Outdoor Survival Tips!

Nature can supply everything that is essential to survival but the secret isn’t just availability. The secret to survival is knowing what you need, where to look for it and how to use it to your advantage. Keeping this in mind the following material has been specifically designed and organized to answer these questions and supply as many helpful hints as possible about surviving within a wide variety of extreme situations.

DIRECTION:
1. Keeping on course: The great frontier has all but disappeared in America. To find your way out of most forests these days, a person only has to walk a few miles in any one direction. The problem is that a few miles can turn into several days of travel if the course chosen isn’t a straight one.
Tip 1 To avoid any delay in self-rescue simply pick an object in the distance and walk to it. As you approach this object choose another directly in line with the first. By following this simple yet effect formula you can’t help but travel in a straight line.

2. Using your watch as a compass: There are three requirements for this process to work. First your watch must have an hour hand. Second the watch must be set to the correct local time and third the sun must be shining bright enough to cast a shadow.
Step 1. Next to the watch place a thin object (Pine needle or twig) capable of spreading a narrow shadow across its surface.
Step 2. Line up the watch so that the shadow crosses over the center of the 12 O’clock symbol.
Step 3. Calculate the half way point between the 12 O’clock symbol and the hour hand. This is True North. To find True South simply line up the hour hand with the shadow, and find the half way point between it and 12 O’clock.

3. Using a pin or needle as a compass: In order for any survival expedition to be successful, you must have the right materials. To use a needle as a compass, you must have a silk or other type of polarizing cloth. This is all you will be needing (aside from the pin of course!)
a) Rub the needle on the cloth in one direction (it doesn’t matter either up or down. It must be rubbed in a dragging motion IN ONE DIRECTION ONLY!!!
b) Place the now magnetized/polarized needle on a leaf or other such floatable material in a small motionless pool of water. The side of the needle that was dragged across the silk will point North. And that’s how it’s done!

4. The Moss theory: Due to moisture content and sunlight, moss generally grows on the North side of trees. This of course isn’t very dependable because of the various climate conditions but it could be a good collaborator to other methods of telling direction.

5. Celestial navigation: The North star, Northern lights and the suns movements are the oldest means of navigation in the world. Northern lights: Simply scan the night sky and watch for strange cloud type objects moving in the sky just above the horizon. These are the Northern lights. After finding them simply make note of their direction by lining up two land marks in a straight line with the movements of these lights. Rising and Setting sun: The sun rises in the East and sets in the West.

6. Know where was that spot again? Triangulation is simple when using a compass. When your standing in a spot you would like to come back to, take out your compass and face directly toward one of the four main directions North, South, East or West. Now simply move to your left 45 degrees and line up a landmark (remember it), then turn back to where you started and move 45 degrees to the right and line up another landmark. This quick triangulation will get you back to this position within a few feet every time. (Just remember your land marks and original direction chosen, then its a simple task of just realigning them)

~to be continued guys, just check my post for the continuation  ok! enjoy and hope this can help you in anyway… c”,)

5 star blog award!

~Woohooo!!!! got an award guys, I really love awards especially like this one, lolz c”,) Well, thank you so much for this award eds, I really appreciate with the fact that you included me in this amazing award!

~so it’s my turn to share this very amazing award to  cheche, lAdygShi, and SummerInBlue! Hope you like it guys and enjoy the rest of the week… c”,)

Photo Hunt: narrow!

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~hey guys it another week for this photohunt! Well guys, here is my entry for this week PhotoHunter: narrow! How was this for this week theme guys? Isn’t that narrow trail? Well, I think so! This was one of the trail that we cross when we had our mountain climbing… c”,)

~so guys that’s it for this week photohunt, hope you like it and Happy Weekend Everyone :)

Understanding Orienteering Results!

Results from orienteering meets are usually divided according to the courses available that day, and then according to the age categories running each course. Each individual’s time is recorded in minutes:seconds. For meets with multiple “heats” an individual’s total score is the sum of his or her times. The winner in a particular category is the person with the shortest total time.

At the average orienteering meet, there will be three or more courses, with Course 1 being the easiest. Higher numbered courses are longer and technically more difficult. A “B” class meet will normally have three or four courses, while an “A” meet will have at least five or six. National championships or world class events will have at least the eight courses required under International Orienteering Federation rules.

Courses are usually listed with their lengths in kilometres and the uphill climb in metres. Note that these are “ideal” distances, measured over straight lines between controls, avoiding only barriers that cannot be crossed on foot (such as lakes.) As most orienteerers learn early in their careers, the actual distance you’ll travel will be longer than this. New Canadian Orienteering Federation rules and guidelines specify that courses should be set based on expected winning times and not ideal distances. One would hope that we’ll see these ideal times posted more often.

Individuals running a particular course are divided by age category and gender. The “official” age categories are:

-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-20, 21-, 35-, 40-, 45-, 50-, 55-, 60-,

In the larger “A” meets, each course will have a “minimum age” for individuals to qualify for competitive ranking. For example, a 15 year old female would have to run a course rated F15-16 or higher to participate in a competitive category. (Editor’s note: At the time this was written, the Canadian Orienteering Federation had agreed to change the structure of age classes. Depending on where you are in the world or in Canada, you might see different age categories.)

In addition, most courses have “Novice” “Open” and “Wayfarer” categories. “Novices” are beginners to the sport. Anyone may participate in the non-competitive “open” category. Groups of people (for example, families) may do a course together as a “wayfaring” group. (Most meet organizers won’t accept Novices or Wayfarers on upper level courses, since these are supposed to be significantly more difficult than a short walk in the woods.)

In team events, each member of the team must normally run a course at their age level or higher. As well, each team member will often be required to run a different course. A common way of scoring is by adding each team member’s time and dividing by the sum of the ideal lengths of each team member’s course.

For various reasons, orienteerers will be unable to complete their course within the time limit. There are various codes used in meet results to explain the different reasons. Some of these are:

DNF – Did Not Finish
DNS – Did Not Start (after registering)
DSQ – Disqualified. Most often happens for finding and recording a control from a different course.
OVT – Overtime: completed the course, but did not get back before the time limit. Doing this deliberately or accidentally is generally pretty bad manners, when the time limit expires, most organizers will be reaching for the phone to call the police and/or Search and Rescue.
SPR – Sporting Withdrawal: used under special circumstances. For example, all orienteerers are required by the rules if not by common decency to stop and provide assistance to anyone who is injured or otherwise in danger of being hurt, even if this means withdrawing from the race part way through. This especially applies to adult orienteerers who come across young children lost in the woods.