rocksnrolls
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The Class
The day dawned with sweet hiking weather - cool and mostly sunny. It would have been a perfect day to go climb some high peaks somewhere, but I had to go to school instead
Hopping into my car with Dugan and cantdog, I silently grumbled to myself. Well, only a little really as I had been looking forward to this map and compass class for several months. We made a stop in Gardner for some breakfast and snacks and were soon heading up the poor condition road to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in Westminster.
We met our 4th hiker friend there - MarshallM and grabbed some front row seats. Maybe the worst part of the experience was the seats - kind of small with little desks that made it hard to cross your legs. Looked like the had been salvaged from a middle school or something. Luckily the instructors allowed for several breaks during the classroom time so we could get up and stretch our legs.
The class started with the basics of reading a map and translating it to real world features as well as different kinds of mapping systems. I found this part a little dull since I already understood all that (well, there were a few things that I hadn't known before), but the instructors were entertaining and they obviously were enthusiastic about what they were doing.
We then went on to an explanation of different kinds of compasses and their uses. The explained how to determine an azimuth and set declination on your compass. They also explained how to triangulate your position based on observable features of the landscape. They also talked a little about how to estimate your distance traveled.
We then headed out to a field with markers on it to try out our new skills. We each had a card with three sets of distances and azimuths. First we walked 50 yards back and fourth to determine how many paces we each took to reach 100 yards. With this info we could reference a sheet that told us how many paces we needed to reach a range of distances. After that we all started at one of 20 locations along the line. The idea was that you would set your compass to the proper direction, walk that way a certain distance, set to the new direction, walk the 2nd distance, set a 3rd direction and walk the last distance. You would then (hopefully) arrive back at the line, at a different location. One of the instructors would then check to see if you had made it to the correct end location based on your starting location. If you were significantly off, you would try again, with an instructor shadowing you to offer suggestions about what you might have done wrong. I managed to get 2 of my routes done quite close, but had trouble with the third - requiring 4 attempts to get it right . Part of the problem is that my pace was halfway between to of the charted rates, the other was that I wasn't doing a good job of maintaining my direction while walking. Once I got the hang of picking a spot to aim for along the correct heading I was able to complete the route that had given me trouble.
It was amusing to see the class all wandering around the field in different directions...
After that we headed back to the classroom to break up into groups of 3 or 4. The instructors split up groups of friends and family to encourage a better group dynamic. They figured if you were working with strangers it made it easier for each person to get the most out of the experience.
We had a map of the grounds showing the locations of many numbered posts and were told a series of posts that we had to get to. Each person in the group independently determined the correct azimuth and distance between posts and then we compared notes. After coming to agreement on the proper info, we were driven off to our starting point. Then the real fun began! Bushwhacking ! Off into the woods, up hills, down hills, alongside hills and near swamps (bug spray would have been a major need if it hadn't been such a nice cool day).
My group included an older gentleman who had done some hiking until blowing out his knee (he was slowly building it up again) and a younger guy who was an avid hunter. By the way, this course is primarily aimed toward hunters but all types are welcome and they were quite happy to have our group of hikers there.
We took turns. One would start at the post, determine the direction to go while the 2nd headed off being guided by the first. After telling the lead person to stop, the 3rd person then double checked that he had ended up along the correct line. The lead person then determined the course while the other two caught up with him. The person who had double checked before then took lead while the 3rd person then did the double check. We took turns that way so that all three could get experience doing the various aspects of the technique.
We were spot-on with the first three posts but somehow were way off on the 4th. We found a different post and by studying the terrain features were able to figure out which way to go to get to the correct post and were soon at it. After that we had no trouble reaching each successive post and were soon back at the headquarters.
After all the groups had returned, we went back into the classroom for a wrap up and to receive our patches .
I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to sharpen their path finding skills. It was free and the volunteer instructors where very professional, friendly and informative.
The Next Day
After sleeping in, Dugan, cantdog and I head over to the Newton Reservoir in nearby Athol to try out our new skills. Dugan and I had spent a lot of time hiking the trails around there with Dugan 4-Legs and decided it was a good time to check out the ridge the borders it to the east. We printed out maps from topozone, determined our azimuths and distances, and off we went.
Using the leapfrog method we had no trouble finding our way up these small peaks. There weren't any views from the top but we did find some interesting places and things. Included were a rough bridge in one saddle nearby what might have been an old pot field, a small shed with a wood stove in it, and several piles of wood plastic tarps covering them.
After the third peak we were surprised by the sound of a dog barking nearby and soon could see houses through the trees. We hadn't realized we were getting so close to people's homes. We decided to bypass one of the peaks to keep further from the houses but soon came across an electrified fence near another house. We skirted around the fence and heard more dogs barking. At his point we just headed west off the ridge to were we knew we would hit a dirt road. Along the way cantdog spotted a tree with lots of metal pieces attached: a speaker, electrical conduit, flattened beer cans, a grill, etc. Looked like an old party spot or ? It was very close to the dirt road...
From there we walked out to the Millers River to have our lunch and then followed the old pipeline trail back to the reservoir.
Not exactly our planned itinerary but we felt that we were quite successful with what we did do and all look forward to doing more bushwhacking in the future.
