I used to get lost. Now I just get turned around.

The difference?

I no longer panic when I discover I’m not where I thought I was — or should be. And the reason I no longer panic is because I learned how to use a map and compass.

Let’s get something straight up front: I’m no Meriwether Lewis. I’m more a Ponce de Leon: eager to go in search of one thing, only to be distracted by something else. That makes it especially important to figure out where you are and the way to get to where you want to be.

When I decided to start leading people into the woods on hikes, I realized I needed to stay more focused. With a bunch of hikers in tow, I quickly discovered how embarrassing it was to think you’re in one place but are actually some place totally different. Just ask Columbus. So I started carrying a topo map, learned to use a compass, and I worked hard at figuring out how the map related to the terrain I was traveling. I learned that the wavy lines are called contours, which depict the elevation at a given point; that the closer together the contours are, the steeper the terrain; that as they emanate away from water, that means the terrain is rising. Those simple basics made figuring out where I was and where I was headed so much easier. And, for the most part, made it so much easier to figure out where I was when I discovered I wasn’t where I thought I was.

Where the heck am I?

One day a few years ago, I decided to take a lunch break and hike Eno River State Park. The Cox Mountain Trail is one of my favorites, and at 3.75 miles, I can get it done in a little over an hour. Hiked clockwise, it has a nice climb at the beginning, a generous descent on the backside of the mountain, a long return along the river. Just before reaching the loop portion of this lollipop, however, I noticed a narrow clearing — maybe 15 feet wide — that headed into the woods for maybe 75 yards, then vanished around a bend. The path was relatively clear … . What the heck, I thought.

Another reason to become familiar with a map and compass is so that when you do come across an opportunity like this — an old roadbed, a fisherman’s trail that’s not on your map — you’re more apt to check it out. Eno River State Park, like many state parks, wasn’t always a place of escape. In the Piedmont, most state parkland was actually farmland until the early 1930s, when the federal government began buying up overworked land and selling it to the state, cheap, for parks. Even though it’s been nearly 90 years in some cases, remnants of the cultivated past remain: a rock foundation, a stone boundary marker, ancient oaks signaling an old homestead, these roadbeds. Take one of these long-abandoned paths, pay attention, and you’ll be treated to a decaying blast from the past.

Ponce gets distracted

Which I did — and was. As often happens, I got caught up in searching for the past while neglecting the present. After a half hour or so, I found myself headed down a rocky tributary that I was sure would deposit me down at the Eno. Then I noticed I was following the tributary upstream.

“This won’t work,” I mumbled aloud.

Out came my map and compass.

First, I took in the surrounding terrain: an intermittent creek (appearing as a broken blue line on the map), a healthy slope to my left (tight contours), a generous floodplain to my right (no countours) and a steep draw straight ahead (tight, converging contours). Where I thought I was on the map didn’t look anything like this. I began searching the map for contours that matched my location, slowly scanning upstream until — bingo! And holy cow! I was nearly a half mile west of where I thought I was.

Lost — and found

But now I knew exactly where I was and how to navigate my way down to the river (which actually involved hiking atop a bluff rising 60 feet above a sharp bend in the river).

Was I worried? Only that I’d be back from lunch a few minutes late.

Learning to use a compass and make sense of a map isn’t genetic, it’s not an ingrained skill that either you can do or you can’t (like pole vaulting). Most of the folks who go through our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods class show up saying they have zero sense of direction. And usually after we spend a half hour or so going over how to read a map and how to use a compass, they still haven’t a clue. But as we head down the trail (and off), as we stop every so often and ask them to figure out on the map where we are, they almost always have an “Aha!” moment. The map suddenly makes sense, the compass no longer carries the mystique of a devining rod. Suddenly, their love of being outdoors isn’t overshadowed by their fear of getting lost in it.

Knowing how to use a map and compass doesn’t guarantee that you’ll always know right where you are in the world. But it’s a good bet it’ll keep you from getting lost. Just turned around.

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Find Your Way with us

Love the trail but uncertain about your wayfinding skills? This three-hour session goes over basic map and compass skills, then hits the trail to offer key tips on how to follow and stay on the trail, how to find it again if you stray, and how to explore off trail. We’ll start with a 30-minute map-and-compass introduction, then use that map and compass — and some Daniel Boone skills — to find our way in the woods. We’ll also do some off-trail exploring, with the goal of purposefully venturing off the trail, then rejoining it again. Our goal is to make you confident hiking alone or taking a novice friend on the trail. Our next class:

• GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods: Wednesday, July 10, 6-9 p.m., Haw River State Park: Iron Ore Belt Access, Greensboro. Learn more and sign up here.

The post GetOriented: Finding Your Way in the Woods appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

We start with our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods class. Ever been hiking in the woods, drift into a little reverie, then emerge, look around and think, Where the heck am I? More often than not your still on the trail, where you need to be, just a little further along. But in those few seconds of being mentally misplaced, there’s a real panic. Will I ever see civilization again?

Not to sound like Ron Popeil about to sell you a Dial-A-Matic (“Makes a perfect gift!”), but you can erase that fear in just three easy and fun hours with our GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods clinic. We start with a quick overview of how to use a compass and read a map, then head down the trail and off to help you learn these new skills and navigate the woods with minimal fear of getting lost. Our next session is this Sunday at Umstead State Park, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Learn more and sign up here.

