Introduction
In this weeks lab portion we did the second half of the navigation lab, using our previously constructed navigational maps in UTM an Decimal Degrees grid format as a means of navigating the UWEC Priory. In order to navigate we would be using course navigation points that had been mapped beforehand by past student which we could use in reference to our navigation maps and use the directional bearing, map distance, compass, and a GPS unit as a last resort reference to navigate our group's designated course. In a previous class session we measured out our pace, or average length per two steps, which would be used in calculations to find distances to points and determine our location in respect to our desired destinations.
Methods/Study Area
The study area for this lab encompassed the extent of the woodlands surrounding the UWEC Priory, as was denoted in our navigational maps by a feature class supplied to us by our professor. When we arrived at The Priory parking lot we were supplied with our printed maps we had submitted to our professor that he had printed for us, as well as our navigational course's points in decimal degrees which we then used to determine the location points on our navigation maps that we would be plotting a course to with our compass. After marking the 5 points A through B on the maps we measured the distances to each, starting from the corner of the parking lot which was easily noticeable on the navigation map and continuing to each subsequent point. The distance between points was measured using the centimeters markings on our compass and calculated to reflect the number of paces needed to be taken based on our group's pace counter's average pace per 100m. From the initial point to the desired destination point we then measured the bearing on our navigation map and then pointed the compass towards that azimuth relative to true north. My role in making it to each point in the navigation course was to be the azimuth control, which entailed staying back at the previous point and maintaining a straight line to the desired forward point, be it a landmark or the expected destination point. As our pace counter ventured outward and counted his paces he would relay his distance information back to me and I would log the total amount of paces taken, and then inform the pace counter and the "leap frogger" (who would be the secondary pace counter) how many paces remained before we reached our destination point. Trekking through the woods and maintaining a constant and reliable pace proved difficult and several times we missed our desired end location denoted on our maps and had to search for the bright orange/ pink marker showing where the navigation course points should be.
Results/Discussion
By the end of the class session we had only found two of the five points for our groups navigational course, some of the fault lying in our navigational abilities and our misplaced confidence in our ability to use a compass which caused us to take more time than initially planned to find the points, but also in the real life placement of the navigation point banners. After finding the two that we could, we checked our current GPS location and found that the coordinates were off by a large degree, which had misplaced our point on the navigation maps and thus made our bearing erroneous. In the end we as a class were not able to complete our second portion of the lab which would have involved running another part of the navigational course, using a GPS this time to hone in on the points, due to other groups having equal difficulty in navigating the rough terrain and finding the hidden or removed by locals navigation point ribbons.
Conclusion
Reflecting back on our experience in the field, our group should have double checked our methods wit our professor in setting a course using compass bearings in order to properly make use of our time in the field. Too much time was taken trouble shooting and second guessing our location which threw off the acquisition of the rest of our points, and in the end we gave up and headed back in frustration once we had run out of time to complete the first portion of the navigation lab. I was surprised that my time spent in Boy Scouts and the fact that I am an Eagle Scout did not help our situation, but to be honest we only rarely did orienteering so it had been several years since I had done any similar exercises with compass navigation.
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