I am a compass nerd. I like navigating with map and compass and in this video I go over a variety of compasses along with their plusses and minuses: Suunto M-3DL Suunto MC-2G Silver Ranger (US Brand, not Swedish) Brunton 54LU (aka. Silva 54 Expedition – No longer imported by Brunton into the U.S.) Cammenga USGI Lensatic Each compass will have good and bad points. My preference is for a baseplate compass with built in protractor. They are simple, reliable, and work for anything I’ve ever needed a compass to do. More elaborate compasses may have prismatic or lensatic sighting Continue reading →

In this video I break out my personal wilderness survival kit. It may be different than what you are used to seeing elsewhere because it’s based on my experience from when I volunteered with a wilderness Search and Rescue (SAR) group and what I saw that caused hikers to get into trouble. In particular, people putting together survival kits focus too much on the wrong things. They are often worried about how much fishing line and food trapping materials to carry around and not enough on more critical elements about surviving in the woods. What’s more critical than food? Well… Continue reading →