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)!

"Second star on the right, then straight on till morning."- points finger upward.

Around here we do more navigating based on nearby visible landmarks than by compass triangulation from long-distance landmarks - roads, trails, lakes, rivers, etc... Wetlands' margins are too undefined to be of much use for that. Sometimes I can key in on a large antenna(s) if on the topo map, but they often aren't. Antennas and water towers could be real valuable landmarks if on maps, but they go up so fast it is often hard for the maps to keep them up-to-date.

This is why a GPS and UTM coordinates/grids are sooo valuable around here.

Down in the marsh land, it's pretty flat.
Unless natural features can be used, like water,bayous etc.,
it is largely D-R. Pace beads help, or most of the time, just
estimated distance walked.
The real task is to find something to use for triangulation,
most often radio towers (antennas >500 FT tall) which can be seen for miles.
That being said, the worst case is the desert flat lands.
Almost feature-less. Miles and miles of the same.
Not a chance of any feature like stream, road.

I really wish we had hills even (mountains would be great).
You know it's bad when the contour interval is 2 FT! on a topo map.
There is a reason a lot of people get lost in the marsh or swamp lands, both have the tendency to look like every other place in marsh or swamp. If you loose track of where you are, it can be a challenge to triangulate and back track. Been there done that, spent the night, also not fun. Didn't have a GPS then, now I would never be without one, but also wouldn't be without MAP & Compass either.

First thing to remember in flat lands or where you cant see landmarks and the like is that you HAVE to start keeping track of where you are from someplace that you KNOW you are, as it was already stated, it is very hard to figure out where you are at after you may need it.

I was lucky enough to have grown up in a family that had regular use, and later owned, a sailboat. While we did not do much in the way of sailing that called for navigation useing charts (mostly from Long Beach to Catalina Island and back) I was taught to do some basic navigation on chart and compass before I was taught orienteering in the BSA. Knowing how to do this kind of charting helps me a lot in flat Florida.

I bought two pedometers, one set for long stride and the other for short stride, I average them for the distance travled. I carry some of the navigation equipment from the boat that I saved when my family sold it to help me plot the courses, it Just makes it easier. I have two compasses, one for reading on the map and general orienteering as I learned in the BSA, its mostly used as a straight edge though, and the other is a nice marine bearing compass that you can look down the length of and read the bearing in a little mirror or look down apon and use as a normal compass that I use to keep my heading while walking. If I don't want to pull out the map and mark it down at every turn I just take mark the distance and bearing down in a notepad and keep going, then just stop and plot the lines every once and a while starting with the last point I had marked. The tools just make it easir to mesure and mark the map at this point. This system, while I've not used it anywhere off trail, has kept me pretty close to where I was on the trail when I practice with it.

I know, GPS would make all this a whole lot easier. I don't have one yet. I don't know when I'll be able to pick one up in the near future. Until then this is the best I can do, and its not a bad way to know how to do.

Stay Found. If you get lost it may take you quite a while to find anything you can take a bearing off of.