The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way...
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
Flip to back
Flip to front
The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition Paperback – December 28, 2000
$10.47
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
Suunto M-3 D/L Compass
$32.23 - $500.00 -
Suunto M-3G Compass
$41.85 - $87.00
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Start reading The Essential Wilderness Navigator on your Kindle in under a minute.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?.
|
Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
The Essential Series--Your Trusted Guides
"Puts the world of wilderness navigation in the palm of your hand."--Adventure West
"Teaches the essential disciplines of compass and map-reading . . . but goes beyond the basics with useful, eye-opening advice on how to read nature's highway signs--vegetation bands, wind-whipped ripples in sand or snow, and the positions of the sun and stars."--Northeast Outdoors
If you're at all unsure of your backwoods direction-finding skills, The Essential Wilderness Navigator is the guide you've been looking for. It teaches you how to observe--to see, smell, hear, and sense the details of the environment around you. Then, to supplement your newly enhanced sense of direction, you'll learn to read maps, use a compass, and find your location and route with reference to landmarks. This updated second edition also includes
- The basics of global positioning system (GPS) navigation and CD-ROM maps
- A full-color section on reading topographical maps
- Navigating in deserts, mountains, and snow
Whether you're planning an extended wilderness trek or a day hike on marked trails, here's how to stay found.
About the Author
David Seidman has spent a good portion of his life finding his way around the world. He's crossed oceans, toured central Asia and Mongolia without a map or the ability to speak the language, and found a Mayan ruin in Guatemala. He is the author of The Essential Sea Kayaker and The Complete Sailor and is an editor at Boating magazine.
Paul Cleveland has worked as a wilderness ranger in New Mexico and designed and built trails in the Appalachians. He is a frequent contributor to Backpacker and Climbing magazines and the Gorp.com Web pages. He guides whitewater rafting trips and teaches CPR and first aid for the Red Cross and wilderness navigation for Outward Bound.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
215 of 218 people found the following review helpful
By
Peter
on December 3, 2004
Format: Paperback
5 Comments
Sending feedback...
You want to learn how to use a map and compass? For hiking or backpacking, especially remote wilderness? This is the best comprehensive book I've found on the subject, bar none. Reasons:
1. It gets to the point quickly in teaching you map & compass fundamentals. No fluff, no wasted time on esoteric principles of magnetism or the rules of orienteering competitions (a fine sport, but one bearing little resemblance to actual wilderness navigation with its special large-scale magnetic-north maps and simplified compasses etc.) Instead, this book concentrates on one objective: accurate land navigation in a wilderness environment.
2. It teaches realistic methods, and does not emphasize the unrealistic ones (one glaring example: penciling a lot of inaccurate magnetic declination lines all over your map the night before your trip (because the author used the method once for an adventure race with a special large-scale map and thinks it's cool) instead of just buying a compass with adjustable declination or pasting a pointer indicating a true bearing on your compass baseplate! Hey, sitting atop a windblown mountain is no place to attempt to draw magnetic lines of declination with a three-inch compass baseplate when you walk off your pre-marked map or have to use a friend's copy!
3. It has large, clear, easy-to-follow illustrations. Believe me, this is a rarity in most map/compass books.
4. It teaches BOTH compass dead reckoning (compass only) AND terrain association (map priority) navigation principles and shows the advantages and weaknesses of each in a given situation. Some orienteering-biased books would have you believe the compass is only good for aligning a map to magnetic north!
5.Read more ›
1. It gets to the point quickly in teaching you map & compass fundamentals. No fluff, no wasted time on esoteric principles of magnetism or the rules of orienteering competitions (a fine sport, but one bearing little resemblance to actual wilderness navigation with its special large-scale magnetic-north maps and simplified compasses etc.) Instead, this book concentrates on one objective: accurate land navigation in a wilderness environment.
2. It teaches realistic methods, and does not emphasize the unrealistic ones (one glaring example: penciling a lot of inaccurate magnetic declination lines all over your map the night before your trip (because the author used the method once for an adventure race with a special large-scale map and thinks it's cool) instead of just buying a compass with adjustable declination or pasting a pointer indicating a true bearing on your compass baseplate! Hey, sitting atop a windblown mountain is no place to attempt to draw magnetic lines of declination with a three-inch compass baseplate when you walk off your pre-marked map or have to use a friend's copy!
3. It has large, clear, easy-to-follow illustrations. Believe me, this is a rarity in most map/compass books.
4. It teaches BOTH compass dead reckoning (compass only) AND terrain association (map priority) navigation principles and shows the advantages and weaknesses of each in a given situation. Some orienteering-biased books would have you believe the compass is only good for aligning a map to magnetic north!
5.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
150 of 157 people found the following review helpful
By
Amazon Customer
on March 13, 2011
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
7 Comments
Sending feedback...
This book is good, and would have warranted four stars, when published back in 2001 (Second Edition). The general navigation and wayfinding techniques are clearly discussed and illustrated, but there have been some key developments in the mapping world that the authors should address in an updated edition.
First, the authors are unfairly dismissive of grid systems like UTM. Now, back in 2001 this was acceptable since the USGS really didn't have an accepted grid system. They put both UTM and Lat/Long grid tics on the topo quad sheets and basically said "use what you like". This attitude has caused endless confusion among topo map users in the US. However, post 9/11 and Katrina the USGS has agreed to adopt the US National Grid system, which is nothing more than the Military Grid Reference System extended across the US. The USGS has also begun producing the excellent US Topo series of maps as a substitute for the old 7.5 minute quad sheets, and these new maps all have the US National Grid overprinted on them. These two developments alone should be enough to force the authors and publishers of all land navigation handbooks and guides to update their works.
