Drawbacks of maps
- Compass declination--how and when to account for it
- Dead reckoning without a map
For direction, you'll use celestial signposts when they're available (e.g. when the sky is clear), a compass when they're not, and a rudimentary map.
You'll measure distance traveled either by counting strides or by carefully timing your travels.
Finally, you'll learn to make your way cross country without a map through the wilderness, and return to your starting point.
Course Schedule
Details for the next Low-Tech Wilderness Navigation Course:
- SPONSOR -- The University of Florida Emergency Medical Training Center
- DATES -- Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1, 2008
- TIMES -- Saturday 9:00 A.M. to Midnight, Sunday 9:00 A.M. to Noon
- PLACE --
Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park
- COST PER PARTICIPANT -- $150
- TO REGISTER -- Contact by telephone the University of Florida Emergency Medical Training Center at 352-392-1161, Extension 1-4283.
See what the course is like
Check out this page featuring the December 2007 Low-Tech Wilderness Navigation class.
Return from Low-Tech Wilderness Navigation to Navigation Courses
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