How I learned natural navigation

[Lockera]

When I was in high school I ran orienteering with JROTC.

The first thing you had to do was navigate a route without a compass and the way they taught this was pretty simple.

Find a hill
Walk around said hill and always be able to say which way was up.
Find landmarks to navigate to from position on side of hill
( creek on one side, green patch this was central Texas, a road)
Don’t leave your hill until you know where landmarks are that provide handrails ( long guides that are hard to loose) to next point or hill

Often we would run a coarse set up as
start on that hill run directly away from the road until you reach a hill with a saddle. Follow stream nw until you come to a burned area. Turn to the East until you hit the road and run cross country to original hill.

A lot of the topography is much harder to see in east Texas but your elevation is often guided by vegetation differences. 15 ft elevation gain and your in a whole new selection of flora.

Only after 5 successful runs did you get a map and it was always drilled in terrain is a much faster way to navigate then compass.

Hope this helps
When we get together again would be willing to help anyone out who has trouble with navigation.

[saustin1967]

That is how I navigate also

[Hale]

Yep! Location in reference to landmarks and proximity to water sources always worked.

Things change in the Texas plains and panhandle, though. I remember being convinced as a lad that I was absolutely lost and I would die where I had hiked out until I climbed an abandoned oil well and figured out I was a mile and a half from the highway. Things are pretty flat up there! How the Comanches could find their way from Wyoming to old Mexico is a skill beyond me.