Ive found it helpful when sort of bushwacking because your gps grid tells you exactly how far off a NS or EW line you are in meters.There are many grid systems available for use such as Latitude and Longitude and Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM).
For example, the grid position below is just 2.2 units over and 2 units up. On a USGS 7.5 minute topo map (scale 1:24,000), the spacing between the grid lines is 1000 meters (1 kilometer.). On the map above the zone is linked to the Easting value and is the first set of numbers. GPS receivers display the zone value linked to the Easting, see below. I personally pay little attention to it in my backcountry trips. Note that on some commercial maps the UTM zone identifier may not be in the title block and can be hard to find. Again the spacing between the grid lines is 1000 meters (1 kilometer). On the maps above, the tick marks between grid lines are in increments of 100 meters. The hiker can then interpolate the distance between the tic marks. Otherwise, it could be considered as 500 meters instead of 50 meters. For general hiking and backpacking, one can quickly estimate a current position in the backcountry without other map tools. ![]() The location data field is then edited per the receivers instruction manual. Chapter 5 has an easy to understand tutorial on this grid system; thats how I learned it. He has taught map and compass, GPS and wilderness survival classes in Central Oregon since 1998. As a part-time faculty member at Central Oregon Community College, he currently teaches land navigation classes to Natural Resource students. He has been an active member of the Deschutes Countys Search and Rescue (SAR) team since 2009. Blake is also a featured speaker at regional SAR conferences, Sportsman Shows, and Cabelas. His articles have been published in several national magazines. You use this coordinate system instead of latitude and longitude because its so much easier. Therefore, you have to go into the setup menu of your GPS and change coordinate system to UTM from LatLong. Another thing to check in Setup is that the datum matches your map. Its printed on the map somewhere and in the US will be either NAD27 or WGS84. Dont worry about what alphabetic zone you are in. Unless you drove to a trailhead in the wrong state, you will be in the right zone. A nice tool to easily plot your position on the map is the C-THRU UTM plotter, which is a clear plastic grid that is much faster to use than a ruler.
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