[heysmithy]

Originally Posted by Dick

I find quite the opposite. With compassing my focus is on keeping a straight line and knowing my approximate distance travelled. I find that I don’t get much opportunity to “smell the roses”. If I want to step off my line I have to remember / record my distance and mark the spot so I can return and continue compassing. In contrast, with GPS I can wander about freely. I can check out the valley, the ridge, and scoot over to the pond and get a good feel for the layout of the land and the available 'survival' resources... knowing that I can relocate myself on the map at pretty much any time I want.
Also, with map and compass obstacles can be a pain. If you meet a fast flowing creek and have to move up or down stream to cross it, it may be difficult to get back on your line. Circumnavigating cliffs, bears, and any number of other obstacles require careful and somewhat laborious consideration with a map and compass.

I actually hardly ever even use the compass unless I get really really lost, which rarely happens, and a compass has been more than I need to find my way back. I never follow a straight line. I can usually just go wherever I want and pretty much know where I am. But for the rare occasion that I am lost, I still know that there is a field to the east, or a trail to the south, etc. Then I just head in one direction until I get to something familiar.

I guess if I wanted to be super adventurous and go someplace that I wasn't familiar with at all, then I might bring along the GPS. I was mainly talking about just general every day use.

[Dick]

I was thinking in a different context. I worked in the bush for years, often on ground where there we no distinguishable land features, roads, trails,…
If you have a good mental map, not even a compass is necessary. I wander in behind my place without map, compass, or GPS. It’s simple…down gets you to the creek, and south gets you to the creek; and the sun tells me roughly where south is.

The worst situation I found myself in was on flat forested ground where every pond was the same size, the same teardrop shape, and oriented in the same direction. Where was I…on one of 25 ponds on my photo. I figured it out eventually, but not without a lot of hit and miss compassing and pacing.
I took a GPS with me to finish my work.

[dtcepl]

I spend alot of time (several years) operating in primary jungles and bushes when I was in the military. Then we do not have Handphones, GPS, Satellite Phones, or Beacons etc (at least not make available to us and commercially not within my affortability).

So my only navigation equipment then was a compass and a seriously outdated topo map. We do carry military signal radios and handheld flares but that is always out of range or obstructed by the trees. A prismatic compass is best, which nowadays I use it as a backup for GPS. And we are nevered short of affortable Sat/GSM communications equipment, so never be lost again, unless you do not wished to be found

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Unswydd

I don't particularly trust them. I just bought an Orienteering Compass and am trying to learn how to use it with my topo map of The Winds in WY so I'll be comfortable with it when I go in Aug. Very intersting piece of gear.

easy to learn unswydd; I recal Alpine has a few posts on navigation and was working on another. get june flemming's book "staying Found" its my favorite learning book and I read them all

[swamprat]

At first I didn't trust the GPS or my ability to use it correctly and continued to use the compass. Now I still carry a compass, but use the GPS more than anything else. I have saved several tracks of the area I hunt the most and don't even bother turning on the GPS until I want to know exactly where I am. Then I use it to get back to the truck, camp or house on the most direct route.

[kevin]

Originally Posted by Dick

With compassing my focus is on keeping a straight line and knowing my approximate distance travelled.

I only find the need to compass navigate like that in featureless terrain lacking any sort of baselines (like a jungle or open prairie or something). not the case here in NH forests. usually there's some sort of catching feature you can use the compass to head for after rambling and smelling the roses for a while. I only need to follow strict bearing if you really need to dead reckon for something.