Ray Mears-Rucksack repair and Navigation

Keeping on Course in the Woods

When you're walking through the woods it can be difficult sometimes to keep walking in a straight line. It's easy to veer off line just enough to end up walking in a large circle. That's not all bad if you are just out enjoying nature and are familiar with the area, but if you would need to navigate in one direction to stay on course this could pose as a serious problem and result in your getting lost.

One simple way of avoiding this problem is to tie a long length of cordage to yourself so that you have a good length trailing out behind you. (I had about twenty-five feet of para cord.) By looking back behind you frequently, you can see if you are walking in a straight line or not. If the cordage is in a straight line, you know you are walking in a straight line. If the line is curving off, you know you are veering off course. It isn't 100%, but it does help to give you a rough line to keep on course.

You could just hold one end of the cord in

your hand or coil a length about your waist, but I

chose to tie it onto a belt loop so I could have my hands free.

If you look carefully at the center

of the picture you can see about how the cordage

should look trailing behind you.