Map Reading 101

“After 20 yrs of bping it's about time I learned how to read a map..

any suggestions?

(btw, I lost the trail TWICE in the Olympics last week..my first solo bping trip). Luckily there were signs all over the place. I only hiked a couple miles in the wrong direction both times). :P”

“Join the Army and they will show you how LOL!”

“I was in ROTC for a semester in college..all I learned was how to shoot an M-16

Oh yeah and that's where I met my ex-husband Big Mistake”

“Buy a book on orienteering.”

“Any good ones?

good = short & to the point

I have a very short attention span”

“Boy Scout handbook.
You can read all you need to know about orienteering in the store and not buy the book.”

“Be an expert with map and compass I forgot who wrote it, or any outdoor skills (not survival skills) book. Join an orienteering club. There are only a half dozen techniques you can use with a map and compass. You only need the dirt time to become proficient. Oh, yeah, draw the declination lines on the topo. It'll make life a whole lot easier.”

“Biz, seriously, buy a "Silva - Ranger" compass it comes with good instruction on how to use the thing. It is only a few pages long and very informative. Cost ~$45
You need a good compass anyway.”

“Sign-up to be a Boy Scout volunteer leader. Believe me, you will learn more than you could imagine. After one year I could cook in an orange peel, no kidding.
They also have annual workshops on navigation and orienteering.”

“Most all decent compasses include directions.”

“BS, you're right I don't even own a compass. The people I hike with do, but what if something happened to them? What if I had to hike out on my own??

time to buy a compass..”

“Learn map symbols!

Learn to rough-estimate distances using the bar scale.

Be aware of, and how to compensate for, magnetic declination.

Get use to using yer compass to align the map northward prior to taking bearings or trying to figure out where you are.

Topo maps have lines, contour lines which represent lines of equal elevation. Every five lines will be a darker line, the "index" contour which is the line that has the elevations printed. Contour lines spaced far apart represent a gently sloping surface, while lines spaced close together represent steep slopes. Circular lines represent a hill or depression.

The "V" shape of contour lines at the area where they cross stream valleys point uphill. Which gives you a visual idea of which direction is downstream.

Sooo much to tell...but sooo little time.”

“Someone once told me I couldn't find my a$$ with both hands. Boy, were they wrong! 3

Here's something fun to try if you don't have a compass. Shove a stick (of at least 12") into the ground directly aimed the sun, so there's no shadow. Wait about 20-30 minutes or until there's a 6" shadow. The shadow points east! This works great unless you're in the Pacific Northwest. In that case you're screwed. I'd buy a compass.”

“Come to Houston next weekend, I'm teaching an Introduction of Outdoor Leadership Skills class to new scout leaders, 3 hour session on map and compass, also 2 hours on Leave No Trace plus many other exciting topics.”

“The actual title of the book suggested by Markar is: "Be Expert with Map and Compass" (no "an"). Written for the USGS by Bjorn Kjellstrom. Excellent book. It's also quite ubiquitous. Since your TT user account states that you live in AZ, here are the online catalogs for a few Arizona libraries:

Scottsdale Public Library Online Catalog

Arizona State Univ. Online Catalog

Northern Arizona Univ. Online Catalog

Univ. of Arizona Online Catalog

Good luck!”

“The USGS has a booklet that explains how to use quads. All the symbols are illustraged and defined; and the text tells you how they are used.

It should be available wherever you buy your maps. If not, order it from the USGS regional center nearest you. The booklet is free (as are the state-by-state map indecies).”

“Yall are crazy talkin bout all these maps and stuff.

Jus walk aroun in the woods and sleep in the woods and go bak and get in yer truk.

Dont yall kno wher is the truk?”

“"http://usscouts.org/netresources/orient.asp"

Try here”

“Have you considered hooking up with a cartographer? Just a thought....”

“The USGS booklet is now online, I just found out. You can find it at: http://mac.usgs.gov/mac/isb/pubs/factsheets/fs03501.html”

“This Map & Compass site is stuffed with user-friendly info.”

“Check out Sgt. Rock's site. I think he said he teaches orienteering to the FBI.

And you look too cute to have been in ROTC.”

“Downloadable maps are available here for many states including Arizona.”

“roseymonster- that's why I got out

There was a girl in my class though that was REALLY Cute (like Miss America cute)...she could kick all the guys a$$es. It was funny. I think she graduated top of her class. Very amazing lady”

“I think the CIA has a good map reading site. It has all the Chinese embassies shown.”

