- Joined
- Aug 2, 2021
I figured I could share a few tips about orienteering and wilderness survival.
1. Don’t get caught in the dark. If you want to know how many hours you have left til sundown, measure the number of handwidths between the position of the sun in the sky and where it will set. Each hand width equals about 1 hour of daylight remaining, plus you get about 30mins - 1 hour of twilight after sundown. You probably want 2-3 hours to make camp.
2. Directions. I’m pretty crap at this so I just carry a compass (also most smartphones have an inbuilt magnetometer… aka a compass that doesn’t need wifi to work) but you can also memorize where Polaris is and the Solar ecliptic in case you’re real worried.
3. Fire building. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but after way too many classes in high school and uh… extracurricular study… the easiest way to do this is with matches and lighters. The second easiest is ma 9v battery and steel wool (battery shorts the steel wool and sparks jump.) keeping dry tinder is a must… shredded cedar bark works great, so do dried cattails, palm leaves, stiltgrass, or tissue paper or newspaper if you’re prepared for this.
4. Finding water. The best way to do this is just follow downhill until you get to a catchment point, which are all over the place in Mass (it’s very wet here.) digging holes at low ground can work too. High places like rocky summits sometimes have eroded pools where rainwater collects. Weird alpine stuff grows in there. Squeezing liquid from plants is something I’ve heard of but never done successfully. Mostly you want to plan your campsites around access to some kind of water. You should plan to purify all water before drinking, even if it is from a flowing and seemingly clear source. Iodine tabs or boiling works.
5. Knifes.
Just bring a dang pocketknife it weighs like what 50g?
6. Know your route, tell your friends and fam where you’re going and when you expect to be back. This is in case my advice is inadequate and the rangers need to save you.
7. Do your homework. Most national parks have dedicated camping and burn sites, and you sometimes need a reservation to use those sites. Camping in totally unimproved areas is a faux pas if there are designated campsites nearby. Some parks also ban dogs etc. so worth it to know about that too.
PS my dad told me to tell you that cotton, linen etc is worthless at keeping you warm when wet, and so is goose down, but wool and poly fleece retains some of its insulating qualities even if you’re drenched. Foil blankets are similar - the Mylar just reflects your own body heat back into you, so it doesn’t matter if it gets wet.
1. Don’t get caught in the dark. If you want to know how many hours you have left til sundown, measure the number of handwidths between the position of the sun in the sky and where it will set. Each hand width equals about 1 hour of daylight remaining, plus you get about 30mins - 1 hour of twilight after sundown. You probably want 2-3 hours to make camp.
2. Directions. I’m pretty crap at this so I just carry a compass (also most smartphones have an inbuilt magnetometer… aka a compass that doesn’t need wifi to work) but you can also memorize where Polaris is and the Solar ecliptic in case you’re real worried.
3. Fire building. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but after way too many classes in high school and uh… extracurricular study… the easiest way to do this is with matches and lighters. The second easiest is ma 9v battery and steel wool (battery shorts the steel wool and sparks jump.) keeping dry tinder is a must… shredded cedar bark works great, so do dried cattails, palm leaves, stiltgrass, or tissue paper or newspaper if you’re prepared for this.
4. Finding water. The best way to do this is just follow downhill until you get to a catchment point, which are all over the place in Mass (it’s very wet here.) digging holes at low ground can work too. High places like rocky summits sometimes have eroded pools where rainwater collects. Weird alpine stuff grows in there. Squeezing liquid from plants is something I’ve heard of but never done successfully. Mostly you want to plan your campsites around access to some kind of water. You should plan to purify all water before drinking, even if it is from a flowing and seemingly clear source. Iodine tabs or boiling works.
5. Knifes.
Just bring a dang pocketknife it weighs like what 50g?
6. Know your route, tell your friends and fam where you’re going and when you expect to be back. This is in case my advice is inadequate and the rangers need to save you.
7. Do your homework. Most national parks have dedicated camping and burn sites, and you sometimes need a reservation to use those sites. Camping in totally unimproved areas is a faux pas if there are designated campsites nearby. Some parks also ban dogs etc. so worth it to know about that too.
PS my dad told me to tell you that cotton, linen etc is worthless at keeping you warm when wet, and so is goose down, but wool and poly fleece retains some of its insulating qualities even if you’re drenched. Foil blankets are similar - the Mylar just reflects your own body heat back into you, so it doesn’t matter if it gets wet.
