Learn to use your GPS in conjunction with a map and a compass to navigate by land.

All Who Wander Are Not Lost

To Use Your Compass Without a Map
To Use Your Compass's Sighting Mirror (if you have one)
How to Use a Compass With a Map
What Declination is and How to Adjust for it.
To Find Your Exact Position on the Map When You Have a Compass and Can See at Least Two Landmarks
How to Use an eTrex GPS Receiver (basically any GPS receiver)
What to Do if You Don't Have a Compass (or GPS, or map) (How to Spot Natural Signs for Direction)

Learn to use your compass, map and GPS receiver.

To Use Your Compass Without a Map

(See here for a diagram of a compass and its parts. Compass housing is the same as compass dial).

The first thing to know where you are and where you are going. If you don't know where you are then you'll need to approximate your position with a map or your GPS receiver before you can use your compass to point you to where you want to go. Keep aware of where you've been too; you don't want to start heading in circles :)

Once you know where you are and know which direction you want to go you can set your compass to tell you what "field bearing" that is. In other words, your compass can tell you what exact degree that you're going to head off to. To do this:

Choose a direction you want to go.

Point your compass towards it and hold your compass level.

Rotate the compass's dial so that the magnetic needle is aligned with the Red arrow pointing North in the dial window.

Read your heading from the compass (this is the direction that shows pointing to where you want to go.

(Note: Heading is the direction you would travel from your starting point to your destination. It is the angle of direction that your current course or route follows. Bearing is the direction you would travel from your current position to the destination. (Or the angle of direction to get back on course). It is a correction of direction if you have gone off course. Course, in the simplest terms, is a direct line from the starting point to the destination. A more complicated course would be a preplanned path to follow and going off that path would require a bearing to get back on that course. If you are directly on course then your bearing would be the same as your heading.)

Go there and remember your heading. This heading will allow you to go back to where you came if you subtract 180 degrees from it and head back in that resulting direction. (If your result is less than 0, add 360 until it is positive). This is called a back bearing because it is the opposite of your bearing before and it allows you to get back to where you were.

If you head in a perpendicular direction, however, you'll be off by whatever direction you traveled in a right-left manner rather than if you just went forward and then turned around and headed back. A map can help greatly when you've gone along a twisting path and you can match your current position to the one on the map. Then you can retake your compasses angle and adjust your course much more accurately.

If you know which heading (angle in degrees) you want to travel you can set that on your compass and then align yourself with north (match the red half of the compass needle to the red orienting arrow), you can head in the direction of the heading easily then.

To Use Your Compass's Sighting Mirror (if you have one)

Like above, if you know the direction you want to travel you can use the mirror to get a "sight" (in other words see a far off object to go there). You would set the dial to the direction you wish to go. This direction would not be set in the normal direction you set your compass at. Instead, it would more likely be set in the mirror direction pointing directly to the mirror, almost like a back bearing but you'll be going in this direction with the sight.

Once you've set the direction to go, you would put the mirror almost straight up if the compass were sitting flat (so if it were straight up it would be a 90 degree angle but you want it to be less than that so that is more like 60 degrees or so depending on the compass. In other words the compass lid with the mirror would be open almost perpendicular to the base plate of the compass. You would orient the red needle to line up with the red arrow to point north.

Now hold the compass up at eye level looking into the mirror. You should see the compass dial and needle. (If not move the mirror until you do). Now keeping the needle pointing north move your one eye so that you seen the line in the mirror intersect one of the points on the compass dial.

The little notch in the top or bottom of the mirror (the "sight") will now point to the direction of where you want to go.

Pick a landmark that is far in the distance that lines up with the sight and go there. Then when you get there repeat to reorient yourself in that direction.

How to Use a Compass with a Map

Now all this might seem silly since you need to know your direction with respect to other things around you. You can't just go in a straight line forever and hope to get where your going. You need a map to help you reorient yourself when you go off course and change direction to avoid obstacles or take a different route. To use a compass with a map is really simple:

First, line up the edge of the compass with your starting point and your destination. (This would be the flat edge of your compass. If your compass has more than one flat edge just pick one).

