The other thread "Items in Survival Kit" got me thinking about land navigation in flat territory (since that subject was brought up there). How do you guys do it? Other than a GPS, it doesn't sound too easy.

I can handle my normal areas in Colorado fine. I can accurately triangulate my position by taking compass bearings and referencing a topo map. Rarely do I even need to do that, as just looking at a topo map combined with prior knowledge of my planned route gives me a very good idea of where I am. It's not like you can accidently climb 2500 feet up cliffs over to the next drainage and not realize you did it. Guestimating: "I'm about halfway up this valley, to the north of the stream, almost at treeline" is usually accurate enough for normal hiking (but not enough for SAR to find you though!)

So how do you flatlanders do it? Do you all have GPS'es? Count paces? Stick to well defined trails? The more I think about it, the more I realize my navigation skills are pretty much "mountain-specific".

When practicing navigation while hiking, I usually go like this (time allowing): (1) First, just guess where I am. Think of my preplanned route in my head. (2) Pull out my topo map and refine my guess based on map features I can identify. (3) Shoot a few compass bearings to triangulate my position in a semi-formal way (this is the real "practice" part of it). (4) Pull out my GPS and see how far off I was in the previous steps. If I were in the flatlands, I'm afraid I might have to procede directly to step (4)!