Geospatially challenged, strong or average?

[shootingstar]

I'm probably geospatially-challenged. I'm the sort of person if there are 3 different subway exits, and I use an exit route that I normally don't use and end up on a street where I normally don't walk on, I have to think a minute where I am.

Last week, I went snowshoeing in the mountains with my partner. On the last day, he wanted to explore a piece at midway in the snow journey. So I said, ok and I'll just go back ..thinking I knew the route.

I got lost..for almost an hr. Getting lost on a mountain side, with more snowy hills, mountains ahead and ridges in below freezing temp. is different from getting lost on a bike. At least on roads, there's signage, etc.

I could hear the snowmobiles screaming around somewhere...but wasn't clear where to go to flag one down for directions. I wasn't feeling great and knew darkness would fall in less than 2 hrs.

Needless to say...I did get "found" by my partner who snowshoed downward to the hotel and then back up from the valley... after not finding me at hotel where we scheduled to check out in 2 hrs.

Cycling has helped me to feel more comfortable ...to get lost and to climb out of "lostness"....in order to explore the world on my own. It hasn't necessarily made me more geospatially stronger --yet.

[OakLeaf]

Oh, I'm hopeless. I'm really good at maps, really awful at remembering a route "freehand" (free-brain?). That's why God made GPS.

[Mr. Bloom]

Glad you weren't lost in the dark...but don't be too hard on yourself - what happened to you is very easy to have happen. That's what they make break crumbs for

[mimitabby]

Mr Silver, I'll fedex you some of those break crumbs.

[Eden]

Mr Silver, I'll fedex you some of those break crumbs.

That's the stuff thats all over my rims after a wet, gritty ride right?

[Andrea]

I'm very geospatially challenged! I actually got briefly lost on my local greenway one day

[Zen]

That's the stuff thats all over my rims after a wet, gritty ride right?

around here we use the mountains as a compass.
If you're actually in the mountains, well...

[Wahine]

I got this directly from an expert in the field.

"Self appraisal of sense of direction has minimal validity of actual wayfinding performance." The correlation is actually less than .3 on 4 different studies that are considered the definitve research in this area.

Cornell E H, Sorenson A and Mio T, 2003, Human Sense of Direction and Wayfinding, Annuls of the American Association of Geographers, 93, 402-428.

I have a history of excellent wayfinding performance myself. I like to drive DH crazy by taking new routes everywhere all the time until he's so confused he would have no way of finding his own way back.