The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition
by David Seidman, Paul Cleveland
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Book Summary Information
Author: David Seidman, Paul ClevelandBrand: Liberty Mountain
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-12-28
ISBN: 0071361103
Number of pages: 173
Publisher: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780071361101
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition
Book Review: little filler, no nonsense: lean muscle
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
There's the obligatory cursory examination of GPS and a nod to Orienteering, each blessedly brief because neither can be properly addressed in anything less than more than this entire book. You can ignore those bits without penalty, and you can merely read pages that examine peculiar difficulties with generic solutions, or recount illustrative anecdotes. What's left, though, demands close and repeated attention as it's precisely to the point. Declarative statements, simple illustrations and prescriptive exercises will get you thinking and navigating expertly, if you're willing to do the work.
One small note: the authors recommend, correctly, acquiring a baseplate compass. However, they say more than once that among its advantages is that almost all baseplate compasses offer built-in declination adjustment. My experience is that dealers nearly always offer compasses with and without this feature that look almost identical. Above a certain price, perhaps, their statement is accurate, but novice shoppers can't count on it. Of a large class I once took, nearly half the students had bought new baseplate compasses that could not compensate for declination. Not one of them realized it. Unless you live in Wisconsin, or eschew maps, or can do the math flawlessly in your head, declination compensation is well worth requesting.
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Summary of The Essential Wilderness Navigator: How to Find Your Way in the Great Outdoors, Second Edition
Now with full-color topographic maps and featuring the latest on electronic navigation, The Essential Wilderness Navigator is the clearest and most up-to-date route-finding primer available. Providing readers with exercises for developing a directional 'sixth sense,' tips on mastering the art of map- and compass-reading, and comprehensive updates on a range of technological advances, this perennially popular guide is more indispensable than ever.Physical Education Books
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