Next is the GPS appendix. Like it or not, GPS receivers are now a standard part of most hiker's kit and consumer GPS technology has come a LONG way since 2001. I don't really think it is useful to discuss specific GPS navigation techniques in a book focusing on map and compass navigation, that is really a better topic for a separate publication. I DO think it is important to address both the benefits of having a GPS unit available and to have a frank discussion of GPS system limitations based on things like receiver design, satellite visibility and geometry, masking, the effects of canopy cover, etc.Read more ›
First, the authors are unfairly dismissive of grid systems like UTM. Now, back in 2001 this was acceptable since the USGS really didn't have an accepted grid system. They put both UTM and Lat/Long grid tics on the topo quad sheets and basically said "use what you like". This attitude has caused endless confusion among topo map users in the US. However, post 9/11 and Katrina the USGS has agreed to adopt the US National Grid system, which is nothing more than the Military Grid Reference System extended across the US. The USGS has also begun producing the excellent US Topo series of maps as a substitute for the old 7.5 minute quad sheets, and these new maps all have the US National Grid overprinted on them. These two developments alone should be enough to force the authors and publishers of all land navigation handbooks and guides to update their works.
Next is the GPS appendix. Like it or not, GPS receivers are now a standard part of most hiker's kit and consumer GPS technology has come a LONG way since 2001. I don't really think it is useful to discuss specific GPS navigation techniques in a book focusing on map and compass navigation, that is really a better topic for a separate publication. I DO think it is important to address both the benefits of having a GPS unit available and to have a frank discussion of GPS system limitations based on things like receiver design, satellite visibility and geometry, masking, the effects of canopy cover, etc.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
56 of 56 people found the following review helpful
By
Amazon Customer
on December 8, 2007
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
I have been using a compass for many years but I always thought there was much more than I knew. I went to using GPS for all my navigation a few years ago. I purchased 3 books on compass usage a couple years ago after my wife and I broke my GPS during a snowstorm in the mountains of Colorado leaving us in a bad mess.
I quickly ran through the other 2, and although they were good they were not as complete as this one. I have carried it with me for 2 years now. I find that what I think I have learned is easily wrong when out in the field so I now carry it with me and practice the stuff I am unsure of. Some people think this book is wordy but I find it fascinating. I reread certain chapters over and over, finding I have glossed over something that is more important than I originally thought.
If you want to trust a compass this is the book for you, but plan on spending some time with it.
I am buying this book for my son-in law as he relies exclusively on a GPS.
I guess the only thing I disagree with is a statement that a compass almost never breaks, as I have several that have been retired over breakage. I carry 2-3 with me now as I guess I'm not disposed to trust any one navigational instrument.
I quickly ran through the other 2, and although they were good they were not as complete as this one. I have carried it with me for 2 years now. I find that what I think I have learned is easily wrong when out in the field so I now carry it with me and practice the stuff I am unsure of. Some people think this book is wordy but I find it fascinating. I reread certain chapters over and over, finding I have glossed over something that is more important than I originally thought.
If you want to trust a compass this is the book for you, but plan on spending some time with it.
I am buying this book for my son-in law as he relies exclusively on a GPS.
I guess the only thing I disagree with is a statement that a compass almost never breaks, as I have several that have been retired over breakage. I carry 2-3 with me now as I guess I'm not disposed to trust any one navigational instrument.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
By
Kristian J. Velasquez
on September 5, 2005
Format: Paperback
Comment
Sending feedback...
An excellent book for those starting out on orienteering. Very good conversational wording. Doesn't use too much jargon. The practical exercises are easily understood. The combination of the written word and neat diagrams and pictures make the information easily digestable.
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By
Karl F. Riemer
on April 17, 2009
Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase
Comment
Sending feedback...
I can't compare to similar books because I chose carefully and bought one. My limited experience with others isn't enough to say this is the only one for you, but I can say that by a wide margin it's the one for me. It's only ~170pp but there's scarcely a wasted word or unnecessary idea in it. Others wander through extensive desultory discussions of compass design, magnetic anomalies, map projections, tables and graphs. This book mentions each, says about it what pertains to the subject at hand and moves on. (That's the "Essential" part.) The subject at hand is not getting lost, or if necessary getting unlost. So it spends half its column-inches explaining how to use a map, how to use a compass, and how to use them together, in a progressive, logical, concise style. That's what I bought it for and I think it performs that function admirably. It's an intelligently organized instruction manual for the use of our basic tools.
Where this book excels, though, is that while embracing technical assistance (map & compass) it begins and ends with a deep appreciation of the myriad clues available for determining position without technical assistance if we learn to see and understand them. (That's the "Wilderness Navigator" part.) So most of the other half of its column-inches are devoted to navigating without, or in conjunction with, map and/or compass using sun, stars, watercourses, topography etc., how to think graphically and accumulate data, and how to behave sensibly. It espouses a cogent philosophy I'll sum up in three aphorisms: pay attention to where you are and visualize where you've been; practice and theory are both essential (more of one doesn't make up for less of the other); and, if lost, thinking is a better strategy than hoping.Read more ›
Where this book excels, though, is that while embracing technical assistance (map & compass) it begins and ends with a deep appreciation of the myriad clues available for determining position without technical assistance if we learn to see and understand them. (That's the "Wilderness Navigator" part.) So most of the other half of its column-inches are devoted to navigating without, or in conjunction with, map and/or compass using sun, stars, watercourses, topography etc., how to think graphically and accumulate data, and how to behave sensibly. It espouses a cogent philosophy I'll sum up in three aphorisms: pay attention to where you are and visualize where you've been; practice and theory are both essential (more of one doesn't make up for less of the other); and, if lost, thinking is a better strategy than hoping.Read more ›
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Most Recent Customer Reviews
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
