It was a true pleasure having you in my class . You Did. First class on the article Thank
And Semper Fi Ryan Hay

I was hunting in a pretty rural area one year with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law. We all knew the property that we were hunting which we had hunted several times. I shot a deer a few minutes before last light close to the edge of the property that we were hunting. Of course the deer headed straight away into an area of fairly dense small cedar trees and small birch trees. My brother-in-law and I were at least a half-mile into this thick stuff in the dark before we called off the search, only to realize that we had no idea where we were nor what direction was south (our preferred direction to walk out). Even worse, both of us had assumed that the other brought a compass: neither of us brought a compass because we did not expect to venture so far beyond the property in the dark.

What do you do when you are lost in thick forest at night without a compass? I know stars in the sky and can use those to establish north/south. However, it was cloudy. We considered trying to phone the rest of our party to honk car horns and were concerned that we might not hear the horns. Then I used the cloudy skies to our advantage. There was a small town of about 6,000 people directly east of us about 18 miles away. And that town generated a fair amount of “light pollution” which made the clouds above it glow well above and beyond the darkness of the clouds elsewhere. And voila: as soon as I located that town’s glow in the clouds, I knew which way was east. We walked out a short time later.

So, if you are ever lost in the dark without a compass, look for light pollution from a town/city in a known direction to establish north, east, south, and west–and walk your way out to civilization.

I don’t know about the law in Texas, or other states: my state law requires every hunter to go through hunter safety” training which is at least an entire day and covers almost all of the same subject matter, although hunter safety classes in my area have nowhere near as much of a “hands on” dimension. (Our courses cover the same material although everything is theoretical and via a “classical” textbook and classroom affair.)

Since the most effective learning involves seeing, hearing, and doing, this class must be hands-down superior to the hunter safety courses in my area.

That’s putting it mildly.

It’s great that something like this is offered. Most of us were taught by family members, but for those not fortunate to have that tradition this is a good substitute.