Fieldcraft

A pace count tells you how far you have traveled without a GPS. One pace equals two steps — count every time your left foot hits the ground.

How to calibrate yours: Walk a known 100-meter distance on flat ground three times. Count paces each time. Average the three numbers. That average is your personal 100-meter pace count. Most adults land between 62 and 66 paces per 100 meters on flat terrain.

Adjustments: Uphill increases your pace count. Downhill decreases it. Dense vegetation, loose rock, mud, darkness, and heavy loads all add paces. Build a rough adjustment table once you have your baseline.

Tracking: Use ranger beads, a tally counter, or knot a cord. Move one bead per 100 meters on the lower set of nine. Move one bead on the upper set per kilometer. Reset at each waypoint.

A compass is the right tool. Use it. These methods are backups for when you do not have one or need a rough check.

Sun and shadow (daytime): Push a straight stick into flat, clear ground. Mark the tip of its shadow. Wait 15 minutes. Mark the new tip. Draw a line between the two marks. Step with your left foot on the first mark and your right on the second. You are now facing roughly north. The shadow always moves west to east as the sun arcs, in both hemispheres.

Watch method (analog, Northern Hemisphere): Point the hour hand at the sun. South lies halfway between the hour hand and 12 o'clock. Use the smaller angle. In summer time, use 1 o'clock as the reference instead of 12.

North Star (clear night, Northern Hemisphere): Find the Big Dipper. Follow the two outer stars of its cup straight out about five times their own distance. That is Polaris. It sits within one degree of true north.

Southern Hemisphere night: Use the Southern Cross. Extend the long axis of the cross four and a half times its own length. That point is roughly south.

Moss and trees: Unreliable. Moss grows where it is moist, not strictly on the north side. Do not navigate by moss.

Fire requires heat, fuel, and oxygen. Most fire failures are fuel preparation failures.

Fuel progression: Tinder ignites first — dry grass, birch bark, fatwood shavings, char cloth, cotton balls with petroleum jelly. Kindling is small sticks, pencil to thumb thickness, dry and split. Fuel wood is what keeps the fire going once established.

Fire lays: Teepee concentrates heat upward, good for boiling and getting started fast. Log cabin builds a stable coal bed and burns longer. Lean-to works in wind — put the fuel against a green log windbreak and light from the windward side.

Ignition sequence: Build the full lay before you strike a flame. Protect tinder from wind. Light from the bottom, upwind side. Add kindling slowly once the tinder catches. Do not crowd it. Fire needs air.

Wet conditions: Look for dry material under logs, inside dead standing wood, in tree cavities, and in the inner bark of dead branches. Fatwood from old pine stumps lights even when damp. A candle stub buys time when tinder is marginal.

The site matters as much as the shelter. A well-built tarp on a bad site is still a bad night.

What to avoid: Low spots and drainages — they collect cold air and water. Ridgelines and exposed hilltops — wind is strong and sustained. Dead standing trees nearby — they fall. Dry streambeds — they fill fast in rain. Animal trails and anything that smells like an active den.

What to look for: Level or nearly level ground. Natural windbreak on the prevailing wind side. Good drainage away from your sleep area. Water access nearby but not on the bank. Clearance to rig a tarp.

Insulation from the ground: Ground conducts cold faster than still air. A sleeping pad, dry leaves, dry grass, or pine boughs between you and the ground is not optional in cold weather. A two-inch debris layer cuts heat loss significantly.

Tarp configurations: A-frame is simple and sheds rain well. Lean-to opens one side for fire heat reflection. Plow point puts the low end into the wind. Learn all three before you need them.

Signaling is for when you want to be found. Being somewhere is not the same as being visible.

Signal mirror: Effective in sunlight at long range. Angle the mirror until the reflected light sweeps across the target. A CD, phone screen, or any reflective surface works as backup. Practice the technique before you need it.

Whistle: Three blasts is the universal distress signal. Repeat at intervals. A whistle carries farther than a voice and works when your voice does not. Carry one.

Signal fire: Three fires in a triangle is the international distress signal. In daylight, add green vegetation to produce dark smoke, visible against sky and terrain. At night, bright flame is visible farther than smoke.

Ground-to-air symbols: In open terrain, stomp or lay symbols in snow, sand, rocks, or debris. X means need medical help. V means need assistance. Arrow means traveling that direction. Make them large — at least 10 feet across. Small symbols are invisible from the air.

Phone: Text uses less power and may transmit when a call will not. Send GPS coordinates before the battery dies. Text a contact with your position.

Clear water is not safe water. Assume any surface water needs treatment unless you collected it directly from rain or a sealed source.

Finding water: Move downhill. Animal trails converging often lead to water. Green vegetation in dry terrain indicates moisture. In a dry streambed, dig at the outside curve of a bend or at the base of rock outcrops.

Treatment methods: Boiling kills pathogens reliably — one rolling minute at most elevations, three minutes above 6,500 feet. A quality filter removes protozoa and bacteria but not viruses, which is adequate for most North American backcountry use. Chemical tablets are lightweight backup — wait 30 minutes, longer in cold water. For viruses in high-risk areas, combine filter and chemical, or use a filter rated for viruses.

Pre-filtering: If water is murky, run it through a bandana or coffee filter first. Sediment clogs pump filters fast.

Carry math: Roughly half a liter per hour of moderate activity in mild weather. Heat, high elevation, and hard exertion can double or triple that. Carry more than you think you need when sources are uncertain.