Other courses

Students get a basic intro to land navigation concepts while on a short or medium hike.

• Map reading

• Compass use

• Terrain association

• Route planning

This course takes place on wooden tables where we can use the shadows of drinks to find directions and tell time. It will also cover street navigation (length of a city block and what that means, route and interstate numbering system, etc). We'll practice estimating distances by sight and measure pace counts. We cover small measurements using body parts while learning to measure how long until sunset with our fingers since all of that fits nicely with telling time with the Sun.

We tap into skills students already have and use without realizing it and then crystallize them into concepts to use deliberately.

Handrail: Follow the creek.

Backstop: If you hit the road you've gone too far.

Offset-compass: The store is somewhere on that street. Get on the street before passing the store.

Terrain association: There's a fork in the river so that means I'm here, and my destination is there. 

Students will gain an understanding of the methods that are most typically used to navigate in undeveloped areas. 

We'll talk about what goes wrong and how to avoid pitfalls.

You can do almost everything you need with only a small handful of knots. Learn the simplest form of them and a series of knots that all build on what you already know.