It's Time to Get Out of the House

Going stir crazy with being quarantined? Ready to get out and stretch your legs? On May 29-30, we will be running a one- or two-day (your choice when you sign up) Land Navigation Workshop.  After some instruction (while practicing proper social distancing of course), the majority of the time you will be alone, walking through the woods as you find your points. 

In all seriousness, knowing how to navigate, whether cross-country or on roads, it’s important to always know where you are at.  We are much too dependent on technology, and technology fails.  You don’t need to be panicking, like so many scrambling and getting into fist fights over toilet paper in the store, if you know the basics of Land Navigation.

I was first introduced to orienteering in Boy Scouts as a youth.  Hiking and spending time in the woods were some of my favorite activities.  Boy Scouts taught me the basics of using a compass and a map.  The time I spent on hikes and in camps, especially doing one of the longest hikes at Philmont when I was 14 (around 100 miles actually walked), definitely prepared me for my future. 

What is the best way to learn Land Nav? It is to get "dirt time". That is, get out there with a map and compass and do it.  Navigation is not about finding yourself after you are lost (although that’s what happens sometimes); it’s about keeping track of your position as you move away from a known point.  As you move you have to remain cognizant of the terrain you are leaving, of the terrain you are passing, and of the terrain that is ahead.  Navigation in the wilderness means knowing your starting point, your destination, and your route to get there.

One of the next big lessons I learned was terrain association as a Paratrooper in the 82nd.  We often crossed the street to go to Area J.  This is a big, wooded training area next to our Company.  I knew we were going to be doing a land nav course requiring us to find different points on the ground.  As the NCO passed out the individual course sheets listing the grid points we needed to find, I suddenly realized I had forgotten my compass.  There was no way in Hell I was going to say anything and bring the wrath down on me.  So, after we were given a time standard and told to start, I had to think my way out of it.  So, I learned on the fly how to associate the map to what I was seeing on the ground.  I franticly started out in the general direction I needed to go to find my first point.  Long story short, with lots of self-induced stress, I wasn’t the first guy done, but I was far from the last. 

All of this experience prepared me to tackle the SFAS Star course.  I’m happy to say that I’m in the “Day-One Star Course Go Club.”   I couldn’t have done that had I not been preparing since I was 12.  If you haven’t learned this valuable skill, it’s time that you do.  Come out with me in the woods, or go somewhere else that is reputable, and learn.  Just go, learn, stretch your legs, stretch your mind, trust yourself.

Thanks for reading,

Jared