Someone once asked Daniel Boone if he had ever gotten lost. He replied, no but I was once bewildered for three days. Moral of the story. It can happen to the best of us.
I’m a sailor and in the days before GPS was common, I learned celestial navigation from material produced by William F. Buckley Jr. I later ran into Mr. Buckley and told him I had learned from his materials. He asked me if I ever got lost. My response, “I’ve never gotten lost, but every once in a while I’ve found myself where I didn’t think I was.” He was a charming man to talk to.
Hi Dan, I have another tip, that my father told me. If you walk in the woods, look back, to see how the way behind you looks. It never looks the same as the way up front, and if you find waypoints looking back, that really can help too.
Now our woods, in the Netherlands into Germany, are by far not as big as yours in the U.S.A., the whole land could get lost in one of your parks. Though as a young girl, I went to the woods by myself most of the time, and the woods here seemed big enough in those days. Guess he didn't want to get rid of me, I never got lost with his advice! 😁 Much love to you!
You can really tell how not straight you walk In high weeds when you look back. I’ve gotten turned around looking for a duck and lost all sense of direction. The weeds where a couple feet taller than I am. It was the weirdest feeling because I knew what direction was north but I kept second guessing myself for a few mins.
Good advice. I once got lost in the Yukon because a trail ended in a clearing and I didn't look back to see what the opening to the trail looked like. Finally found it but it was scary. Now when I'm bushwacking I stop once in a while, look behind me, and make note of unusual trees or features that can guide me back. As to drift, a bit of drift over a short distance becomes a circle or arc over a large distance, so even if we don't get lost, we end up farther along one way or another than expected. I plan to check my drift direction and try to compensate for it, as advised in the video.
I was on a search and rescue team and one of the first things we asked about the lost individual was whether they were right handed or left handed. It really does make a difference and I’m glad you’ve mentioned it!!
Have done this looking for “lost” kids, it is a true general tendency. People can actually end up making a circle: it might be miles in diameter but it is a general circular path if they keep going long enough.
Except most people don’t walk a straight line when they are lost. Good effort though. For clarification: People know they are lost then walk up a ridge to get “a better look”, wander to water, backtrack, etc… A better approach would be to inquire about their experience in the wilderness. A “professional” and an amateur’s behavior are both predictable.
@@AclockworkPurple yes, absolutely, but their overall path unless blocked by a topo feature ends up many times circular. I’m not saying that this is a absolute, too many human variables but it tends to cut down choices to initiate a search absent other reasons
Best way to avoid drift is with a sighting compass. Don't just look down at your compass and walk. Sight down your compass at your bearing and find a tree or something along your path. Then just walk to it. Doesn't matter if you walk a straight line as long as you get to the correct tree
@@cagneybillingsley2165 no two trees are exactly the same so most people can do this. But if you can't just keep looking at the tree while you walk so you don't get it mixed up.
@@cagneybillingsley2165Either you need better observational skills or you live in a fictional land. There is always a point with a distinguishing feature to move toward. Now, if you were implying failure on a land navigation course in some way, then you might be right. OTOH, if it is find a lake, a building, etc. I will find it. Perhaps not at spot X, but I will get there.
@@cagneybillingsley2165 In super thick stuff use a long pole and shove it through the thicket and move to the other end new reading and shove the pole ahead again. rinse and repeat until your through the thicket. Thick as in put your hoodie up and head down and push through it.
@@downeastprimitiveskills7688 If the trees are that thick I would just give up on following a bearing... Just head kinda in the right direction and find out where you are again when possible. Best case is there is a trail, river, etc, going east west for example and you are south of it, go northish. You'll hit it eventually and you don't need to be too precise. Then you could follow it east until you reach some landmark like a trail fork, pond, whatever. I always try to navigate to a long feature when possible since it allows for more error. Or just use gps on your phone haha
Yep, I've walked in circles before despite growing up in the woods and walking in forests and jungles my entire childhood. Once I was out hiking on a military base with my dog and walked in a circle. Luckily he knew where he was and when I told him "Go find the van" I followed him and he did LOL
This reminds of something I was taught in the Army, esp for marching on parade but also for navigation. If possible pick a point (feature) you can see in the direction your heading either straight ahead or on the same bearing you are marching on and aim for this. Over the journey you will veer off course small amounts but if you can see the feature you will correct yourself, as you arrive at this feature/point if you have further to go you pick another visible feature along the same line of March and head for this. This helps keep you generally on the same line. Good video and explanation
I rarely follow s straight line but meander from one major landmark or topo dates to another such as ridge or stream or roadway and rarely in any hurry and prepared to spend a day or two o explore as I go within a few square miles of an area that's new l never fear being lost and eventually end up neary target land mark road mountain or waterway fifty plus years experience in woods
The walking in circles stuff is true. That’s why I never go into flat ground and swamps without a compass. One of the scariest scenarios is a huge bowl in a mountain top full of thick stuff. Many years ago a hunter wandered into such a bowl; his brother found what was left of him the following year. Once, while scouting, I thought going down the mountain would be a piece of cake. Was I ever wrong-I struggled up and down humps, hollows, thickets, and streams only to come out on the main road over a mile from where I parked. I was half expecting to find someone along the way.
