Lost in the woods without a compass?

[Eyesa Horg]

Doesn't everybody carry a magnet when heading into the woods?

[Texas Joker]

Rub the needle through your hair, like making static electricity on a balloon

[Hashknife Cowboy]

I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks.

Daniel Boone

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Doesn't everybody carry a magnet when heading into the woods?

I carry a magnet. Actually I carry two. My money clip is a strip of leather with a rare earth magnet at each end. I remember using it one time in a grocery store to determine that the stuff I was looking at was copper plated steel, and not actual copper wool.

 

So I have the magnet. But why in the world would I be carrying a needle?

 

 

NCIS episode. McGee, Gibbs, and IT Kevin are lost in Russia. And Gibbs is busily making one of those compasses. And when he's got his little needle floating on the leaf in the puddle, McGee sticks his hand down with a compass in it, to compare, and says, "It works!"

 

Gibbs gives him a major dirty look, and he explains that he had forgotten he had the compass until Gibbs was about halfway through building one, and then he wanted to see if it would work.

 

Now if that did not require a Gibbs slap I don't know what would.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

So if its High Noon and you point the hour hand up at the sun, South would be were you are standing?

[Three Foot Johnson]

44 minutes ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

So if its High Noon and you point the hour hand up at the sun, South would be were you are standing?

I read somewhere that due to the Earth's tilt, the sun will never be directly overhead anywhere in the US, except for Hawaii once a year.

 

(edit) Found it -

 

How many days is the sun directly overhead in the US?

Answer: For continental U.S. the answer is never. Since the Earth's rotation axis is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to its orbital motion around the Sun, one would have to be less than 23.5 degrees above or below the equator to have the Sun pass directly overhead (once per year)

 

Hawaii's southernmost point is a little less than 19º latitude.

 

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

21 hours ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

Mythbusters did an episode on that, where they were blindfolded and walking in a big open field. It was astounding how short a distance they had to walk until they were circling back - sometimes making multiple circles in the space of only fifty yards.

 

I read somewhere that people who are lost, if right handed will veer to the right and left handed will veer to the left.

[Eyesa Horg]

Heard that too, don't remember which way I wandered.

[Sedalia Dave]

Right now in this part of Texas, mud puddles are few and VERY far between

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Anything is better than having a Tate’s Compass.

[Three Foot Johnson]

As they used to say, "He who has a Tate's is lost".

 

[Rip Snorter]

17 minutes ago, Three Foot Johnson said:

As they used to say, "He who has a Tate's is lost".

 

2 Groans!

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I looked it up after I groaned. It's an actual oldie! Now I have to subtly sneak it into a conversation....

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 minute ago, Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619 said:

I looked it up after I groaned. It's an actual oldie! Now I have to subtly sneak it into a conversation....

Just say “53”. 

[PowderRiverCowboy]

This works unless you are a Military LT , Schofield Barrack Land Nav  area , its bordered by the H1 highway on north and huge ravine on the south airfield to the west and a fence to the east , its literally 6 square miles WE had LTs lost overnight regularly  
 These cadets were did it before becoming LT's
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/07/31/two-rotc-cadets-rescued-after-getting-lost-on-land-nav-course/

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Our now retired chief electrician was a weather forecast specialist with the US Navy.

His station was on the Pacific Coast off Washington State.

He said they had some truly marvelous fogs; they had lines painted on the pavement, wide and uniquely shaded ... if the fog was too heavy, they'd take a flashlight and shine it straight down, follow the painted line to whichever building they wished to go to ... otherwise it was too easy to get overwhelmingly, unbelievably LOST in that fog!

Thanks to this thread, I'll be better prepared myself!

 

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

On 8/5/2022 at 12:29 PM, Dusty Devil Dale said:

A compass phone app (or just a simple compass) is a good thing to have handy in the woods.  A GPS is also great, but they don't usually give you direction unless you are moving.  

Th e compass app on my iPhone frequently comes up 180 degrees out.  The earth has never done so.  
 

I don’t hit the trails without a magnetic compass.

[Sedalia Dave]

4 hours ago, Charlie Harley, #14153 said:

Th e compass app on my iPhone frequently comes up 180 degrees out.  The earth has never done so.  
 

I don’t hit the trails without a magnetic compass.

 

The batteries don't go dead either.