Do You Have A Good Sense Of Direction?

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Geographically speaking, having a sense of direction is something exceptional, ins't it?

I'm so bad when the subject is "sense of direction", that if I had a good sense of direction I would consider it as some kind of super power. Seriously, I'm very bad with this. I'm terrible at using maps / plotting routes and I'm totally dependent on GPS (by the way, thank you very much to whoever invented this)!

What can you say about your sense of direction?

 

I think I react that way because I get nervous easily when I get lost ... However, your response makes everything seem so easy. For a few moments I could see a light at the end of the tunnel... Thanks for that, dude!

 

I felt scared when I'm lost especially when I don't know if I'm in the right track to my destination. Another scary fcator is if there is no people around or no houses nearby wherein I can easily ask about direction.

 

If this means literally finding one's way then I do not have a good sense of direction. I get lost easily and this could be because I depend on others who are with me to reach where we want to. If it is about where I want to go in my life I am quite grounded.

 

I have very weak sense of direction. I know it`s a rather big problem. Especially it`s dangerous if it goes about unknown places and foreign countries. Therefore I prefer never travel on my own.I can easily get lost.

 

I'm kinda weird when it comes to my internal compass. I can navigate to almost every major city in the US without a map, just using highway numbers and educated guestimations. But you get me turned around in a city, and I'm lost. Heck, I've been lost in suburbia neighborhoods on foot before and ended up walking in circles for hours. I'm your guy for long trips, but when we get close, time to pull out the GPS or city map.

 

My sense of direction is quite good. I seldom get lost, and if I do I am not far from where I expected to be. I couldn't put my finger on any specific reason why. I do enjoy looking at maps, and I have spent an inordinate amount of time in my career trying to find things be it a new customer or supplier. I have traveled extensively, so this always made me aware of my surroundings, and cognizant of where I was going. North, South, East, West don't confuse me.

My wife, on the other hand, could get lost in the driveway. She never knows what direction she is going, and has no concept of North, South, East, West. You have to tell her "turn right" or "turn left". Go North might as well be Chinese. She has no clue what that means.

I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse. I am a typical, hard-headed man. " I'm not lost. I am in Missouri. " I am not above asking for directions, but that is probably a last resort. I think being hard-headed makes me work harder or concentrate more to figure it out. Maybe I am just trying to justify being hard-headed. Guilty as charged.

 

When I was about 5 years old I got lost in a remote tract of land called the "DEVILS BACK BONE " .Sixty years later it's still probably the largest and most remote places in the state of Mississippi .Then my grandparents were one of the few residents of that area . They basically just lived off the land and went to town with their horse and wagon to get basic supplies once a month . I was terrified to be lost there . I lucked up ,it was deer season and a deer hunter found me . That episode haunted me for years but overcame that event . Later in life I became a professional woodsman , roaming the woods working for the Mississippi Forestry Commission . One of the areas that I frequented was the DEVIL's BACKBONE . I developed a very good sense of direction for that part of the globe . Something I have noticed , put me in a different spot on the globe and my sense of direction turns bad . I read somewhere the natural magnetic field of the earth has something to do with sense of direction .

 

I don't seem to get lost. I think that it is in part because I nearly always know where North is. There are a lot of clues and at some point or to some extent I think that I am just aware. I know the stars and how they move so if I can see the sky I know east-west and north-south at a somewhat unconscious level. In most places at night, there is usually a brighter point in the distance where a town or city is. The last thing that I always do before entering a forest that I am not familiar with is look at my compass. maybe at some level, I keep up with my twists and turns. Maybe I am like a homing pigeon. All I know is that even at night in a dark thick forest I can always just turn and walk back to the place where I started. Usually, even if I had meandered a lot I can turn and go straight back not backtracking but a direct route to where I came in.

I think that people that spend a LOT of time in the woods develop this awareness to some extent. There is nothing special about it really it is just experience and a certain mindset to actually take notice of where you are going and what is around you.

After reading some of the responses again I want to add that part of it has to do with the comfort factor. When I enter the woods it is like coming home for me to some extent. If you get nervous it is harder for you to focus. I always am prepared to spend the night if I have to. I don't care....I even would say that I like sleeping in the woods. If I get tired I'll take a nap and worry about getting out later.

