I carry a small compass on my local hunts. I climbed down from the stand one night and tried to leave the area stealthily because several deer were nearby. I started up through a series of blowndown trees - climbing and crawling to make headway. After about a 1/4 mile, I realized I should have emerged into the clearcut but hadn't. I pulled out the compass and shot an 'escape heading' of due South emerging into the large clearcut immediately after a few hundred paces.Being 'misoriented' is an awful feeling. They key (for me) is to have an escape heading that will lead to an un-missable barrier like a road, large fieldor river.

Never, evertrust your gut more than the compass.

Getting un-lost is a more important skill for western hunters and I am surprised we haven't heard more from them.