TEKNOLOJI!

[breff]

i HAVE BRAIN INJURIES AND HAVE LOST THE MAJORITY OF SKILLS I HAD BEFORE THE SMASH.

At school, I did occasionally deign to attend, a few of us didn't want P.E. No interest in cheese rolling and the like. A couple of good teachers took a group, 8 of us, out and about to do "Orienteering" with map and compass. I look at a map now and it scares me. How do I learn, in slow steps, map and compass, route planning and the like? The BRANE means I need bite size lessons and repetition.

[redefined_cycles]

I have dyslexia (like many others i suppose) and was afraid of map/compass for many a year...

Geography was my worse subject at school and I still don't remember certain important things!

What I did was go bike orienteering with the events setup by Dark and White from Sheffield. It involved a mapboard and finding my locations etc...

So what I would say is get a mapboard tied to your handlebars. Get an OS map on it for the areas you wish to ride. Put a key in the corner of the board to remind you of whats most likely decent/legal/safe to ride...

Remember 'the LONG green or red dashed line' is your friend...

[RIP]

Remember 'the LONG green or red dashed line' is your friend...

With the proviso that in Welsh Wales it'll be the type of friend that takes you from the highest peaks of excitement and adventure to the lowest troughs of despair with nothing in between. This friend is also highly likely to disappear without warning just when you need them .

[Bearbonesnorm]

This any help? Link to part 2 at the bottom of part 1.

https://bearbonesbikepacking.blogspot.c ... art-1.html

[redefined_cycles]

Remember 'the LONG green or red dashed line' is your friend...

With the proviso that in Welsh Wales it'll be the type of friend that takes you from the highest peaks of excitement and adventure to the lowest troughs of despair with nothing in between. This friend is also highly likely to disappear without warning just when you need them .

That too...

Breff, just to add: Sometimes the long dashed green line is actually a red dashed green line (dependent on map)

[whitestone]

Forget the technology for the moment, it's just another thing to worry about.

Get a paper map of your local area, you know that, the map will have a legend of the symbols in one corner. Take time to match symbols on the map to objects on the ground. There's different symbols to distinguish between a church with a spire and one with a tower for instance. Don't try and learn them all, some of them are quite subtle, one or two a week might be enough to show progress and keep you motivated.

The next step would be contours. Find an open area on your map and see how the spacing of the contours relates to the steepness of the ground. Contours also show you which way a slope faces which can be helpful if you need to shelter from wind for example.

In clear weather you tend not to need a compass as you can align features on the map with their real life counterparts. Given your location of Lancaster something like Heysham power station would be a good example. Once you do this then you can work your way around the view matching features between ground and map.

Something I find useful, and still do, when a passenger in a car is to trace your route as you move along. You can even give a commentary "rally navigator style" if you want: "Left hand bend coming up. Coniferous wood on left. 300 metres to T-junction on right. etc."

Stu did a couple of posts about map reading in the review/blog section of the site so have a read of those.

Good luck!

[Scud]

I think for me, the best thing you could do is find someone who in your area that is prepared to show you in person, i was never academic and struggled with map reading as i'm badly green/red colour blind, but then when i got to 15 and joined a group that went "adventure training" (like the Scouts but no playing with your woggle..) and having someone patient to take the time to explain things to me and actually being in the hills, so i could see in person what i was looking at on the map and what it related too, and it clicked.

[Lazarus]

Would a GPS unit not be a better and easier solution?

I know you need back up maps [ or should take them and be able to use them] but would it not be easier to use a GPS and do mapping /routes online and just follow the route?

I know there is is an issue if it fails but you can have a dedicated GPS and phone as backup

Only walking [ i dont find then that practicalona bike personally] and wanting to practice/refresh/remind/reassure me would make me take a paper map and no GPS,

[BigdummySteve]

Another thing which might be useful is to look at a mapping program which has multiple layers, I use ViewRanger which has OS maps, satellite views and open mapping. Load up a GPX track and see how it looks, switch to satellite view to see how it would look out of an aeroplane window. Look at the contour lines and other features. If using ViewRanger you can then hit 3D fly through, A virtual camera will then fly along a 3D satellite view of your track, this will provide a bit of feedback on your map interpretation skills, Stu,s mapping basics as linked above is a very good tutorial for OS maps.
Mostly enjoy! Maps are fun, a whole miniature world to explore on a piece of paper