United Kingdom - Getting lost

Second wimpey question: I'm in the new forest this weekend. I bought a few books with biking routes through the forest. Both the maps and the descriptions of the routes are completely inadequate for my amateur needs, so I keep getting lost. This happened to me when I was in the North York Moors and ended up trudging through a very muddy field having taken a wrong turning somewhere.

So a few things: I don't mind trudging through muddy fields if that is all part of the fun and experience, but if that's not what its all about then I need to find some way of doing this better. I bought a magazine called mbr last week, and in the beginner's section it talked about the priority of not getting lost and knowing where you are on the map if you are going to enjoy yourself. I couldn't agree more ! That gave me some comfort that the field incident wasn't indicative. I have just bought a Garmin 205 on ebay and I think that will help.

Am I being stupid and wimpey, or is there really a better way to do this than trudging through fields ??

Any guidance or advice gratefully received.

Cheers,



Ben

Ben, how about doing a map reading & navigation course? or an MTB skills weekend such as this one run by the CTC http://www.ctc.org.uk/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4314

hehe me 2 re. buying a garmin 205 - get lost: mode- navigate-back to start..even thought its just a "line"(breadcrumb trail) map it works great just follow the turns till u recognise where u r :)

Well we all get lost sometime.

As you will have found the current Garmin Edge units carry a very limited detail map. Check out the new Edge 605 & 705 but at about £330 not cheap but a much more detailed map. The best option might well be a do a navi training course, however, a basic outdoor skills book similar the the one used by the kids doing DOE awards will normally sort out most problems. You could always use Memory map to down load your routes from your Edge 205 on a digital 1:50000 map. Shame the Egde 205 won't carry the map software from MM. The new ones look like they have something similar though.

A simple and easy way of getting fimilar with map reading is to getan OS map of yor locally area 1:25000 or 1:50000 the first will be best though. Should cost about £5. Then on a nice day just go for a walk. This is good because
1, You'll most likely be able to find your own house fairly easily
2, You'll b able to follow the roads etc as you walk.

Look out for land marks high ground, Overhaed lines etc. With two or more of these you can triangulate you position and as ussual practice make prefect.

If you invest in any more GPS gadgets please don't forget a map for the area your using it in though. A gps unit might well fail and it wont tell you when your about the ide over a cliff etc. Try and plan you route using waypoints to navi each leg to.

Above all have lots of fun that whats life is all about but also be careful.

GPS training also offer some top training in GPS use look them up on th net if you like.

Or there is always the Outdoor Show that in April I think at the NEC. Lots of the gps companies and OS will be running short training courses etc. Well worth the visit but I bet you'd go home with loads of other stuff too. I also do.