Many treasure-hunting searches take place in highly wooded areas. And getting lost in a dense forest can be terrifying.
Map reading skills and how to use a compass are critical to surviving in the outdoors. Even with my experience of knowing my way around the woods, I have been in situations where I became turned around and lost.
One time I was in a dense forest and became disoriented on my way out. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings as I moved through the thick scrub brush. As the daylight faded, and I was close to looking for shelter for the night I spotted a small brook that I knew flowed north and south and crossed the dirt road I drove on when entering the area. Knowing that I was south of where the road was I followed the brook upstream to the road and then walked to my car. However, had I brought my topo map and my compass with me I would have found my way out much sooner. The point of my story is to bring an awareness of this truth. Today's younger generation has no idea how to use a map or a compass. They rely solely on fancy GPS watches and cellphone GPS software. Those are fine to have. But what happens if a person with no map or compass reading skills becomes lost and loses satellite transmission or wifi when in thick woods?
At times, my GPS failed. Nor do I use my cellphone as a GPS. But if I did, my cell has lost transmission many times when in the forest, or many remote areas. However, I always carried a topo, and a compass as backups in case of such failures.
When speaking to a group of high school students who enjoyed hiking and wanted to begin metal detecting the old ghost towns in the Eastern States, as I did, I asked them, “Can you read a map?”
Their answers most often were, “I don’t have to know how to read a map. I have GPS software on my cellphone.”
When I asked them, “Okay then, can you read a compass?”
Some of their answers were, “I’ve never even seen a compass.”
I continued, “What happens if you were in the woods lost and your GPS failed for whatever reason, and you did not have a map or a compass with you?”
Or what happens if you’re driving on a road trip and your GPS fails and you get lost, or you don’t know which way to turn, and you don’t have a roadmap with you?
They were silent, but the look on their faces told me what they were thinking. After a minute a few of them mentioned they wanted to learn how to read maps and a compass. I told them they could find that information on the Internet. Of course, for them, that was the easy part.
My metal detecting/treasure hunting TV series, “Exploring History’s Treasures” EHT, was the first REAL, reality, show of its kind. There was no scripting, no planting or salting the ground with finds before we dug them. Exploring History’s Treasures can now be viewed here.
Very nice and very true, I've also been down that road : )