Part of the fun in walking is navigating your way along paths and areas of public access with unfamiliar surroundings. Another important part is the place, I would rather be walking through woods or interesting countryside than shooting the sun in the middle of the Atlantic, and I am sure there’s an even amount of people who prefer the reverse.
One thing in common between air sea and land navigators is the preparation they make before a journey. The more information they have to hand during the journey the easier and safer they and their fellow travellers will be.
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Pilots inform ATC of their intended routes, sailors give the coastguard with their routes and walkers give details of their route to family and proper authorities, at least that’s what is supposed to happen. Have you ever heard a child told off for not letting mum and dad know where they have been? Maybe it’s not so common with mobile phones today but really, if you are a regular walker, runner, climber or enjoy any activity outside it’s a good idea to provide someone with as much information about your activity as you can. This makes it easier for you to be located by rescue services should the need arise.
A Route Card is ideal for this purpose.
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What is a route card?
It’s a list of waypoints and useful information to help you find your way across unfamiliar locations. Combined with a map and compass the route card will make sure you know where you are always. Here is an example:
Example Walking Navigation Route Card
The idea is simple, you walk from one grid reference to the next after the pre-prepared magnetic bearing. If you have a good eye for distance (or are a neurotic pace counter) you don’t need much more that you see in this example. If you are interested in route cards you already know that.
This walk is straight forward because it follows the shoreline. Ordinarily I would add more notes, things I expect to see at some of the points to help me find them. Google Earth and Bing Maps are good for this.
Bing Maps include Ordnance Survey. You cannot draw your route with a mouse like you can on Ordnance Survey’s website but you can use it to check your folded map is up to date and switching between views helps you to understand the terrain better.
You can print your map from Bing or Ordnance Survey and add bearing checks. By preparing your route card and maps at home you can use satellite views to research potential waypoints and markers for bearings. Here’s the Bawdsey Walk map I prepared:
Bawdsey Beach Walk Ordnance Survey Map
The dark blue line is the intended track. The numbers are taken from the Route Card. The red lines point to a marker on the map, in this case the church. It doesn’t have to be a single point of course but on this map there are only three distinctive things outside Martello Towers and that’s Sea, Sand and a Church.
The red lines are numbered and I have spaced them at convenient points throughout the walk. At any point in the walk it will be easy to work out my place so long as I can see the Church.
How to use the Route Card Template
I have only tested the template in Microsoft Word 2010, I have no idea if it will work in any other version. You will also need Mapsource from Garmin. You do not need any of the maps, it’s just a way of creating a formatted list of waypoints. Garmin allows you to import KML and GPX files which covers most software, if you are stuck try Getamap from Ordnance Survey, there are some free options, I’m not sure if that allows you to export gpx files but the paid version does (they had a launch offer with 50% off when I bought in April 2011). Go to http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/ for more information.
The video demonstrates the Route Card template, hopefully that will be enough to get you started but if you find any bugs, have any suggestions, or need help using it please leave a comment.
Download Template
Release Date: 21 July, 2011
- Now shows elevation and climb
- Calculates page numbers
Download the Walkers Route Card Template for Word 2010
My walks, hikes, rambles, kloofing, backpacking, excursions, treks, and walkabouts return to the starting point making it easy to plan your day.