Why Hikers Should ALWAYS Carry A Compass

everybody all right today I pose the question why should hackers carry a compass okay so let's say for a minute let's think about that for me okay if you're on a trail you're hiking on the trail you're gonna stick to the trail okay that's not always the case even if brief short periods of time you leave the trail you can get lost in no time even the most experienced hikers okay so I'm gonna read a little story right here that I had pulled up on my phone it happened in 2013 but this missing hiker was her her body was found in 2015 two years lawyer okay if I remember right we're going to go out in the woods and practice some of these principles that can avoid this happening okay but I'm gonna read the story first it may bore you a little bit but I don't know if you've heard this or not but the stories like you know came out like three years ago sometimes that a tragedy we can learn things okay so missing hiker later found dad kept a journal of the ordeal okay there's her picture it was a 66 year old Geraldine Largay I think I thought you pronounce it how long I get my glasses I'm old as dirt so I had to wear glasses to read alright an Appalachian Trail hiker whose remains were discovered last year survived at least 26 days after getting lost she kept a journal of her ordeal and ultimately resigned herself to the idea that she was going to die and it could be years before her remains were located okay so she was already in panic mode and she didn't think that she was gonna make it out Geraldine Largay who was from Brentwood Tennessee hiked to higher ground and they failed the tent to get a cell phone signal and text messages sent to her husband went undelivered documents show when you find my body please call my husband George and my daughter Carrie Largay who was 66 years old wrote in a page that was torn out her journal so she she left a specific note it will be the greatest kindness for them to know that I am dead where you found me no matter how many years from now okay they're talking about how they've released 1500 documents Largay this is the important part of this story Largay who went by the nickname inchworm got lost after leaving betrayal on July 22nd 2013 to relieve herself and set up her final camp the next day okay now how many of you how many of you had to step off the trail to go use the bathroom okay you can get turned around in two seconds let's say if it's a busy trail and you want to go off a little way so you're not saying okay another things if you want to go off maybe if you got a hammock you want to find the right trees or you don't want to get caught up hanging a hammock where they're not allowed or you just want to camp away from everybody you can get turned around in two seconds and that's evidently what had happened to her she got turned around after she missed a rendezvous with her husband he reported her missing on July 24th 2013 sending off a massive search by the Maine Warden Service and other agencies documents indicate they interviewed dozens of witnesses and conducted several searches over two years okay the last entry in large journal was on August 18 2013 okay her husband George Largay told Warren wardens that the Appalachian Trail journey from Georgia to Maine's Mount Kate I think Kate of something caught it indicated in was a bucket list item for his wife she had started with a traveling companion but the other hiker left the trail because of a family emergency okay so she was now by herself because the other hiker had left okay the property were on they say now oh it wasn't until more than two years after she went missing in October of 2015 where her remains were found okay they were discovered 3,000 feet from the trail by contractor contempt conducting a forestry survey on proper by the US Navy and Reddington Township okay she was 3,000 feet from the trail okay it's a little over a half a mile all right if she didn't know what direction to go she could have walked in the right direction if she would have had a compass she probably didn't have a compass if she was an experienced hiker and she had a koffice I think she would she could have used it to track where she was but then again she might have been so experienced but she just didn't really it didn't register how easy it is to get lost especially you know all the trails just right over there you know a lot of people think that whoa went on the trail they have the security of thinking that the trails nearby Laura gates tent was collapsed and her body was inside the medical examiner determined she died of starvation and exposure the items found with her included Trail staples such as toothpaste baby powder first aid kit cord twine a pencil a pen a paper trail Maya the battery on her cell phone was dead but investigators were able to retrieve the data all right now I've read several stories about this this is not the only story that I have read and basically she couldn't get she had her cell phone and she couldn't get the signal out and nowhere in any of the stories did I personally read that she had GPS or a compass and like I said a lot of hikers and backpackers don't carry a compass because they don't think it's necessary because you're on the trail okay so I'm gonna show you the methodology on why you should I'm awesome I'm all kind of portrayed a little bit of the scenario and and and show you how this can happen how you can get lost and even if you're not good with a compass just carry one and just learn a basic compass skills and I'm gonna show you the methodology on how you get lost once you get lost what to do about it okay now before we hit the woods and I show you my method of how to become unlost let's take a look at just a couple of compasses okay because I want to kind of go over I will go over a few basics on the caucuses okay reason for me to accomplish video without me actually talking about compasses and telling you what you should carry and shooting carry now these stupid little cheap compasses right here like this the kind of some keychains and the kinds of zone whistles and the kind of to put in them stupid survival kits and those ends of knives I hate these compasses I despise them they're cheap they're they're not accurate they're not reliable these bubbles the liquid with the bubbles I don't like these