If you're using a GPS you can preplot some waypointsinto it and on a map in several locations around your area. Then you can always tell where you are in reference to them and take the most direct route to where you want to go. If my GPS tells me I'm400 yards southeast of point B I can pretty much figure out where to go next. If the GPS fails and you're lost on the map, you just have to shoot an azimuth based on your best guestimate to a known road or something like that. When I'm hunting I don't have time to pace off distances and direction to keep up with where I am. If I have a map I'll keep track or orient myself once in a while, but I don't clutter hunting alertness up with Orienteering skills. I'm out there to kill something, not win an Orienteering Test. I never tried to win an orienteer test, but I did guide 200 people around Vietnam for two yearswithout getting them lost or shooting them with our own artillery. Of all skills I would say map reading is the surest way to keep on track. No batteries, cloud coveror heavy canopy to interfere with your maps.[8D] A GPS makes it easier.... when it'll work.