Improving Navigation and water crossing skills

[Love the Sierra]

Hello,
I am a 2+ backpacker: Been backpacking for over 30 years, go out for about 5-6 days, mostly stay on trails but do a little VERY EASY cross country route finding, and turn back when water is running high and fast in a creek. We do back-country ski touring when the navigation is straight forward and easy.
I want to improve my navigation skills so that I can feel safe backpacking off of established trails. I also want to improve my creek crossing skills so that I can know if a crossing is TRULY too dangerous or not.
Last year, I wanted to join a group with Mountain Education, but they cancelled their trips last year due to instructor injuries. NOLS seems like it is way above my skill level. Also, the PCT thru hikers get priority on the trips and they fill fast.
Any other organizations that teach these skills?
Thanks

[bobby49]

Years ago before GPS came around, there were competitive navigation clubs (Orienteering). Beginners were there to learn to read a map and use a compass, and slowly they could go from beginner skills to intermediate to advanced. I think that most Orienteering has died off due to GPS. Lots and lots of people are purely dependent on GPS for their backcountry navigation, and if they depend on those GPS batteries holding up forever, then good luck. Now, I always carry a GPS receiver with me, but it is mostly for a weird situation that is unlikely to come up. In the Sierra Nevada, you can do 90% of your navigation just with a good map and by looking around.

Some of us were lucky enough to have learned basic land navigation as a teenager. Then when in the military, land navigation was a very important class (since it was Army Infantry). So, for some of us, this is just a skill burned in deeply.

I used to lead group backpacking trips in Yosemite. For my favorite lake, there is no trail. So, I would lead the others cross country through the woods to our destination. After a couple of days, we would be coming back out. This time I took them over a different route, and we would stop on this overlook. I made sure that everybody had a topo map to look at. Then I told them all to point at one spot on the map where we were. Some of them were quite puzzled. Little by little, some were able to put their finger on a spot pretty close. One gal was "directionally dyslexic" and put her finger on a spot that was about ten miles away.

I recommend learning this way. Follow the experienced leader into the woods. Then have the leader let everybody else navigate back out to safety. In some cases, teamwork will help. In other cases, each individual has to practice it on a solo basis.

[rlown]

Any other organizations that teach these skills?
Thanks

Try https://www.rei.com/events/a/navigation ... 5678;geo_r and reset the location to your area.

[AlmostThere]

Any other organizations that teach these skills?
Thanks

Try https://www.rei.com/events/a/navigation ... 5678;geo_r and reset the location to your area.

REI classes often don't take you out and actually do it, which is needed. Some of their classes are okay, others are like commercials for their stuff.

[Love the Sierra]

I’ve taken the REI class but it was pretty basic, even though it was supposed to be “hands on in the field.”

[AlmostThere]

I used to teach navigation. I still do on request, but it has to be a trip planned that way to facilitate it - if there are people on the trip who don't want it they tend to get frustrated waiting around while it's being done - not unlike fishing. Not many people want that and the folks who are my regulars already know how to do it...

[maverick]

https://orienteeringusa.org/clubs

It would be best to go out with an experienced backpacker, who can teach you these skills in the field. Join a local hiking club or even better, come to the HST Meetup this year, the location is not to difficult to get to as some of the other years, you will meet some great folks, who you will probably make friends with for life, and have the opportunity to go with on many trips in the future.
http://www.highsierratopix.com/communit ... 36&t=17051

[SSSdave]

The most important habit for off trail travel is regularly looking at one's 7.5m topographic map while moving through terrain. And to do that one ought keep a map close at hand and not buried down in one's pack. Although taking classes, hiking with those with experience, and or reading books on the subject are all beneficial, such will have limited value without later also developing a close relationship between off trail travel and playing close attention to where one is on a map and being able to recognize on a map what one sees ahead.

That noted, it is true that a fair number of experienced off trail enthusiasts hardly ever look at their maps while on routes and instead read the terrain in front of them as they go along. Often where to go is obvious without having to look at a map beyond a perusal at the beginning, especially if there are prominent features one can easily see like peaks. However there are other times when that is not true, especially where one cannot see features as down in forest understories where one also ought have a compass out. I won't trust the navigation skills in difficult terrain of even supposedly very experienced hikers that don't have a map out and am certain I can more efficiently out navigate them.

In fact some Sierra Nevada terrain is extremely variable and erratic such that not paying attention to a map is likely to bring one into places that initially seem ok but then suddenly become bad places. A common situation is in glacial granitoid timberline canyons where one tops out on some ridge saddle and immediately on the other side is a moderate slope as far as one can see leading straight down with tracks in sand showing at least some others went that way. However glaciers tend to create convex U shaped canyons that are gradual at top but steepen lower down, sometimes to cliffs. Other impediments down at forest elevations can be horrible whitethorn and manzanita brush slopes and marshy bottom lands full of fallen logs, impenetrable willows thickets, and wet boggy nightmares, landscapes that can be recognized on topos. Much more.

So for a novice will suggest playing this game solo or within a group. Everyone hand hold carries a map and as a group, stops then verifies at every short point to point where one is on the maps. Do so is a way to quickly learn map skills one won't learn from others or instruction.

[bobby49]

There is another way to start learning. I won't claim that it is the best way overall.

Get the Army Field Manual for Land Navigation and read it. Then go follow the earlier suggestions.

[Wandering Daisy]

You will never really learn to navigate if the people you are with do not let you do it on your own, make mistakes and figure things out. My experience is that "teachers" do to much "showing you how" and not enough "letting you do it". And I agree, the number one thing is to have your map out and look at it ALL the time. This means a lot of slow travel, stopping often, and honestly, boring those with you. Be sure your experienced hiker has the patience for you to learn. Map reading is one place where group learning is not very helpful. If you do join a group it is best to rotate as leader, so everyone has many chances to really do it on their own.

Start out with simply getting a good feel for contour lines so lines really "pop out" in your mind to real topography. Then try to match features on the map to that on the ground. Other than simply orienting the map to the north, I rarely use a compass for much else, in fact, I rarely take a compass because in the wide-open Sierra, once you can really read a map, you simply match features. Not the case if you travel in timber. But a compass is a good and necessary crutch for beginners. I would not wing it until you become more experienced. I am a very graphic oriented map person- do very little with the mathematics of compass work.

You also should have a watch and pay attention to how far a "mile" is in time, for various kinds of terrain. Often when I realize that I made a big error, it is because I figured out that I was flailing around for 2 hours and my destination was only a mile away! When you get off route or lost, you have to sit down and clear your head of perceived notions of where you are, and with a totally fresh mind, start to match map feature to land features.

A class or book will help you get the concept of maps in general (such as the rule of "V's), but you really have to just go out and do it. Maps are only a part of the equation. Micro-route finding is the key to get from point A to B efficiently. Most of the time you must do a lot of detours around obstacles. It is important not to get directionally confused while you do this. Be aware of surroundings, always look behind you if returning the same route, so you will recognize how things look the other direction. A sense of direction has a lot to do with simply paying close attention to the details of the terrain.

Some people truely have no sense of direction or apptitiude for map reading. In this case (my husband for example) the GPS is a very useful tool, perhaps an essential. Although the goal is not to get lost in the first place, it actually takes fairly advanced map skills to find your self once you are lost. But even those with little apptitude, will eventually get a bit better with practice.