Now, turn the compass dial until the orienting lines on the compass (The clear part you can see through with parallel lines) match the lines on the map. If your map doesn't have lines you can use a ruler or any other thing with a four flat edges to approximate the up down lines with the edge of the map. Usually though, the maps to use a compass with (Topographic maps) are always lined for this use. (Topographic maps are maps that show the relief, (dip and valleys, hills and mountain) so you can understand the terrain on that map).

Now, Without moving the compass on the map turn both the compass and the map together so that the red arrow on the compass dial lines up with the red compass needle. You have now oriented the map with north. The direction you want to go is the travel arrow direction on the compass (The travel bearing is also set to your destination when you oriented your map with the compass). If you have a sighting mirror you can set your mirror's bearing for the direction you want to go and take a sight and go there.

The main thing about the map you use is you should be able to match what's on the map to what's in your environment around you. If you can find landmarks or features or things around you that are on the map then you can approximate your position on the map. There is a way to find your exact position on the map with the compass and landmarks, however.

What Declination is and How to Adjust for it.

Declination is the difference between true north and magnetic north. If you're going to be covering a lot of ground or trekking in areas where the earth's magnetic field varies greatly, then you will need to adjust for declination when using a compass and a map.

You can find out your current declination here: Compute Values of Earth's Magnetic Field

Enter your zip code (or lat and long) into the fields and compute. Then enter your elevation in and hit compute again to get your Declination (the "D:" value). It will look something like this:

D(+ East)   I (+ Down)       H      X (+ N)  Y (+ E)  Z (+ D)    F
  (deg)        (deg)        (nt)     (nt)     (nt)     (nt)     (nt)
-11d   34m    66d   58m     20710    20289    -4152    48712    52932

To compensate for it you would add your declination to the bearing or reading from your compass (which you got from your map). If you add a negative number you are really just subtracting. For an example click on the D on the page were it gave your declination. Scroll down and you will see an example. If you had a positive number you would add to the reading.

The example that is used all over different web sites is:

From map to terrain: "declination west, turn dial west." (counterclockwise: add); "declination east, turn dial east." (clockwise: subtract).
From terrain to map: vice-versa. If you are afraid to forget, scribe "from map: decl W, turn W" with a sharp instrument on the baseplate or under the cover.

More on Declination:

Find your declination

Declination FAQ

Magnatic Declination

To Find Your Exact Position on the Map When You Have a Compass and Can See at Least Two Landmarks

Point the compass at the first landmark now turn the compass dial so that the needle is lined up with the orienting arrow pointing north. Now read the bearing off of that.

Place the compass on the map with the edge of the compass touching the first landmark and turn (pivot) the entire compass until the orienting lines on the clear part of the compass match up with the lines on the map.

Draw a (light) line along where the compass's edge is. Now do the same thing with the second landmark. Where the lines intersect is exactly where you are on the map (if you didn't make any errors so be sure to check your compass measurements before drawling your lines).

More on compass use:

Illustrated Guide on How to Use a Compass!

The basics of compass work

How to Use an eTrex GPS Receiver (basically any GPS receiver)

To use a GPS receiver is really simple. You tell it where you want to go and it tells you which way your goal is. The basic system is to:

• Input a waypoint.
• Label the waypoint (give it a name/number to remember it by)
• Tell the GPS to "GOTO" that waypoint. It will show the direction and distance to the waypoint
• Go there. Unless your GPS has autorouting you cannot just follow the arrow. You'll have to dodge obstacles to get to your objective since the GPS just tells you which direction your destination is in a straight line. (Autorouting is a turn by turn method of following a preset route to reach your destination. Only the more feature-filled (expensive) GPS receiver models have this feature. Most street mapping programs have this feature, however.)

The GPS receiver makes a map and compass useless, that is, until you run out of battery power or you GPS doesn't work. It is a good idea to have a compass and map always with your GPS just incase. You should also know how to use each item and keep aware of your surroundings just the same (don't stare at the GPS screen or compass/map and not see where you're walking! :)

Get Garmin GPS receiver manuals here

Get Magellan GPS receiver manuals here

Get Lowrance receiver manuals here

A GPS User Manual: Working with Garmin Receivers, by Dale DePriest

What to Do if You Don't Have a Compass (or GPS, or map)
(How to Spot Natural Signs for Direction)

When You Don't Have a Compass

Using the moon to find North