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Awesome avatar!

You know, Major T. J. "King" Kong was a big time overlander. For example, he always traveled with a survival kit. "In them you'll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days' concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend at Mountain Rendezvous with all that stuff."
 
I haven't taken one from a company like that, I know REI has them on a pretty regular basis.

A friend and I spent a weekend in January with a group of local teens teaching them navigation skills, map reading, some survival skills, etc. It served as a great refresher course. By Saturday night we had those kids following a two mile course at night with nothing but compass readings and flash lights. We could hear them almost a mile off though while we waited for them in camp. Next we have to teach them how to travel quietly I guess.

I learned my basics in the Army's Delayed Entry Program (before my knee problems developed) and in a church scouting type group called Pathfinders.
 
If anyone has the chance to take some land Nav. courses I say do it. We have to maintain a SAR certification through our agency ,and land nav/map and compass work is/are perishable skills. With all the modern GPS units and spot locators out there now on the consumer market, learning to navigate through the woods with a map and compass is becoming a lost art.
 
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