our course
Our testimonials are feedbacks from some of our past students who chose to write to us. They are unedited comments. They express both satisfaction and sometimes pointed dissatisfaction. We include everything that we have received so that we can give you honest and direct opinions.
The testimonials are grouped by courses and arranged in reverse chronological order, with the most recent course first.
If you would like to share your own experience, send a note along with the name and the date of the course to mail@hike101.com
Navigation Basic (May 20, 2009)
- Thanks for running the course. Although I was already familiar with the basic idea of topo maps it was useful to me to go through them in greater detail. The scale visualizations and drawing exercises helped me better understand the variations that can occur between features on the map and the reality of the landscape.
Navigation Intensive (May 9, 2009)
- Thanks a lot for this great course! We really enjoyed it. Will spread the word for you...
Nov 30, 2008
-
we would like to say 'Thank you' again for the ability to take part in your very interesting navigation course. We learned and refreshed a lot on how to use maps and a compass and we definitely improved our navigation skills. Thank you also for the book recommendations.
With regard to your questions:
Important points to us were:
How to read a map and identify a specific feature such as a valley, ridge, or pass.
How to use a compass (we were in particular surprised how easily a compass can show the wrong direction when brought close to watches, cell phones, and other metal things).
We know that we ran out of time on Sunday, however spending more time on how to use the compass may be beneficial.
We also would have been interested in route finding on a map and how one can plan a route between two points.
Many thanks again! -
First thanks very much for the course. It will serve a very good starting point for me as a beginner hiker. Thanks. As for the feedback, please see the follows:
> What are the two most important points that you learned?
How to get started reading a topo map & when avanlanche happens, well, it never relates to the course, but I remembered it well & hiking speed & time calculation.
> What were the two muddiest points in the course?
Triangulation method & find the exact postion in the topo from the appealing pictures.
> What would make the course clearer to you?
Maybe the students have a bit more knowledge of the topo map, so that will leave more time on the compass navigation part, which I find it confusing for someone that have never used compass before. -
Thanks so much for teaching the course today we really enjoyed it and are looking forward to getting outside to practice!
Here is our feedback:
1) All the functions of the compass, how to do triangulation, and all the intricacies of reading a topo map. (We chose three!)
2) How a map and a compass work together, angle of declination - I understand what it is but I don't fully grasp how to deal with it.
3) A little more practice on adjusting for declination, a little more practice on using the compass and the map together.
The course was great and we loved all the activities, materials, and questions. Thanks so much and hope to see you out on a hike some time.
Oct 19, 2008
-
The most important things I learned was how to set the declination, how to triangulate and how to interpret contour lines.
I wish there had been a little bit more time spent on the first two items and a little bit less time spent on the latter.
Thank you again for putting on the course!
Oct 5, 2008
- Thank you for a really great morning yesterday - your navigation course was very helpful and I am looking forward to putting it into practice!
July 5, 2008
- Although this is very late, I would like to thank your for your time and your instruction. It was very helpful.
- I can hardly wait to go over the notes. Your course is a great help.
-
Thank you so much for teaching the course! You are very kind to do that! It really helped to solidify some of the things I already knew but also I learned a lot of new things too! Hope to see you on some hikes at some point!
Thanks again!
May 17, 2008
- I took your navigation course about a month ago! I'm excited to say I'm going to be using those skills (with a more experienced person) this weekend... and on the water. We've just met to look at maps and talk about navigation... and I felt I at least had a clue what was being discussed.
- Thanks again for the course: now I know at least how much I don't know.
-
Thank you so much for the wonderful gift you gave to me yesterday - your knowledge,
patience and time. I truly appreciate it. I learned so much, and yes, realize I have a
lot more to learn. As I often have the need to head out on my own for a bit
(and I had that need yesterday), it is quite valuable and necessary for me to know how to navigate.
My trip back from Dog Mountain was interesting in the fact that I was much more aware
of landmarks and directions than I have been in the past.
