By Laura & Hal Mahan
It is far better to be lost and know it, than to confidently believe you are somewhere you are not.
~ Anonymous
It was a forest trail leading north when we started out on it. We had a USGS topo map with us and had planned to hike in a northerly direction until we reached our goal, an ephemeral pool in the Pisgah National Forest.
A complicating factor was that we had never hiked this particular trail before, and as sometimes happens, the trail shifted so often that we were not sure where we were on the map. Also, the GPS we had brought along was not up to the weather. Nevertheless, there were many natural features that allowed us to continue our northbound direction—no technology or map required.
Too often in the natural world hikers, even seasoned ones, sometimes have trouble finding their way. Some depend more and more on modern navigational tools, such as GPS, when they become lost. But as we all know, this equipment can malfunction or run out of battery power.
Nature’s clues, on the other hand, are always available: the position of the sun during the day, and the moon, stars, and constellations at night. You can be sure that our sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, wherever you may be in the world.
Tristan Gooley, an Englishman with much trekking experience, offers some very practical advice about navigating with nature’s signs. He reminds us that the four cardinal points—north, south, east, west—must be starting points for finding your way. Then we can look carefully at the environment to glean other clues.
Here in the northern hemisphere, for example, prevailing winds come from the north-northwest. We can look at trees growing on our mountaintops to see a “flagging” effect, where there are more branches on the side of the tree facing away from the winds, like a wind vane (as seen in the photo above).
Light is another factor that can give us directional clues. Trees tend to have differently appearing types of leaves, depending on whether they are growing in sun or shade. Shade leaves tend to be larger, darker green, and less lobed than sun leaves. These shade leaves will be found more commonly on the north side of the tree, and in the inner parts of a tree’s canopy.
Some common sayings about direction can be misleading, however, such as the old adage that moss always grows on the north side of trees. The fact is that moss tends to grow in shady, moist places, whether it is north, south, east, or west. It might be very common to find mosses on the north sides of trees here in the northern hemisphere, but shady, moist places can also be created by other factors such as shade from other trees.
Looking carefully at nature’s signs, whether it be stars, sun, trees, or other clues, can add a great new dimension to your outdoor adventures. Learn about them, and then go outside and try them out. But don’t get lost!
Laura and Hal Mahan are owners of The Compleat Naturalist, located at 2 Brook Street in the Historic Biltmore Village, where you can find Tristan Gooley’s The Natural Navigator: the Rediscovered Art of Letting Nature Be Your Guide and other helpful books. To learn more, visit compleatnaturalist.com or call 828.274.5430. Photo by Ellen Snyder.