In Army infantry training we were taught to shoot an azimuth in the direction you want to go. Focus on a distant object on that line, and walk straight to that object. Then repeat that step again as you move across country. If you are focused on walking to an object, then you won't have to worry too much about right and left drift. I have navigated across rough terrain for mile using this technique, and almost always came right out on my assigned goal. I was in a pathfinder unit during my time in the 82 Airborne, and land navigation is critical.
100% true the first thing you said. My eye protection failed me while walking through a blizzard. Ground was flat and no trees, and my goal was towards the nasty chill wind. The problem was that I kept walking away from the wind. Not once or twice, but all the time.😂 the GPS tracker looked like shark teeth, because I had to correct myself.😅
I've fished and hunted all my life. Never really learned how to use a compass. Then I started working as a mining claim staker, then later as the compassman/tallyman for timber-cruising. 100's and 100's of miles..all 100% bushbashing..no trails, no taking easy way around stuff...all pre-GPS.
This is why I always use waypoints. Obviously easier in an open landscape. But in dense woodland you can use contour lines as a waypoint. As an example, I know I have to walk East until I get to a steeper downhill section of the route (closer contour lines). At that point I know exactly where I am using OS maps and can plot the next section of the route.
As an engineer, it's all in the details. In this whole series of video's. It's the details. Drift. Compass leaning. Not counting accurately can multiply until you are way off A small variation at a short distance doesn't seem like a lot but at 1000 meters can be way off. Excellent play list.
I learned about this doing land navigation courses. I was taught the best way is to use your compass to find a distance object and walk right to it instead of looking at your compass. It is much easier to walk on rough terrain when not starring at a compass. Now night navigation is a bit harder.
I think sighted compasses should come with a laser for use in the dark, maybe even range finding it it's a fancy one. Idk if this is totally plausible, but it seems like a good idea. Would need very low wattage for a weak but sufficient laser, maybe even electroluminescent hands, so would hold a solar charge for a while, since the laser would only be used for occasional landmark spotting. Would need a flashlight as well of course, but could easily find waypoints at night. Perhaps even an LED on the compass to brighten the terrain between you and what you're sighting. Maybe every 100 feet recheck the bearing. A fancier version could also include a rangefinder, though it would add more electronics. Just some random thoughts, maybe this already exists.
Reminds me of a situation years ago when I was going across a field I was perfectly familiar with, but I was crossing it at night in a thick fog so I could not see the edges to aim at. I ended up coming right back round to where I started so I decided to follow the edges instead
People underestimate fog. I was once on a mountain and it was a bright day. The next moment, I couldn't see my own frigging feet! To make things worse: it wasn't a smooth path, but rocks everywhere, and not far from me was a cliff. That was terrifying!
I am so glad that you brought this up. Lateral drift is absolutely real. Now I found this out a long time ago really by accident. I always called it my power leg. I'm right-handed but I drift to the left that's why I called it my power leg because I can even feel myself pushing off harder with my right foot or leg and I am aware of this and constantly trying to compensate for it. You rarely ever hear anyone talk about lateral drift. Thanks for bringing this up people really do need to know this that spend time in the woods. Thanks again Dan you're the man. Stay vigilant my friend!
Got the same thing going on. Not sure if it's because my right leg is slighty longer or because it pushes harder but same thing: always drifting left. Never thought about that when going in the woods tho, that's a good thing to be aware of!
