Survival Navigation

If you find yourself in a survival situation, at some point, you will have to decide whether to stay where you are, or move to another location. You might choose to stay where you are and wait for rescue, or you might feel that you need to find your own way to safety. Even if your choice is to stay and wait for rescue, you might still need to at least move to higher ground or to an opening where you can be seen by search and rescue crafts. Regardless of the motivation to leave your present location, you need to know how to navigate if you want to reach your destination. Navigation is a lot more complicated than just heading in a direction. 


Many people have heard stories of lost individuals walking in circles, which is a true phenomenon, due to the fact that the human body has a stronger and dominant side of the body. The easiest solution for this problem is to use a method of navigation called dead reckoning. Dead Reckoning is a simple process that requires no training. Once you have chosen a direction of travel, find an object that is located in the direction that you want to travel, and walk toward that object. Once there, repeat the process. Whether or not you choose a close object or a far object depends on the terrain and surroundings. If you are in an area like a clearing, you can choose an object far away; however, if you are in heavily wooded surroundings, you might have to choose an object that is much closer, like a hundred feet or so. 


Now that you know a method that will keep you on a straight path, you need to learn to find a direction or heading. The first thing you need to determine is what direction you should be heading in. When you go into an area, you should have a map, but at least, you should know what direction you traveled to get to your general location. In other words, if I am going to a state park, I should know what highways and towns are located to the North, South, East, and West, and which ones are generally closer. It does little good to know which way is South, if you don't at least have a general idea of where you want to go. If you are stuck in a situation where you truly have idea of where you are, you should travel downhill in the hope of finding a stream or waterway. The general rule is that small waterways and streams lead to larger waterways and rivers, and rivers lead to towns and civilization.


If you have determined a general direction that you want to travel, now you need to locate your direction. If you have a compass, that makes it simple, the needle points north, otherwise, it requires a little work. I separate non-magnetic navigation methods into two categories, day time and night time navigation. In the day, we use the Sun to navigate. Now everyone knows that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West, correct. But in reality, it is not that simple. Although the Sun does rise in an easterly direction, it varies greatly depending on the time of year and your location. Without going into seasonal changes, there is a simple method that works anytime and anywhere the Sun is present. Start by finding four sticks about 10 inches long and drive one into the ground as close to vertical as you can. Now take a stick and drive it into the ground as close to vertical as you can at the tip of the shadow of the first stick. Now do the same with your third stick as you did with the second, after the shadow has moved a few inches, and then again with the forth stick. At this point, you should have three sticks lines up perfectly with an East/West line. At this point, if you are in the Northern hemisphere, your first lone stick will be to the South, and the opposite side will be North. The opposite would be true if you are in the Southern hemisphere. At this point you should know where all four directions are.


At night, if you are lucky, you can sometimes see the distant light of towns, which would give you a direct line of travel. Otherwise, you are pretty much forced to use the stars for navigation if you have no access to modern technology. The moon can also be used, but it required knowledge of a complex lunar cycle. Although you can navigate by multiple stars, the simplest is to use the North start, which is of course to the North. First, you need to find the Big Dipper, which most people are familiar with. It looks like a large dipping cup with a handle. To help you locate it, you need to know that it rotates throughout the year, but there is an easy way to remember the cycle. In Winter, the handle hangs down like an icicle, in Spring the cup faces down to pour out the spring showers, in Summer the handle faces up as if dipping cool water, and in Fall the cup faces up to catch the falling leaves. Once you find the Big Dipper, follow the stars that make up the wall of the cup opposite the handle up in the direction of the open cup. At about 4 times the distance of the cup edge that you followed, you will find the North Star as the handle star of the Little Dipper.   


-Richard