The classic map and compass navigation guide, updated with new features and tips
Be Expert with Map and Compass is a popular, easy-to-use orienteering handbook that has been helping people find their way for more than 70 years. This new edition contains a variety of updates on the essentials of map reading, with new photos and stories included throughout. In this refreshed, modern take on the classic outdoor navigation guide, readers will learn:
- How to read a map, map symbols, traveling by map and compass alone or by map and compass together, finding bearings, sketching maps, and traveling in the wilderness
- Compass design basics, how to test your compass skills, understand declination, and special uses of your compass in fishing and hunting
- Competitive orienteering basics, with information on how to organize an orienteering event and prepare the course beforehand
The Fourth Edition of Be Expert with Map and Compass remains the book of choice for professional outdoorsmen, novice orienteers, and outdoor organizations as well as teachers, scout leaders, recreational hikers, hunters, and others around the world seeking to feel more comfortable in the wilderness.
Preface to the Fourth Edition vii
Part 1 The Art (and Science) of Navigation and Orienteering 1
The Map and Compass in Your Everyday Life 5
The Map and Compass in the Outdoors 7
Map and Compass for the Family 10
Map and Compass Bringing People Together 11
Using the Map and Compass in Education 12
The Passion of Orienteering 14
Part 2 Discovery: Fun with Maps Alone 17
What Is a Map? 18
What the Map Tells 28
Traveling by Map 63
Part 3 Exploration: Fun and Learning with the Compass 77
The Origin of the Compass 80
Compass Design Basics 86
Traveling by Compass Alone 89
Test Your Compass Skills 102
Fishing and Hunting: Special Use of Your Compass 119
A Hunters Story 126
Part 4 Adventure: Fun and Learning with Map and Compass 131
The Excitement of the Uncertain 131
Traveling by Map and Compass: Orienteering 147
Hints on Wilderness Orienteering 168
Part 5 Challenge: Competitive Orienteering 173
The History of the Sport of Orienteering 176
Your First Orienteering Race 203
Hints on Competitive Orienteering 214
Overcoming Obstacles 217
Following Your Routes 220
The Postmortem 230
Part 6 Organizing an Orienteering Event 233
Preparing the Course 235
Running an Orienteering Event 253
Answers to Tests 265
Epilogue 269
Index 271
Carina Kjellström Elgin developed her love of nature and of orienteering by literally following in the large footsteps of her father, Björn Kjellström, on almost daily excursions into the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation that neighbored her childhood home. She lives on a farm in Virginia with too many animals.
The late Björn Kjellström, an enthusiastic outdoorsman, experienced wilderness traveler, and cross-country skier, was a Swedish champion in orienteering. He was a founder of the Swedish and the U.S. Orienteering Federations, as well as Vice President of the International Ski Federation. He helped invent the modern protractor-based compass (still the industry standard), and cofounded internationally renowned compass company, Silva.
