Most outdoorsy people I know carry a compass in the woods. They also know that the red needle points north and could probably figure how to go in all the other directions too.
That’s not always helpful, however, if you don’t have a map. A map — if you know how to read one — can help you determine where you are and which direction you actually need to go. Moreover, with one, you can use the following techniques that might save you from taking more steps than needed or even spending the night in the woods.
Navigationally speaking, a handrail is any linear manmade or geographic feature on the map that passes near or goes directly to your destination. They can be trails, shorelines, creeks, ridges, a road or hydro corridor, basically, any feature you can use as a reference point when navigating.
Let’s say you want to go to a small backcountry pond shown on your map. You could bushwhack but there’s a chance you might miss it.
What if while studying your map you notice that a nearby creek to the east connects to that pond? Well, then it’s a simple matter of heading east to find the creek and then using it as a handrail to reach the pond.
A catch is another term that describes an easily recognized manmade or geographic feature that intercepts your line of travel. These act as waypoints.
When planning your route, take note of any catches. For instance, your destination could be just beyond a hydro cut but not past a ridgeline. Once you arrive at the hydro cut, you know you are on the right path. But if you get to the ridge, you know you’ve overshot the destination.
A baseline is essentially a catch you return to, most commonly a road but sometimes a shoreline or other linear feature. If you head into the wilderness to the north of your baseline for instance, you know that if you head south, you will find that baseline again.
What if you’re trying to get to your vehicle at your baseline? It might be anywhere along that road. This is where deliberately aiming off comes in handy. Say you parked your vehicle along a road south of you that runs east-west. If you try to shoot a bearing directly to your vehicle, you will hit the baseline but likely miss the vehicle. It could be just around the bend to the east or west. If you are unfamiliar with the road, you’ll need to guess which way to walk. However, if you deliberately shoot a bearing a degree or two towards the southeast you will hit the baseline east of your vehicle and know you must walk west to get to it.
You can also determine your location with a map and orienteering compass provided you can shoot bearings to at least two (preferably three) identifiable features on the map when you examine your surroundings. To do this, you need to have open vistas, the kind you get when you are on high or open ground, or on the water. Say you can shoot a bearing to a communications tower that is 315 degrees from your position.
Use your compass baseplate to draw a 315-degree line on the map that intersects the radio tower on your map and extend that line towards your position. Then find another obvious landmark, say a hilltop at a 45-degree bearing and do the same thing. Your position will be where the two lines intersect. The more bearings on identifiable features you take, the more accurate your position estimate.
Originally published in the Fall 2025 issue of Ontario Out Of Doors
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