Anonymous
Posted December 3, 2004
The title may keep it from being more popular than it should be, but I have discovered the Essential Wilderness Navigator is the best map & compass land nav book out there. Like many people I had been led to believe that the 'Sierra Club Land Navigation Handbook' or Bjorn Kjellstrom's vastly overrated 'Be Expert with Map and Compass' to be the last word on the subject of reading a map. Those books don't even come close. Wilderness Navigator has by far the best illustrations and material to get you up and running with topo map and compass, along with more advanced material once you're ready. And (yay!) no wasted space on Orienteering, Scouting, Astronomy, or other marginally relevant garbage, just real-life outdoor navigation for hikers and backpackers. Plus, the larger format is easier to read, and you can actually lay the book flat on the ground to help you while practicing your navigation skills. If you really want to know how to read a map and use a compass in authentic outdoor situations, this is the book to buy!
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 16, 2006
You want to learn how to use a map and compass? Mostly for navigating on land, 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. 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) 3) It has clear, large, easy-to-understand illustrations. 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. 5) It has nice large pages and lays flat while you refer to various sections and practice using your map & compass. 6) It also covers more advanced map/compass skills (such as plotting your position using lat/long and UTM grids) as well as beginner exercises, and does so in the same clear, practical way. 7) It warns you of the inaccuracies of some improvised 'navigational' methods (like telling directions from a wristwatch and the sun) while still giving you useful information on methods that do work well in an emergency. 8) It does not attempt to be a 'all-method navigation' book. Such a book does not exist. Either the GPS material will be inadequate or the map/compass material is too abbreviated.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Skipper_T
Posted April 5, 2014
I have read other David Seidman books and really learned/enjoyed them a lot. So when I started an interest in land navigation and he had written on the subject, I bought his.
This has turned out to be a great instructional manual. I read it cover to cover and did the exercises and such and am now proficient in the practice.
I have discovered orienteering and adventure racing and knowing navigation is critical to the process. If want to learn and have fun doing it, this is a great book!
More About This Textbook
Overview
The Essential Series--Your Trusted Guides
"Puts the world of wilderness navigation in the palm of your hand."--Adventure West
"Teaches the essential disciplines of compass and map-reading . . . but goes beyond the basics with useful, eye-opening advice on how to read nature's highway signs--vegetation bands, wind-whipped ripples in sand or snow, and the positions of the sun and stars."--Northeast Outdoors
If you're at all unsure of your backwoods direction-finding skills, The Essential Wilderness Navigator is the guide you've been looking for. It teaches you how to observe--to see, smell, hear, and sense the details of the environment around you. Then, to supplement your newly enhanced sense of direction, you'll learn to read maps, use a compass, and find your location and route with reference to landmarks. This updated second edition also includes
Whether you're planning an extended wilderness trek or a day hike on marked trails, here's how to stay found.
Product Details
Related Subjects
Meet the Author
David Seidman has spent a good portion of his life finding his way around the world. He's crossed oceans, toured central Asia and Mongolia without a map or the ability to speak the language, and found a Mayan ruin in Guatemala. He is the author of The Essential Sea Kayaker and The Complete Sailor and is an editor at Boating magazine.
Paul Cleveland has worked as a wilderness ranger in New Mexico and designed and built trails in the Appalachians. He is a frequent contributor to Backpacker and Climbing magazines and the Gorp.com Web pages. He guides whitewater rafting trips and teaches CPR and first aid for the Red Cross and wilderness navigation for Outward Bound.
Table of Contents
Introduction
What's New in this Edition
1. A Sense of Direction
Locating Your Sixth Sense
How Not to Get Lost
Why We Get Lost
How to "Get Found"
2. Maps
The World in Your Hands
Types of Maps
Three Dimensions into Two
The Language of Maps
Reading the Terrain
Latitude and Longitude
Scale
Distance
Direction
Putting Yourself on the Map
Map Care and Gear
3. Compasses
What Compasses Can Do
Earth's Magnetic Field
How Compasses Work
Make Your Own
Declination
Compass Types
Orienting Your Compass to Magnetic North
Orienting Your Compass to Geographic North
Bearings
Deviation
Following a Compass Course
Testing Your Skills
4. Navigation
Map and Compass Combined
Orienting the Map with a Compass
Finding a Course from the Map
Locating a Mapped Object in the Field
Locating an Observed Object on the Map
A Bearing from a Mapped Object
Other Lines of Position
Warning Bearings
Crossing Lines of Position
Returning to the Same Spot
A Running Fix
Finding Distance Off
Measuring Distance Covered
Dead Reckoning
5. Navigation in Use
Route Planning
The Practice of Navigation
On the Trail
Hitting What You Aim For
Landmarks as Guides
Sources of Error
When You Are Lost
6. Looking to Nature for Clues
Finding North and South at Noon
North and South from a Shadow
Quick but Inaccurate
Movements of Sunrise and Sunset
Bearings from Sunrise and Sunset
Polaris
The Southern Cross
Other Stars
7. Extreme Environments
Mountains
Snow
Deserts
8. Electronic Navigation
GPS 101
Getting Started
E-Maps: Topos and Charts on CD-ROM
9. Appendix
Bearings of Sunrise and Sunset
Declination Corrections
Metric Conversion Tables
Orienteering
Sources of Maps, Books, Compasses, Videos, GPS Manufacturers, and Electronic Mapmakers
Travel Plan
Index
Acknowledgments