I started hunting with my dad when I was 11. I carried the single shot .410 for a while but wasn’t allowed any shells. There was a lot to learn about being a bird hunter.
One thing my father developed in me was my sense of direction. It was my job to keep up with the truck. I had to be able to locate it no matter where we were at any time. I was quizzed on a regular basis. I’m not sure how many times he was looking directly at the truck when he would ask me where it was. It took a while to get good at it.
He taught me to keep the location in my head and track it as I moved. This was long before the days of gps. His goal was for me to learn how to find my way back home no matter how far away my walking took me.
I think there’s a lesson in there somewhere.
Overtime, I got pretty good at it. I’m still a little amazed at the folks that have no sense of direction especially when driving.
We started running GPS collars after he was gone. They have a handy “mark truck” feature. It’s great. I use it all the time.
A few years later, I lost the ability to find my truck without my GPS unit. That really bothered me. Technology is great, but it’s too easy to get hooked on it. I’m not interested in being lost because I forgot to mark the truck when I left it or my unit fails in the field.
I started back at zero, tracking my truck in my head. Very quickly, it returned to me.
I still mark the truck with my GPS, but it’s rare that I need to use it to find my way back.