"Guided
by the sun, moon, stars and some practical skills"
Published on Sunday, April 6, 2003
in the Frederick News Post
By Susan
Guynn
News-Post Staff
Joe Schilling, of Germantown, demonstrates how to use
the shadow stick method to determine a northerly direction.
Moss grows on the north side of a tree. Not always.
The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Well, yes and no. The only place it rises and sets due east and west is at the equator.
Useless trivia? Not if you find yourself lost in the wilderness.
Getting from Point A to Point B is easy if you have a trail to follow, unless you happen to wander off the path.
"That old wives' tale about moss growing only on the north side of trees can be true, but I've seen moss growing all around the tree. I wouldn't risk my life on something like that," said Joe Schilling, an outdoorsman who practices and teaches primitive survival skills such as neotribal blacksmithing, firemaking, primitive navigation and shelter building.
Nor would he trust the direction of the wind or cloud movement to lead him in the right direction.
"Yes, clouds generally move west to east, but they can also go south to north, east to west, and they can go in circles," said Mr. Schilling. "That's the time to find a low-lying area because there could be a tornado drop from the sky."
If you have GPS to guide you, great. But early land navigators relied more on observing their surroundings to travel to familiar places as well as new territory.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were guided by the stars and moon by night, and the sun (and sometimes the moon) by day on their expedition to determine if Americans could journey overland to the Pacific Ocean following two rivers, the Missouri and the Columbia, which flow east and west, respectively, from the Rocky Mountains.
By measuring the position of the moon in relation to planets and nine bright stars in various seasons, and some lengthy mathematical calculations, the explorers were able to determine longitude. By measuring the altitude of the sun at noon and another mathematical equation, they could determine latitude.
"The tables were compiled by English, Portuguese and Spanish sailors," said Jeff Grills, co-director of the Earth, Space and Science Lab at South Frederick Elementary School in Frederick. Earlier this year, the lab presented a program on the navigation techniques of Lewis and Clark. Mr. Grills and Jeff Bowman, co-director, used to present an orienteering program to visiting schoolchildren, but it was cut due to budget constraints.
"(Lewis and Clark's) journey's work was for future exploration so explorers, using their data, could at least be able to keep their bearings. It was important to frontier exploration," said Mr. Grills.
Frontiersmen like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Daniel Boone explored the vast regions of the West without a map. Boone claimed to never have been lost, although he admitted he had on occasion been bewildered for days at a time.
"There's a saying that you're only lost if you have a place to go and a time to be there," said Mr. Schilling, who lives in Germantown.
The frontiersman's secret for navigating was simple: observation.
"Keep an eye on your surroundings. Be aware of them," said Mr. Schilling. "Most people walking on a trail are looking down. Look up every so often and find an indicator to focus on." It could be a tall evergreen standing amid a swath of hardwoods or a rock outcropping. And, he advises, stop every 20 to 50 yards and look where you've been, notice some details, because the view will be quite different if you need to retrace your steps.
Should you find yourself disoriented or lost without a map and compass or GPS, don't panic. That's the worst thing you can do.
"If you let your thinking run wild, you let the panic set in," said Mr. Schilling. "What most people will do in a panic situation is start running to find the trail. They are wasting valuable time and mental resources.
"The first thing to do is control your thoughts and, secondly, breathe," he said. "By taking a couple of deep breaths you can keep that panic level down. Once you get control of your thoughts, then consider what's your priority." Have a drink of water and a snack, something all hikers should have with them.
A person could survive three weeks without food, but only "up to four days without water this time of year," said Mr. Schilling. In the summer, that drops to two days; a day and a half in the desert. Muscle cramps, headache and disoriented thinking are signs of dehydration, which can be fatal.
But don't let the fear of getting lost keep you from exploring the outdoors. There is an upside.
