The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition

by David Seidman, Paul Cleveland

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071542890
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	01/18/2001
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	173
File size:	38 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About 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

Editorial Reviews

Maps and a compass are the hiker's insurance against getting lost in the woods. But you'll need to be able to do more with these tools than locate Fresno or head south. Seidman, a world traveler and master kayaker, charts the subtleties of map interpretation (especially the ups and downs of contour lines) and offers instruction on how to use a compass for taking bearings and walking a course. Other techniques for finding your way in the woods are explained: estimating distances by finger angles or winking, adjusting your compass for true north, and finding directions from the motions of the sun and stars. By the way, forget about moss growing on the north side of trees; lichens like moisture, which more often depends on prevailing winds and weather than direction. This book is filled with illustrations and practical advice to keep the careful trekker on the right path. Even armchair travelers will find some valuable advice here.

Jennifer Henderson