Month: August 2026

The instinct on realizing you are lost is to keep moving, usually faster, usually downhill. That instinct is responsible for a large…

Signaling is a different problem from navigation. Navigation is about you finding your way; signaling is about somebody else finding you, and…

Blisters are the most common reason a hike ends early, and almost every one of them announced itself first. A hot spot…

Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are not two points on the same scale of discomfort. Heat exhaustion is serious and generally responds…

A topographic map is an ordinary map with one addition: thin brown lines showing elevation. Learn to read those and the rest…

Phones and handheld units fail in ways that are entirely predictable. Batteries drain faster in cold, screens become unreadable in rain, a…

The failure mode here is specific and common: someone opens a mapping app at the trailhead, sees the map load fine on…

Distance is the number people plan around and it is the wrong one. A six-mile hike with four thousand feet of climbing…

A navigation device buried in a pack gets consulted at rest stops rather than at junctions, which is the opposite of how…