My first navigational aid was a button compass, given to me by my grandfather when he retired from the post office, left the big city, and set up housekeeping in farm country. Though I no longer have it, I’m pretty sure it was just a trinket, maybe even a prize from a box of Cracker Jacks. It certainly wasn’t a serious tool. My grandfather probably wouldn’t have known the difference. Unlike Grandad, he was no woodsman. But I didn’t care if the tiny compass was a tool or a toy. I was only four years old when my grandfather put it in my hands, and I could see there was magic in the way the needle always pointed north, no matter which way I turned. It was powerful magic, indeed. The spell of the needle kept me in its grip from then on. A little later, when I was about 10, I got the real thing: a simple pocket compass with a red and white needle and a brass case that sported a flip‑up cover like an old‑fashioned watch. Grandad showed me how to use it, and he taught me how to read a topographic map, too.

Many other compasses have come my way in subsequent years. These include a couple of Silva orienteering models and a Brunton Pocket Transit, as well as a nifty little bell‑cum‑compass that I mounted on the handlebars of my “amphibious” bicycle. I also have several filing cabinets filled with quads and charts. After all, map‑and‑compass navigation was an integral part of my work as a field geologist, and I didn’t put my tools away at the end of a job. I took them with me everywhere I went. A compass guided me on trailless treks through mountain ranges on both sides of the continent, kept me from missing the starts of little‑used portage trails in northern Québec, and helped me stay more or less found in the (almost) featureless expanse of the James Bay Lowlands. And I still carry one, even if I’m only venturing a couple of miles from home. I always have a map in my pack, too, and it’s a rare trip when I don’t discover something new, usually with the help of these two old friends, even on waters I’ve paddled dozens of times. Map and compass stand high on the list of Ten Essentials, and for very good reason.

That said, a while back I started to think the unthinkable: I began to wonder if it was time to buy a GPS… Read more…

 
Send a Comment