Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

PATHFINDING 43is usually in regions where there are regular trailsthat are soon learned and which serve then as baselines,or where mountains, streams, lakes, and otherphysical features are so prominent that it is easy tolearn the lay of the land.In thick woods, canebr^^.kes, swamps, big thickets,and other places where the course is necessarily verytortuous, a compass is of little use while one is onthe march. Wherever the traveler can get an outlookhe fixes on some landmark in advance, noteshow the sun strikes him when facing the mark, andthenceforth averages up his windings as well as hecan. The compass is only of service when he canno longer see the sun, and is in doubt as to thedirection he istraveling in.In the wilderness one never knows when he maywant to retrace his steps. Hence, when passinganything that has particularly caught his eye, let himturn and see how it looks from the other side.Rough Travel.—The way to find game, or toget the best of anything else that the forest hides,not to follow well-beaten paths. One must oftenmake his own trails, and go where the going ishardest. As he travels through the unbroken woodshe may come, now and then, to a glade where thetrees do not crowd each other, where the undergrowthis sparse, and the Yitw so unobstructed thathe can see to shoot for a hundred yards in any direction; such spots may be about as common, relatively,as are safe anchorages and deep-water harbors alongthe coast. But part of the time, a wanderer in theforest primeval must pick a way for his feet overuneven ground that is covered with stubs, loosestones, slippery roots, crooked saplings, mixed downwood,and tough, thorny vines. He is forever busyseeking openings, parting bushes, brushing away cobwebs,fending of¥ springy branches, crawling over orunder fallen trees, working around impenetrabletangles, or trying to find a foot-log or a ford. Thereis no such thing as a short-cut. It is bevond theis