Navigation at the Priory - Round One

Introduction

     Traditional orienteering skills are important for any person to have.  Technology should never be relied on completely for navigation.  Advances in technology have been extremely helpful in many ways, but it can always fail.  In a previous blog, I talked about how our Geospatial Field Methods class was lucky enough to have an orienteering lesson from Al Wiberg who works at the Environment Adventure Center (EAC) at UW-Eau Claire.  Now we got to apply these skills in the field!  There is an orienteering course that is located in the woods around the priory (Figure One).  Maps of the priory were also created in previous exercises and printed out for this lab.  Our class carried out this navigation exercise on Monday, April 28, 2014.  As long as you have a map and a compass, navigation is possible.

Figure One - This is the general location of where the priory is.  Interstate 94 and Hwy 53 are shown for reference.

Methods

     When arriving at the Priory, each group was given a list of all the points and their corresponding coordinates given in both UTM and decimal degrees.  Each team had two priory maps that were made in a previous exercise: one with a UTM coordinate system grid, and the other with a decimal degree grid.  We were required to plot our teams given navigation points on our maps using whichever map we felt more comfortable with.  Personally, I am used to using the UTM grid system, so I plotted our points on our UTM map (Figure Two).

Figure Two - This is my map board with with my field book and punch card on the left and the priory map on the right side.

About two teams of students were given the same third of the course to navigate, so all the teams would not run into each other or navigate through the course together.  To get form one point to another, a straight-edge was used to line up where we were with where we wanted to get to.  An azimuth was taken on that line in relation to where we were.  Three people were on our team and each person had a particular job as we navigated through the course.  I found the azimuth of the point we needed to get to next based on where we currently were, as well as being the pacer.  Blake was the one with the compass and stood stationary while he directed the "runner" where to go to follow that given azimuth.  Cody was our "runner" and acted as a trailblazer for Blake and I.  Blake would tell Cody which direction to go by giving him checkpoints (Figure Three) and Cody would make his way to that checkpoint.

Figure Three - Blake is directing Cody in the correct direction based on the azimuth we were trying to follow.

I would start at Blake's position and walk towards Cody's checkpoint in as straight of a line as possible.  As I did so, I counted the steps it took to get there.   This helped us gauge how far we had gone from the previous point and how much further we needed to go in order to make it to your next check point.  In a previous lab for Geog 336, every student figured out their pace count for navigation exercises like this.  My pace count was 68 steps equals about 100 meters.  Each checkpoint had a small orange tent like object so it could be seen more easily in the forest (Figure Three).

Figure Three - This is what each checkpoint of the navigation course looked like.

At each checkpoint, we had to use the orange clamp that hangs from the tent on a string, on our punch cards at the appropriate spot.  During this exercise, each group only had to navigate through five points of the course.

Results

     Our team made it out alive (Figure Five)!  And we had about a half hour of time to spare.  

Figure Five - Here stands Cody and Blake with a completed punch card for our part of the navigation course.

Discussion

     Our group had great team work, which allowed us to successfully navigate through the course at the priory.  We got flustered a few times when we could not find the checkpoints right away.  This is where it would have been helpful to have a GPS unit to gauge where we are in terms of the desired checkpoint.  We got especially flustered when one of the checkpoints was not where we thought it was, but this problem could stem from many aspects of the exercise.  When we plotted the points on our map before beginning the navigation course, it is possible that the points were not placed in exactly the right spot.  Each point had very accurate coordinates, but we were just drawing the points on a paper map, which cannot get nearly show that accuracy.  Also, when doing a pace count in an area, it is easy to have consistent steps when walking on a flat surface.  This exercise was mostly in a wooded area with some topographic changes.  Maneuvering uphill, downhill, around objects, and over fallen trees means that each step will not cover the same distance as a normal step.

Conclusion

     Despite the fact that we did not find all the points right away on the first try, I think all of our group member learned valuable lessons on this day.  We were able to navigate around in a mostly wooded area without a GPS unit, with only a compass and a map to guide us.  We worked together, even when we ran into problems.  Team work is definitely essential in an exercise like this.  Everyone needs to be open to the other group member's thoughts and opinions about how to become more efficient.  It is interesting to think that it took each group almost the full three hours to complete only a third of the navigation course.  Next time we come to the priory, each group is required to complete the entire navigation course, but we will have a GPS unit next time.  Hopefully we can finish the whole course in the allotted three hours!