Land Navigation: How to Make a Map in the Wilderness PAUL map Pace count 

Thank you Gene! Good to hear! I really like it, too. Incredibly beneficial

Thank you.

Thanks very much! Cheers

Thank you, my friend! Man, lost at sea! That must have been some experience. I have been twisted around a few times, but nothing too major. Open water, thats a whole other thing. 🤝

Thanks! Thats really cool you were teaching this stuff in the military. I really enjoy traveling off trail, so learning this stuff was such a game changer for me. Its near impossible to walk a straight line here off trail. Thanks for the tip on the pacing beads. That makes sense. Truth be told, I rarely use them here. I am planning a follow up on this one, to convert the data to paper. Its been a minute since I did one, so that will be good practice for me. Have a good one!

​@@EnduranceRoom You can self map when you go off trail and the big factors are finding an easily identifiable object that you can walk to in a straight line to and keeping a good pace count. Self mapping is somewhat easier than navigating to a point you've picked out on a map, because you make up the map as you go. If you see a hilltop on a topo map and it looks like it might be a good place to scout for deer, you would shoot an azimuth on paper from your known starting point and then figure out the distance. In that case, you have to pick out an object to shoot an azimuth to and then walk a straight line to the hilltop. Since you know the distance based off of the map measurement, you know you'll have to travel 550 meters. Difficult things that you'll encounter are terrain features that are not passable and terrain that will effect your pace count. If you have to climb 300 feet in elevation, your steps will be shorter and your pace count will be longer since you have to travel more distance. If you have to box a terrain feature, such as a swamp, you'll have to shoot an azimuth 90 degrees right or left of your original azimuth, then walk until you can clear the obstacle, note your pace count, turn right or left to shoot your original azimuth and continue your original pace count until you've cleared the obstacle, then turn right or left to shoot an another azimuth that is 90 degrees opposite of the way you walked to clear the obstacle and walk the same number of paces back to your original azimuth of travel. Hopefully you made it to the easily identifiable feature that you saw from the other side of the obstacle and you can shoot your original azimuth and carry on with your original pace count. When I would set up land nav courses and teach the class, I would always have the contour lines marked on the ground with a white tape we called engineer tape. It was to give people a different perspective on how to look at a map in three dimensions. I'd usually set up a basic course with 3 points that were easily identifiable when you got within 10 meters and an advanced course with 5 points with one of them being a timed leg where they would have to link up with soldiers at the waypoint and hand something off like equipment, rations, ammo, or water. If the team didn't make it there before the end of the time window, the soldiers would leave and report back to me at the training area and the team would get a No Go for that leg. At each point was a unique punch and sometimes I would put a decoy punch that was wrong either before or after the correct point just to get them questioning themselves about their pace count and add some extra stress. It was always a good time to spend in the woods finding a good terrain feature to hide the post with the punch attached. I set one up about 20 meters in a marsh once, then it rained like cats and dogs overnight and shin deep water became thigh deep water. I look forward to more of you land nav videos!

@@TheVerbiousOneAwesome, my friend. I really like the tape for the contour lines. That is a great tip. Your classes sound like a blast. Where were they ran? Very inline with what they were teaching at PFS. I went back out today for a bit and ran the azimuth from the PAUL map. Shot a line up over a hill through pretty thick timber for 350m and used a lot what you mentioned here. I wanted to plan the route for my own use, but it ended up working out as a demo for the PAUL map. Came out about 10m south of where I was aiming. Hopefully it comes across in the video. I tried to get as much of it as I could filming while walking and counting. Oh, I moved the pacing beads up to my shoulders and switched to top down. Much better. Video should be up in a day or two. Thanks for the feedback and tips. Have a good one!

@@EnduranceRoom I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC from 96-01 when I was training soldiers in my unit. Land nav was just really fun for me. I tried to get soldiers to figure out creative ways to navigate from point A to point B and how to get there as stressfully as possible, as I added in extra stress. Haha. One of the things I really tried to convey to the soldiers in my unit, was positively identifying a terrain feature and then resetting and navigating from there. The same azimuth can be shot from anywhere on the ground and all you end up with is a parallel line. If you walk it, you might be 100m away from your target, and 100% on the same azimuth. There are some really fun hobbies like geocaching and orienteering courses that can really test your skills. You really have the self mapping part nailed down and demonstrate it very well!

Thank you, I had some really good teachers. Shawn Kelly and Joshua Enyart

Thank you very much! 🤝

Thank you very much! 🤝

Thanks Kris! Appreciate it. Worked on it to make it as clear as I could. Glad to hear it was understandable.

Thank you! Honestly, it helps my understanding as well making the videos. Cheers

Thanks very much.

Thanks Bobby! Glad to hear it. Have a good one

Thanks brother. It really is incredibly valuable. Once someone sees what they can do with it, it’s kind of a must. Have a good one my friend.

Awesome man, glad to hear it. It isn’t hard. Just got to get the basics like pace count, get used to counting and taking good readings on the compass.

Thank you kindly. This was part 1 of 3. Part 2 is a live test of the PAUL map, and part 3 is making a paper map from the data.

Thank you! Appreciate it.

Thank you!

Thank you, cheers

Thank you very much!

Thanks brother. It was a good refresher for me making this. Its really kinda fun, especially when you see what you can do with it. Have a good one

Thank you James! 🤝

Thank you. Appreciated. Have a good one

Thanks Sean! Really appreciate it. Cheers

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed. Cheers

Absolutely.Cheers

Thanks Mally! Its a great project to work on.

