If you're ever lost without a compass...

[JamesRK]

but you have a running analog watch with close to correct time and you can locate the sun, you can use your watch as a compass.

Hold the watch horizontally so the watch is parallel to the ground. Point the hour hand at the sun. Visualize a line between the hour hand and the 12 on the watch face. That line points South. North is the reciprocal of South.

[MarcSpaz]

That's pretty cool. I have a few pocket watches. I need to try that.

[JamesRK]

It doesn't have to be a pocket watch, but it obviously wouldn't work with a digital watch. Any watch or clock that has hands (analog) will work.

[MarcSpaz]

I know... but my two pocket watches are the only watches I have that are not digital. Well, okay... that is not completely true. I have a nice dress watch and a very nice diving watch... but neither of those have worked for years.

[SHMIV]

I'll have to test this some time. The only watches I wear are analog.

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[Swampman]

Who wears a watch anymore? Isn't that what cell phones are for?

I've got a couple of pocket watches as well. I'll try that out after the sun comes up.

[Reverenddel]

I have always worn an analog watch for that VERY reason! You can tell time, AND direction with it in a pinch!

[zykur]

Good one. If you don't have a watch you can do it with a stick as well

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/survival- ... d-the-sun/

[WRW]

I like the stick method. Not mentioned in the watch method is that each minute on the watch face is six degrees, 'cause few times do you just want to find East or West. And, remember to compensate for DST.

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[SHMIV]

I reckon that I ought to find a watch with minute ticks and numbers.

Then, again, maybe I should go back to carrying a compass, like I used to.

I used to tell folks that MY gps never needed batteries or a charge, as MY gps was a map and a compass. Of course, the folks that I used to tell that to could barely read a coloring book, much less make sense of a map.

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[MarcSpaz]

I remember sitting at the kitchen table with several maps from AAA and an atlas gazetteer guide and mapping out every inch of a route and alternate routes. We dove from RI to FL, to SoCal, to Washington State, to Fairbanks, AK, back to Washington, over to Indiana and back to RI. 2 month road trip when the Trans-Alaskan Highway was just a well-beaten trail. No GPS.

That was awesome.

[SHMIV]

Maybe I should go on a GPS-free week. Just because.

When GF was a trainer with a different trucking company, a couple years ago, she didn't have a GPS. Her students would hop in the drivers seat, she'd tell them that they had a 2000 mile ride, they'd get excited. .. then ask where yhe GPS was. She'd hand them a map. And they got scared, lol.

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[Swampman]

Maps are a piece of cake. Actually, a map won't lead you off the beaten path just because its a little shorter. Some people blindly follow the gps and then wonder why they end up in the river.

http://wnep.com/2014/05/23/truck-drives ... lames-gps/

Yeah, it was dark and he was not familiar with the area. He blindly followed the machine.

[j1mmyd]

It works with anything that tells the time including phones and digital watches. I've proven this many times to doubters while in the Army. You just need to know what a particular time looks like in 12-hour analog format.

[SHMIV]

Oh, following a map blindly CAN surprise you.
I remember hiking a section of the AppalachianTrail with my father, when I was about 11 or 12. As we studied the map, we spotted a little shortcut trail, that kind of cut a corner off the Appalachian. It was the Mau-Har Trail, I do believe.

And, yeah, it was a shorter distance, as the crow flies. But, a short cut? Oh, no.

Turns out, that trail was rated for experienced hikers, only. Quite strenuous. Also, well worth it. Those of you that hike should check it out.

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