Anarchist Knight:Apprentice

Tobal felt himself getting a headache as he struggled with the unfamiliar way of looking at the map. Suddenly he saw it. "There it is," he said excitedly. "It's all by itself and lower than the others." He pointed at a spot on the map.

Rafe took a weighted string and lay it on the map so it crossed Hermit's peak. "Hermit's peak is straight south of us so we place our string across Hermit's peak going north and south."

"I get it, that means we are somewhere on that string north of Hermit's peak!" Tobal exclaimed.

"That's right," Rafe grinned. "Now do the same thing with another land mark. See if you can pick out Old Baldy on the map. Old Baldy is on the right of those other three. That means it will be somewhere on the right hand side of the string."

Tobal studied the map carefully. He was beginning to understand the contour and elevation markings. Lines drawn close together meant a sharp rise or drop in elevation while lines far apart meant a gradual slope. Then he saw it.

"Here, this is Old Baldy here isn’t it?" He pointed at a spot on the map excitedly.

"That's right," Rafe said. "Now we take a different string that crosses Old Baldy. Since it is east-north-east of us we will place the string crossing Old Baldy in that direction. We use the compass to make sure our string is lined up right."

Tobal looked closely where the two pieces of string crossed and saw a place marked on the map called Heliopolis. "Well, that's easy," he said.

Rafe smiled good naturedly and said, "Sometimes it easier than others. It will take some getting used to. Now listen up, we are going four miles toward Old Baldy. Where will that put us on the map? Look at the legend, it shows how many inches to the mile. Ok, one inch on the map equals one mile in real life. That means four inches on the map equals four miles. Take your pencil and use it as a ruler to measure four miles and mark it on your map."

Tobal measured carefully and marked the spot with his pencil.

"That's going to be our camp tonight."

Tobal could see there was a creek running near the spot he had marked. He was getting enthused about this map reading thing. It was opening a new way of looking at the world. The map really was a useful tool.

"Ok," Rafe asked, "How do we know when we have gone four miles?"

Tobal answered, "Every 880 paces equals ½ mile and I tie one knot in the cord. When I have tied eight knots in the cord we should be there."

"Excellent," Rafe laughed, "You've got it! The first part of map reading is finding out where you are so you can go home. Now let's go. We're wasting time."

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