Field Exercise 10 - Orienteering With a Map and Compass

INTRODUCTION

          For field exercise ten I was required to navigate a woodland through a method called orienteering. In brief, orienteering is the navigation of terrain using a map and compass. Orienteering is very much like a sport in that it is a race done at speed. For my purposes though, the orienteering exercise was not a race but rather a way to become familiar using a map and compass. Why the use of such rudimentary navigation tools? Sometimes technology fails and a GPS device cannot be relied on and in these situations it is necessary to navigate with what you have.
          For field exercise ten our geospatial field methods class was broken down into five groups of three. Breaking the class up into groups of three was a strategic move by the instructor and will be explained later. Each group of three, using only a map and compass, was required to navigate to five different control points that the instructor marked with tape prior to the exercise. Each group was given a different order in which they were required to navigate to each of the five points which prevented groups from following each other and colluding. Groups were required first: to mark the five control points on their respective maps, second: to actually navigate to the control points in the proper order, and third: to take a picture of the control point marker and move on to the next one.

Study Area

 

          The study area or area of interest (AOI) for field exercise ten was the UW-Eau Claire priory. Located approximately 3.1 miles south of the main Eau Claire campus the priory is a heavily wooded area with a day care/dorm on the south side of the property.  The map created for field exercise three (figure one below) is the priory map that will be used for this orienteering exercise. As seen in figure one below their are dark red contour lines which show five meter intervals in terrain relief. Due to the dispersal pattern of these contour lines it can be surmised that there is quite a bit of relief especially on the west side of the property. The base image of the map also shows that the property is mainly made up of trees which will make for rough going.


Figure 1: shows a fifty meter grid map of the UW-Eau Claire priory. The 5 meter contour line feature class is depicted using dark red lines, the navigation boundary feature class is depicted using a faded grey outline, and the aerial image of the priory can be seen as the base for the whole map. I also added the latitude and longitude onto this map as can be seen by the small black numbering and tick marks on the periphery of the map. All of the other elements that go into creating a proper map including scale bar, legend, north arrow, meta data, title, and my name are also included.

METHODS

 

Map Preparation

 

           The first task preformed for field exercise ten was preparing the maps for orienteering. In order to do this each group of three had to first mark the five control points on their respective maps. The instructor provided us with the lat/long positions of the five control points, and since I implemented lat/long onto my map in figure one above it was simply a matter of marking the point on the map with a blue marker. Each group then had to draw lines in between the points with a straight edge in order to delineate the direction they must head from point to point. Remember that the direction and route each group takes will be different from every other group because they must navigate to each point in the correct order. Once the lines were drawn my group and I estimated the pace count between each point using my pace count, which I measured back in field exercise 3, and the map's scale bar/reference scale. To estimate the pace count between each point I first used a ruler to measure in between each point knowing that two centimeters was roughly 100 meters. Knowing from my pace count that 100 meters is roughly 65 paces I could then do simple math to figure out the distance or pace count between each control point. In figure two below is our orienteering map with the five control points, lines of direction, and pace count drawn in.

Figure 2: depicts the UW-Eau Claire priory map as well as drawn in features including five control points, lines of direction, and pace count. All of these drawn in features fall within the lime green box on the map which made for some small and detailed orienteering work. It should be noted that the west side of the property (the area we are navigating in) is the side with the most steep and rugged terrain. 

 

Compass Navigation

 

          The second task preformed for field exercise ten was learning how to actually navigate with a compass and map. The image of a compass in figure three below can be referenced as I go through the procedure of using a compass.

 

Figure 3: shows a labeled compass. The important labels to pay attention to are the direction of travel arrow, the dial or bezel, the orienteering arrow, and the needle.

          The task of teaching the class how to navigate shall be accredited to our colleague Zachary Hilgendorf, who briefed the class on how to properly use a compass for navigation. His instructions were as follows: first, place the compass over the map with the straight edge scale running parallel to the line of direction drawn on the map; second, swivel the bezel of the compass so that the built in red arrow (orienteering arrow) is facing north on the map; third, place the compass in your hand and get the floating needle to match up with the orienteering arrow (this is called putting red in the shed); and fourth, once red is in the shed follow the black line of direction arrow to the control point drawn on the map.

