This first paragraph is an update on 4/3/08. (And now another on 9/28/08. This post is very long and worth reading, I believe, but please read my 9/28 post before spending your time reading the whole thing.) As you'll read below I stated that magnetic north had moved 10 degrees west last fall. I checked a couple of days ago and found that declination is now only 8 deg, from the historic 22.5 for this area, so it has moved another 4 degrees in a few months. I also stated that the sun rises and sets much farther to the north than it ever did before in the 18 years we have lived here. When visiting with an 80 year old friend last week I mentioned this to him and he said, while setting in his living room chair looking out a west facing window. "Yes, for the 36 years I've lived here the sun always set right over there in the middle of Smith creek canyon, but the last two years it sets a half mile up the mountain to the north." We were looking across a wide river canyon at the mountain range, about 6 miles away. I told this to reinforce the fact that there was a DRAMATIC change in two years. For more information as to why we are getting dramatic climate change, magnetic change, and earth tilt, do a search on HAARP, the government project which I believe to be primarily if not totally responsible. With the search you can read what a lot of other people say. As you read pay attention to the purpose of this monster. Climate and magnetic change, MIND CONTROL plus a LOT more. Understand that the grid was installed several years ago, and immediately arctic ice began to melt fast, then they installed double the outstations two years ago, and the earth tilt happened when the outstations were completed. Precisely. It ain't OK with me!
Everyone is aware of the extreme weather changes, especially in the last year, but most are in the dark as to the earth changes which are the main causes. Perhaps you've noticed the sun traveling farther north in the sky during summer, as I have, gradually for several years, and dramatically last summer? This is because the earth axis has tilted in the last 2 years from 23.5 degrees to 49.5 degrees, with a major portion of that tilt occurring in December of 2006! At the time of this severe change the GPS system was knocked out for a while, but was soon corrected. The point here being. The earth is in a very unstable mode and the same can happen again, so don't rely entirely on a GPS. Obtain a good lensatic compass with declination adjustment. The two I've owned and recommend, for simplicity, accuracy, compactness, and ruggedness are the Silva Ranger and Brunton which looks and works almost identical. Both are liquid filled. (I purchased my Brunton recently from
www.Baileysonline.com, a logger supply.)
Expect dramatic sesmic activity in the near future. World wide, but especially along our west coast. It is already happening, is increasing rapidly, and predictions call for far worse soon!
With the above earth tilt is a change in the magnetic field of the earth, which is the motivating subject of this post. Specifically, on how to set a compass to get yourself squared up with the map you are using. Here in northern Idaho when I put up the buildings in 1990 I squared them with the earth using a lensatic compass with declination adjusted at 22 1/2 degrees, which is the declination given on maps for this area. With that setting, the buildings are off around 10 degrees now! That's enough to throw one completely off coarse and render a map near worthless for long treks in the woods.
The easiest way to find true east/ west is to mark the tip of the shadow from some tall object such as a light pole, on the ground, wait till the sun moves the shadow, mark again, then set your compass to those two marks. To get two marks which are exactly east/west, the marks must be made precisely the same amount of time each side of true noon, or 1 oclock if daylight saving time. A mark at 11 and again at 1 will give an adequately long mark to set your compass accurately, but two hours each way is even better. To set the compass, adjust the dial so the east/west marks are aligned with the sights, sight down your marks, with the compass rested on a solid nonmagnetic surface, then turn the declination arrow until the compass needle is perfectly centered in it. Forget what declination named on the map is. Your compass will now align the map properly with the world. If and when the earth turns a bit more, set your compass this way again.
When you purchase one of the above compasses, you'll get good instructions on its use, but here is the handiest hunter tidbit I know of where roads are winding as in mountain and hill country, which isn't mentioned in anything I've read about compass navigation. -- When you leave your vehicle, take a reading of the road where it is setting. Write it down if you will be changing the compass setting for other reasons, such as a reverse asmus, which is all that's needed to bring you back to the road (somewhere on it) for most day trecks. (This will be in the compass instructions.) When you arrive back on the road, probably somewhere out of sight from your ride, and you don't know which way you are from it, simply align your map with the world, using the compass set along one straight edge of the map. Now, set the compass to the reading you took at your vehicle, then, while keeping the needle inside the declination arrow brackets, run one edge of the compass along the roads on the map till you find a spot where the compass aligns perfectly. Your rig is right there. Take a reading of the road where you are standing and find your location on the map just as you did for your rig. This is the most simple and accurate way I know of to find your way back for most hunting excursions. I often never take the compass out of my pocket till I get back to the road, then go through the steps to save walking in the wrong direction to fine my vehicle. I've walked 2 or 3 miles in the wrong direction several times in my life, then had to back track. It's hateful when one has already spent his energy hunting and climbing mountains!
As for the cataclysmic weather changes which we are now and certainly will be enduring for the forseeable future, my advise is, that, if you haven't read it already, you read the post I made on Nov 1 2006. The post is named "Getting out of trouble in the woods." It delves quite deeply into the spiritual aspect of 'doing hard time', to use a prison phrase. What I wrote back then is becoming more valid and important for all to understand as these rough times ahead unfold. Understand as you read it, that I feel I am on a mission, to spread what I have learned through the hammering I've taken the last 7 years. I'd crawl for miles on my hands and knees, in the mud, dirt, rain or snow, to save any one of you if you were lost, and I'm sharing this information with the same love for my fellow man. May God help you understand all I'm telling you and far more.
