4 Tips to Not Get Lost While Hiking

Stay on the Trail

The best way to prevent getting lost while hiking is staying on the trail, while you may get lost within the trails themselves you will not be truly lost and have no idea where you are. It is very important to stay on the trail because trails lead to water sources, campsites, and roads or other larger trails. If you lose the trail while hiking look for trail blazes: marks of paint on trees about every 20 yards marking the trail. The Appalachian Trail is marked from start to finish with its iconic white trail blazes as seen in the image below.

Map & Compass

A map and compass are essential tools to navigating trails and finding your location while hiking. Make sure to bring a map which shows detailed information of the trail system such as water sources, campsites, lookouts, parking lots, and landmark locations. All these locations are useful while hiking and they can be used to help navigate the trails. A compass is very useful for orientating the map and knowing your direction of travel however it is not essential. This is because you can find a rough estimate of your orientation using other methods such as aligning yourself with major landmarks on the trail, using the suns orientation to approximate your own, and looking for constellations such as the NorthStar at night. Both a map and compass are essential but if you’re only going to bring one, bring a map.

Trail Map Database

Tell Someone where You’re Going

It is very important to tell someone about your plans for hiking in case you do get lost. Make sure to tell them where you will be going, how long you plan to be hiking for, and how far and where you will hike to. All this information is crucial in the event you do get lost, as it will give those searching for you an idea of where you should be. In addition, telling someone how long you will be hiking is important so that they can notify the authorities if you are not back home by a certain date.

Know Your Landmarks

Before you go out hiking make sure to take note of all the major landmarks you will pass and make a loose plan as to when you should pass them. Knowing the major landmarks when you pass by them will give you a good indication of where you are on the trail. Having a rough guess as to when you should pass by certain landmarks will help you know if you are lost, if you haven’t seen a certain landmark you should have after some time then you probably have taken a wrong turn. Physical landmarks are one of the few ways to navigate while hiking if you have nothing else. Make sure you know all the major landmarks on your hike in the event that your map or compass gets lost, or your GPS fails.