Discussion: On not getting Lost

I'll be the first to admit that I am slow and whatever's the opposite of an expert at orienteering -- so this isn't life and death.

Meet after meet, I found myself getting lost. I remember searching for one control for 45 minutes. Another time, I ran 1/2 mile down a path when I should have stopped after 200 yards. I have tried to incorporate pace counting to counter that second issue.

Instead of getting lost, I have been trying a strategy of working from trails and other large navigation aids. My approach isn't as simple as "hey, you're not lost if you're on a trail", but it's more like I know the trails are really recognizable and my perception is that controls at meets are placed off of attack points. I look around the map for what's going to help me be sure I know where I am before plunging into the forest. After I find the control, I get back to a trail.

Now I think I've milked that approach for what it's worth. I no longer get lost (what a relief that is!) But without just running faster for longer, I don't think I can get much more done without making more of an effort to go directly from control to control.

Does anyone have any advice for how to take the next step? Are there baby steps between holding onto the trail, and cutting straight from X to Y.

Thanks,
Steve
St. Louis, MO

Next step: try to use linear features that aren't trails.

Yeah, what jj said. Stone walls, streams, vegetation boundaries, graduating to linear contour features (gullies, large hills and depressions, etc.)

Are you coming to Hawn this weekend? In lieu of running the Runt Sunday (3 races; 2 days - enough for me), at the request of the Hawn Ranger, I've agreed to conduct an 'extended' Introduction to orienteering. (After Runt starts)

We'll do a 'map hike' to point out 'other' features and discuss how to plan and execute a route.

Another tip is to think forward. You made the comment "I make sure I know where I am before plunging into the forest." I see this type of behavior all the time, from people who should know better, but it indicates to me that you're jumping the gun.

Knowing where you are isn't enough. You shouldn't be plunging into the forest hoping to relocate somewhere on the other side. Keep your head up and look for some feature in the distance that you can see on the map. Don't start running until you know exactly where you are going to. Don't even start running down the trail, until you've decided what features will tell you to stop.

And JJ is right - there are many features you can trust besides trails once you get comfortable with the map.

Wow! Thanks for all the responses. I'll make good use of this advice. I like the idea of looking forward to a feature I can find on the map. When i take a bearing, I look ahead for something in that direction and head toward it. Finding a feature on the map and heading toawrd that seems safer.

Rick, yes, I'm planning to come down to Hawn this weekend. I've been planning to come down for the Saturday morning event. I'll look at the rest of the weekend schedule and see if switching to Sunday works. Thanks for letting me know about the training.

You mentioned "When I take a bearing"

People might not agree with this but.....I think some orienteers (especially beginners to intermediate) place too much emphasis on bearings and not enough on reading the terrain around them. You need to learn to read your surroundings and like others have said learn what to expect up ahead. We all keep an eye on our direction but it is just one tool.

Obviously you need to go in the right direction but a good orienteer can still complete a course without a compass.

Just going blindly in roughly the right direction and pace counting is not going to really teach you anything. I tried that for years and it was pretty much a waste of time.

Learn to read the features around you.

This thread got me thinking about the best little guide to orienteering skills that I found when I was starting orienteeering some 40 years ago. The leaflet is called The Orienteer's Reminder.
In a brief well illustrated way it demonstrates off-aiming, attack points, catching features and route choice.
The leaflet, translated from Swedish, is probably long out of print but google found copies in the DVOA library. http://www.dvoa.org/learn/educ/es_lib.php
Perhaps someone from DVOA can scan a copy and send it around to those who are interested.

I´m pretty sure I still have a copy of this leaflet somewhere in my "library" - if I could only find it...
I´ll have a look when I get home tonight and scan it if DVOA won´t beat me to it.

People might not agree with this but.....I think some orienteers (especially beginners to intermediate) place too much emphasis on bearings and not enough on reading the terrain around them.

I think (and hope) that most orienteers agree with you. If you can introduce beginners to orienteering without using a compass, they'll be much better for it.

Along those lines, for the original poster, keep in mind that when people say, "follow a compass" while orienteering, in my experience that means orienting your map and running a direction along the map. There's no compass bearing there, in the strict sense of the word. You're running in a direction, guided by map and compass, but using features on the map to help your hold your line, not numbers on the compass. It's not a skill quickly mastered, but that's what makes the sport fun...

Running on a bearing is a skill, like any other, that needs to be practiced first at a slow pace then building up to your race pace. This practice should not be happening during an event but during a training session. It still is only helpful if you are also using map features and keeping your map oriented.

Or try thinking of the map in layers... most important is the contour layer - where the hills and valleys are, which way is uphill, downhill... linear contour features include ridges, valleys/re-entrants, edges of hills/valleys, ledges, spurs (etc?).
Once you understand the contour layer, superimpose the streams... the trails... the walls... then the vegetation... then the point features such as rocks and cliffs and pits and knolls... then, if you like, the north lines :)

At the DVOA annual training event last fall we did several exercises along just those lines. One that was particularly useful to me (from a 'mindset' point of view) was remaining 'on the map' using contours only. For the exercise all other features were removed from the maps, and I took it a step further and didn't use my compass at all, as well. Illuminating!