The day dawned with sweet hiking weather - cool and mostly sunny. It would have been a perfect day to go climb some high peaks somewhere, but I had to go to school instead
Hopping into my car with Dugan and cantdog, I silently grumbled to myself. Well, only a little really as I had been looking forward to this map and compass class for several months. We made a stop in Gardner for some breakfast and snacks and were soon heading up the poor condition road to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in Westminster.
We met our 4th hiker friend there - MarshallM and grabbed some front row seats. Maybe the worst part of the experience was the seats - kind of small with little desks that made it hard to cross your legs. Looked like the had been salvaged from a middle school or something. Luckily the instructors allowed for several breaks during the classroom time so we could get up and stretch our legs.
The class started with the basics of reading a map and translating it to real world features as well as different kinds of mapping systems. I found this part a little dull since I already understood all that (well, there were a few things that I hadn't known before), but the instructors were entertaining and they obviously were enthusiastic about what they were doing.
We then went on to an explanation of different kinds of compasses and their uses. The explained how to determine an azimuth and set declination on your compass. They also explained how to triangulate your position based on observable features of the landscape. They also talked a little about how to estimate your distance traveled.
We then headed out to a field with markers on it to try out our new skills. We each had a card with three sets of distances and azimuths. First we walked 50 yards back and fourth to determine how many paces we each took to reach 100 yards. With this info we could reference a sheet that told us how many paces we needed to reach a range of distances. After that we all started at one of 20 locations along the line. The idea was that you would set your compass to the proper direction, walk that way a certain distance, set to the new direction, walk the 2nd distance, set a 3rd direction and walk the last distance. You would then (hopefully) arrive back at the line, at a different location. One of the instructors would then check to see if you had made it to the correct end location based on your starting location. If you were significantly off, you would try again, with an instructor shadowing you to offer suggestions about what you might have done wrong. I managed to get 2 of my routes done quite close, but had trouble with the third - requiring 4 attempts to get it right
. Part of the problem is that my pace was halfway between to of the charted rates, the other was that I wasn't doing a good job of maintaining my direction while walking. Once I got the hang of picking a spot to aim for along the correct heading I was able to complete the route that had given me trouble.It was amusing to see the class all wandering around the field in different directions...
After that we headed back to the classroom to break up into groups of 3 or 4. The instructors split up groups of friends and family to encourage a better group dynamic. They figured if you were working with strangers it made it easier for each person to get the most out of the experience.
We had a map of the grounds showing the locations of many numbered posts and were told a series of posts that we had to get to. Each person in the group independently determined the correct azimuth and distance between posts and then we compared notes. After coming to agreement on the proper info, we were driven off to our starting point. Then the real fun began! Bushwhacking
! Off into the woods, up hills, down hills, alongside hills and near swamps (bug spray would have been a major need if it hadn't been such a nice cool day).My group included an older gentleman who had done some hiking until blowing out his knee (he was slowly building it up again) and a younger guy who was an avid hunter. By the way, this course is primarily aimed toward hunters but all types are welcome and they were quite happy to have our group of hikers there.
We took turns. One would start at the post, determine the direction to go while the 2nd headed off being guided by the first. After telling the lead person to stop, the 3rd person then double checked that he had ended up along the correct line. The lead person then determined the course while the other two caught up with him. The person who had double checked before then took lead while the 3rd person then did the double check. We took turns that way so that all three could get experience doing the various aspects of the technique.
We were spot-on with the first three posts but somehow were way off on the 4th. We found a different post and by studying the terrain features were able to figure out which way to go to get to the correct post and were soon at it. After that we had no trouble reaching each successive post and were soon back at the headquarters.
After all the groups had returned, we went back into the classroom for a wrap up and to receive our patches
.I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to sharpen their path finding skills. It was free and the volunteer instructors where very professional, friendly and informative.
The Next Day
After sleeping in, Dugan, cantdog and I head over to the Newton Reservoir in nearby Athol to try out our new skills. Dugan and I had spent a lot of time hiking the trails around there with Dugan 4-Legs and decided it was a good time to check out the ridge the borders it to the east. We printed out maps from topozone, determined our azimuths and distances, and off we went.
Using the leapfrog method we had no trouble finding our way up these small peaks. There weren't any views from the top but we did find some interesting places and things. Included were a rough bridge in one saddle nearby what might have been an old pot field, a small shed with a wood stove in it, and several piles of wood plastic tarps covering them.
After the third peak we were surprised by the sound of a dog barking nearby and soon could see houses through the trees. We hadn't realized we were getting so close to people's homes. We decided to bypass one of the peaks to keep further from the houses but soon came across an electrified fence near another house. We skirted around the fence and heard more dogs barking. At his point we just headed west off the ridge to were we knew we would hit a dirt road. Along the way cantdog spotted a tree with lots of metal pieces attached: a speaker, electrical conduit, flattened beer cans, a grill, etc. Looked like an old party spot or ? It was very close to the dirt road...
From there we walked out to the Millers River to have our lunch and then followed the old pipeline trail back to the reservoir.
Not exactly our planned itinerary but we felt that we were quite successful with what we did do and all look forward to doing more bushwhacking in the future.
