Experiencing the most peaceful nature is next to heaven for those surviving in suffocating cities. As rare an opportunity, it is also a challenge for those new explorers and adventurous hikers. You may just forget yourself in relishing few most enjoyable situations in life, such as hunting in the wild, angling in mid sea, or climbing, hiking and camping in the lost worlds. And suddenly you realize that you are lost in the backcountry and all by yourself. Well, you believe you have the compass to rescue you. And that’s exactly when you realize that you do not know how to use a compass to navigate. Well can life get any worse?
It is always preferred to have a map, a GPS unit, a compass or both together while you pack for camping. It is extremely vital to thoroughly understand how to use the GPS and a compass. GPS units can help navigate successfully. But how far can you rely on a piece of equipment that works on batteries that fail or die, or it may even be possible that it stops functioning if you drop a GPS device. That’s when map and compass comes to play the role of lifesavers. Map is something that may get lost, or torn or damaged in extreme wilderness. Hence the scorer is ultimately the compass.
Compass guides you in locating the direction of your current position. The scale in the compass usually indicates degrees from 0 to 360. There are compasses with scales ranging from 0 to 400 degrees as well. The compass needles are half black and half red. The black color of the needle may be white sometimes. You may find some orienting lines running through the north south direction. An orienting arrow is the line running through the middle of the orienting lines that indicates north and south directions. The turn able compass housing has letter N, W, S and E which means north, west, south and east directions. You may locate the direction such as
Now, let us learn how to use a compass, since we now know the components of a compass. Hold the compass flat in your hand and ensure that the needle moves. To confirm that the needle is not stuck, you may turn your hand, or yourself, or the compass. Once you ensure that the needle doesn’t turn anymore, turn the compass housing until the red needle points to North. A common mistake done by novice compass users are to direct the red point of the needle towards south. This way you end up going to a direction exactly opposite to where you intend to go.
Another common issue is the pointer may alter from indicating the correct direction if there is a distraction in the magnetic field. This is possible if the compass is placed close to iron which may disturb the needle and show a different direction due to magnetic deviation. Even if you are not carrying anything made of iron, possibility is if you are in a mining district, the land may cause magnetic deviation. By checking for the perfect direction you can identify where you are. If you are lucky you may use the map in correlation with the compass by fixing the compass to match the N point in the map. Another important thing that one needs to know is about the declination. Declination is the difference between the exact north and magnetic north. It is important to learn how to compensate the difference in declination, failing which the way you take may make a huge difference. Declination is usually automatically compensated in GPS systems however; the functioning of GPS is not reliable. Hence it is wise to understand the Declination in a compass than trusting on GPS equipment before you start.
It is a wise idea to keep navigating while you are going to avoid landing up in a lost spot and trying to locate yourself, since chances are that you might lose your way. You may wear your compass around your neck instead of keeping it in your backpack. This helps you to navigate as you go and correlate to the map throughout your way. It is life threatening if you do not know how to navigate using a compass at times. Though it is simple to learn, there are classes that teach on the basics of using a compass with a map.
With appropriate knowledge on using a compass you are safe and relaxed and can enjoy your backcountry expedition with joy and nothing else. The compass may appear very simple but has helped navigators centuries ago to discover continents. You compass skills can help you find you way back home from the wilderness easily. So learn it.