Thanks brother! It took me a few days to get everything right on this. Lot of info to cover and I tried to make it as clear as I could. Glad to hear it flowed well. When you play around with the map making, it gets really interesting what you can do with it. Cheers 🤝

Oh yeah... Got to choose your company wisely. Going off trail into the wilderness, you would think that would promote a cooperative effort. It takes a lot less time and energy to do this than not do it and get lost.

@@EnduranceRoom Yeah. Strikes me as a talent best cultivated during short hikes on your own in a known area. Then, if you're with other people and already know what you're doing they won't complain so much. The biggest problem I had with my Land Navigation courses - was measuring the distance of my pace. Your point about averaging your step over different bits of terrain is really good advice. We measured our steps in a flat dirt area and once we went up into the hills ... we were off. The other thing was we didn't measure them over long enough distances. I don't remember what it was - but it was NOT 100 yards. It was really short. .

Thank you very much! Glad to hear it 🤝

@@EnduranceRoom I do have a question and it may be dumb but to get these base line numbers, could this be done on a treadmill? Like if you dont have some woods or terrain to get the pace count average? Just wondering.

@@thebeardedgorilla8596 No problem. I would recommend doing to as close as possible conditions as to where you would intend to use it. That’s going to give you the best results.

@@EnduranceRoom awesome man thanks. Just a thought i had while at work today. All the best brother

Thanks very much my friend. Learning this stuff was definitely a game changer for me. Really opens some doors about what you can do, even in the lousiest of conditions. Thanks for watching and ATB to you as well, from the ADKs Jess

Thanks Dave!

Thanks Mike! Appreciate it

Thank you! Yes, indeed. 100%

Thank you, Shannon!

Thanks Craig! Good luck and enjoy the experience! Tell Shawn Kelly and Tony Powers I said hi. Have a good one!

Thanks Will! It really is awesome when you can see what you can do with it. Get the pace count and get used to walking and counting, thats half the battle. Keep it simple to start, like pick a direction and a walk a straight line, count the paces, and walk back out. I will do a follow up for making a paper map with some more info. Cheers 🤝

Thank you!

😂 Thanks brother. Where there’s smoke... Lots of interesting applications on this one. Used to use a 🛶

@@EnduranceRoom y’all have a great night

Thanks Derek! I am planning a follow up for the paper map and some more info. Cheers

Thanks for the quick reply !

Thank you Albert! Sounds like a great book. I learned this from GB2 and Shawn Kelly. Both those guys are phenomenal teachers. From what they were saying, quite a few professionals were coming there to do nav.

@@EnduranceRoom By the way he also published a book called "everybody's knife bible. "

Thank you very much, Michael! Appreciate it

Nice! That is exactly what I used to do hiking. I still do this. I would recommend getting your pace count figured out. Once you have it and get used to counting, the rest is pretty easy. I resisted the need to learn this stuff thinking I had a handle on it, but after seeing and practicing it first hand, I was really blown away at what you can do with it.

Thanks Kevin! It sure does. Been there a few times.

Thank you very much my friend. Have a good one.

100% Cheers my friend 🌲🤝

Thank you, Tommy! Absolutely. You can do a whole lot with a simple button compass. I used an old GI style for years and years, before getting some knowledge on the rotating bezel ring type. If I am doing map related land nav, I use that style, but everyday stuff is primarily done with just a simple compass for basic cardinal directions. I like to use the sun quite a bit when I can for the same purpose, but that really depends on the day. Have a good one, my friend.

@@EnduranceRoom 👍

Thank you!

Thanks Herb! I was the same for years and years. Had some good teachers along the way. Gonna follow up on this with converting to paper. Have a good one!

Also what I was glad to hear was taking notes about the terrain or a downed log or another crossing. Great check shots for when you might get off track with which leg you're on. GLO surveyors made incredible maps with what we consider now, rudimentary equipment.

Thanks, but the terrain variations were accounted for in the beginning of the video, by doing the pace count test in a variety of conditions- flat, hill (up and down), both unloaded and loaded and then calculating the average. It works very well and is used in real world professional situations.

@@EnduranceRoom that’s nowhere near as accurate as using an inclinometer on each leg if it changes. If it’s relatively consistent then it’s fairly adequate but with any significant incline or decline that’s not accounted for the overall accuracy will greatly suffer. Just sayin. We actually do train public service agencies (tactical LE,search and rescue etc) daily as well as apply them in real world professional situations using various methods.This method being one of them. In Minnesota this week,relatively flat. Next week it’s Tennessee. Not so much. The methods of application will vary. Nice video.

@@StrategicSelfRelianceDefense 👍

Thanks Opal! Much appreciated. Put some work in on this one. Have a good one, my friend.

Thank you. Adirondacks. Honestly, the best place to do this, is right at home, get comfortable with the basics, and then take it out and expand. It’s not hard, just takes practice. Well worth developing this skill

Thank you Carlos! Much appreciated. 🤝

Thank you. The idea is if you are in an area that you don’t have a map, you can walk in and walk back out. If you track your data, you can use it to find a new route out or to a previous location. It is really powerful when you see it for yourself. I am planning a follow up to this for the paper map, but will try and expand on this style as well.

Thanks! The one at the beginning is a Duck Hunter camo shirt. I got it at an Army Navy store in PA. The shirt at the end is the FSB summer suit from Russian Cold Camo

@@EnduranceRoom Thanks a lot. Just found your video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-A9-RKG_D_lQ.html

Possibly. But this is about using the minimum tools that people should have on hand (a compass) to help them stay out of trouble

Thank you 😁

I did one last year called Survival Belt Rig. I could probably do another one, as it has changed quite a bit.

Thanks Alex! Appreciate it my friend. 🤝 Have a good one! 🌲