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Do you have a poor sense of direction? How do you cope?

"My inner gyroscope broke in Portland, Oregon," I told my ex-husband Terry.

“Kathleen, you always had a lousy sense of direction," he replied.

Terry was right. I'm directionally-impaired.

When driving, I cling to GPS and written directions. Green Trails maps are excellent for hiking. These topographical maps show every trail, lake and creek.

It has to do with the hippocampus, that contains special neurons called grid cells and place cells that seem to create a cellular map of the places you've been, and the routes you've taken.

Some people are born with this ability. Some, like me, are not. It's not a choice.

At age eight, my daughter became the navigator when I was driving. With a photographic memory, Claire has an excellent sense of direction.

“Where are Clara and Marion Lakes?” a man asked while hiking. At a view spot, we were looking at wildfire smoke in Wenatchee. He asked the wrong person.

Turning completely around, I gazed up at the ridge and thought about it.

My favorite hiking partner, Karen, has a compass embedded in her brain. Karen would point out different approaches to the lake. In 2017, we hiked an alternative route down from the lakes on snowshoes. I just have a vague, sweeping sense of the way we went.

But I clearly recall feeling afraid on a slippery and steep knife-edge ridge.

Instead I gave him driving directions:

“Turn around and walk south on the Pipeline Trail, back the way we came. In two miles, you will come to a trail intersection with a wooden sign for Clara and Marion Lakes.”

“Turn right onto the trail. Hike steeply uphill for about two miles. The first lake is like a large pond. The second lake is a half mile higher, surrounded by rocks with views of the Cascades.”

I felt proud of myself. I have only hiked to these lakes six times. 🙂

LiterateHiker 9 Aug 16
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23 comments

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3

I get lost in buildings can never figure out how I got to an office or how I get out. My friends have realized if I tell them to turn left right is the way they should go

3

It never takes me more than two tries to guess my left from my right.

godef Level 7 Aug 16, 2018

@godef

Hilarious!

@LiterateHiker Got it from an old Dilbert strip.

2

I get lost in large buildings. Once I was in a department store and had to phone my friend,who was in another shop, to come find me because I couldn’t find my way out.

2

I'm used to hearing my GPS tell me "make a legal u-turn ahead." It's always an adventure!

2

I too am challenged and often get lost. I used to get upset. MY kids would ask 3 blocks out if I was lost yet. I learned to enjoy the new scenery. I will get there when I get there or somewhere else may turn out better.

2

I've always had a keen sense of direction. It takes a lot to get me turned around. Some are not as fortunate. I remember my mother-in-law could practically get lost in her own front yard. One time I had to go rescue her when she walked to the grocery store which was just a block away. She never noticed that she was walking right into the afternoon sun, AWAY from her house. She was miles and miles away, and still headed in the wrong direction. I try to avoid using the points of the compass when giving directions to people. Often they will stare at you like you have just asked them to walk over hot coals.

@GuyKeith

You are a great storyteller! In Wenatchee when I ask for directions, people say:

"Do you remember where the old Firestone store used to be?" NO.

"Give me the cross street," I reply. "What street is it on?"

They can't do it. It's maddening.

Because I love maps, I rely on north, south, east and west.

@LiterateHiker Have you seen the documentary Mile...Mile and a Half? It is available on Netflix, or at least it was a couple of years ago. If you love hiking, you will like this doc. I wrote a review [ruthlessreviews.com] It is about hiking the Muir Trail in California.

@GuyKeith

Yes, I love that movie! Loved that the group was made up of artists. Beautiful cinematography. Will never forget their teamwork, crossing a treacherous, raging river. Unforgettable.

It made me want to hike the John Muir Trail.

@LiterateHiker I just checked and it is no longer available on Netflix. I hate this.

