Navigator Core AAR

Over the weekend I attended the Goruck navigator core event in Lost Nation VT.  I didn't know what to expect, other than learning a bunch of navigation skills which was my goal.  I am a hiker and trail runner here in New England, and have always relied on trail systems and easy egress.  We have good trail networks here, and most land is surrounded by roads.  So while I carry a compass, it is generally so I can go in a straight line until hitting a road if necessary.  I really wanted to change that and get some real skills.

The packing list I looked at had some stuff that was never used, and is not listed below in my load out, such as a cordellet and webbing.  Since then they have updated the list, which is very much inline with what was actually used.  So my full load out was not very optimized.  I am use to running lighter weight gear, so packing like this is a bit out of my element.  However, I felt ready for whatever cadre threw at us.

I arrived the night before after the 4 hours in traffic heading out from Boston.  I was greeted by the folks from the navigator legacy event, who where all around the campfire.  Soon after a couple of other folks from my class showed up.  We had a good amount of time that evening to talk with the cadre and the legacy participants.  This was insightful in regards to what to expect, as well as good outdoor knowledge.

We started out at 0800 with a  bunch of classroom information on map reading.  I have never dealt with maps in this way before, so it was very informative.  Cadre Doug was really good at teaching us how to read the map, and gave us a bunch of exercises to help us understand how to use the UTM grid.  Following this we had our first movement.

Unlike a regular Goruck event which is team based, our movements were solo, and skills focused instead of PT focused.  That isn't to say that the movements were easy easy, the terrain was difficult, steep, and at some times with thick foliage.  For the first movement we had a single location to get to,  however it still required some route planning to get from the easy low ground up to our individual points at the top of the hill.

After we returned we had more classroom time, and learned new skills necessary for locating our position if lost.  Then we started our big movement.  This one involved hitting 4 different checkpoints.  During this movement I mistakenly attached my Spot tracker to the shoulder strap of my ruck, which may have disrupted my compass some.  However the bigger problem was traveling through such rough terrain, where I probably got off course some.  This prevented me from solidly hitting my next point.

This big movement was my first time really spending time out at night.  It was intimidating at first, but it the became fairly comfortable.  It might not have been as easy if following a trail, but moving with map and compass it was very reasonable.  I am glad for this experience, and learned a great deal.

The next morning we had a chance to try finding our position using known points.  Unlike most of the places I hike, the peak of our hill was heavily wooded.  In addition the weather was less optimal, with reduced visibility to other hilltops.  This made resectioning more difficult, but between that and using a bit of logic with the terrain it was possible to figure out which peaks I was actually looking at.  

At the end of the course I felt confident to truly start the next part of learning about navigating.  While I had trouble actually executing the navigation during the event, I feel confident to go out and try this some more.  Luckily I remembered there is a fixed orienteering course in my home town, which I plan to use my compass skills and pace count to try to hit all the fixed points.

Loadout:
Base: Patagonia RPS pants, Patagonia Caplene midweight, wool injini socks, 
Mid: Patagonia nano air and Patagonia nano puff
Shell: Patagonia super alpine and EMS hiking pants
shoes: 5.10 aesent for day 1, altra superior 2.0 for day 2
socks: 2x Darn Tough, injini toe socks
Hydration: 3l source bladder, nalgene with pace lid
pack: GR1 with waist belt
Sleep system: Tarp tent notch, black diamond alpine z poles as support, zlite pad, sea to summit comfort light pad, EMS velocity 35 degree bag, enlightenment gear 20 degree quilt
nav tools: seat2summit map case, map tools super GTA scale, Suunto mcl compass, pencils, waterproof field notes notebook