Finding Your Way in the Outdoors: Compass Navigation, Map Reading, Route Finding, Weather Forecasting

Outdoor Life Books, 1984. Hardcover with dust jacket. (ISBN 0-943822-41-6) Thirteenth printing. Good tight copy, unread. His book meets the needs of the growing number of outdoorsman who are taking to the backcountry — for hunting, fishing and go-light camping. The author, an expert mountaineer and professional cartographer, explains how anyone can use a compass and map to find his ways in the wilds. Starting with basic principles, Mooers describes the origin and development of the compass, tghe role of the earth's magnetism in its functioning, and the difference between True and Magnetic North. A separate chapter is devoted to using each of the three basic types of compasses (the reader may skip the chapters that don't apply to his own model). Then, step-by-step, the basic techniques of compass work are clearly outlined: taking a bearing, using a known bearing, orienting map and compass in the field. The use of maps, in the field, or at home during planning sessions, is fully explained: how to interpret scale, colors, and symbols; how to find your position, read contour lines, measure slope. There is also information on where to obtain the best maps for out-door trips. In the wilderness, the academic rules must be applied to real situations. Here the author explains how to navigate in the wild country by following four basic tenets. He shows how to orient yourself and always know where you are, how to sue reference features in traveling on a compass course, how to bracket in on a baseline for safe return., how to use nature's signs — the sun, drainage patterns and other direction finders — to find your way. Outdoors, sports.