Interesting. I've spent a lot of time "bushwhacking" off trail in our wilderness areas and one of the things I learned early on was to make a point to focus on landmarks, and more importantly, to turn around and look at where I'd just been so I could recall it on the way back because it's a completely different view.
It's a lot easier to travel off trail in areas with hills and hollows than flat lands with little variation in terrain and flora, and a compass makes a huge difference in that case, but even then stopping and turning around to look for something even a bit out of the ordinary can make a huge difference in rather you begin to panic over being lost or not.
> and more importantly, to turn around and look at where I'd just been so I could recall it on the way back because it's a completely different view.
This is thing I always forget. I have a pretty good sense of direction and spatial memory and knowing where I am and where I'm supposed to be going.
But I realized that if there's a road I'm often driving on back and forth, mentally, for me, the two directions might as well be two completely different roads. If I'm going in one direction, I have a really hard time knowing where I would be if I would turn around in the middle of it. I can't "connect" my two mental maps of going in each direction.
...compared to if it's a road I would walk along, because I turn around more often, look around more often, and then my mental map isn't two disconnected "tunnels", but a whole area.
It's a lot easier to travel off trail in areas with hills and hollows than flat lands with little variation in terrain and flora, and a compass makes a huge difference in that case, but even then stopping and turning around to look for something even a bit out of the ordinary can make a huge difference in rather you begin to panic over being lost or not.