The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition ) Author: David Seidman Paul Cleveland | Language: English | ISBN:
B000QCUDHW | Format: PDF
The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition ) Description
Now with full-color topographic maps and featuring the latest on electronic navigation, The Essential Wilderness Navigator is the clearest and most up-to-date route-finding primer available. Providing readers with exercises for developing a directional ‘sixth sense,’ tips on mastering the art of map- and compass-reading, and comprehensive updates on a range of technological advances, this perennially popular guide is more indispensable than ever.
- File Size: 6194 KB
- Print Length: 173 pages
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press; 2 edition (May 31, 1995)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000QCUDHW
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #87,361 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Physical Education - #36
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Hiking & Camping > Camping - #47
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Hiking & Camping > Excursion Guides
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Schools & Teaching > Education Theory > Physical Education - #36
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Hiking & Camping > Camping - #47
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Outdoors & Nature > Hiking & Camping > Excursion Guides
You want to learn how to use a map and compass? For hiking or backpacking, especially remote wilderness? This is the best comprehensive book I've found on the subject, bar none. Reasons:
1. It gets to the point quickly in teaching you map & compass fundamentals. No fluff, no wasted time on esoteric principles of magnetism or the rules of orienteering competitions (a fine sport, but one bearing little resemblance to actual wilderness navigation with its special large-scale magnetic-north maps and simplified compasses etc.) Instead, this book concentrates on one objective: accurate land navigation in a wilderness environment.
2. It teaches realistic methods, and does not emphasize the unrealistic ones (one glaring example: penciling a lot of inaccurate magnetic declination lines all over your map the night before your trip (because the author used the method once for an adventure race with a special large-scale map and thinks it's cool) instead of just buying a compass with adjustable declination or pasting a pointer indicating a true bearing on your compass baseplate! Hey, sitting atop a windblown mountain is no place to attempt to draw magnetic lines of declination with a three-inch compass baseplate when you walk off your pre-marked map or have to use a friend's copy!
3. It has large, clear, easy-to-follow illustrations. Believe me, this is a rarity in most map/compass books.
4. It teaches BOTH compass dead reckoning (compass only) AND terrain association (map priority) navigation principles and shows the advantages and weaknesses of each in a given situation. Some orienteering-biased books would have you believe the compass is only good for aligning a map to magnetic north!
5.
This book is good, and would have warranted four stars, when published back in 2001 (Second Edition). The general navigation and wayfinding techniques are clearly discussed and illustrated, but there have been some key developments in the mapping world that the authors should address in an updated edition.
First, the authors are unfairly dismissive of grid systems like UTM. Now, back in 2001 this was acceptable since the USGS really didn't have an accepted grid system. They put both UTM and Lat/Long grid tics on the topo quad sheets and basically said "use what you like". This attitude has caused endless confusion among topo map users in the US. However, post 9/11 and Katrina the USGS has agreed to adopt the US National Grid system, which is nothing more than the Military Grid Reference System extended across the US. The USGS has also begun producing the excellent US Topo series of maps as a substitute for the old 7.5 minute quad sheets, and these new maps all have the US National Grid overprinted on them. These two developments alone should be enough to force the authors and publishers of all land navigation handbooks and guides to update their works.
Next is the GPS appendix. Like it or not, GPS receivers are now a standard part of most hiker's kit and consumer GPS technology has come a LONG way since 2001. I don't really think it is useful to discuss specific GPS navigation techniques in a book focusing on map and compass navigation, that is really a better topic for a separate publication. I DO think it is important to address both the benefits of having a GPS unit available and to have a frank discussion of GPS system limitations based on things like receiver design, satellite visibility and geometry, masking, the effects of canopy cover, etc.
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