“Biz, I'd focus on the mapreading more than the compass skills; it's helpful to know both, but you'll probably use the former a lot more than the latter. Buddur's advice is really good. I'd just add that it's worth buying some local topos and just spending some time with them, checking them against the landscape until you get a sense of how one is translated into the other.”

“Holy Mackeral Biz, you got lost on them sidewalks!? You better get into a map and compass class before you go out again. LOL

All the above suggestions are great for learning. Or you could just say heck with it and get a GPS. (Just Kidding!) Although a GPS is a great tool, it is no substitute for comon sense and map and compass skills.

I will agree totally with tehipite though. You will/should spend more time looking at the map. In the NW it's not very often you can't position the map based on some landmark. From there, if you've been paying attention, it's not to difficult to get a rough idea about where you are. In all my years there have been only a couple of occasions where I've had to whip out the old compass.

Unfortunately it's not so easy to teach "sense of direction" which is probably the one thing that will keep the compass in the pack more often than not. Always pay attention to where you are, where you've been and where you're going.”

“he he China Chas, OK I exaggerated a bit. I got in pretty late on Friday night and started out in the dark with only my Tikka to guide me. Crossed the river at Sol Duc falls (I guess I missed the sign) and kept going. After awhile I realized I was on the wrong trail. Went back, didn't look at the map thought the trail was E. of the river, trail dead ended right after the campsites... Said to hell with it, made camp and went to sleep. When I woke up I looked at the map and realized the trail is on the other side of the river. Ü

The main reason for learning map reading skills is a lot of stuff I do is off trail. I worry a lot about getting lost in a side canyon or wasting hours going up the wrong one. I try to memorize my routes but unless you're day hiking its hard sometimes to remember the next day what you did the day before. Also the time of day and the lighting change everything. I should ask a geocacher, they probably do a lot of stuff off trail.

Kleety- what's a cartographer? Do you read horoscopes?”

“Kleetn - LOL.

Knowing how to read a map and use a compass is essential, so go for it. Lots of good suggestions and websites so far.

My compass is low-end Silva all plastic (Boy Scout type) and you can see through the compass and the base. I put a piece of layout tape on the bottom that matches the declination. It orients to a map easily.

Learn how to triangulate off of two features to figure out where you are. I had to do that several times and it is very satisfying to figure out where you are.”

“Biz,

Advice above is all right on the money. Map reading skills translate into lots of fun. However, the most important reason to learn map reading is safety. If you're lucky it will never, ever matter. If you're unlucky one day and it matters a lot, the penalty for not knowing how, could be heavy.

Find a local orienteering club, and sit in on a meeting. You'll get hooked.

Peas & carrots, beer & pizza, map & compass... some things just have to go together.”

“Biz, learning how to read the map an use the copass are the easy part. Translating the lines on the map to 3-D surroundings is another matter altogether. I often teach orienteering for our scout troop an I still sometimes get "momentarily confused" when I'm out bushwacking ( never lost, right?). Take 15 minutes to learn what the lines and symbols on the map mean and then practice, practice, practice. BTW, I have yet to use the compass while I'm out but I still carry it.”

“Next time you're out in the wild, get on a high point where you can see the surrounding countryside. Lay out your map and make the north point north and look at the figures on the map compared to what you see on the land. You have to be able to translate the topo lines to shapes on the ground.

This is easily done in the west where you have huge landmarks and can usually get out of the woods enough to see them. When I was in West Virginy last year I actually had to USE a compass cause all I could see was trees in every direction!

This summer I soloed a week in New Mexico and FORGOT my compass! But I never needed it because I could get bearing from the sun and line up my map to surrounding mountains to see where I was.

As far as choosing the right trail in the dark or getting on the right side of a creek, you're going to keep screwing that up just like the rest of us. Few maps will put you on the right side of a creek - they are not that accurate, and no amount of compass skill will let you see better in the dark!”

“Some friends of mine just got lost this weekend up on the Line Creek Plateau in the Beartooths. They had a group of about 6 people and they couldn't find where the trail drops off the plateau. It's very disorienting up there and hard to judge distance; 11,000 ' elev., no trees, flat and scattered boulders. They had a map, but no compass and not a lot of good landmarks. They spread out in a long line near the edge until they found the trail down. They were about 5 hours overdue and the ranger was just about ready to go looking. A GPS unit would have pinpointed the trail for them, but a compass sure would have helped.”

“My advice was aimed at the West rather than the east. Those poor eastern bastards actually have to use their compasses. ;-) I haven't used a compass in maybe 8 years or so (and I do a lot of off-trail stuff); the landmarks are mostly fairly obvious, and it's very hard to get too turned around.”