Drift is definitely a thing which people who live in urban areas are not aware of because urban areas are dominated by straight lines that guide us like pavements (sidewalks) alongside roads, walls and corridors. However, if you live in the countryside a long time and walk long distances its very noticeable. What tends to happen is small undulations, rocks, obstructions or any type of anomaly from a dead flat plain will result in you naturally choosing to dealing with that by tending to lean or manoeuvre one way more often than the other. The other thing is that even walking on a flat plain I have one leg slightly longer than the other, some people have a slight twist in their back which causes one step to be slightly longer than the other. Its like tossing a coin which is slightly biased to come up heads more often than tails.
It is good to know your drift tendencies, but sometimes you will want to exaggerate it even if you have a compass. Case in point: You parked your vehicle on a logging road and wandered in a mile or so in a given direction. When it is time to turn back be sure to drift a bit more than normal so when you arrive back at the logging road and you don't see your vehicle in either direction, you will know which way to walk to find it. In your case drift more to the right than usual coming out and when you reach the road, turn left to walk to your vehicle. So basically you are walking/making a triangle and the starting point is reached when the triangle is closed. The method is also good for finding a wilderness camp along a river.
Few experiences are more triumphant than a successful off-trail hike. That said, start small! You will learn so much it will make you want to write a book about it. My first XC solo was a highly planned 1-mile hike in which I went way off course, but was able thanks to the shorter distance to eventually get there and back. Later, I found that even a rudimentary handheld GPS unit provided invaluable guidance and (IMPORTANT!) - "emotional" support.
My forty something age is showing, but when you sped up the video when you were coming back, waving your hands in the air; I flashed back to Grover demonstrating "near" and "far". You great explanation of lateral draft is right with Grover, man. Very well done. I need to buy a Coalcracker beanie now..
When I was a teen, my mom and I who neither had any navigational skills whatsoever had to walk home from a truck rental place and thought we'd just cut South-West through the patch of woods that was North-East of our neighborhood for a shortcut. What should've been a 15-minute hike to a known road lasted 6 hours, and we ended up VERY far North of our neighborhood. Came out through the back yard of an unsold house in a new subdivision being built we didn't even know about. It was very surreal to find an unknown neighborhood "far past" where ours "should have" been, where we would've expected there to be highways (far South-West of our neighborhood) given the distance we walked in seemingly unending woods where there shouldn't have been any. It was fun, and we were very sore and tired, lol. My grandparents were upset with us, understandably... But, I'm glad we did that, even though looking back, we definitely should not have. "I feel like we should've been back on the road by now..." "How have we not seen the lake yet?" After getting out: "How did we miss that huge lake?"
Very informative Dan ! What I do is aiming for a feature in my chosen direction and then just walking to it. This prevents drifting. Then you hop to the next step.
Excellent points. I noticed my own lateral drift years ago. When I would be working late, then walk out across a big nearly empty parking lot towards my car, I noticed I pull to the left just a bit. I'd always end up correcting to the right as I approached and "hooking" in on it. To counter it I now use the aim point / way point technique. Pick the farthest point, the target I want to go to, and then several intermediate points along the way just to ensure I'm not wasting steps/time. Though this only works as far as you can see in terrain.
Very true. Prior to an accident, I never noticed it but since tearing my left ACL and getting it repaired, I now have a severe lateral drift to the left. I think it changed my stride length on the left which adds up quickly.
Great video. If I might add this. When I am out hiking I always look for a point of reference to walk towards and also something past that point for the next point of reference to keep a straight line while walking. This is especially helpful if you have no compass. It is also natural for a right handed person to bear to the right or go around something in that manner. You may notice while waiting in line for an open register or something of that nature the majority of people will go to the right because they are right handed. Love the videos.
I never thought of lateral drift, on the other hand I instinctively always mark a point and heading that direction and remark that point when I reach it.
Very useful tip Dan. Most aren't award of the phenomena but those of us who have walked in circles for a time can attest to the validity of lateral drift 🙂🙂
When I was in the national guard the Army was using New Mexico NG to train prior service “retreads” at White Sands missile base. Land nav in the white sands valley was like cheating - there’s a rim of mountains all around so theres always a peak or notch to aim for. Then I got sent South Carolina for my MOS school, and had to do land nav in a row-planted evergreen forest.
Going thru military schools or just training on land navigation over the years I learned about my lateral drift. My fix was for every 100-200 meters that I walked I would take one side step to my left and then keep going for another 100-200 meters and then take another side step. I always passed the day or night land navigation course on the first try. You can do the same running from point to point. The easiest way during the day is to shoot your azimuth and find and object that is directly in line and then just walk to that object. You can also use your partner that's with you. Send them forward as far as you can and then they stop and you walk up to them. Leap frogging and until you get to your objective or point. You can do the same thing with stars as long as you can focus on a particular one for each 100 -200 meters since the earth is moving. Stars take more practice but works best in open areas where there are no trees like a desert.