 

I generally do well. However I was in Delhi recently and with the smog and pollution, and being in a totally new environment, I found my sense of direction was nonexistent.

I carry two button compasses when I travel and occasionally I would check them, in an attempt to orientate myself over time. It didn’t help! I felt at the mercy of my compasses or more realistically being pointed in the right direction by locals.

 

I ran into that in the swamps of deep south Louisiana. Even when I stopped and asked for directions it did no good. Seriously, being told to take a right at the road after Aunt Tilly's barn did not help at all. Also while he was telling me this he was waving his hands in all directions and speaking a Cajun mix of French, English and something else.

I was raised in Cajun country but this guy at this filling station in the swamps on a highway that was just the top of a levy running sort of towards Thibideaux was a whole different thing. Everywhere you look was Cypress swamp and you might see an almost new car parked on the side of the road and then look out into the swamp and see a house with a cypress Pirogue "canoe or dugout log" tied to a dock under the house.

 

"Do You Have A Good Sense Of Direction?"

yes

 

I have a good sense of direction and an excellent memory for places but both of these skills can be defeated by shifting desert or snowy conditions, just when not getting lost becomes critical. For this reason I also carry maps and a compass (and GPS a lot of the time as well)
I plan my journeys to include a series of waypoints or rest stops. These rest stops not only act as fixed points to check my navigation by but also an opportunity to consult the map for the next stage of the journey.

 

I got lost in the woods many years ago, since then i always keep an eye on where i am and where i am going. also it is important to look behind you because things look very different coming out of the wood than they did going in. i sat down with a compass and a map many years ago and learned how to use both. it is really not that hard . when i go for a long trip in the wood if i do not have a map of that area i record my travels on paper such as i walked for example one hour at a heading of 150 degrees then turned to a heading of 270 degrees ect . also keep an eye on the sun just to have another reference of direction

 

I have an excellent sense of direction. I learned dead reckoning as a teen studying for my private pilot's license before my eyes decided to go bad. I also used to do orienteering games with several friends as a kid.

 

Orienteering has always been on my bucket list. Maybe when I retire I would love to take some classes. a very useful skill.

 

It is a lot of fun too. The best part is to get dropped off in the middle of nowhere with a topo map, a compass and a watch then find your way to the rally point. Man I miss those days.

 

I have an extremely bad sense of direction. I've been in the bush on a regular basis all my life, yet to this day, my sense of direction is abysmal.

My husband used to get really annoyed with me if I wandered too far from camp without him for that reason. To me, in the Aussie bush everything looks the same when you're in the thick of it. There's nothing to distinguish. Now when I walk in the bush, I try desperately hard to know my surroundings but I still struggle. What I generally do now is find a creek, work out where I turn into the creek and follow it. I also make arrows out of sizeable pieces of wood to find my way back.

I went to a National Park with my son on his birthday recently. There were walking tracks everywhere. He couldn't believe how inapt I was at working out how to get back to the information centre.

It's something that has plagued me my entire life. I find it incredibly frustrating and annoying and actually feel quite inadequate because of it. It used to annoy me so much that my husband's sense of direction was so good. Made me feel like I have some sort of disability.

Give me a map though, and I'm fine

 

Good morning Blitz,

Some maps do not win awards for utility, let alone accuracy.

 

The maps I use are very detailed. I've always managed with them okay.

 

Are they 1:50 000? I think I've got some similar, though not of this area. They're Army maps my husband acquired. Very similar (if not the same, apart from scale) to the 1:25 000 that I use.

 

Good morning Blitz,

The US Government's FEMA has a quality line: "Prepare for realistic, worst-case scenarios".

Think of your plans if required to respond to a mandatory evacuation out of your geographic area of familiarity. The situation might no longer be OK.

Did the maps you use have annotations with riot areas, road detours, infection control areas, masses of rats, ... ... ?

 

Good morning Lonewolf,

I know UK ordnance (and Admiralty [ https://admiralty.co.uk>charts) are premier ... better than US Defense Topo Agency ... I have some of both orgs here.

Yet, the Red Cross is not lending it's institutional skills for remapping the UK. Other places are involved.

