Hiking - A Basic Introduction To The Use Of Maps To Navigate

Despite the fact that you might think that it should be the other way around, you will find that most experienced hikers rely on maps in order to navigate their way along trails and across wilderness areas while novices believe that maps are unnecessary. The novice hiker often thinks that there is no need to go through the hard work of learning map reading and that sticking to used trails will be fine. Sorry to say, that is a mistaken view.

You really can get yourself seriously lost even close to well marked trails and stepping a few meters from the trail into heavy woodland has confused more than one beginner. Without the benefit of the sun, stars or geographical markers it is all too easy to get turned around and to end up straying even farther from the trail and getting yourself well and truly lost in next to no time.

Now in the example above a map alone will not necessarily help you to get out of that particular wood. However, you will usually come across another trail which will hook up with your original trail and a good map will help you to easily find your way back to your starting point.

Okay, so where should you begin?

Get hold of an up-to-date map which covers the area which you are planning to hike in and begin by studying it at home in a quiet and relaxed environment. Of course you will not be able to match the map to the features you see, but it will certainly help you to learn and understand the symbols used on the map.

Every map has a legend (which will differ a liitle from one publisher to the next) and you want to familiarize yourself with the symbols. You also have to familiarize yourself with the scale of the map which will be clearly printed on it somewhere as something like 1 inch = 1 mile.

Do not forget though that distance is only part of the story and that 1 inch representing 1 mile on level ground is a quite different thing from 1 inch representing 1 mile over an area including a steep and winding path up the side of a 1,000 foot cliff.

To account for the latter, you will have to consider altitude which is marked on the map by a series of curved lines which, if they were 'stretched out', would make a circle. The spacing between adjacent altitude lines around a natural feature like a hill indicates the steepness of the terrain. Normally you will find that there are numbers printed along the lines in order to help you. These lines are referred to as contour lines and the closer the lines are to each other the steeper the ground.

Next, you should study the longitude lines and latitude lines. Longitude lines which indicate North and South run 'up and down' the map from the bottom to the top while latitude lines showing East and West run 'right and left'.

During the day you can make use of the sun and natural features on the ground to orient the map so that it is lined up with the ground which you are hiking over. Do not forget that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West so that at the start of the day facing the sun will have you heading in an Easterly direction. By the same token, late in the day facing the sun as it sets will have you hiking in a Westerly direction.

Once the sun has gone down you can use the stars and you can frequently see the sky reasonably well as most wilderness areas are far away from the glow of city lights. One of the greatest pleasures of hiking is to be able to walk out under the stars and familiarizing yourself with such formations as Orion and the Big Dipper as well as the North Star.