It was all about "staying found."
Seventeen members of the Carrabassett Valley Outdoor Association took a three-hour                    
course recently on map and compass reading.
From azimuths to bearings to bevels, the group learned the lingo and the techniques needed to plot a course -- and then find their way back home.
The class was sponsored by the Department of Conservation Forestry Service and taught by Patty Cormier, who taught a GPS course for CVOA last spring.
Chanting "red in the shed" and "black in back," CVOA members maneuvered around the Sugarloaf hotel and outdoors in the parking lot area, setting their pace, focusing their compass, charting their course.  
They learned about declinations, the difference between true north and magnetic north, how to convert azimuths to bearings .. and then convert back.
"An awesome class," said Nelson Camp, who organized the course for CVOA.