The following 10-minute video highlights a simple wilderness navigation technique to find your way using baselines and checkpoints.
A baseline is any feature of length, such as a road, a river, a trail, or shorline that serves to restrain your wandering and help guide you to your destination. A checkpoint is any point along a baseline that you can definitively recognize from the ground. Checkpoints are often located at the convergence of two baselines, or when a baseline changes directions abruptly, for example, a sharp turn in a creek or trail.
Chapter 8 of my book
Surviving the Wilds of Florida is devoted to navigation tips and techniques. Although the book was written with Florida in mind, most areas have suitable baselines, and these tips and techniques are useful in almost any wilderness setting.
Also, if you want a simple and easy route to learning to navigate across any terrain, see my online video-based course in land navigation. Here, I've done my best to make it as simple and "common sensical" as possible.
Return from Simple Wilderness Navigation to Surviving the Wilds of Florida
Surviving the Wilds of Florida
A Wilderness Survival Book Focused on Florida
Basic Land Navigation
Take my on-line, video-based course in land navigation. Four hours of solid instruction designed to help you find your way through the wilds.
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