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"Back in the day (1960's)" when I started going hunting with my dad, I would sit on watch at favored spots for hours at a time, freezing, watching for deer as Dad circled around a quarter mile away. Then Dad got me a Jon-E handwarmer that was fueled by lighter fluid. it burned silently via a...

Well, yes, only sort of. As a SAR tream member/crew boss, i have been on incident searches where the fairly recently deceased were found, including a couple of weeks ago at Tupper Lake NY, although I was not the actual first to find and locate. Another tream actually found the body, but being...

I have a couple of different styles and sizes that fold for ease of carrying my maps. My favorite is one I got from LLBean years ago. It is clear plastic on one side only, nylon fabric on the back and has a zippered pouch side where I keep an exta compass, a note pad, a pencil, maybe a grid...

I usually have three compasses tucked away, my favorite always available primary, a secondary just in case, and a third functional but lesser quality to give to some poor sot I may meet who lost or forgot theirs, as an old guide once advised me to do, which I have done. I carry a waterproofed...

i can't tell you how many NYSDEC Ranger reports I have seen where the subject claims "But I had a flashlight on my cell phone". Of course neither the cell phone signal nor the light works for very long when both are on well after dark and panic sets in.

But if you don't know how to use it or have never practiced with it, no amount of sophisticated electronics will help you get out of so much as a mud puddle. Reminds me of a Colorado ranger report from a few years ago where a couple called for help because they were "lost", they explained that...

Natural clues to navigation. The Sun ( the direction of your shadow on the ground does not change much over the course of a half hour or so, but it may change rapidly around local noon, moreso when in low latitudes). Learn to recognize the stars and brighter planet positions at night. The...

For the past 30 years I have been on an instructor tream training and certifying young (typically college age) folks as Adirondack wilderness guides who are applying to work for BSA resident camps as tek leaders, guiding 5 day wilderness camping/canoeing trips for scouts and their adult...

While I'm sweating as much as I normally do when bushwhacking in heavy brush between ponds and climbing ridges and peaks, as I try to hydrate as much as I can, I don't worry too much about temporary higher than normal sodium intake.

How to cook spam: Find a couple of large non-toxic tree leaves. Maple and beech work good. Get a good bed of wood coals going from a small fire. Obtain a thin slice from the block of spam. Place said porcine morsel on a leaf, then place directly on the red hot coals, leaf side down. When the...

i have never learned as much about navigating far off trail and landscape formations (as well as when on trails), while at the same time throuroughly enjoying the process as I do by gaining experience of going my way by map and compass only. All long before anyone could even spell GPS. I do...

+++Absolutely.

Speaking of Scotland.... I was there with my family a couple of years ago. We had a large rented van and my son, a US Air Force fighter pilot was driving. I had a Garmin auto GPS, recently updated with maps of Europe. We were looking for a route from one town to the next that happened to be...

Not floating, not a bridge either, it is a wood plank somewhat elevated boardwalk walkway loosely "attached" and supported by the adjacent rock cliff face and the ground below (where possible). In some places you are at lake level, hence "hitch Up Matilda" with her long full dress as was...

I would recommend a clear sky summit with a view toward the southwest if you can arrange that configuration. I was on an elevated area in 1970 overlooking Chesapeake Bay and the sight of the dark shadow edge rushing toward me at 1000mph almost made me dive for cover. It was as if a solid steel...

Interesting, I was in the town of Union in eastern MO, right on the center line under a perfectly clear blue sky at the time. My friend and I had two telescopes for direct optical viewing, wives had binoculars doing the same. I learned from previous eclipses that for this one I was going to...

That was the Eclipse in Nova Scotia, the one where I was clouded out in Cap Chat, Quebec.

you can absolutely look directly at an eclipse with the naked eye as long as it is in total phase. I have even viewed directly through a telescope with no attenuation during totality. It is perfectly safe as long as you know when to look away before the diamond ring appears with the first...

My home in northern NY is barely within the zone of totality. 60 miles away, my brother has a camp on the shore of Lake Ontario, very close to the cener line. I may go there, or to my daughter's home in Plattsburgh, also near the center line. Given favorable weather, I think it would be easy...

The NYSDEC has reported very few SAR incidents since cold weather came upon us. Just today there is a report of a snowmobile fatality from falling through the ice on a lake. It happens every year. Even though no official snowmobile trails go over any waterways whatsoever, they never seem to...