Finding your North – "the moss ALWAYS grows"

Sometimes, we talk about a “moral compass” or “direction”. In Spanish, they call it, “finding your north”. Obviously it finds its origin in the literal, someone who is lost and needs to find his way. Whether morally or literally, you have to know where you’re going in life. However, even if we plan to know our way, there are times when we get lost. For many years people have known these skills out of necessity, but unfortunately access to modern equipment has made us grow complacent and reliant on such gadgets. Obviously your best option is to bring a compass, but if you break or lose it, you’ll be happy to know some simple skills to find your way back home.

Over the next few articles I want to take a look at different tools one can use to get a fix on where you are and where you’re headed starting with what to do when the sun isn’t out (after all, this is Seattle). Let’s start with the old saying

“The moss always grows on the North side of the tree”

Although it’s the best known, it’s not actually the easiest one to use, at least not in the Pacific Northwest!

Close up of a tree from a hiking trip in Well Grey Park, BC. The moss is clear on the north side.

The concept is fairly simple; the side of the tree that gets the most sun is typically dryer and moss prefers moisture. As you can guess, while in the Northern Hemisphere this would leave MORE moss on the north side of the tree. (However,  if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, like I am right now, then this tool would lead you South). You may have noticed that I said “more moss” earlier, that’s because in the costal Pacific Northwest you tend to encounter temperate rainforest where everything is wet! This makes it more difficult, but not impossible.

In extremely wet areas you’ll find moss all the way around the tree so look for the side where there is a larger quantity of moss and check a good number of trees. Choose a tree and make a note of what direction you think is north. After taking a sample of half a dozen to a dozen trees and combining your results you should be able to find a consensus as to which way is North.

As an aside, for those who travel to the southern hemisphere, the drier side of the tree would be the northern side. This means that in South America for example the moss grows on the south side of the tree. Don’t forget as you could get yourself more lost than you already were!

As with all tips, go out and give it a try fully equipped. Make it a family activity. Get the kids to choose 4 trees and decide which side has the most moss. When everyone is done, pull out your compass and see how they did. Skittles all round and you can be satisfied that your kids just might not get lost next time they’re out in the woods.