 

Hi Pragmatist,

I understand what you're saying. The maps that I have are for remote areas. Not for towns. I'm a fair distance from a town and don't use town maps.

 

This is something I think many of you will find interesting even though this is about navigation of a non-human . About a month ago my grown son took a dog that I had been caring for to live with him at his new home . After about two days the dog escaped and struck out to return to our survival retreat . Now what was between that dog " a mountain Cur " and here was three towns and about 70 miles . It began its journey at about 7 PM and woke me up scratching on my door at about 2 Am . She was exhausted , thirsty and hungry and one glance into her eyes told me she was afraid she had done something wrong . Seventy miles in 7 hours meant she had to be averaging about 10 miles an hour . Now this trip is impressive considering she had to go down an on ramp and onto a major highway . negotiate her way down busy 4 lane highways and through numerous intersections with red lights . Many miles into her journey she had to take the correct off road at a red light and began going into a more rural environment , take a few more roads before finally reaching her destination . We all agreed here , if she wants to live here that bad " she can stay " . Frankly I doubt most 5 year old humans would have had the intellect to have made all those navigational decisions correctly . It just shows animals are much smarter than some people believe them to be .

 

Animals are always smarter than humans when it comes to surviving.

On the OP. I have a very good sense of direction.

I've orienteered several thousand miles by foot. Have no idea how many miles by vehicle and boat.

Dale

 

in my state...a good sense of direction...

 

I generally seem to keep a running map in my head. I may not be able to tell you which way is north, but I can point the direction back to where I started out. The closest that I have ever come to being lost was on year when I was pretty young, I went hunting and forgot that the daylight saving time had ended. I headed back out of the woods an hour later than I should have and ended up coming out in the dark. This was a dense forest out in the swamps and not a great place to be wandering around in the dark. It took me about an hour and a half to make it to the road where it should have taken about 20 minutes. After that I ALWAYS carry a compass and a little mini mag light when I go out.

I generally had depended on the stars at night or if it is cloudy there will be lights shining on the clouds to give me some direction. In that forest you could not see the sky or even the bottom of the clouds except straight overhead.

There have been times when I intentionally did not pay attention to where I was going and just wandered in the woods hunting for a few hours. Even then I can nearly always find my way back to my truck. A compass is a great help but if I don't have one I use the sunlight and shadows to find my way out.

I love the deep woods and always have felt extremely comfortable in them. I have often fallen asleep sitting and leaning back on a tree while hunting. I like to hunt but and not a big killer. I mostly hunt squirrels. I like them a lot fried up or made with gravy. I have always walked in the woods at night. I have very good night vision and seldom need to pull my little mini mag light out of my pocket. As long as I have my knife, a space blanket and my handgun there is nothing out there that concerns me. The gun is more incase I walk up on some punks that want a problem than for protection from critters. I have occasionally had an issue with a snake but even then I usually walk away and let them be.

Honestly where I live and was raised there is not anything that looks at people as possible prey. Other than a couple of mean dogs and a big hog one time I have never had any critter problems. Even with those I did not have to kill them. A gunshot will send most things running.

 

I know the Brecon Beacons and Snowdonia like the back of my hand but still carry map & compass, GPS and Spot beacon when out in the hills.

 

My late husband taught me over the years to use topographical maps, including some ordinance military maps he acquired. I became extremely adept, to the 50 metre mark, being able to determine exactly where we were, depending on the topography. Being that accurate did take practice but we spent some 30 odd years going bush, sometimes at the back of Woop Woop on a regular basis. If we couldn't get in the bush once a week, we'd start going mental. I would navigate and my husband would drive. On the odd occasions we would swap roles, surprisingly, my husband's map skills weren't as good as mine, probably because he enjoyed driving much more than staring at a map for hours on end. His driving was superior but my navigation was superior. However, in the situation where a compass was involved, or simply being able to re-orientate in the bush, he remained superior. He just had the, what I call "male brain" capacity to "know" where he was and how to get back to where he wanted to be.

