The next idiot that has to get hauled out of the woods horizontally because he blindly trusted his GPS, or worse, his celphone, will not be the last. Natural selection in action. There’s plenty of good books on the subject, but here’s some basics.

“Once you’re outdoors, you can’t rely on technology anymore,” says Christiaan Adams, developer advocate for Google Earth. Being able to read a good old-fashioned paper map is one of the most fundamental outdoor skills. In case you never learned or need a refresher, here are the basics.