SUN JOURNAL • June 27, 2021
When Wil Libby gets to teaching old-school land navigation, he really knows how to work the imagination. In some classes, Libby describes being lost at Baxter State Park and trying to navigate around ponds and streams to get back to the campsite. An Army veteran, guide and former Boy Scout himself, has been teaching navigational skills to a variety of groups. Scouts, Maine Guides preparing for their tests, veterans, trail builders, you name it. The art of personal navigation is a critical life skill, Libby is pretty clear on that front. But it can also be a sport. They call it orienteering and Libby supplies the explanation. “Orienteering is using a compass along with what you see on the terrain to find your way through the countryside. And now there’s another level of that: the sport of orienteering, where it builds a competition on those principals.”