Earth is huge place with varying terrains, climates and conditions. It’s dangerous too. It always has been. Nature throws us endless curve balls as we explore her remote locations. Adventurers need to prepare for as many as possible… from extreme weather events to drought. As seasons change the terrain itself gradually, yet substantially, transforms. One of the best ways humans cope with Nature’s shenanigans is through a mastery of navigation. When a flood blocks our progress we adjust and find an alternate route. When flora turns to desert… we navigate to more favorable conditions.
Traversing our planet successfully was, and is, vital to our species’ survival. We have two legs, keen eyes, and will. Easy enough, right?
In the animal kingdom, navigation relies on following senses and instincts. Birds successfully migrate by using a combination of inherited and evolving instincts. First, birds rely on a seasonal pursuit of warm-weather food sources such as nectar and certain insects. But, what really impresses are sensory cues throughout their environment that direct their movements.
Ants keep in a steady march by leaving trails of pheromones; a single ant can flag a trail if it’s worth a revisit from the colony. Like ants, dogs navigate their reality with a keen olfactory. So keen, in fact, that we can’t begin to imagine how they interpret their world.
Humans Navigate to Survive
Humans have been navigating since, well, before we were human when our unwitting ancestors abruptly fell from the safety of trees and onto the hard, vast, and violent terra. Several epochs’ behind in the evolutionary sprint, they were left at a vulnerable disadvantage amongst their hungry animal peers. So they stuck together, moved as needed to follow food, and continued to adapt and learn throughout the journey.
Now four million years later, we’re too hairless to survive a winter outside. Less physically equipped than ever, we’ve not only maintained a checkmate on the food chain but dominated the entire arena. We’ve mapped every corner of the land, coastline, and respectably-sized island, and comfortably settled all but the harshest of them. What was our saving grace that allowed us to maintain? For all of the genetic blessings we missed in evolution, our ability to solve problems made up for them tenfold. We stuck together, shared knowledge, remembered, and made awesome tools.
Navigation remains among humanity’s most persistent challenges. It’s mastery also allowed us to prosper and discover new… more favorable places to inhabit.
While navigation, in the context of our modern vocabulary, can be thought of as our technology delivering us to our destination in the fastest, nearest, or most scenic route as possible, it’s true essence is something much more uncertain, daring and important. It’s about existing upon, recognizing, and successfully moving about an unknown arena.
From Cook to Tom Tom
Before we choose a route on a trail map, someone or some several people, at some time, planned (maybe) and braved the unbroken trail that we get to break in safely and with the certainty of where it will lead us. Before there were pleasure cruises pinballing thru the Inside Passage to Alaska, James Cook was meticulously charting the Salish Sea, with all its depths and hazards, for 3 years.
Captain Cook used fairly primitive instruments (by today’s standards), astronomy, and a keen understanding of navigation to map coastlines around the globe. He wasn’t the first to traverse the ocean, not even close, but his efforts helped lay the foundation for the navigation resources we have today. But, Cook was not alone in his effort to create accurate maps of the world. Others like Colonel Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres gave us a much more accurate impression of what the world around us really looks like.
Navigation as we now know it took a huge leap forward in 1959 when the US Navy developed “TRANSIT.” It was the world’s first true satellite navigation system. From there forward the technology skyrocketed with each revision… Navigating the globe became easier and easier. But, the tools were limited to the governments and militaries of the world. That is until 1989 when Magellan launched the first handheld consumer GPS device. It was pretty primitive compared to the tools in a modern smartphone. Nonetheless it essentially marked the birth of where we are today.
When we need to get somewhere we punch an address or business name onto a touchscreen, follow a series of simple instructions, and gripe about traffic along the way. Those before us had to map the clearest, least obstructive route to that goal by either terraforming, building around, or trucking over a series of physical obstacles to get there.
The Compass is Still Relevant
Every time we get in our car or on our bikes and boats, on foot or on a bus, we take navigation and its seemingly simple methods for granted. But before we had turn by turn ‘navigation’ on our smartphones, or printed Mapquest itineraries, even before glove box atlases and Yellow Page city maps with alphabetized street guides, we had the compass. An ancient Chinese invention, the compass was first used by the Han Dynasty c. 200 BC as a device of divination, or seeking god-level knowledge or powers. By the 11th century, the Song Dynasty had found a more practical employment for the compass’s consistency and precision: navigation. Two hundred years later, the reliable utility of the compass spread west, thru Persia all the way to Western Europe.
The lodestone Han days are from the compasses we think of today. Needle compasses are now the familiar type, with a magnetized pointer directed by Earth’s polar forces to point the needle to magnetic north.Around the perimeter of the needle is a dial reading the 360 degrees of that make up a circle. Despite the seemingly ancient age of the compass it remains an incredibly important tool in modern navigation and orienteering. Especially when electronics fail.
The Modern Baseplate Compass
With most modern baseplate compasses, the user will let the compass sit flat on their palm (or on a map). With the needle pointing to a consistent magnetic north, the user will rotate the dial to match 0 degrees to the direction of the needle. At 180 degrees is magnetic south, 90 degrees east and 270 degrees west. With having the one direction (north) in constant reference, the user can keep a consistent heading in any of the 360 degrees and stay on a proper course.
A compass will tell you which direction are heading, but that won’t get you far if you don’t know where you’re supposed to go. A current map, particularly a topographical map, is still an essential item when exploring or navigating across the land. Compasses and maps work hand in hand, as many base plate designs sport a transparent base for referencing map orienting lines, and a DOT (direction of travel) indicator to take bearings directly from the map itself. Although modern GPS and smartphone devices have become daily reliances, physical maps and compasses are forever relevant and far from obsolete outside of the city. The classic navigation techniques are still widely practiced by explorers, hobbyists, and armed forces around the globe.
Orienteering
Swedish military training around these traditions has spawned the sport of orienteering, where competitors must use only a compass and a provided topographical map to navigate through unknown terrain within a specific time frame. An internationally organized sport, orienteering (on foot) allows each participant, starting in fragmented times, a compass and a detailed topographic map to locate a sequence of control points staged throughout a rugged course. Each control point is described on the control description sheet and contains a method for participants to mark that they’ve successfully located the checkpoint. Control points are set up to be clearly visible, often by an orange flag or kite.
Rally Raids and Navigation-Based Competition
It’s not only hardcore bipeds and purist mariners that embrace the traditional disciplines of map and compass navigation. The Rebelle Rally is a women-only off-road navigation race, covering 2000 kilometers of California and Nevada’s desert terrain. For seven days competitors from around the world scramble over sand dunes. Navigate dirt roads and double track with no nav gear other than a compass, road book, and maps. Horsepower and speed become secondary variables behind the skill and precision of a confident navigator. The contest is open to any woman with a stock 4×4 and entry money.
Although we honor traditional navigation methods and reinforce their importance, technology has its place in our lives. Thus, it’s important to promote its advancement. GPS devices save lives and streamline human activity. And buying technology directly funds its improvement, making our tools smarter, stronger and more reliably precise. The goal is to have access to the best technology without becoming too reliant. We have to remember the fundamentals should our new tools fail us. Or more appropriately when they fail us, as they undoubtedly will do. Clouds will obscure satellites. Batteries will die.
We must note that redundancy can save the day, as compasses and maps get ruined too. Pilots, sailors, climbers and hikers around the world carry analog compasses and maps. And, more importantly, know how to use each of them and how they work in tandem. It’s very safe to say, despite a hundred years of technological advancement…the compass and map are still essential navigation tools.
