I do most of my navigation while hiking via the sun, but there are times when the clouds are out and I just can't see it.

Look at it this way. At 6 am, the sun is more or less in the east. At noon it is due south. at 6 pm it is more or less due west. use standard time.

If it is 3 pm, the sun will be in thw SW. At 9 am in the NE.

It is not perfect but has always been close enough for me to navigate from a trail map.