I read a review of this recent book and after being inspired by the Why use Celestial Navigation? thread I ordered it from Amazon. It arrived at the weekend and my initial impression is promising.
The review can be found over on the Outdoor Magazine web site on this page:
Wilderness Navigation Handbook by Fred Touche
Book details:
Paperback 200 pages (July 23, 2004)
Publisher: Touche Publishing
ISBN: 0973252707
Price (current at amazon.co.uk £12.99. I got it from a seller there for £7.99 with the old yellow cover)
Initial Thoughts
I will not go into depth here because the review Nomad did over on OMF gives a good account of the book from the point of view of a skilled navigator. I really just wanted to let people know about it, and share my thoughts as a near novice on many of the skills explained.
As a landscape architect I am pretty conversant with map reading but the chapter on 'Maps' offers something for all levels (I think the author achieves this pretty well throughout, except perhaps at the very highest levels?) and I found it useful and informative. The illustrations are well presented and clear. I have not check all the facts and figures but most seemed pertinent and well explained. The chapter on Compass use is well thought out and just right for my level (one up from beginner?)
On subjects I knew less on like map grids (UTM, UPS) and celestial navigation, some of the illustrations used, at first glance looked a 'techie', but as I read through the book and could refer to the illustrations as they related to the text, it became less daunting. Overall the pictures really aided my understanding of the subjects discussed. The 'Compass' chapter was one of the best for me, being well explained, with just the right balance between text and graphics.The 'Altimeter' and 'GPS' chapters, whilst not being the most inspiring (for me anyhow!) subjects, carried on in the same vein and proved very informative. And presenting the text in the way he has, it helped break up the information into easily digestible 'bite size chunks'.
The 'Celestial Navigation' section contains a lot of (understandably) fairly complex instruction. I do not claim to understand it after a quick read of this chapter! But the subject is given a fair few pages and provides a good general overview. And also detail, which I am sure, will become more and more useful over time as I continue to study and practice the art.
Moving through the chapters on 'Natural Navigation', 'Emergency Communication' and 'Practical Navigation', again they offered me a lot of useful tips and ideas to try out when I am out and about. I found it best to take a page or two at a time and test out some of the suggestions otherwise it was a bit much to try to remember otherwise.
But as they say Fred Touche saves probably the best until last. The 'Scenarios' section was really interesting, full of tips and basic common sense. It describes 21 different situations from all sorts of possible scenarios. I found them really interesting and quite inspiring to go back through the book and really nail more of the techniques.
Like I said, I am no expert and perhaps there are flaws I am oblivious too, but other all I am very impressed with this book and can imagine pulling it off the shelf on a regular basis over the years to come, which is always a good sign for a book I think
Simon
The review can be found over on the Outdoor Magazine web site on this page:
Wilderness Navigation Handbook by Fred Touche
Book details:
Paperback 200 pages (July 23, 2004)
Publisher: Touche Publishing
ISBN: 0973252707
Price (current at amazon.co.uk £12.99. I got it from a seller there for £7.99 with the old yellow cover)
Initial Thoughts
I will not go into depth here because the review Nomad did over on OMF gives a good account of the book from the point of view of a skilled navigator. I really just wanted to let people know about it, and share my thoughts as a near novice on many of the skills explained.
As a landscape architect I am pretty conversant with map reading but the chapter on 'Maps' offers something for all levels (I think the author achieves this pretty well throughout, except perhaps at the very highest levels?) and I found it useful and informative. The illustrations are well presented and clear. I have not check all the facts and figures but most seemed pertinent and well explained. The chapter on Compass use is well thought out and just right for my level (one up from beginner?)
On subjects I knew less on like map grids (UTM, UPS) and celestial navigation, some of the illustrations used, at first glance looked a 'techie', but as I read through the book and could refer to the illustrations as they related to the text, it became less daunting. Overall the pictures really aided my understanding of the subjects discussed. The 'Compass' chapter was one of the best for me, being well explained, with just the right balance between text and graphics.The 'Altimeter' and 'GPS' chapters, whilst not being the most inspiring (for me anyhow!) subjects, carried on in the same vein and proved very informative. And presenting the text in the way he has, it helped break up the information into easily digestible 'bite size chunks'.
The 'Celestial Navigation' section contains a lot of (understandably) fairly complex instruction. I do not claim to understand it after a quick read of this chapter! But the subject is given a fair few pages and provides a good general overview. And also detail, which I am sure, will become more and more useful over time as I continue to study and practice the art.
Moving through the chapters on 'Natural Navigation', 'Emergency Communication' and 'Practical Navigation', again they offered me a lot of useful tips and ideas to try out when I am out and about. I found it best to take a page or two at a time and test out some of the suggestions otherwise it was a bit much to try to remember otherwise.
But as they say Fred Touche saves probably the best until last. The 'Scenarios' section was really interesting, full of tips and basic common sense. It describes 21 different situations from all sorts of possible scenarios. I found them really interesting and quite inspiring to go back through the book and really nail more of the techniques.
Like I said, I am no expert and perhaps there are flaws I am oblivious too, but other all I am very impressed with this book and can imagine pulling it off the shelf on a regular basis over the years to come, which is always a good sign for a book I think
Simon
