My Hunting Journey with OnX | by Mark Scheeren
My Hunting Journey with OnX
By Mark Scheeren
To get 20% off your first onX Elite Membership, use discount codes "ADK" or "BWB" at purchase.
I’ve never adapted to new technology very well. If you were to peer into my life and my belongings, you would find nearly everything I own, and how I use them harkens to a simpler time. I hunt with a lever action, I drive a pre-hybrid Toyota 4Runner, I wear plaid wool, and I use round nose ammo. And that’s just a cursory peek into my preferences for the outdoors.
Even my computer is organized by a simple file system - I dump all files onto my desktop, and search through the pile when looking for stuff. Most everything else is written in notebooks piled on my desk in the office. I’m simply not someone who embraces learning new tech, and based on my conversations with the public, I’m not the only one. So when Big Woods partnered with onX a decade ago, I was probably the last guy on the team to actually use it. I was skeptical to say the least.
How it Works
When BWB builds a partnership with another company in the hunting and outdoor space, the Team Members must already be using that product or service for a period of time. If it’s a lesser-known brand to the Team, Team Members are required to use it for a full season as a minimum to vet it, and decide if they want to stand behind it based on their results. onX was one of the first partnerships we forged in this way, and obviously our decade-long partnership tells the story - it works and we stand behind that proudly. And while everyone on the Team including old school guys like Hal and Lee Schanz immediately saw the value in navigating and using it for their guides and their outfitting businesses, I wasn't as convinced.
My Beloved Map and Compass
There is something powerful and nostalgic about mastering map and compass navigation in true big woods like the North Maine Woods or New York's vast unbroken Adirondack Mountain wilderness areas. I learned the map and compass in these places, and it formed a way of seeing the land, its features, and my presence within it, that is unique to the process itself.
Using a map and compass transfers the paper map and its representations into a map in your mind. As you orientate the map to the compass, the land and its features around you gain immediate context - you are able to imagine where and what is actually around you. In essence, without really being aware of it, you are forced to create a map in your mind. Because there is no GPS, your location isn’t drawn on the map in a dynamic moveable way as it is with onX. Consequently, you are forced as you move through the woods to really think and extrapolate your movements, and how you got to where you are, etc.
When I first began using onX, I felt that it took that intimate magic away. But this was just ignorance of the app and how it actually worked in a practical sense. As I was learning how to use it, my mind rebelled because, ironically, it made navigating so easy. I didn’t have to get the map memorized in my mind, because, well, I could just look at my phone and there I was, on the map, in real time. No memorizing, no conceptualizing needed. I didn’t even need to orientate the map. I could simply use the functions to point myself in any direction and go.
But this hand-held simplicity and power, at first, was something I found challenging. I struggled with the concept of not orienting my phone to the land as a means to see where I was going. (At the time I didn’t know there were directional features to simply point and go where I wanted, and to be honest I’m not sure I would have used them at the time if I did.) I can still remember watching Austin simply look at his phone and navigate through some pretty tough areas with simple glances at the app. Whenever we hunted together, I had him do all the navigating so I didn’t have to learn anything new on my phone. He kept telling me, “Dad, you have to relax and let the app be what it is. Have an open mind. You’ll end up liking it - I promise.”
Swamp-locked!
There’s a term we coined in the Scheeren camp - “swamp-locked." This is when you look out past a vly, you seek out the larger trees on the other side, determine that you can get across (rather than going all the way around the swamp), and start that direct journey through the wetland, only to discover that the other side is filled with a thick boreal nightmare worse than the part you just crossed.
Here’s the crazy part, in a lot of these situations, you could simply turn around and return to where you began, and go around the whole mess. But no…instead, you fall into the emotional trap that you’ve invested the pain thus far, and it’s probably just past that next alder patch that dry hardwoods exist. This is the lie we tell ourselves, and before you realize it, you're swamplocked! Two beaver bogs later, with spruce needle scratches on your face and arms, a ripped jacket and water logged boots, you finally reach a hill that’s somewhat easier to walk through. You sit there and wonder to yourself, “What the f#$k was that!”
