Interesting story on MSNBC.com about a scientist's experiements on having people walk in straight lines. I had always heard walking in circles happened because people's legs were of different lengths so they tend to walk towards the side with the shorter leg. Urban myth, I guess.

So what happens to them if they try walking in circles?

One thing I learned in the Army, when navigating, was that people tend to wander towards their dominant hand. to offset that, we always used the compass in our weak hand. It actually seemed to work, at least to me. Sort of like minor auto-corrections.

I REALLY wish they would stop using the "moss" theory. That has no relevance in most places... moss grows on ALL sides of a tree.

On a similar note about tuning in to unconscious clues, I observed something like that during my instrument flying training. I was on my long cross country with an instructor. I couldn't see out the window at all, because of the goggles I wore to simulate instrument flying conditions. But all of a sudden I was having a much harder time staying in control- I told my instructor this, and he said we had flown into a cloud. Apparently the sun shining on the instrument panel was enough to clue me in unconsciously.

I, too, wish they would stop perpetuating that moss myth. Moss grows on the shady side, and very frequently the shade is caused by other trees and shrubs, a tree's own foliage, terrain, large rocks, etc.

Common sense should indicate that you pick your direction and find something near that direction to aim for. And you should look back frequently, too, just in case you get lost and have to backtrack. The same area can look very different from the opposite direction.

Other things can guide you, too, such as the wind, if it isn't too variable. Keeping the south wind on your left cheek will keep you heading west, even in heavy overcast. At night, the glow of a city can be your beacon.

i seem to recall reading somewhere that when trying to walk in a straight line in a forest that - if you were right handed, for example - you should always pass to the left of a tree. and to the right side if you were left handed.

any others recall this?

I heard differently from the Security guys in the Air Force. You alternate left and right passage around objects. That has a tendency to keep vector drift smaller.

That sounds plausible. If I start going left around an obstacle, I tend to keep going left around the next obstacles. If I start going right, I keep going right...

I think the most important effect of the various advice above is to focus the mind. If you are really concentrating on walking straight you are probably deviating less than if you just are walking. Any trick that you can use to keep focused is good - a mental placebo effect, so to speak.

The only sure way I know of to keep going strait is to find visual targets in the direction I need to go. When I reach that target I make a new target. This works really well when visibility is good, but it is quite hard to do accurately in dense forest.

Of course, being aware of your surroundings, sensing your environment (wind, sun etc) and looking back at where you came from is always very good advice.

I always told my soldiers it was because they carried too much crap and it was off balance to one side.