So while 'navigational features' often brings to mind black (or blue, or yellow, or green) stuff on the map, we often forget about all that wonderful brown underneath. With the accuracy of modern orienteering maps and a good eye it can be just as useful as the stone wall or trail.

Or more useful! Contours generally don't change and are often the most accurate thing on the map. Around here they are sometimes the only thing on the map... I believe that you should feel very comfortable on a contours-only map before you run advanced courses.

When conducting beginner training, I usually show people how to use a compass to orient the map and then tell them to put it away. Once you've got the map lined up with the terrain, all your navigation should be done from the map, preferably along linear features. Don't be afraid to take a significantly longer route that has a good handrail.

Linear features (aka "handrails") are a lot more plentiful than they may first appear, particularly in the ridge and valley terrain in St. Louis. From most to least obvious, look for:

Roads and trails
Streams and other bodies of water
Fences, rock walls, powerlines (less useful than streams because they can go away)
Edges of large features (fields, marshes)
Linear rock features (cliffs or a long string of boulders)
Dry ditches
Contour features (these are very good, but take more practice to recognize)
Vegetation boundaries (careful with this one - the mapper may have a different idea of the boundary than you)

and, finally, the least obvious, least useful, but it works in a pinch: compass bearing. Yes, it is a linear feature, but it only exists on the map, not in the terrain, so you get very little feedback on whether you're following it correctly. More than any of the above features, you need to augment this with checking off other features as you move along the (imaginary) handrail.

Whether it´s useful or not - remember it´s from 1971 and a bit outdated - here´s The Orienteer´s Reminder that gordhun was referring to in an earlier comment.
I found it in my extensive "library" and have scanned it as I promised.

Thanks, bubo. That's an interesting read.

Page 3 recommends:

"Clean clothes for the sake of others."

One systematic approach:
- Learn to indetify different kind of features both in forest and from map. Learn to know what you'll identify easily for sure.
- Learn some sense of distance how far you go (map and terrain).
- Learn to go (about) straight, with and without compass. Or kind of learn not to loose direction too easily.
- Try to get some idea how good you are in those two, so you'll then have good idea will you be able to hit something or not.

Then build systematic way to navigate. Select route choice you think is fast using features you know you will be able see and identify while running by along your route choice. Always plan ahead, visualize next feature / set of features you are aiming 50-300m ahead. Visalize tool you use to keep direction (handrail or compass) and the distance you will have to run untill it pops up. Look ahead, wait for the feature to pop up. When you see it you don't need to relocate, you'll already know where you are, so just visualize next target, tools for direction and visulize distance in your mind and go on. Loop this basicly until you hit the control. The scale may change, some parts of the leg you use big features further away, and near control small features close to you, even so close you'll be able to see them already. Note, you don't need to follow features or ziz zag from pointish feature to feature. Seeing them is enough, so you can go straight and just look at the feaures you use to navigate. Learn to use the most visibe and easily identifiable features. You can run as hard as you can as long as you know what you are doing (next target, direction tool, distance) and can use the direction tool and you are able see a little bit.

Build this all a habbit. If it is not a habbit, you will have to focus on it. It's virtually impossible to be focused all the time - race pressure, when getting tired, race after race. You will still make mistakes, but your systematic model provides something you can compare you mistake against and see what you did wrong (different from the model) or is there something wrong with your systematic model or is some of your skills/tools not good enough yet. And then you know what to do/practise.

I wrote about this all some time ago:
http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_954/pe...

That's just one approach. Amybe not perfect one, but I think some may find it intresing and it may give some ideas how to improve. It may be most intresting for those who already can navigate quite well but still can't get rid of those last little mistakes or think they are slow in O compared to their running strenght.

And don't get discouraged, we all once were making the mistakes you describe...like snowboarding, it quickly becomes easier with practice...

In that regard, I gotta add one of my favorite humorous nav lessons, written by a contributor to this thread, and (now) a very good orienteer, on first encountering nordic terrain three years ago. It is a little more basic than Jagge's:

...First time on a Finnish map and I think I'm in deep doo-doo. I couldn't find shit. (Er, I guess I can't be deep in it if I can't find it, but you know what I mean.)

Okay, so I did find a few controls. But not without a lot of trouble. The first one was pretty simple and I could go straight and read all (the few) features and found it pretty quickly. I think that was a bad start because then I tried that technique on the next few and it failed miserably. Things I learned today:

-there are only subtle differences between bare rock and knoll
-there are only subtle differences between cliff and sloped rock
-there are only subtle differences between white and marsh
-there are only subtle differences between white and bare rock

The take home lesson? Simplify and use contours and big features (large marshes and ponds, mostly) as much as possible. Duh. I think NOT using my magnifier is a better idea, even though then I can't really read on the run. It forces me to look at the bigger picture AND to slow down to read... which I should be doing anyway....

I downloaded the pamphlet and am really liking it.

Thanks for scanning it and adding it to the site.

This whole thread is really enjoyable.