@LiterateHiker This is somewhat unrelated and I don't know if you will even see this. Sometimes I might be following a Post with you (or someone else) involved with ANOTHER person and suddenly....The Bridge Is Washed Out! We have the DREADED block feature at Agnostic. The communication is halted and there is no recourse. Every time I have tried to raise this issue with @Admin it has been drowned out by those who feel threatened by others that they are convinced are stalking them. I don't know what the solution is, but this blocking certainly has UNINTENDED consequences, blocking the communication between two parties who have not blocked each other. Make sense? If GK is writing to LH, who is also writing to Oppossing_Opossum (or whoever) and OO has GK blocked, then the fiber optics is severed. /end rant.

@GuyKeith
I'm not sure what you are talking about.

I block men who lash out at me when I say, "We live too far apart to develop a relationship. "

My understanding is when blocked, they do not get my posts in their thread, and cannot send me another message.

@LiterateHiker We just had a minor skirmish in another post.

2

I didn't. Before Google maps became a thing, I got lost with depressing regularity. I hated driving because of it.

@memorylikeasieve

Me, too. Your username is hilarious!

@PalacinkyPDX seeing as how I clearly never had those parts of my brain to begin with, I'm not terribly worried about that. 😅

2

I am totally directionally challenged. It drives me nuts. The only thing that makes me crazier is if someone tells me to go South, North, East or West.! Really???? 😕

1

I spent 11 years in the army most in reconnaissance. I have an excellent sense of direction, but my fellow soldiers who didn't were seriously disadvantaged.

We had a brand new staff sergeant briefing our platoon one time telling everyone how important it was to get your bearings immediately in a new location. As he said that the first thing he did was determine that that is north, he pointed right at the rising sun.

JimG Level 8 Sep 12, 2018
1

I don't have to worry about it, my wife taught me a long time ago that it's ok to ask for directions (I was shocked and I said..."oh!! Can we do that??"

1

Yes, In a place I never have been,when I can't see the sun or an stuck in a suburb area where the streets do not make sense. Siri and map quest have got me so turned around I got lost in a city I have never been in. In my case there are some cognitive factors (which may include shrinking hippocampus). I schedule extra time to be lost and leave markers when I go hiking to get back. Once I was lost and could not tell if I was going in circles but I was afraid I was so I had to tear bits of fabric of my undies to see if I was circling back. I like to get lost and see if I can find my way back. It has been a good outcome so far.

1

Yes, In a place I never have been,when I can't see the sun or an stuck in a suburb area where the streets do not make sense. Siri and map quest have got me so turned around I got lost in a city I have never been in. In my case there are some cognitive factors (which may include shrinking hippocampus). I schedule extra time to be lost and leave markers when I go hiking to get back. Once I was lost and could not tell if I was going in circles but I was afraid I was so I had to tear bits of fabric of my undies to see if I was circling back. I like to get lost and see if I can find my way back. It has been a good outcome so far.

1

I carry a Compass in my Harley-Davidson saddle-bags. When walking the streets I look for signs that say N
North, South, East and West

1

I completely understand. Manchester where I lived at a time is a city with many radials so all I had to do to get to the major shopping centre each week where I bought myself a new book and other treats was to cross a road and get on any bus which took me to Manchester Centre

    • then to get to the shops I had a choice, when I got off the bus of going right or left - every week i dithered not knowing which way to go - everything inside me was screaming go left so I always did and always ended up back at the bus station and I seriously couldn't learn to go right to the shops in the end I just accepted my limitations and did the round trip uncomplainingly
1

I live on a peninsula, I can't get too lost before I hit water, lol. But actually, as a kid, we used to play in the woods alot, we would make a game of tracking shadows to determine time of day, I suspect that enhanced my directional skills?

I have worked in aerial photography for over 15 years, I map out properties all the time to direct the pilot where to go and what photos to take; I have a visual imprint of the central Puget Sound region, so I have the opposite problem, I can't process verbal directions, I have to see it in my head, then I know exactly where I am going, and can use shadow direction to figure out compass points (which doesn't work so well at night).

@TroyBarber64

On North Queen Charlotte Island, British Columbia, locals told us to take a "shortcut" trail through the woods to get to a lovely ocean beach.

My husband Terry and I got hopelessly lost, following deer trails branching through the words.