I've always been good at direction after getting lost in the woods at 5 years old. Once I got in the military it just solidified my directional skills. I ( I know, I know ) volunteered for a night compass course with our scout platoon ( I was a 64C motor transport operater ) then I also took multiple night driving courses including a compass course ( this was when they didn't call what few night vision googles Gen 1 because there were no Gen 2 ) which between my outdoor lifestyle and the training made everything a walk in the park so to speak. Out in California ( NTC/ mohave desert ) we had a fuel truck driver Get lost at night and drive halfway through the desert ( heading for Vegas? ) until he ran out of fuel...in a fuel truck...with 1000gallons onboard....
Ive traveled in some of the most remote parts of the country and i always use a compass (i bring 2 because i often doubt the accuracy of 1 for some reason) but i also will use the "handrail and backstop" method to prevent getting lost.
Mythbusters experimented with blindfolded walking and swimming. They actually turned in circles on their ~ 100 yard walk and even in the brief swim. While our eyes obviously help, as proven on Mythbusters, we still do drift.
I have been a woods trapper my entire life. The one time that I got lost, ....I took the time to orient myself, observe, and then follow my instincts. By the grace of God, it worked and I didn't have to spend a cold night in the forest.
Great information and comments I really never thought about drift when hiking, I'm left handed but do a lot of stuff right handed so now I want to test myself.
I’m thankful for basic land nav in the army, one of the more useful things I learned. Knowing your pace count, a compass, map and waking to reference points is the way to go.
Wow didn’t know this. Thanks. My best ways of getting lost are 1 leaving the car park from the wrong exit 2 getting to the top of the mountain and ecstatically running down the wrong way. 3 trying to cross peat bogs in the mist. But hey clearly I made it home
I always consider it a successful outing in the woods if I get lost and spend more time than expected wandering around until I re-orient myself, as well as walk farther than I set out to. Exercise! And I've always managed to find my way back home...
True, true, true! If you are right handed your dominate leg is your right and you will drift right! If you are left your dominate leg is left, you will draft left. I think I have that right. The reason that happens, is your dominate leg will reach out, or have a longer stride than your nondominate leg. Point is every hiker will drift left or right and unless you are focused on an object or focused on a compass will not accurately walk a straight line. ( And we aren’t even started talking about rough terrain.)
I've been in the woods all my life I've never been lost.. i also have marked my trail I've been camping since the age of 10.. i better know what I'm doing.. thanks for the info I'll keep it in mind..
The video is very good, and also true, but I would like to add a tip from a Brazilian channel (The two forest biomes are very dense and accidental here) which is that you don't walk in a distracted way (thinking "I'll move forward" or " I will go southwest"), but rather you see a reference point (like a lighter or darker tree, like a large rock, etc.), and follow it until you get there, then find another reference point and so on. Another very important tip is to look back every time, as the view is different and there are forks that you only see when going or going and that's why you need to know them so you don't take a wrong path on the way back or get "stuck" at a fork. (and of course, know the direction of the city and the road, and always have minimal things in case you get lost, even if you think you're just going to take a 4-hour walk, as far as I remember every case of death due to being lost started with something silly, when we think something is silly we don't worry and that's why we take it in the ass (not that I follow that, I'm wrong)).
Love the video, great way to keep people in check about navigation. Btw just got your book Bishcraft Kid. My wife and i read to our kids every night before bedtime. Bushcraft kid will be the next book we read 👍. Amother tip from another legend of bushcraft and survivalism Les Stroud said navigating in a forest, the trees arent going to line up perfectly in a general direction so to help "stay true" you should alternate going around trees. If you went around the left side of the last tree you came upon, itll help going around the right side of the next tree and so on.
Nice video. Wow, it seems you have an astonishing number of absolutely supernaturally gifted land navigators in the comment section. For me, I like all the tricks whether maps, GPS, compass, all of it.