When GPS units came out, we would take them as well, as a back-up. Being able to accurately check your position in an emergency situation with a GPS can be very helpful, though not a good idea to rely on them solely. Especially when out with others who easily panic. I remember several occasions when we were in very remote bush with small groups who started to feel they were lost and doubted my navigation skills, constantly needing to look at the map to reassure themselves. Having a GPS system whereby you can exactly pinpoint your position on the map and show others, instils confidence and prevents panic. I have seen people panic in the bush when they believed they were lost. Wow. It's not a good look. It really shows their "mettle" and it's seriously scary to witness. They can go from your best friend to your enemy in the blink of a "panicked" eye, experiencing a range of weird emotions, especially if it's dark. Needless to say, we worked out who we invited to go bush in the future. And the list was exceptionally small.

During the 2019 bushfires, prior to being surrounded on 3 fronts and being told to evacuate several times, I navigated a number of different routes out of the property using a topographical map, just in case. It put my mind at ease knowing if the worst came to the worst, we could still get to safety.

So yes. It depends on the maps you have. I have 2 large plastic boxes containing all the topo maps when we lived in NSW. Even with older maps, once you can navigate the topography, you can't go far wrong. You just have to keep your cool and trust your skill. In maps 20 or 30 years old, when there are newer tracks for example, you can't let that throw you out, but rather, include them in your map for future reference. I actually preferred the older maps (once I honed my map reading) to the newer maps, as they had clearer information and were much easier to read.

 

Um. No. I'm talking about fairly remote and obscure tracks in the bush. I don't think any Australian maps would have riot areas, infection control areas, etc. Maybe the military would nowadays. I don't know.

When we were told to evacuate during the 2019 bushfires, I had already planned several ways out, using tracks which hadn't been used for years. The fireys didn't have a clue because they weren't "proper" tracks which had been maintained or suitable for their pumpers, for example.

In any case, if the situation was no longer ok, we would make it okay through blazing our own tracks, which we have done on previous occasions when aiming for a specific place (a ruin, for example) where there were no tracks.

 

People raised among the mountains get to cheat. We've known every mountain since before going to grammar school. Maybe we only know the names of a half dozen. Names don't matter. Born in the hills burns a neurologic map in the brain. You know every mountain, hill, stream, river, the type of trees that grow in specific locations, plants that grow here but not there, on and on and on ... . The Cherokee saw NO differentiation between themselves and nature. There was one creation and one Great Spirit. End of discussion. Your life was kind'a-sort'a not your life. Christianity reinforced the belief that your personal wishes and wants are subservient. You do not dictate. You are owned. You are part of creation and you have a path to find and that path lies in servitude. Creation is big and you are temporary.

I always know where I am.

I've had co-workers look at me funny because I'd say things like, "just north of such-&-such, Iron Mountain Range always on your left, but if you cross Xxxxxx river, you've gone too far." I'd sometimes leave out the name of the road, because Nature trumps human creations. We'd be inside of a building and some co-worker would say, "Which way is east?" I'd point. They could get online and check me out, but they didn't have to. Before anybody brought-in clocks, the locals knew the time of day, the season, what was coming next weather-wise. Were my paternal grandmother beside me and my computer in front of me, I'd ask her about what was coming next as far as weather and what to food / herbs to store for this coming season. People like her who were born in Southern Appalachia before the year 1900 knew things that are now only documented in far too few libraries. Their entire story is almost entirely lost. The world in which I was raised would be considered unimaginably strange to today's lot. Sometimes, they come to me in dreams. I wish they'd visit far more often. Now, they can only speak to me in metaphor. This world is crude and they are now above all this. It makes me sad to still be trapped in this place.
.

 

I wish I always knew where I was! As I'm sure I've mentioned - without a map, I'm ABSOLUTELY useless.

Not sure if I've mentioned this. If I have, apologies for the repeat.

After my husband bit the bullet, I used to take the pooch out in the forest. I didn't intend going far, just a bit of a walk in the bush, following known tracks. Well. Didn't I wish I used my own advice and ensured I had a map. Yep. There were tracks everywhere and I lost my bearings. Then it started getting dark. Uh oh. I asked the pooch to find the car, so off he took. But I didn't listen to him. I was sure he was wrong. To cut a long story somewhat shorter, after doubting him and trying "my" way, I realised I'd better trust his judgement, which I did. Yes, he was right and after following him, found the car. Never again, I can tell you. Hahahahaha!