On the tip of a peninsula, the sound of the Pacific Ocean was on three sides. After a few hours of stumbling through the woods, we lucked upon our motel. It was getting dark.

"Oh, joy! We're saved!"

1

I think I have a great sense of direction. My mother who used to do all the driving when I was a child, I had the map and we never got lost. We would argue all the time about which direction we should take. I should say that at the time when this was happening we were traveling from Los Angeles to Zuni, New Mexico, taking the long way so we could see what was there. GPS as far as I am concerned is almost worthless. Google maps works fine, as one can change the labels associated with what you want. I change these for people all the time. I cannot find a way to do this for GPS and the drivers who are delivering to our shop get lost. Kathleen do not feel bad, I worked at this for years. I am lousy at giving directions though if I have ever been to a place I can probably drive right to the place again.

@dalevictor

Very funny!

In college, Tim told me about navigating for his directionally-challenged parents, starting at age six. At first they didn't believe him because he was so young:

"Why are we driving across Tennessee, when we are going to Florida?"

...six year-old Tim piped up, standing in the back seat.

When Tim was eight, his parents trusted his navigational skills.

An emergency room physician, Tim was a genius with a photographic memory. He became my first husband.

1

@GipsyOfNewSpain

For my 60th birthday backpacking trip, I asked my boyfriend to do ONE thing: get Green Trails Maps in Seattle for the Necklace Valley.

Instead he brought me (as a gift) a one-pound GPS unit that ate batteries for lunch. I felt furious and disgusted. We needed those maps.

"I uploaded all of the Washington and Oregon trails," he bragged.

We couldn't find all of the beautiful lakes in Necklace Valley because the GPS didn't show them. It just showed the largest three lakes.

We couldn't get to the ethereal, always-frozen lakes near the pass, because the GPS didn't show it.

In the mountains, I'm not interested in staring down at a GPS device, following a damn arrow.

@LiterateHiker Tell me you left him over there with the GPS and no batteries.

1

I have an excellent sense of direction and a photographic memory. As long as my eyes were open during the whole trip, I can usually always tell which direction is north. I also remember to occasionally stop and turn around and take a mental picture when hiking. Coming back, the trail will often look completely different than when you passed going the other way.

@AndrewInVail

Lucky you. Like you, I turn around while hiking to check the view for the return.

One time, we wound up floundering through a big burn. The trail was obliterated. The man I was with was new to the area. He looked to me for directions.

I knew TWO THINGS:

  1. We needed to descend to the creek.

  2. Following the creek downstream will take us to the car.

Using these two principles, I led us down to the car.

1

I have a good sense of direction but for those who don't, always remember two wrongs do not make a right but three lefts will.(I grew up with two dimensional GPS aka maps)

1

In my youth, I had a great sense of direction.
Now, when we do a road trip.... my job is to keep us from getting killed with my driving. Linda's more important roll is navigator. Paper Maps, Google maps, and her command voice.... "Next exit! Take it!!"

1

I suspect it's a skill that has to be exercised and maintained. I used to go out with running clubs and it could be dark out, in an unfamiliar place, and I could see enough to make out a few landmarks, enough to get myself oriented. Now, I'm working in an office in the city and can't tell north from south and think it's because I know as much as I need to to get around.

0

"You don't have a bad sense of direction," my date said. ""A lot of people can't see their own house from the air."

With dancing happy feet, I was excitedly pointing out mountains and alpine lakes where I've hiked.

From the air, the terrain looks like a topographical map. I get lost on the ground.

In the winter, I study topographical maps of the mountains of North Central Washington, planning hikes.

At my request, we were flying west from Wenatchee over the Cascade Mountains in his private plane.

It was a spectacular, one-hour flight. I will never forget it.

0

The Sun Rises in the East and Sets in the West on a straight course every day. When you travel in the AM see where it is and in the afternoon look again. Its not you, Everyone has a lousy sense of direction.

@Nevermin345

In Washington State, the sun swings to the south as summer progresses into fall. I don't rely on the sun for navigation while hiking.

I love Green Trails Maps. I know how to use a compass and never hike alone.

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