1. Basic Map and Compass Skills: How to Navigate in the Backcountry
By Ken Stuber
Fox Cities Backpackers Meetup
Note: I shamelessly stole most of the graphics in this presentation from various websites.
I know that makes me a bad person… I’ve listed the various sites on the last slide.
I’m a geek, not a graphic artist. I actually LIKE clip art .

2. Maps Only useful for navigation if you know how to use one 
Several types
Trail Maps: tend to show trails, trail distances, intersections and main features, but does not show topography (at least not well, usually).
USGS Maps: Designed for navigation, LOTS of information crammed into a small space. Can be difficult to read without practice.
Specialty Maps: Often a hybrid of the above two types, such as the “Trails Illustrated” maps made by National Geographic. Great for trip planning and basic navigation.

3. What to Look for When Choosing a Map
Will you be travelling on-trail of off-trail?
How heavily used are the trails you will be on?
What is the terrain like?
In general, you’ll need a more detailed map if
Trail is lightly traveled
There is little relief, terrain is monotonous
You will be off trail at all
What scale?
7.5 min USGS maps 1:24,000. 1in = 2000ft
“County” series USGS maps 1:100, in=1.6mi

4. Contour Lines
Two dimensional representation of three dimensional space
Lines join points of equal elevation
Contour interval is the difference in elevation between lines
Every 5th contour line is an Index Contour which may have elevation marked on it.

5. Reading Topography on a Map
Shaded Relief Map
Looks like a stylized aerial view
Shading gives depth, making it easy to tell mountain from valley.

6. Reading Topography on a Map
“Standard” Topographical Map
Summit – Concentric circles
Gentle Slope – Contours spaced far apart
Steep Slope – Contours spaced close together
Ridge – “Arrows” pointing down hill
Gulley – “Arrows” pointing up hill

7. Reading a USGS map Map Name Year of Production and Revision
General location in State
Next Adjacent Quadrangle Map
Map Scale
Distance Scale
Contour Interval
Magnetic Declination
Latitude and Longitude

8. Reading USGS Map Features and Terrain
Black - man-made features such as roads, buildings, etc.
Blue - water, lakes, rivers, streams, etc.
Brown - contour lines
Green - areas with substantial vegetation (could be forest, scrub, etc.)
White - areas with little or no vegetation; white is also used to depict permanent snowfields and glaciers
Red - major highways; boundaries of public land areas
Purple - features added to the map since the original survey. These features are based on aerial photographs but have not been checked on land.

9. Reading USGS Map Features and Terrain

10. Reading USGS Map Features and Terrain

11. Using a Compass
Familiarize yourself with the types of compasses, their parts and features
A quality compass will have a movable housing, scale and orienting lines, orienting and direction of travel arrows, and declination marks.

12. Using a compass without a map
Find your intended direction of travel on the compass housing
Turn the housing so that direction meets the Direction of Travel Arrow
Hold the compass in your hand in front of you, make sure it is perfectly horizontal and away from metal objects with direction of travel arrow pointing ahead of you
Rotate your body until the N-S arrow on the housing lines up with the magnetic needle
The direction of travel arrow now points in your intended direction

13. Using a compass with a map (step 1)
Place the compass on the map so that the edge connects where you are with where you want to be.
The direction arrow on the compass should point toward where you want to be.
You can also use the scale on the compass at this time to measure distance (as the crow flies)

14. Using a compass with a map (step 2)
Hold the compass firm on the map
Turn the housing until the North-South lines on the map are parallel with the orienting lines on the housing
Make sure the N-S arrow on the housing is pointing toward North on the map

15. Using a compass with a map (step 3)
Hold the compass in your hand in front of you, make sure it is perfectly horizontal and away from metal objects with direction of travel arrow pointing ahead of you
Rotate your body until the N-S arrow on the housing lines up with the magnetic needle
The direction of travel arrow now points in your intended direction

16. Traveling on the taken bearing
Once you have your compass set for your intended direction of travel (taken a bearing), you need to get there.
You can simply walk in the direction the arrow points, frequently checking the compass
Or find a feature in the landscape (Unique tree? Rock? Ridge? Hill? Lake?) that lines up with your intended direction. Walk there and repeat.

17. Correcting for Lateral Drift
It’s nearly impossible to walk a perfectly straight line. Your error doing so is called Lateral Drift.
One technique is to deliberately aim left or right of your target, walk the expected distance, and then turn toward your target in the direction you intentionally missed. This way, you ALWAYS know which direction you missed it by.

18. Navigating around obstacles
When you reach an obstacle, hike a rectangle around the object
Set a new bearing 90° from your original heading and walk until you have cleared the obstacle. For example, if your original bearing was 315°, hike a new bearing of 45°. Count your paces to track distance traveled.
Go back onto your original bearing, parallel to your original course until you clear the obstacle along that axis.
Set a bearing 90° back to your original bearing (in this case 225°) and walk the same number of paces.
Now turn back to your original bearing. You will be along your original line of travel.

19. How do you use a Mirror Compass?
Allows you to see the compass dial and the background at the same time
Helps keep the compass level while taking a bearing
Can be bulkier and weigh more…

20. Magnetic Declination Maps are oriented toward ‘true north’.
True North is the northern axis of the Earth’s rotation.
Compasses orient themselves toward ‘magnetic north’
Magnetic North is where the Earth’s magnetic field re-enters the earth, the northern ‘pole’ of the Earth’s natural magnetism.
Magnetic North changes slowly over time, currently:
Latitude:N 82° 17' 60"
Longitude:W 113° 24' 0"
Magnetic Declination is the measure of the difference between true north and magnetic north, allowing us to correct for it when navigating.

21. Magnetic vs True North Magnetic North changes over time
Magnetic North and True North are not in the same place, declination allows us to correct for it.
Magnetic North changes over time

22. So what does declination mean to us?
You’ll need to find current declination for where you will be
Then you need to adjust for it when taking a bearing
You can do this one of two ways:
Buy a compass with a settable declination screw
Add or subtract the declination from the bearing you took on the map

23. Manually adjusting for declination
Rhymes and acronyms to help remember
CEEC: Correct Easterly Errors Clockwise
LARS: Left Add, Right Subtract
East is Least(-), West is Best(+)
With East Declination, subtract declination from map bearing to get magnetic bearing
With West Declination, add declination from map bearing to get magnetic bearing.
When going from magnetic bearing to map bearing, it’s the opposite!!

24. Sites I stole graphics from: