Despite the fact that you would guess that it ought to be the other way around, you will find that most seasoned hikers use maps in order to navigate their way along trails and through wilderness areas while novices feel that maps are unnecessary. The novice hiker frequently believes that it is not necessary to go through the hard work of learning map reading and that sticking to well worn trails will be okay. Regrettably, that is a mistaken view.

You really can get yourself seriously lost even close to clearly marked trails and stepping just a few yards off the trail into heavy woodland has caught out more than one novice. In the absence of the sun, stars or recognizable geographical markers it is very easy to get disorientated and to end up straying even farther from the trail and getting yourself lost in no time at all.

Now in the example given above a map alone will not necessarily help you to get out of that particular wood. However, you will normally run across another trail which hooks up with your original trail and a good map will help you to easily find your way back to your starting point.

So, where should you begin?

Get hold of an up-to-date map which covers the area you will be hiking in and begin by studying it at home in a quiet and relaxed environment. Of course you will not be in a position to match the map to features on the ground, but it will certainly assist you in learning and understanding the symbols which are used on the map.

Every map has a legend (which will differ a bit from one publisher to the next) and you want to familiarize yourself with the symbols. In addition, you will have to familiarize yourself with the scale of the map which will be clearly printed on it as something like 1 inch = 5 miles.

Bear in mind though that distance is only one part of the story and that 1 inch representing 1 mile on open ground is a very different thing from 1 inch representing 1 mile over an area which includes a steep winding path up the side of a 2,000 foot cliff.

To make allowance for the latter, you have to consider altitude which is marked on the map by a series of curved lines that, if they were 'stretched out', would make a circle. The distance between two altitude lines around a natural feature such as a large hill indicates the steepness of the terrain. Often you will find that there are numbers printed along the lines in order to assist you. These lines are known as contour lines and the closer the lines are to one another the steeper the ground.

Next, you need to study the longitude lines and latitude lines. Longitude lines which indicate North and South run 'up and down' the map from the top to the bottom while latitude lines showing East and West run 'right and left'.

In the daytime you can make use of the sun and natural features to orient the map so that it is lined up with the ground over which you are hiking. Do not forget that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West so that at the start of the day facing the sun will have you heading in an Easterly direction. By the same token, late in the afternoon facing the setting sun will have you hiking in a Westerly direction.

At night you can use the stars and you will normally be able to see the sky reasonably well as most wilderness areas are a long way from the glow of city lights. One of the great joys of hiking is the ability to walk out under the stars and familiarizing yourself with such formations as the Big Dipper and Orion as well as the North Star.