things just my opinion if you want to carry them and get lost in the woods that's your problem but my advice and my opinion is bubbles belong in your shampoo they don't belong in a caucus I don't like those don't use them there's no excuse there's no reason to use them so let's start out with bare bones cheap as cheap as you can go which i think is still ok this is just a general map compass I call it a map compass the technical money most people I think call it a baseplate compass but this is an el cheapo from Walmart and I think it was like six bucks and it's a needle type compass and this is like a thousand times better than this so if the bare minimum at least carry something like this okay if you want to go up a step this is a really good compass this is a Brunton true arc three okay this is a very good compass all right this thing here it's a also a baseplate compass and I believe this thing goes for somewheres in the neighborhood of 13 bucks okay this is a very tough compass this is a good compass and so cheap but if you wanted to carry a really expensive compass this I recommend is a good backup compass you know now another one this one's about 20 bucks this is not a not what you really call a baseplate compass because you can't see through it these kinds like here you can sit on the map and they've got the scale on them for meters and miles and inches but this is called a sighting compass and it's simply because it's it's got the mirror in the back right there and this is a silver guide 426 that's a good compass right there I really like this compass right here it's very nice get your direction of travel arrows it's got north south east west clearly marked very easy-to-use compass and rugged comes in a good case okay that is around 20 bucks right there okay now if you want to step up this is a son toe mc2 look stickers upside down this is a son toe mc2 global compass okay it's got a global needle okay this is fantastic it's got the the base plate with three different scales on it meters and miles and inch inches and things and it's got a declination arrow to it and then of course it's got the sighting mirror now this is the Sun TMC - Global's between 60 and 80 bucks and I think back when I got this it was like a hundred bucks I think they'd come down a little bit but this is just this is a fantastic compass it's a mack daddy of all caucuses okay so my advice get one and carry it please I beg if you don't don't use these I don't care how many people on YouTube tell you to use one of these or they add these stupid little things to their survival kits all this does is create problems please don't use them I'm begging you if you have to get a Walmart one it's only six or seven bucks okay or a brunt and true Ark okay if you want to spend thirteen or the Silva guide for twenty six if you're willing to pay twenty okay either one of these are gonna be good alright just my advice my opinion it's serious out in the woods so let's hit the woods now and put some of my I'll show you what I'm talking about about using these we're gonna be at the pen holy trial alright we're gonna hit the trail and what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to see what it takes to get lost and we're gonna try to simulate what it is to be lost on a trail off a trial and then I'm gonna try to show you my methodology on how if you do get lost you can find your way back to the trail but you got to have a compass okay can't rely on your instincts just ain't gonna happen you also have a trusty camera around yeah Kirsti cameraman like Nick with Nick's with oh I forgot to get you to give the hey oh oh yeah Nick's with us today so alright we're here let's hit the trail let's see if we can get lost mhm alright so we're up here and we are walking on the trail okay we don't have a care in the world we're not worried about anything we're experienced hikers we're on the trail having to Mariel time Nick act like you're excited nature alright so here we are now we're hiking along the trail and we either have to go to the bathroom or we have to make camp okay now I'm not going to tell you about the methodology that I use for leaving trail yet what I was gonna do is we're just going to walk off turtle okay so alright say that over there yes say that down hurry we'll just walk off into the woods let's turn this around can you say that down Trudy I don't know if you're showing up on camera and on it well anyway what we're gonna do is we're just gonna leave trail we're gonna walk off okay we have excellent sense of direction not a problem in the world so we're just gonna walk off the trail alright so we're walking off the trail we're just meandering off into the woods because somebody had to go to the bathroom or we're wanting to hang up a hammock illegally oh we're just outright wanting some privacy so okay we're off the trail we're gonna set up camp here no problem we're gonna find our way out okay in the morning so fast forward to where after we have slept and then we're going to get up and we're gonna make our way out spent the night okay we have excellent sense of direction so we started walking now we haven't found the trail yet have we nope how long was it how far did we walk off the trail let's say two three minutes yeah how long we've been walking now about ten minutes say about 20 20 okay we're officially lost okay since the time a bad sense of time all right so now we're officially lost what do you do now okay down I think what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna shut you panic yeah you're right that's what most people do okay now first off the number one mistake we made is we didn't pay attention to what direction we left off the trial you got to pay attention today all right now the other thing is we don't have a compass okay that was a mistake and then another mistake if you think you can trust your sense of direction which is fine and dandy but I don't trust mine is when you walking off the trail turn back and look and see how it looks from a perspective of the other way because when you walk in and you never look back you don't know what it looks like okay so now let's go through the methodology of what you're going to do when you're actually lost if you would have brought a compass if you don't have a compass I don't know what you're gonna do that's