We have honed our land navigation skills to perfection after thousands of successful trips from the armchair to the fridge and back. We have no need of such gadgets 😜
Great information. I am stealing that idea. You rock mister! Never thought about “lateral drift” since I always take a lensatic compass and a 1/24,000 topo map. I stop and turn to see behind me for land markers so I can return from winch I came. And in deep heavy forests I tag trees with fluorescent surveyors tape to help me get back. But that phenomenon you spoke of still happens and stopping frequently to confirm my path with the lensatic compass helps me correct my ramblings.
Absolutely - I'm right handed, right eye dominant and my right leg is about 8mm (1/3 of an inch) shorter than my left leg......I practically crash on every walk, but forewarned is forearmed!
If you've ever had back injury that effected your sciatic nerve, you may drift to side of injury no matter whether you're left or right handed. Also, if you injured one of your legs or ankle, you may drift towards direction of Injury.
I was so overconfident as a teen when my brother and I hiked a 'shortcut' through a cedar swamp. We were going perfectly, with the cedar trees lying in straight rows toward our lake to the west. Almost missed the lake, though, just before sunset. Just lucky that we went across the swamp where we did and that it was really dry. We thought we were a mile or more further north than we were, when we left the trail . In reality, next row of cedars or so south in the swamp and we would have missed the lake and been lost in the dark. I still am in shock. I have dreamt the alternative many times.
The great Swedish book "Overlevnad" (survival) advices hikers to cut down a big wooden stick. Probably 2-3 meters long and hold it in the direction you walk. You will feel it in your hand when you start to drift, because the stick won't.
I assume you carry it by holding it in the middle, and not pointing it foreward( sounds dumb, but I just want to be sure :P ) :) Being norwegian.. I might get the book:)
After breaking my femur and getting a titanium rod put in they said my right leg will always be a little bit shorter, so its good to know about the lateral drift thing. Makes sense.
I was taught to read topigraphical maps and use a compass when I was a seventeen year old soldier. We would have one member of a squad tie a knot in a piece of string every ten paces. After one hundred paces the bearing would would be checked and another indivdual would tie a knot on a piece of string representing 100 hundred meters. We always found our taget.
I generally click on videos to the right when hiking on RU-vid and I always get lost but I believe it's more due to RU-vid algorithms than my inability to click in a straight line. Back to clicking gotta keep my cardio up😊
This reminds me of my nightmare hike: 1) constant slalom, and up and down taking me any sense of distance or direction. 2) someone destroyed the roadsigns in the entire area and the paths weren't maintained and thus kept fading into the undergrowth. 3) For the longest part, all you see are trees. No fixed point in the distance to look out for. Nothing. 4) The map I received as a printout didn't feature all the paths and thus when I came to a crossing without any description, I couldn't tell if that was the one on the map, or if it comes later... 5) my smartphone refused to work. Absolutely no reception, neither for phone calls nor for maps. 6) I spotted the only venomous snake in the entire region multiple times, despite it being allegedly close to extinction. I would really like to know how an expert would have handled it... The only hike gone worse was the one with extremely dense fog that surprised us in the mountains and that time, where we narrowly escaped a landslide (it was eerily quiet before it happened; apparently even insects are smarter than us humans)
@@westmichiganpreparedness Thanks. I'm more of a scientist than artist. The only book I've written is my Ph.D. thesis and despite me going all in with nice, colourful illustrations, I doubt that it's high art...
I have surveyors tape and reflective thumb tacks. (No, I don't leave them behind after use.) If I get off course it's relatively easy to backtrack and correct.
Or live in a country as densely populated as mine. Literally impossible to walk for more than a few hours before you run into habitation and/or roads. Of course, one could walk in really small circles, but I have only ever heard about small kids getting lost here, and even then it is rare.
I recently discovered a similar thing. I lost the vision in my left eye, and found that when I need to turn around I tend to turn to my left. This is now a big deal because I have no peripheral vision in that direction and risk running into people in stores for example. I had not noticed this before despite being situationally aware and being almost incapable of getting lost and all that good stuff. So, I resurrected the muscle memory of doing an about-face learned in the military many decades ago. Anyone who's been in knows that's a turn to the right, turning in place. I already knew that I drift to the left if I'm not paying attention. I wonder if there's a relation.
A right-handed person will normally drift to the left because they take a slightly longer step with the right foot. I learned young to walk point to point. When you reach the next point, look back at the last point so it will look familiar, then ahead to the next point. This way, you always have three points of reference.
I tried a little land nav twenty years ago in a wooded area just outside of town. I got in over my head because the sun started going down. I asked my doberman to find the car and he made a straight line for it without all the twists and turns I guess I made.
