Finding Your Way

[PsalmSinger]

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Finding your way

At one time or another, most of us that spend time in the outdoors get a bit “turned around” -- not necessary lost, just a bit disoriented as to the direction back to camp or the boat ramp or that remote tree stand. For a couple of decades, I made my living as a survey crew chief. I was always out in the field with a crew, locating property corners, surveying rights-of-ways, etc. It’s a surveyor’s job to determine the exact position of features and objects on the earth’s surface.

Throughout my years as a surveyor, I learned a few tricks that have helped me greatly as a hunter and fisherman, ways to keep orientated when in the woods or on the water. Granted, with today’s state-of-the-art GPS units and navigation apps for smart phones, finding one’s exact position on the earth’s surface is as easy as punching a button. But, what about the times when that all important little units get dropped in the water or the battery loses power? It’s still important to know where we are and where we need to go!
Luke keeps a north arrow drawn on the rail of the porch of his hunting cabin. His buddies ask about this arrow, which often results in more information than they desire, but it's information that might someday save their lives. photo by Luke Clayton

There an ancient little instrument called a COMPASS that works as well today and when the Chinese first learned that a “loadstone” or naturally occurring magnetized ore of iron had the power to point the direction to north. When hunting in the mountains of Colorado, I use my GPS unit which works when I have a signal from 3 satellites, but I never leave camp without my compass. I’ve learned through the years that where I “think” north is and where it actually is often differs by 25 degrees or more. A compass will do one thing: point to magnetic north which in the northern hemisphere is 8 to 10 degrees east of true north. Point north is all that it will do, but that’s enough, assuming you take the time to learn natural features on the land you are hunting or traveling through.

It’s very easy to get “turned around” in heavy timber or mountain country. When I hunt a good distance back into the interior of a big piece of property, I first take a compass bearing on a road of fence line. To keep things uncomplicated, we’ll say the compass bearing on the fence on 1,000-acre piece or timbered property runs due east and west and the tract we are hunting is to the south of the road/fence. I don’t worry about running an orienteering course where I keep track of each angle or bearing I turn and distances I walk. I simply walk in a southerly direction into the property and occasionally glance at my compass to determine the direction back to where I entered the place, back to the north if I’m walking south. I might come to a pond or big patch of brush that I have to walk around. Actually keeping up with each angle turned during the course of my walk and the paced distances I walk would defeat my purpose of scouting the place for the sign of the deer, hogs or whatever I’m hunting. I just want to know the direction to go to get back out and it doesn’t matter if I come out exactly where I entered the tract.

I do a good bit of hunting at night and have learned to navigate by the stars and, for short periods of time, when I can’t see the northern sky, the moon or a bight planet. Polaris, the North Star, is the most constant of all the stars; it sets over Earth’s north pole and doesn’t remain perfectly in place, actually Polaris makes a tight little circulation, but, for all practical purposes, Polaris points north. Actually, when viewed from the northern hemisphere, Polaris is true north when it’s at the peak of its upper or lower culmination but that’s survey talk and not pertinent to what we as sportsmen need to know to find our way at night.

Polaris is easy to spot on a clear night. I begin first by locating the Big Dipper. At the bottom of the cup of the Big Dipper are two stars known as pointer stars. A straight line projected from these pointer stars intersects Polaris. The distance to Polaris is about 5 times the distance between the two pointer stars. Polaris is actually the very last star in the handle of the Little Dipper.

Latitude is determined by the vertical angle up to Polaris. In Texas for instance, the vertical angle up to Polaris at Brownsville at the tip of the state is about 26 degrees; at the top of the Panhandle, the angle increases by about 10 degrees.

When covering distances at night I seldom take the time to stop and actually look for Polaris or get a bearing from my compass. I will occasionally but I’ll often pick out a bright planet or the moon and determine with the compass how many degrees right or left I need to go and start walking. It’s important to know though that these objects in the night sky are constantly changing positions but not enough to matter for short periods of time.

The humorous little tale I’m about to relate to you might serve as a good reminder that anyone can get “turned around.” Several years ago, my great friend, the late Bob Hood, and I were turkey hunting on a ranch in far West Texas. We were following the ranch owner in Bob’s truck, talking and laughing and excited to get back to the interior of the ranch where we were going to hunt. We took many turns on the old ranch road and once way into the interior of the place, the rancher asked if we could find our way back after dark when we finished hunting. OH YES, no problem, we both replied.

Well at dark, with a couple of fine gobblers in the back of Bob’s truck, we started heading “back” to the main gate. After several wrong turns, we both discovered we didn’t have a clue which way to go to get back to the gate. The rancher called my cell phone. “Where are y'all, Luke?

“I see a green 55 gallon barrel feeder ahead beside a single live oak tree,” I replied.
“Well," he chuckled over the phone, "that pretty well describes the other 35 feeders we have on the 9,000 acre ranch.”

It was time for some fast thinking, Bob and I were getting tired and hungry. I told the rancher that in the far distance I could see the radio towers of San Angelo. I asked which direction they were from his parcel of land. “You’re due south of the towers; my gate is on the east side of the property. Find a ranch road that runs east and you will find the gate. In fifteen minutes we were turning the combination to the lock at the gate. There are all kind of ways to keep yourself on track! We would never have gotten turned around had we took a bearing on the front fence or road, but we had our mind on turkeys and following the rancher!

Listen to “Outdoors with Luke Clayton and Friends”, weekends on radio stations from Nebraska to Texas or anytime online at www.catfishradio.com.

[CaryC]

That's pretty good, and whole heartily agree. In all my excursions I wear a survival bracelet that has a compass on it.

My cousin and I decided to go squirrel hunting in Lost Corner. There was some snow on the ground which made the terrain look different, and a heavy overcast, so no sunshine.

With snow obliviously there were no leaves on the trees. Not having a dog, we went "vine shaking". During the day squirrels like to lay up in tree's that have a lot of vines in them to protect them from hawks. Meaning our gaze was pointed more upward in the hopes of spotting the next tree with a lot of vines on it, instead of paying attention to where we were going.

After bagging a couple, we were getting cold so decided to head back. We realized in short order we were lost. We had hunted in those woods since we had started hunting, but with snow and overcast, everything looked different. My cousin was older, and hunted there longer, so he took the lead. We came up on an old, very old logging road, stood there for a minute and was thinking. He finally decided that this way was the way back, and we would come out just above our truck. So off we went. About 20 minutes later we came up on a blood trail where someone had drug a deer out. We never heard the shot, and saw no vehicles when we stopped.

My cousin was convinced we were on the right path now. We followed the blood trail. Which led us right to the very spot he had shot it. Feeling much better now, we just turned around and followed it the other way. If we'd only had a compass.

Lost corner? You come upon it on the north side, but it's only a corner on the north/west side, it stretches from there 4 miles east, and about 6 miles south. After the hunt we were walking for about 2 hours. There's no houses, no roads, nothing but woods, it's great.

The hunting club I'm in, borders on it. We have 3000 acres. I keep a survival bracelet snapped to my hunter orange vest all year, and one in the Jeep just in case we get out and roam during the year. The survival bracelet on my vest is also hunter orange, and I snap it on my wrist when hunting.

It also helps that I have already determined which direction my stands and deer trails are going/pointed so when I step out of the Jeep, and feel the wind/breeze I can determine which direction it is coming from, and know how to set up. I can know my cover is blown, before I walk a mile into the woods, in the dark.