Three weeks ago, my wife and I were exploring a remote area ENE of Ely, MN near the BWCAW where the roads end. There is a lot of iron in the rocks there, and in fact, there are many old mines in the area.

We were in the truck traveling SW when I noticed my trucks' magnetic compass indicating that we were going N....the wrong way. As I watched the compass, the heading changed or reversed several times, but at no time did it indicate our true heading. We were not lost, as there is only one road and we had gone to the end, did some hiking, and were returning to Ely. I had a dash-mount GPS unit in the truck, so I turned it on and obtained a true heading....WSW.

I wonder what would have happened if we were hiking up there and became disoriented (it was a grey day), and only had a map and compass to navigate.... The area is rugged, hilly, heavily wooded, with most of the remaining area covered in bogs or open water. The map and compass would have directed us into the heart of the wilderness.

I still prefer map and compass, but in iron country, the handheld GPS and a fist-full of AA's is going back into my pack.


I edited this to show me standing on the porch of an old outfitters cabin we came across along the way.

Hikermor...Sorry, I edited my post to insert a picture, and that made your comment appear before the post you commented on.

One small point on using a GPS for heading information. The magnetic compass that's available in some GPS units burns through batteries, but is not necessary if you are moving. As you walk a GPS will give you "course" (vs heading) information.

I use a GPS routinely, but I always take a compass (or two) also. Besides bears, many survival situations start with a simple navigation problem which results in a person wandering around lost or (better) grabbing a tree. Back-ups for critical items is always a good thing.

I ran into the same problem going to use a compass inside of the car. It had skewed around about 120 degrees. I've found that when all else fails, navigate by analog watch and sun.

There are so many small magnets around that are very strong a compass can easily be ruined if you get it too close to one.

The magnets I am talking about are those small rare earth type magnets which are now used for tool attachment, door closers, fridge magnets, and all sorts of other innocent looking devices.

The older magnets were usually weak enough not to be a threat to your compass but the new rare earth type magnets are strong enough to permanently change the magnetic alignment a compass needle if they are near the compass case.
So be careful around them and try not to put you compass into the same pack with one of them.

I currently have three button compasses that point southish instead of northish.

The Compass I still prefer is the Silva Ranger (Type 15) made by Silva AG in Sweden (the real Silva Company). It is sold in NA by Brunton as the Brunton Type 15TDCL Sighting Compass. It is hard to get at in Canada (and I assume in the US), where stock seems to be both sporadic and limited. If you have friends or are traveling to Britain or Ireland, they have them there.

Here is a Pic of a Type 15 being used. The other compass that is not bad is Suunto MC-2 Sighting Compass. Both these compass are liquid filled, have settable declination, and a Romer on the base plate.

Bruce, I have been using a Suunto MC-2 for the last eon or so - a great compass with the ability to measure slope angles as well. But what, pray tell, is a "Romer"?

Do I have an earlier, sans-Romer model? How many extra miles have I traveled because I didn't use the Romer?

Inquiring minds want to know......

Bruce is right on the mark.

I now use a Silva Ranger compass and find it to be very reliable.

It's adjustable for declination.

I also refer to the web site Declination to get the most accurate data in the US.

Blake
www.outdoorquest.blogspot.com

Look on the bright side. Think how much more great country your inquiring mind has visited because you didn't have a Romer!

You can also use the NOAA Declination Calculator.