Find your way with map and compass — and what to do when GPS fails.
Getting lost usually starts small: a missed junction, a trail that fades, fog rolling in. These guides teach you to know where you are and get where you’re going. They cover reading a map and compass, setting up your phone as a reliable offline GPS, finding direction with no instruments at all, and navigating when fog, whiteout or darkness takes the landmarks away.
How to choose a hiking watch: the three kinds, how to read battery figures, GPS accuracy, maps and navigation, the altimeter and compass, which watches can call for help, and how to match a watch to your trips.
The phone in your pocket is a more capable navigation device than the best dedicated GPS units of a decade ago. It is also a glass-fronted, battery-powered computer that was designed for coffee shops, not ridgelines. Used well, it is one of the best navigation tools most hikers will ever own. Used casually, it dies at the trail junction where you needed it most.
When you can’t see, you navigate by instrument, not by eye. How to travel safely in fog, whiteout, and darkness using compass bearings, pace counting, and terrain handrails.
Lost your compass or drained your phone? Find north with a stick and the sun, an analog watch, or the stars — and turn a rough direction into a straight line toward safety.
A complete guide to map and compass navigation: reading contours and scale, setting declination, orienting the map, taking and following a bearing, fixing your position by resection, pacing and timing distance, and the route tricks that keep you found when GPS fails.