Thanks again.
Jan 19, 2008
- I just wanted to say thanks for teaching the course on saturday. There was a lot of new stuff for me, but I'm less intimidated by using maps and a compass now and am looking forward to learning more and getting to use it. You're a patient and thorough teacher - it was very easy to learn from you.
Dec 9, 2007
- Thanks for taking the time to teach us about navigation today. I really enjoyed it and of course learned lots of good things. Gotta practice some more with calculating positioning etc. but I am sure that won't take too long.
Oct 31, 2007
-
First off, I'd like to thank you for an outstanding course. I learned a lot while I was there.
I really appreciated getting the notes beforehand so that I could feel more prepared while I was there. This also helps because people have different styles of learning, some by seeing, some by hearing.
I also appreciated your patience when some things needed to be explained or shown several times over. It's very obvious that you have teaching experience.
I also appreciate offering opportunities for breaks
The one thing that I think could be adjusted is I think there would be value of even spending a short time out of the coffee shop with a compass. This would provide people who have sat for four hours a chance to move and get the blood moving to the brain again.
Overall the class was excellent and I appreciate your sharing of your skills and knowledge. -
Thank you so much for everything yesterday. I really enjoyed it, and it was a big help to refresh my skills after so many years of not using them :) Your organized notes, discussions and examples were great! I hope to be able to pass them on to others as well...
I think you've gone about it the right way with giving people handouts before so that they can come better prepared. It helped a lot. I suppose the only suggestion I would have (as I mentioned to you) is maybe to have some sort of sculping media (clay, play dough) for the 3D visualizations. It's sometimes difficult for people to conceptualize 3D on a 2D piece of paper. You could even ask participants to bring some if they can maybe? -
Thank you for the navigation course. It's very generous of you to spend the time and effort to share the information and your experience with us. I find it very useful and think now it's my turn to put that into practice.
Thanks again.
Oct 13, 2007
-
Thank you very much for organizing and leading through the Navigation course. I learnt a lot about maps, navigation and how to use a map together with a compass. Your teaching pace was very good and I liked the way you made us repeat the content by asking questions. That actually showed that some parts were not as clear to me as I had orginally thought. :-)
Now, with the days getting colder, you may want to consider teaching your course at a closed room, maybe a coffee place? Or, and I actually prefer this: why don't you organize a hike and have your participants practice hands-on? Maybe starting with an introduction at the trailhead? The benefits: your group is moving and won't get cold. And another benefit is that you actually have thousands of navigating possibilities.
Sept 29, 2007
-
I really appreciated the course - just think, if it hadn't been for you and your knowledge, if I had used my compass I would have been 20 degrees off as I would have added another 20.
My wish list would be a PDF version of your notes so I could print them off myself -
Thank you for offering the navigation course and I think you did a great job.
It gave me the knowledge of how to begin to use the compass and read the map. Practices make perfect. I think it will be fun offering a hike (in a better weather condition) and apply what we had learned (for the people who had some idea of how to read map and use the compass). For myself, I think it will make the hike more meaningful and fun instead it is just following the person in front of me.
If you offer the course in Oct, it would be helpful if you put some calculation examples in the note. So people have something to refer to. The second part, may be a hike to practice what we’ve learned. It is just a suggestion.
Thanks again, -
Very good course.
The weather wasn't the best though.
I was never in boy scouts or anything like that, so all my learning has been in bits and pieces.
This intro has given me inspiration to learn more of it. I've looked up a lot already on the net in regards to the topic.
The hand outs were good too. - Thanks so much - they are an excellent reference - I'm so glad I came out to your course as you were able to answer some questions I was really unsure about - I can hardly wait to practice.
- thank you so much for taking your time to teach this course. I found it was very enjoyable and I learned so much! I thought the information offered was excellent and covered everything I wanted to know at a good pace. I liked how the teaching was combined with the exercises. I can't think of any area requiring improvement .