Wolf Wilds › Navigation

Photo W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0

When you are lost

Stopping, working out where you are, and walking yourself back out.

What you need

How

  1. Stop the second you feel it. Sit down, drink something, eat something. Everything done rattled is wrong.
  2. Think back to the last point you were certain of and how long ago that was.
  3. Look for a handrail: a brook, a shore, a ridge, a cut line, a power line, a road. A handrail takes you somewhere.
  4. Get height if you can and hold the ground you can see against the map.
  5. If nothing matches, go back the way you came to the last certain point instead of pushing on.
  6. If it is late, if the weather is turning, or if you are hurt, stop and make camp. Lost and warm beats lost and soaked.

Watch for

Danger
  • Walking with no bearing puts you in a circle. It happens to everybody.
  • Your gut in thick country is usually wrong. The compass is not.
  • Downhill leads to water and water often leads to people here, but it also leads through the worst ground on the island.

Notes

The ones who get in real trouble are the ones who kept walking. Stopping is the skill.

losthandrailstop

Updated 2026-09-04

Related

Aiming off and catching features Navigation Missing your target on purpose so you know which way to turn, and picking a line on the map that tells you when you have gone too far. Navigating without a compass Navigation Holding a direction with the sun, the land and the water. GPS and phone navigation Navigation Using a phone or a GPS in the woods with no signal: maps saved before you go, battery kept alive, and the paper map still in the pack. Pacing and judging distance Navigation Knowing how far you have walked by counting your steps and watching the clock, so the map and the ground stay matched.