 

Group Dynamic

 

           Now that compass navigation has been explained it is time to explain how to physically navigating utilizing the group dynamic. In other words each group member is responsible for his/her part of the orienteering to ensure smooth navigation. There are three basic jobs the first of which is to use the compass to find the line of direction or azimuth in which to travel (this person must also stay put once they find the direction of travel), the second is walking to a point of interest that lies in the direction of travel, and the third is to pace off the distance between each point of interest. I will now give an example of how a group might navigate to a control point. I will refer to each group member by their job (job1, job2, job3). Job1 uses the compass and the map to find that the group's direction of travel is 180 degrees or due south. Job1 then directs job2 to a point of interest that is due south. This point of interest could be anything but a tree will work nicely. Once job2 has successfully made his/her way to the point of interest job3 will walk directly to this point while counting his/her pace. After job3 has reached the point of interest, job1 will walk to job2 and job3's position and repeat the process until they have reached the final control point.

 

DISCUSSION

 

          My group's specific route taken for the orienteering exercise is pictured below in figure four. This image is a cleaned up version of the route within the green box in figure two. This image shows the order in which we navigated to the control points, direction of travel, and the paces between the control points.

Figure 4: shows a clear image of the route taken for the orienteering exercise. The five control points are shown using red dots, the direction of travel is shown with blue lines, and the pace count is shown in black type. 

 

My group navigated to each of the five control points and took a picture at each one to prove we did indeed navigate to each point. Figures five, six, seven, eight, and nine show control points one, two, three, four, and five respectively.

Figure 5: shows control point one. Traveling to point one from the starting point was by far the farthest travel distance between points. Because the distance was so great it was also the trickiest marker to find. Control point one was the farthest north of all the points and it was located in a deep ravine. The ravine was deep enough to where a person would have to stand on the lip of the ravine in order to look down and see the marker.

Figure 6: shows control point two. The proximity of point two to point one made it the easiest marker to find. Control point two was also located on the top of a small hill making it easy to see from a distance.

Figure 7: shows control point three. Control point three was easy to spot as well because it was located on the edge of a clearing. Traveling to control point three was done through unconventional means due to its proximity to the starting point.

Figure 8: shows control point four. Control point four was of medium toughness to find. It was located in some thick brush and the group was forced to traverse a few ravines to get to its location, but good orienteering mechanics saw us there quickly.

Figure 9: shows control point five. Control point five was located on the edge of a very steep ravine. This point would have been tough to spot due to its location but the group was lucky enough to navigate directly to the marker.

 

          My group and I did encounter a few problems while orienteering through the priory's woods. The first problem we encountered was missing control point one. We ended up about twenty paces west of the control point due to the confusion that was caused by heavy undergrowth. Orienteering through thick brush can cause a navigator to lose his/her sense of direction because its difficult to keep one's bearing and sense of direction. My group and I ended up navigating to control point four because it was a known location and from there we re-assessed our situation and navigated to control point one. Part of the reason why we had difficulty finding control point one was the fact that it was located down in a ravine beneath the lip if the ravines edge. Twenty paces west of the control point may not seem like a huge distance, but where steep and rugged terrain is involved it can make all the difference. Our group also had difficulty keeping our pace count because of how difficult it was to walk in a straight line through the thick brush. To take an accurate pace count it's necessary to walk in a straight line so that the count is not skewed. This was an all but impossible task, therefore, our groups pace count was less accurate than expected.

          Navigating to control point two went off without a hitch and so did navigating to control point three, but as mentioned above in the caption of figure seven, my group and I navigated to control point three through unconventional methods. Because control point three was located due west of the priory building clearing, my group and I navigated to the clearing in order to avoid walking through the thick underbrush of the woods. We then chose a large tree that was located due east of control point three and traveled west using traditional orienteering methods. By utilizing the priory clearing my group and I did not travel directly to control point three from control point two  (as the crow flies), but we saved time because we didn't have to pass through the thick underbrush of the woods. Figure ten below shows the path my group took to get to control point three from control point two.

Figure 10: The green line shows the route my group and I took to get to control point three from control point two.

 

          Navigating to control points four and five went smoothly for the group due to excellent navigation methods. As mentioned above control point five was located on the edge of a very steep ravine so depending on where the navigator was standing it could have potentially been very hard for them to spot the marker.

 

CONCLUSION

 

          Navigating through the woods using only a compass and map is not only a sport (orienteering) but a necessary skill that every navigator should have. In todays technological world there are many different GPS units that will navigate you to where you are going, however, sometimes technology fails and rudimentary navigation skills will have to be relied on.  Overall the orienteering activity performed for field exercise ten was very successful due to its interactive quality. Every student had to be on top of their game and aware of what each group member was doing at all times because the success of the group hinged on each individuals navigation efforts. Although my group and I ran into a few problems such as missing the first marker and having to refigure our position and not being able to keep an accurate pace count, we learned a lot from the hands on experience.