Couple things here.
I used to hike with my Dad in Glacier Park. He was a hunter, pretty hard core for a few years until he got what he wanted. But we'd tend to take the steepest routes with the biggest rewards, heading out at O Dark. One thing that struck me when we'd get closer to civilization was the lack of appropriate gear by the vast majority of other "hikers" we'd be meeting on our way back. Sandals? Flipflops? No water. Oh, but they'd have that can of bear whiz, you betcha.
As for navigation, again, Dad was an exemplar because he'd been a pilot. We both loved maps, and when I'd "copilot" because there was an extra seat on a one-way charter, all the way back he'd hit me with "Where are we? What's that river? What light is that?" If I didn't respond immediately, I didn't get to fly any more. So I got pretty good at it. Some years later on a transcontinental airline flight was double overcast, I figured we were over Wyoming somewhere and there was a gap in the clouds, I looked at the pattern of snowdrifts and pinged the stewardess: "Could you ask the pilot if we just went over Rock Springs?" She goes up, comes back with her eyes wide open, and says, "Yep we did. How did you do that?" Well, I could see the ground for like 30 seconds and that was enough.
