Finding Direction without a compass or GPS for that matter

[U.S.SFC_RET]

I know that some of you probably know this but to others who don't..

If you get lost in the wilderness during daylight hours (Northern Hemisphere) you can use a analog watch to find direction provided that you can find the sun.

a. Hold the Watch level (as if it were a compass) and point the hour hand towards the sun.
b. Between the hour hand and the 12:00 hand is the general direction of south.

I know some of the questions are coming "but what if the hour hand is before the 06:00 AM position?" Answer is treat the hour hand the same as you would at anytime in the morning as it is coming toward the 12:00.

What if the hour is past the 6PM and it is still daylight? If it is in the afternoon and the evening just simply track the hand backward to the 12 from whence the hour hand came from.

This method is taught by the military and the task was called as I knew it "Finding Direction without a Compass"

The next question people ask me all of the time is what if I have a digital watch? My answer is always "just imagine that you are wearing an analog watch with a normal watch face and use your head.

This method keeps you from walking in circles.

 

[Grayrock]

I've seen this method and tried it out - then thought to myself: "Self- you don't need to do this." If I can see the sun and know what time it is, I can orient myself in the general direction of north. Unless someone transports me without my knowing it to a different hemisphere, then I can navigate (in a general direction) by looking at the sky. However- were I to all of a sudden awaken in Australia...

 

[U.S.SFC_RET]

If by chance you found yourself in Austrailia (southern hemisphere)
a. Point the 12:00 at the sun
b. Between the hour hand and twelve is north.

Gday

 

[stevelyn]

Looking at the direction shadows are cast is faster and easier.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Of course none of any of the above mentioned techniques works at very high or very low Latitudes (High arctic or low Antarctic) during the summer months respectively as the sun just kind of circles around in the sky overhead for 24 hours.

A compass doesn't work in the far north either. The only reason I mention this is the one and only time I've been seriously and helplessly lost was in the high flat arctic tundra.

Also you can tell your approximate longitude (east, west) with a watch and a stick. But you have to know three things.

1. GMT
2. Local meridian (Local Noon)
3. Approximate latitude either North or South. (Within 50 degrees or so.) That's pretty wide margin.

Take a stick put it in the sand or you can put two sticks in the sand with a string or a another stick stuck between them. This is an ancient time and navigation tool called a gnomen. Similar in operation to a sun dial.

When the stick casts no shadow or the string's shadow is directly below the string the sun is directly overhead. That is local meridian or noon.

Now assuming you know what time it is in Greenwich, England which is 0 degrees longitude you can do the simple math.

One hour of time is equal to 15 degrees of earth rotation also known as an hour angle of the sun.

Take the difference between Local noon and GMT in hours times 15 and get your approximate longitude.

The only problem with this method is that it doesn't tell you if you are in the Eastern or the Western hemisphere. If you don't already know that you're probably in some really big trouble.

Then all you have to do is build a short wave radio out of sticks, rocks, fishing line and an old shoe to coordinate rescue.

Of course if you are marooned on a lush tropical island with the Swedish bikini team you may want to hold off on calling for help for a while. At least that what it says in my survival manual.

People always ask me what that extra hand is on my fancy pilot watch. It is the GMT hand so I always know what time it is in Greenwich. All world navigation is based on GMT Greenwich Mean Time also known as Zulu time.

When navigating in a aircraft or a ship all times are in Zulu time. Then you have to figure out local time if you want to, based on longitude hemisphere and local time zones.

NEXT episode ,, how to tell latitude with only a star chart, a sextant, a logarithm table and a five line equation !!

PS

Anybody on this sight who actually read this whole post is either a hopeless geek, A weirdo navigation groupie, or a trekie. But in any case much like me, there is no hope for you.

 

[Dave R]

I learned this in Boy Scouts many years ago. But I always figured it was no better than "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west." Put the sun on your right in the am, and you're facing (roughly) North. Put the sun on your left in the pm and you're facing North.

Is the watch thing any more accurate than that?

 

[Art Eatman]

And then there are those days that are "serious cloudy". That's when knowing the lay of the land and having had enough sense to stop from time to time and look behind you to see what the way home looks like, is a lifesaver.

Organize your brain so you don't have to care "Which way is north?" Little stuff: If you headed generally north toward a mountain, and it's getting to be on your left, guess what? You're drifting east.

From a topo map, like the one you forgot and left in camp, you should have learned some sense of the watershed, and where streams conjoin. That sort of thing, coupled with other landmarks, give you some sense of compass direction. If you're on the east side of a valley floor in heavy timber, any stream you find is flowing west.

Learn how to observe while walking. That is, what works for me, is to look ahead for the next three or four steps I'll take. That way I know where I'll put my feet, and I can look all around while walking. Glance down, walk and observe. Repeat until "walked out".

Art

 

[H&Hhunter]

Learn how to observe while walking. That is, what works for me, is to look ahead for the next three or four steps I'll take. That way I know where I'll put my feet, and I can look all around while walking. Glance down, walk and observe. Repeat until "walked out".

Art

Art,

that's pretty much how I do it all the time as well. Land mark or area navagation. In an airplane it's called pilotage, IE looking out the window to see where you're going. It's getting to be a lost art with all of these fangled GPS units around.

Same as on foot. People are relying on these electric gadgets way to much IMHO.

The other sure fire never get lost technique is use a barn sour horse, all you have to do at the end of the day is give him his head and hang on. You'll be back at the truck in no time!

 

[Highland Ranger]

lichen grows on the north side of trees for the most part . . .

 

[WayneConrad]

lichen grows on the north side of trees for the most part . . .

On which side of a saguaro does the lichen grow?

 

[Highland Ranger]

underneath on a cactus . . . . you need to dig a little

 

[M67]

You mean you foreigners don't learn that kind of thing in school?

I did. Public school, 3rd grade or so. Along with using map and compass, digging a shelter in the snow, splinting a broken limb and other things every kid should know.

The other sure fire never get lost technique is use a barn sour horse

Some neighbours tried that with their dog. They had driven some distance from home to go for a walk in the woods. They got lost, which is actually easy to do in the very broken terrain they were walking in. Then they got an idea: Use the dog! They repeated the phrase "find the car" several times, in Norwegian of course, I don't think the dog would've understood English. As it turned out, it didn't understand Norwegian either, but it did understand that they wanted it to do something, so it took off like a bat out of Hell with the owners doing their best to keep up. Up hill, down hill, across creeks. One hour, two hours, three hours. Until they crested a hill and saw some houses and the dog looked at them as if it expected a reward. They were home, the car was still in a parking lot miles away...

 

[H&Hhunter]

M67

So I guess you need to have a english to whatever language you are in dictonary so if you get lost so you can command the the dog.

I know in Swahilli it would be "Kwenda na N'gari M'bwa" or something close to that.

 

[Coop de Ville]

Here in DC the alphabetical streets run East/ West and the numerical ones run North/South..... I still get lost :banghead:


-Coop