why ya panic that's fine I'm showing you my methodology okay so let's take a look and just try to remember this in the summertime it's called the 20/20 4080 method in the summer it's the 30-60-90 okay and that's simply because there's so much more foliage and everything is so much more thicker than okay so what we're going to do is we're going to do the 30-60-90 method because as you can see looking all around us here there's there's not as much foliage so what we're going to do is you would walk the first time you would walk off trail would be 30 paces okay so let me show you how you get started on the methodology of how to become unlost so the first thing you want to do okay we stepped off trail we're lost alright first thing you want to do is you don't want to run wild in all different directions okay if you have a compass which I do tell you let's pull this thing out all right I have a compass incidentally I want to say something that I've kept it in my pocket down there because this shirt we've got these little magnetic fly ups sure here mm-hmm it's got a magnetic fly up there it goes here it you don't want your compass nearby you pay attention to that all these shirts have that all right so the first thing that you want to do now is here pull that orange vest out of my side pocket right here the first thing you want to do is you want to establish where you're I think because if you can't make it out of there and you want to be able to make it back to where you were originally lost because where you're originally lost is not necessarily not necessarily that far away okay Oh another good thing carry a whistle instead of screaming into your horse you can just whistle okay plenty loud enough step better than screaming now back to the methodology okay you're establishing where you are at the point you discover your lost take something brightly colored like your vest so i'ma hang this on the tree here and I'm gonna zip it up so that it doesn't fall off this is my base point this is where I originally got lost from okay now I could just stay out here wandering circles I could die whatever I'm not going to I'm not going to give up because I'm equipped with a compass so what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna take this compass and I'm gonna find north okay that's facing north so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put my I'm gonna turn it to where my arrow is north all right there's no worth and then I'm gonna turn it until it's facing north okay so now this is where the 30 60 30 60 90 comes in this is the methodology so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start at the tree now when I make a pace what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna head north and when I start out on my left foot every time my right foot hits the ground that's a pace that's what I'm gonna do the first thing I'm gonna do is go north 30 paces and I'm gonna see if I run into the trial okay [Music] 29:30 okay there you have it I just went 30 paces and I'm not back on the trail okay am I lost deeper in the woods no because I have a compass so what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to change my compass to my direction of travel is south and then what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna follow it back sail because I'm gonna get back to the point of where I got lost okay that way I don't walk around in circles I wind up right back where I was all right so what I have done now is I have gone back to the tree this is where I got started so you say I'm still wherever we left from the trail I'm not that far off okay so my first choice didn't work north let's try sail okay so now I came back from North so what I'm doing now is my um let's see right here he's that down here I'm gonna show you something are you on the compass yep okay now say what I did before is when I went the other direction I had my direction of travel north so what I'm doing now is I'm turning to my direction of travel south so all I got to do is keep the needle line that went north and fall a sail so what I'm going to do now I'm gonna go 30 paces south and hopefully I'll hit the trailer okay all right I'm not back at the toriel I just went south 30 paces and I am not back at the trailer okay so but at any point in time you could wind up back on the trail okay so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to put I'm going to change my direction arrow back to North my-my direction of travel to nowhere and I'm going to turn around because I didn't find the trail and I'm gonna head back to the true all right so I'm back at the tree and I think you're kind of starting to get sort of what I'm getting at I have gone north I have gone south and I haven't found the trail but I'm not further lost I'm not further into the woods because I have established my baseline okay so what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna put my compass back hold no worth and then what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put my direction of travel as West all right so what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to line up my North needle and my direction of travel is West so what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna go thirty paces west now like I said if I hit the trail the ordeal is over okay but for now I'm gonna try to go that way thirty paces all right I've gone thirty paces now West and I'm not a tutorial okay if I was I'd be safe all right so now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna change my arrow my direction of travel to east and I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna go back 30 I think you're starting to get the basic idea now yeah right okay so we're gonna head back in oh and I don't know if you heard that plane above but uh once overcast you could send me one with a mirror if you add one and if there was any Sun we could you know so that's okay all right all right so I'm back at the tree now I had my direction of travel taste so now what I go is thirty paces East there's no reason to continue going through this because I think you're starting to get the gist of it once you've established your baseline okay your point of safety you're gonna go thirty paces north thirty paces south thirty paces East no West and then thirty paces East okay