Well, 2 years into my introduction with onX, I was in the middle stages of getting myself swamp-locked deep in the Adirondacks. Snow was melting off the trees (meaning I was absolutely soaked to the bone), the sun was behind the mountain already and getting lower, and I still had 3 tough miles to the truck. The temperature was dropping fast, I was beginning to shiver, it was a new area that I’d never been in before, and I couldn’t see more than 5 feet in any direction.
I’ll be honest, as many times as I’d been in that very situation, I felt a little ring of panic as dark was settling in. It had been tight spruce and deadfall for the last half mile up to that point and I was getting stumbly tired. I was mad at myself for getting into the mess. I didn’t have any food left, and I could tell I was not in the best condition for this kind of physical assault this late in a long tracking day. So I did something I’d never done before - I pulled out my map and compass, orientated the map, and then out of sheer curiosity, I compared what I saw on paper with what I was looking at on the onX app on my phone.
The first thing I realized was the difference I felt emotionally looking at the phone and knowing exactly where I was at that moment compared to when I looked at the map. When staring at the paper I knew basically where I was, but the difference in feeling reassured with the app and my location being accurately presented right there in front of me, was pretty illuminating. Next, I realized I could zoom in for more detail on the app. Of course you can't do that on a paper map. This made all the difference!
By zooming in, I was able to find a small thin finger of what turned out to be a 15 foot high by ¼ mile exposed granite ridge that flowed uphill and into a hardwood bowl. This piece headed east from where I was, and the truck was south. However, by taking this route, I was pulled up and out of the lowland hell, and was able to make it to the hardwood mountainside heading southwest before it was completely dark. None of this escape route even showed up on the paper map - the contour lines were too big.
If I’d only had the map and compass and no onX that day I would have had about ¾ of a mile more hell to walk through heading directly south, but half of it would have been in the dark, and it would have been really quite miserable and frankly dangerous. I would have known with certainty that I could get to the truck - God knows I’d taken difficult routes like this many times before. But, the difference between the onX path and that more direct southerly brutal route was absolute night and day. I was seriously happy to have onX that day. I forgot about any preconceived notions I had about the app, and just followed my phone to the safe route out. That was the day I understood that not all tech is bad. I embraced it and have ever since.
With all this said, do I ever use a map and compass when hunting the big woods? Yes, I have, but mainly for simple practice and nostalgia. I also always carry a map and compass of the specific area I’m hunting just in case my phone or GPS fail for some reason. I do suggest that everyone take a map and compass course, and learn to build a map in your head by using one. This skill really helps you understand the vastness and sizes of terrain and forest features. Once this understanding is learned, you can’t unlearn it - it’s with you for life and it becomes intuitive. A result of this intuitive understanding is that the onX app becomes even more applicable and thus powerful in your ability to hunt without the fear of getting lost or the simple fear of the forest itself.
Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
So can you teach an old dog new tricks? Absolutely, and I’m a prime example. I use onX on every hunt I go on now. I use it for remote tent hunting prep. I use it to know where property boundaries are when hunting and scouting in NY’s Southern Zone. I use it to lengthen my hunting day because I know I can get out of the big woods efficiently. I use it to relive a tracking day by using the tracks feature and then studying the route when back at camp. And on and on. The point is, just because we might have certain notions about technology, doesn’t necessarily mean those notions are 100% valid.
So, will I trade in my map and compass for onX every time? Probably not every time, but I will say that my maps and my compass are now just there for emergencies and reliving the past skills from time to time. In that same way, I hope you give onX a try, you might find that it makes the hunt a better experience all around - I sure did.
To get 20% off your first onX Elite Membership, use discount codes "ADK" or "BWB" at purchase.
