66 paces per 100 meters, and your map becomes an odometer
Plus the October weather that drops body temperature without a single snowflake.
Issue #065 Friday, October 23, 2026 Emergency Skills
A compass gives you direction and nothing else. Without a pace count, you can walk a perfect bearing and still have no idea when to stop.
Today’s Skill
Build your pace count on a track
Find a measured 100 meters. A high school track straightaway is exactly that. Walk it at your normal loaded stride and count every time your right foot lands. Do it three times and average. Most adults land between 60 and 70. Write that number on your compass with a paint pen. Now every bearing on the map carries a distance you can actually walk out.
On The Radar
Forty five degrees and soaked
Hypothermia does not wait for snow. Wet cotton, forty five degrees, and a little wind pull body heat faster than dry cold. Today, pack a wool hat, a dry synthetic top, and a contractor bag in every vehicle and day pack. Swap cotton socks for wool. If someone gets soaked, change them into dry layers right away and get them warm.
The Drill
Walk your hundred meters tonight
Before dark today, measure 100 meters with a tape, a track, or two known property lines. Walk it three times with your usual boots and pack on. Count right-foot strikes each trip. Average the three numbers and mark it on your compass and your map case. Then walk 300 meters by count alone and check where you landed.
Ready beats lucky.
- Survival Rise
P.S. Tomorrow: the three things in your pantry that quietly expire before spring.