The needle points to magnetic north, not true north, and they’re hundreds of miles apart. Since topographic maps are oriented to true north, you need to resolve this difference, called declination.

Who doesn’t love a treasure hunt!? This is a great activity for looking at compass bearings and use as well as instruction writing. For this lesson students will hide some treasure before writing ...

As the new watch captain emerges on deck, his counterpart begins his hand-off with a report on the competition, “We’ve dropped them back 5 degrees in the last hour, plus the range has doubled, so ...

This material is taken from Chapter 6 - Wilderness Travel from The Backpackers Field Manual by Rick Curtis. For more details on this exciting book check out The Backpacker's Field Manual Page. This ...