The shadow stick method I remember is: Plant the stick. Mark the shadow's end. Wait, say, 30 minutes. Mark the shadow's end. The line through the shadow's ends is supposedly true E/W. In the northern hemisphere, the first mark you made will be more Westerly than the second mark you made, so you will be facing North if you put your left toe at the first mark and your right toe at the second mark. It's spiffy that it doesn't matter what time of day you do this (or does it? Is it most accurate near noon?)
From what I'm finding on the net, I was wrong about how long-shadow works. It looks like the marks will form an arc, not a line, so you can't just draw a line between two of 'em and have E/W. You need to draw a line between two marks that are each the same time from solar noon. If you're in a hurry and don't need exact E/W, you can just take two marks near noon and use those, but it'll be off. I hope I've got it right this time.
That's fine. I'm only planning on being lost and without a compass around noon anyhow <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
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