now remember at any point in time you could find the trail okay this is your baseline this is better than being lost in the wall for 26 days and dime alrights a lot of work but it's a way of getting out now if at any time you have gone in all four directions and you don't find the trial that's when you'll kick it up a notch to sixty okay start all over like I said you know more loss than you were more than likely the second go-round you're gonna find the trail 60 paces north but don't work come back 60 paces south that don't work 60 paces west 60 paces East at any point in time you could find the trail okay and then in usually you will okay unless you've really wandered off okay the next thing if you get if you if you don't find the trail come back to your baseline and make it 90 90 paces okay and if you have to that's the thing miss uh miss Geraldine she didn't have a compass she didn't know where to go so she wound up 3,000 feet off the trail when you've got a compass and a baseline you can continue doing your full way navigation from the same spot okay use paces okay you're guaranteed especially you know if you've got some food if you have to if it goes if it gets real ridiculous you can really look walk a long way okay so now what we're going to do is I'm gonna run through real quick and show you if you're gonna leave the trail how you should leave the trail with the compass okay so let's do that alright so what we're doing now is we're gonna walk along and this is how you're going to leave the trail okay let's stop right here now try to find a distinguishing feature like that big tree over there so what we're going to do now is I'm gonna pull up my compass and I'm gonna turn it north okay I'm gonna turn it north what we're gonna do is we're gonna head sail okay that's the easiest way of remembering it what we're gonna do is we're gonna go 30 paces off the trial sail alright and that's where we're going to camp for the night or go to the bathroom whatever all right so let's turn towards I got to continue to hold the compass to where the nail is no earth we're gonna head in that direction right there we're gonna head south 30 paces I'm what I'm gonna count the paces start out on your left foot every time your right foot hits the ground that's a pace one two we're here now this is this is where we're gonna make camp for the night okay now all I got to do is since we went south is tomorrow all we got to do is going to turn round look there's a good flex pilot it would be good for a camp so anyway what we're going to do though is tomorrow we can sleep easy tonight we don't have a care in the world because we'll be able to get it out we'll be able to get out easily tomorrow okay so tomorrow let's say fast forward 24 hours all right we have just turned this way and all I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna put that back North kind of hard to do while I'm holding the camera put that back north to where the needles lined up north and we're gonna travel north because yesterday we traveled in south okay and we can just kind of keep up with the pace is to find out if we're gonna be at the trial okay 29 30 31 32 we're back on the toggle okay I say that ain't bad at all especially going uphill this is a very hilly area so all right we've got 32 paces we're back on the trail ready to head home that's all you got to do okay certain methodology 30-60-90 2048 depends on how far off the trail that you want to go now there's one other thing that I wanted to show real quick okay bit I can't explain why but let's take a look at a compass paltrow Koyuk all right now one thing I want to add into this video real quick you know how to not get lost and you know how if you are lost Oh had to get out now I want to search nothing here just for the heck of it this is one of those uh Alice pack offices compás pal okay you keep the compass in it something that I've never understood with this thing let's take a look at this I'm down here on this compass can you see on this yep right there okay now I want to see something here for a minute I'm gonna turn this let's cut this on to right there and let's turn this on to North okay now I mean north now I'm gonna show you something here this metal Alice clip let's put this right here and then let's take this and let's put place this under it and see if it affects it in any way whoa look at that 20 that's 40 degrees off just come magnet yep that's because the magnetic accomp compass is affected by this keep that in mind okay if you have to remove this thing let's see if this button will affect it too this is just something else to keep in mind all right can you see that now let's let's run this metal button up against it there you go full twenty degrees off it's changing it so pay attention to that pay attention to that let me cut this off now pay attention today at your compass being anywheres near middle don't have it near metal if you got like a metal bracelet on where you're doing it or a metal watch or if you've got a neck knife or anything or certainly if you have like one of these pockets that's got the magnetic enclosure on it okay pay attention to that I always carry a compass there's no reason why you shouldn't carry a compass okay hope this video wouldn't involve too boring I hope it was very informative it's just something that I kind of wanted to throw out there because even if you don't know a whole lot about a compass this is a methodology that you can carry a compass and not get lost or if you do get lost you can find your way out okay we don't need to ever hear about any more cases like miss Geraldine that's just an absolute tragedy we hike and we backpack for fun okay shouldn't end that Wahby so do you anything they had Nick mmm-hmm no nothing I'm ready for lunch lunch I knew it say I said it before you thought of it I hope you had fun hope you learned something hope you remember what I said I hope I came across clear with it and we shall see you the next one see you later

Channel: Reallybigmonkey1

Views: 42,027

Rating: 4.9682198 out of 5

Keywords: Wilderness, navigation, compass, hikier, hiking, backpacking, lost, lost in the woods, backpacker, trail hiking, wilderness survival, brunton, suunto, silva

Id: 1JA23PWuqe4

Length: 29min 48sec (1788 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017