How To: Get Started With Night Navigation

In this video I practice my night navigation skills and share some hints and tips on the subject along the way...
#GetOutside #Bushcraft #TheBushcraftPadawan #GetOutside

[@FGYT1]

Blurred central vision is due to the distribution of Rods (low light night vision )and Cones (colour day vision) . Being daytime animals Cones are concentrated in the center of our vision for best vision in daytime. This means Rods are in greater density in a donught around the center so looking off at night in any direction once the rods are working will give better clarity .

[@bushcraftbasics2036]

Great video. One trick I have used for years is I got a spring loaded flip up rifle scope cover that fit over the end of my flashlight. I put a hole in there then covered that with tape or taped on a filter. Used that when I wanted to protect night vision. When I wanted full white light just give it a push and it would spring out of the way and not get lost. Also learned to put some tape on the base so if I had to hold it in my mouth for hands free use it would be more comfortable.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Some good tips there, thank you for sharing them.👍

[@beatbasher]

Great video, some useful stuff. I'm only just learning pacing myself so that was good to know. Cheers 👍

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

+beatbasher Hi, thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. You may be interested in this video I made that focusses specifically on 'pacing'. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKGkqmVvZ5admLs

[@RickTOutdoorAdventure1969]

Cheers Craig, enjoyed your film 👍.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Thanks Rick, I appreciate the feedback. Glad you enjoyed it 👍

[@Woodsman_wildcamper]

Nice one Craig. Another great, informative nav video. Thanks for sharing. Take care.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Blimey, you were quick Andy! Thanks for watching and the kind feedback.

[@Woodsman_wildcamper]

Haha, day of work mate, catching up on the past week's videos.

[@WyeExplorer]

Very good enjoyed that end to end. That was a recap for me to. Good going. Mark

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Hi Wye Explorer and many thanks for taking the time to drop by my channel, watch and comment, it's really appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thank you for the positive feedback, cheers! Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, I'd really appreciate it 👍

[@lawrencemcintosh]

that was great craig I didn't know you wear from Yorkshire what part thank you for sharing the video brother

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Lawrence Mcintosh bushcraft Cheers Lawrence, you mean my accent hasn't given it away!? I'm originally from Hull, left in 1990 to join the Army and have never lived there since! I know you're working on your nav skills, so do let me know if you're ever in the BN10 area and we can get our and practice some skills.

[@lawrencemcintosh]

The Bushcraft Padawan im originally from stockton on Tees you might know it as teesside now live in reigate surrey

[@slippery999]

At night keep your navigation legs much shorter and consider a less that direct route if there are better features to use. I.e. rather than going from A to B it might be better to go from A to B via C and D if C and D are more obvious features on the ground. I also use the five “D”s when working out my nav legs. DIRECTION - what is the bearing I’ll be walking on? (look at map first and make a rough guess for example roughly East 090*, then when you have taken the bearing does it correspond to what you estimated? It’s easy when you’re tired to either have the direction of travel wrong or turn the compass bezel and use South instead of North and be 180* out. DISTANCE - how far am I walking to the next point? Using the roamer measure the distance and translate that to metres on the ground. You can then use pacing to give an idea of how far you have travelled. I take 63 double paces for 100m on flat ground which I round up to 65 (I have a tendency to under estimate distance so rounding up helps but if on difficult terrrain or bad weather I may add 10% or even 20% only experience will allow you to gauge the right amount). DURATION - how long will it take me to walk this leg? Timing can be used instead of or as well as pacing. Using Naismith’s Law you can work how long it will take you to walk a 100m at at given speed - or to make life far easier use a pacing card where it’s already done for you. So for example if you are walking at 3km/h then 100m should take 2 mins. Again you need to practice this to get an idea of how fast you’re walking so you can gauge it properly. There’s no substitute for experience. DESCRIPTION - what will the ground look like? What will I see on route? What will my destination look like when I get there? What will I see if I have gone too far? So for example looking at the map the ground may fall away downhill or rise up, or it might be flat. If the map tells you you should be walking uphill and you find yourself going down hill then stop and check! Obviously at night you won’t be able to see much, but there might be something. DESTINATION - by describing it it helps to confirm you are in the right place eg the track junction will be next to a small stream, or boundary marker etc as you may find another track junction not marked on the map and if you have no idea what the right point should look like you can make a mistake. You should also be aware of your collection feature to know if you have gone too far. DANGERS - I split this into physical dangers and navigational dangers. Physical could be cliff edges, steep ground, loose rock etc where I might have to brief/manage the group I’m with and navigational might be in heavily wooded areas with lots of paths which are not shown on the map, or if contouring being aware of the tendency to drift downhill etc. Finally always trust your compass!

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Wise words, although I'm not a fan of the "always trust your compass" mantra tbh.

[@slippery999]

@@TheBushcraftPadawan well obviously I’m assuming the usual caveats apply (no massive air bubble in the compass housing, away from power lines, magnets, phones, damage free, no user error etc etc) my experience has shown me that my compass has been correct far more times than I was. There have been numerous times when I have been so convinced I was going in the right direction I have doubted what the compass was telling me, having checked everything and found it to be correct I have still doubted it. The compass, however, was right. Every.Single.Time. Maybe that says more about me than compasses 🤔

[@johnbeamson5135]

Great video pal.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Thank you John, I appreciate the feedback. It was one of the trickier ones to record - for obvious reasons! 😉 Don't forget to sub!

[@johnbeamson5135]

Going on my MLS end of march done loads but i heading out on Solo few more Solo Nav found your video very good and going to share it with my hiking group. i ve Sub and will carry on watching your videos all the best with it.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Cheers John and best of luck with your ML qual.

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

John Beamson Hi John, how did your ML assessment go?

[@johnbeamson5135]

Hello Padawan thanks for getting back to me. i passed m8 Top Nav thanks to your videos and my time out on Hills in day and Night no issue

[@mountainsonthemind5795]

Great video, many people panic in poor visibility you may know Pendle hill being not million miles away, and mountain rescue get called alot up there. But in most cases if you have a map and unsure you will always end up on a lane or rd within 2 km north,West South or especially the Pendle area. So if the ground is safe to do so IE contour ect could be worth doing a rough bearing and taking that option or obviously go back to your known location and have a think. Obviously mountain terrain more micro nav needed because of obstacles ect

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Hi Mountains on the mind and many thanks for taking the time to drop by my channel, watch and share your own experiences and perspective, it's really appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed the video and thank you for the positive feedback, cheers! Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, I'd really appreciate it, cheers! 👍

[@georgehartwig1865]

And wear some kid eye protection don’t get spoked in the eye🤓

[@TheBushcraftPadawan]

Nothing worse than being spoked in the eye👁️