You’ll find 32 learning opportunities in North Carolina State Parks this weekend. Among them:

• Carnivorous Plan Hike, Saturday, 10 a.m., Carolina Beach State Park, Carolina Beach. The Wilmington area is one of the few places where you can find carnivorous plants. On this hike on the Flytrap Trail a ranger will help you identify several and explain why you needn’t fear these meat eaters but a fly shouldn’t get too comfortable around them. Free, but space is limited and preregistration is required. Learn more here.
• Appalachian Rainforest, Saturday, 11 a.m., Mount Mitchell State Park, Burnsville. Appalachian rainforest? Atop Mount Mitchell? You’d probably heard that Mount Mitchell, above 6,000 feet, was more of a boreal forest. In fact, the ranger leading this hike will talk about weather, climate, natural history, the local ecosystem and “what makes the Black Mountains to unique.” Learn more here.
• Mountain Stream Ecology, Sunday, 2 p.m., Grandfather Mountain State Park, Banner Elk. You love to hike along a babbling mountain brook; you’re soothed by its sounds. But do you know what it’s saying? You’ll find out on this ranger-led hike. Learn more and sign aboard here.
• The Amazing Mammals of Crowders Mountain, Sunday, 2 p.m., Crowders Mountain State Park, Kings Mountain. What mammals call Crowders Mountain home? Where do they live? When are they out-and-about? What do they eat? So many questions — and so many answers in this half-hour program. Learn more here.

Too hot for you to get out in the mid-day heat and learn? What about after the sun sets? Two options this weekend:

• 

  Nocturnal Nature Hike, Saturday, 8:30-10:30 p.m., Lake Johnson Park’s Thomas G. Crowder Woodland Center, Raleigh. Under a full moon, “We will call for owls and nightjars, look for evidence of mammals, and identify singing amphibians.” $4. Learn more and register here. 

• Stars and Planets, Saturday, 9 p.m., Mayo River State Park, Mayodan. The Greensboro Astronomy Club graciously brings out its telescopes and expertise to help you discover what’s twinkle twinkling up above the world so high / like a diamond in the sky. Learn more and sign up here.

Go forth this weekend and learn!

The post GetOut! And learn a thing this weekend appeared first on GetGoing NC!.

There’s a biathlon at the coast, a lucky bike ride in the mountains, and salvation — or at least a way to save yourself from getting lost — in the Piedmont.

Coast

Before you go tri, perhaps you should try bi.

It only makes sense that instead of going directly to three sports, you should ease yourself in with two. Say, standup paddle boarding and running?

If that sounds like a plan, then plan on entering Saturday’s 7^th Annual Wrightsville Beach Biathlon, combining a 4-mile flatwater standup paddle  course and a 4.5-mile beach run. The action commences at the Blockade Runner Resort, at Wrightsville Beach. An avowed one-sport person? No problem, find another similarly committed soul and enter as a team.

Logistics: 7^th Annual Wrightsville Beach Biathlon, Saturday, March 18, 10 a.m., Blockade Runner Beach Resort, Wrightsville Beach. $35. More info here.

Saturday forecast: High of 65, chance of afternoon rain.

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Looking ahead: Hike NC! Cliffs of the Neuse State Park Lake Trail hike, 2 miles, Friday, March 24, Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, Seven Springs. More info here.

Piedmont

Our GetOriented! program has declared this weekend Find Your Way in the Woods weekend, with classes in both the Triangle and Triad areas.

We start the three-hour session with a half hour of map-and-compass get-to-know-you. Then, we head down the trail, and off, in search of the hidden treasures that elude the trail-bound. The overall goal: to make you feel more comfortable about your ability to navigate the woods.

Our Saturday morning session is at Umstead State Park in Raleigh, Sunday morning we’re at Haw River State Park in Greensboro. Compass and map are included.

Logistics: GetOriented! Finding Your Way in the Woods: Saturday, March 18, 9 a.m., Umstead State Park, Raleigh, more info and sign up here; Sunday, March 19, 9 a.m., Haw River State Park, Greensboro, more info and sign up here.

Saturday forecast: Saturday morning in Raleigh: Temperature in the 50s, chance of rain;  Sunday morning in Greensboro: Sunny, with temperatures in the 40s.

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Looking ahead: Hike NC! Celebrate the first day of spring with a hike along the Eno at Eno River State Park, Monday, March 20, 10 a.m. More info here.

Mountains

Talk about fortuitous timing: Saturday, it’s forecast to be rainy in the morning in Asheville. But the rain is expected to clear around noon, just in time for the 11^th Annual Bike of the Irish ride beginning and ending at the Wedge Brewing Company.

“We’re rolling through several historic places which have transformed with the times,” Mike Sule, executive director of Asheville on Bikes, told the Asheville Citizen Times. “The Wedge [Brewing Company], the [Wedge at] Foundation, the French Broad Greenway, downtown, and the Beaucatcher Mountain. They’re all old and new. We’re celebrating our dynamic city and rediscovering its nooks and crannies.”

The ride is 9.3 miles and gains 643 feet of elevation. Not bad for the Asheville area.

Logistics: 11^th Annual Bike of the Irish ride, Saturday, March 18, 1:30 p.m., Wedge Brewing Company, Asheville. More info here.

Sunday forecast: High near 60, partly cloudy at ride time.

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Looking ahead: Hike NC! Collier Cove Nature Preserve hike, Sunday, March 26, Arden. More info here.

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Those are our thoughts on the weekend. Find more options at the sources listed below. 

Coast

The post This weekend: Variety is the spice of adventure  appeared first on GetGoing NC!.