Navigation 2: Map and Compass Orienteering

Introduction: Map and compass navigation has been around for centuries and is the most tried and true form of navigation today. Without the need for a satellite signal, an adventurer can successfully navigate series checkpoints in all types of terrain and land cover. Adventure racing is a new and upcoming outdoor recreation that encompasses hiking/trekking, kayaking, mountain biking, navigation, and running into one cross-country race. No GPS technology is allowed other than a tracker provided by the event planners. The only form of navigation is a map and compass. Being able to quickly map, measure, and locate each checkpoint allows an adventure team to be successful and win the races. For our purposes, we were navigating 6 points in one very local area, where these adventure races can hold hundreds of checkpoints and span several countries. Compass navigation is a simple but very powerful skill set to have in your day to day life.    

Study Area: The Priory, formerly known as St. Bede’s Monastery, was purchased by the UW-Eau Claire Foundation in 2011. The 3-building complex and 112 acres were used as an education facility for the Sisters, and is today home to the Children’s Center and Nature Academy. The UWEC foundation is leasing the land to the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire which also uses the living quarters as an extension of the residence halls for college students. The surrounding acreage is currently used for nature hikes and a 15 point orienteering course (Figure 1).

Figure 1:  Each of the 15 points of the adventure course on the Priory property are marked by orange and white flags with both numbers and unique hole punchers. There are cards given to each team with a grid to punch at each site.

Community discussions have recently been held on how to further the use of the land surrounding the complex. Ideas discussed include: community gardens, pollinator habitat, use as an outdoor classroom, and many others. The area is mostly oak forest but the lot also holds a large jack pine barren. The building complex is perched atop a plateau while the forests are in the surrounding lowland areas. A small holding pond for the waste water produced by the Priory is also on the property.      

Methods:

Figure 2: The 6 points assigned were plotted on the map using the grid system. Each point was then connected to allow for distances and pace counts to then be calculated. 

Plotting Point Locations: Before heading off into the woods, you need to know where your destinations are. A list of the point location coordinates was provided by Dr. Hupy. Depending on which coordinate system (UTM or Degrees Minutes Seconds) you are going to use, the corresponding point locations needed to be drawn on the map. Using the maps created in the first navigation exercise, the 6 selected points of the 15-point course were plotted using the grid system (Figure 2). The X coordinate is the Longitude so the x-axis of the grid was used to find the horizontal position. Once the x-position was found, the y-coordinate was used to plot the point location. Like the x, the Y-coordinate or latitude of the point location was found using the y-axis of the grid on the map.

Figure 3: Before heading into the woods, the bearing to the location was calculated using the drawn lines and the compass. By using the bearing from the map, the navigator can keep the group in line with the point when traveling through the woods. 

Navigating the course:  The next task was to determine the direction of travel, or bearing, to reach the first point from start. First, a line was drawn to connect the 2 points. Using this line, the compass was laid on the map along this line so the direction arrow was pointing to the destination. Then the bezel or dial on the compass was rotated to align the guidelines on the dial with the North South grid lines on the map (Figure 3). The degree reading aligned with the direction of travel arrow is now the bearing. To reach the point, the navigator turned their body to place the red north arrow in the red “shed” on the dial face of the compass. The pacer determined the distance to the point by converting the map distance to real-world pace determined in the previous navigation exercise. With the bearing and distance now known, the navigator sent the runner out ahead of the pacer. The runner allowed the navigator to line up a path for the pacer to help make counting pace more manageable. Once the pacer reached the calculated distance, the point in question should be within sight distance IF the runner and pacer stayed on line with the navigator’s bearing. After the first point was reached, the same process was repeated to reach the following 5.   

Figure 4: Terrain and vegetation varied across the course from thick under brush in the oak forests (left) to the open pine barrens (right). Depending on what we were traveling and navigating through, the pace counts needed to be altered to compensate.

Results/Discussion: The group overall navigated the 6-point mini course in about an hour and 45 minutes. With the 3-person navigator, pacer, runner scheme it was quick work once a rhythm was established. The points assigned to us were over a variety of terrain and land cover ranging from dense oak forest, pine barren (Figure 4), to open field and relatively flat to deep steep ravines. The third point, point “8”, on the map was located about 50 meters south of the real world location. This lead the next point’s bearing to be off from our map and the group actually overshot the location for point 9 (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Point 8 (left) was given different coordinates than the real world location. The red circle displays the area where the point was actually located. This created problems when navigating to point 9 (right). The group overshot the location and used the intersection noted by the red circle to take a new bearing to point 9.

Using a land mark, the intersection of two roads, a new bearing to the plotted point location for 9 was taken, leading to the real location (Figure 5). The following points, 10,11, were found without any problems. The terrain was difficult to see through, meaning the runner had to keep relatively close for the pacer to see and travel (Figure 6). The thick underbrush also meant having to add several paces onto the calculated values since a direct path wasn’t always an option to travel. It is important to not set the runner too far ahead since the increased distance opens up the possibility of straying from the bearing. If traveling a large distance, the more precise or true to your bearing, the better luck you will have finding the destination.

Figure 6: Steep terrain and thick under brush of briers made visibility and traveling interesting in sections between points 8 and 9.