"It's fairly impossible to get totally lost in the continental United States," said Mr. Schilling. "If you can find a river (generally by traveling down hill), follow it downstream and more than likely you'll find yourself at some form of civiliation. It may be a city or just a hunting lodge, but civilization." In rapidly growing areas, such as Frederick and Montgomery counties, the joke is that if you just stay put long enough a surveyor will find you.
You could also cup your hands around your ears (think Mickey Mouse) and listen for familiar sounds such as running water, traffic or a train, that will lead you to civilization.
Aside from observation, there are other primitive skills that are easy to learn to help a hiker find his or her way back to civilization.
With these techniques, outdoorsmen and women need to learn a new word: "ly," as in northerly, southerly, westerly and easterly.
"These techniques will lead you in a general direction," said Mr. Schilling.
If you don't have a compass, a magnetized needle inserted through a piece of cork will suffice. "Stroke the eye end of the needle on a magnet," said Mr. Schilling. "It will stay magnetize for some time." Insert it through a piece of cork and float it in a pool or container of water. The magnetized end will point in a northerly direction. "It's probably the most popular method of finding north," he said.
The shadow stick method takes some time to use but if you're lost it also will give you something to focus on. This method requires the sun or a very bright moon. It's good to use in the morning or evening when shadows are long.
Push a stick in the ground and mark the tip of its shadow by placing a stone or other object on it. Every five minutes or so, mark the shadow tip with another stone. After about 30 minutes lay the shadow stick along the line of stones. Take another stick and lay it perpendicular to the shadow stick. The second stick points in a northerly direction. Find a focus point in the distance and head for it, if north is where you want to go. By facing north, you can also determine other directions. South will be behind you, west to your left and east to your right.
The shadowless stick method starts with pushing a stick in the ground at an angle so it doesn't cast a shadow. "With the passing of time, as the sun goes westerly, it will create a long shadow. Lay another stick perpendicular to the shadow to get a guesstimate of where north is," said Mr. Schilling. "It also tells you which way the sun is going and you'll have a general east-west line."
Without a distant focus point you could end up walking in circles. "Most people aren't aware of the 'dominant step,'" said Mr. Schilling. "If you are right-handed you push off harder with your right foot and will start veering off to the left. It's just the opposite for left-handed people."
If night is falling, it may be best to stay put and set your thoughts on sheltering yourself from the elements.
"Most people who die in the wilderness or woods, die of exposure. The number two cause is dehydration," said Mr. Schilling.
The night sky also provides opportunities for finding a direction.
If the moon is in a crescent phase, draw an imaginary line through the two points to the horizon. That will take you in a southerly direction. "It's one of the most accurate methods," said Mr. Schilling.
To find a northerly direction, locate Polaris (the North Star). It's found by locating the Big Dipper and drawing an imaginary line from the two "dipper" stars farthest from the handle. Once you find Polaris, push a 2-foot stick in the ground. Using a shorter stick, sight over both sticks in the direction of the North Star. That will be north.
To avoid getting lost in the first place, carrying a map and compass, and a fundamental understanding of how to use them, is sound advice. A course in orienteering will cover the basics.
"Orienteering is just a form of communication; telling someone how to get from one place to another," said Ranger Debbie Mills of Catoctin Mountain Park in Thurmont. "It's a skill that uses a map and compass to find your way without being on a trail."
The park offers orienteering classes in November and March, and the orienteering course (where you can practice your skills) is open to the public between those months. It closes during the spring and summer when plants are emerging.
Simply stated, north serves as a reference point from where you are and helps determine how many degrees from north you need to travel to reach your destination.
Topographic maps are the other half of orienteering. Knowing how to read one, in conjunction with a compass, is an essential skill for anyone looking for outdoor adventure.
"An orienteering compass, which has a clear baseplate, is used in conjunction with a map to find your bearing from the map," said Ms. Mills.
There have been books written on the subject and there are a few outdoor adventure businesses in the area that offer orienteering classes, too.
The more you know about land navigation, the less anxious you'll be about getting lost.
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