Navigation - How far?

Distances

So you know which direction you are going but how do you know how far you have gone to make that next course change?

When planning the route the easiest way is to always make course changes at a recognisable landmark. This is not always possible or desirable as it may mean walking extra distance. Common ways of judging how far you have travelled are

Counting paces - this method just involves counting how many steps you make. To help you keep count there are various devices on the market that do it automatically for you.

You do however need to know how far you travel for each of your paces.
Do a calibration walk by walking along a known distance and counting the paces or measuring how far you travelled in 20 or more paces with a measuring wheel or tape.
Pace length is Distance / no of paces.
Ideally you should calibrate over a reasonable distance or number of paces to average out any differences in pace length. Note also that the distance you travel on the flat is different that that travelled on a slope or uneven terrain.

Once you have your pace length calculated then the rough distance you travelled is no of paces * pace length
Triangulation - this method involves taking the bearing of two or more landmarks. You are at the point on the map where the two bearings cross.
See Reading a Compass Bearing for how to take bearings and Plotting a Compass Bearing on a Map for transferring the bearings to a map.
Use a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit. These units use satellites to automatically triangulate your position and can calculate distance travelled from one point to another.