In Michigan if you used plastic flagging to mark a trail you would have close to a thousand hunters show up at your deer blind a day.

In the UPPER I learned to carry two compasses and when y0ou didn't belive the readding you seen walk 10 feet and take another readding. Iron ore can raise cane with a compass.
today I carry a GPS by Garmin. Has gotten me off Lake Huron in a solid fog once and out of the deep woods during a blizzard several times.

Al