Re: [at-l] Map and compass - and GPS

["Bucky" <mfuller@somtel.com>]

Jim Owen wrote:

> Ginny and I have run into a LOT of people who carry the compass, but no
> map, or carry both but have no idea how to use either of them. 

To most people, the equipment makes the man.

[...]

> Should you carry a compass?  That's entirely your decision - but without
> the map and the knowledge to use it effectively - you're better off
> carrying an extra Snickers bar.  

Perhaps, but mine gets occasional use when I tramp well off
the trail for whatever reason, such as to find water, a trout
stream, or to bivouac for the night. Walking a straight line
for more than a couple hundred yards is no easy task in the
jungles of Maine, and you can't always count on the trail
to serve as a necessarily intersecting baseline on the return
trip (I discovered the latter first hand once). 

I agree that a compass by itself isn't very helpful in getting
one's self "unlost." However, I find it sometimes handy to go
from point A to point B then back to point A, and I consider
myself neither directionally challenged nor unaware of nature's
navigational aids.

--
mfuller@somtel.com; Northern Franklin County, Maine
The Constitution is the white man's ghost shirt.  }>:-/> --->



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