Map Reading Without a Compass

[Scythe13]

This should be simple enough, and if you were ever in the Scouts or did the Duke of Edinburgh, then you should be up with this skill. If not, I hope this helps you out.

Frequently people (BP for example) speak about the use of a map and the benefits they have. I'm not a huge map person, I quite enjoy getting lost then having to find my way back, but I still recognise their usefullness. Having maps and knowing how to use them can be a great benefit. Same as how to use a compass.

But what happens if your compass is broken, or you're on heavily magnetised (iron based) ground, or your compass has be stolen by carp, or something like that? If you're caught with just a map...what can you do?

Well, as it turns out, you can do a hell of a lot!

Providing you can see what's around you (stupid mist and fog could ruin that) or you know an approximate idea of where things are, you can orient the map towards those items. For example, if you are on a road, have a bridge behind you and a forest infront of you, then you can pretty simply look along the roads on the map to find a bridge on one side and a forest on the other. Once you have oriented the map so that if you were stood on the map, the forest would be infront and a bridge behind, you then know which way is north, south, east and west. But those directions are only really important if you have to travel somewhere.

The real benefit is that you are not lost and are able to navigate to where you need to be.

If there are multiple landmarks in the area, it would be simple enough to get a pencil and draw lined between the landmarks until you developed the skills to orient and find location.

So, I'll run a quick example, see if that helps. Might even make a youtube video if people really want to learn this stuff. Just PM and ask.

Stand still facing a landmark. Do this because you need to take some data-points. We'll run this example below, you have your map out:

1.You're stood in the middle of a forest.
2. Behind you is a road.
3. Directly to your right is a bridge over a stream.
4. Directly to your right and left, but outside the forest is a steep hill each side.
5. Infront of you and to the left is a small farm house.

Step one is to find every forest on your map with a steep hill either side of it. Then draw a line between those hills, straight through the forest. For this example we have 5 such forests.

If you can tell the size of the forest you're in, or the type of trees (e.g. connifer or deciduous) in it, you can use this data to cancel a forest or 2. So we now have 3 forests we could be in.

Now you want to estimat the distance the road is away from you and the forest.

Check the forests you've got your line on and work out how far away the roads are from them. This step allows you to cancel out certain forests to pinpoint your location even further. Now we have 2 forests, in our example.

Next up, you can check for a bridge on the map with the stream going through it. This allows you to then further find your location.

Orient the map so that if you were stood on the map, the farm house is facing away from you. The bridge on the map should be facing you in real life.

Providing you've not moved yourself, but have simply turned the map to orient the farm house forward and left of your real body, and you know which forest you're in...you now know where you are.

You can also tell from the map where North, South, East, and West are.

I hope that makes sense?