If the "old surveyor" may add to this, I learned w-a-y back an easy way to pace. First off you need to measure off 100 feet with a tape on a sidewalk or other flat surface. Grass is fine, put a stake in the ground at the beginning and end of your 100'. Just measure it as close as you can. Then, with you toes at one mark, start walking towards the other with you normal stride! The tendency is to exaggerate the length of stride, but you can't keep that up for any long distance. if you start off bringing the left foot forward, when it hits the ground say "and". The next step, when your right foot hits the ground, say "five". again, when the left foot hits the ground say "and", and when the right foot hits the ground say "ten". Keep increasing in increments of five when the right foot hits the ground until you get to the end of your 100 foot distance.
Most people will be at 95, or the "and" before or after it when they get to the 100' mark. Now turn around and do it again, starting from scratch. The final pace should be pretty close to what you ended up with the first time. And that's it. You have "calibrated" your pacing. The beauty of it is that if you need to go, say 225 feet, you go from your starting point with "and five, and ten, and fifteen.... and 95" (or whatever your 100' pace was), at which point you start over. After you hit the second 95, which is about 200' from where you started, you do it again but stop when your foot hits the ground at 25 and you are darned close to 225 feet from where you started. Do remember that when going up or down hill your stride will be shorter, so throw in a fudge factor for that and add one or two steps to your "and ninety-fives" (depending on how steep it is) until the ground levels out again.
The only problem I have had with this has been keeping track of the 100' lengths. I was doing it on my fingers but would lose count when I paced a long distance needing many "and ninety fives". The answer to this came in the form of "Ranger Beads". Google the term if you're not familiar with them and you will find where to buy them and how to make them. I regularly check my pacing on the local Rails-to-Trails bicycle path which has posts every 1/2 mile, and am usually within 100' of the 2640' half mile distance.
In fact, my usual walk with the dogs here in Chauncey paced out at around 6000', so a little over a mile. I borrowed the measuring wheel from work one day and used that to check the distance, starting at the bottom step of my porch. It clicked over 6000' exactly when I bumped the wheel against that step. But then again, I've been pacing like this for 50 years now so I would expect to get pretty fair accuracy.
I hope this makes sense and is useful to folks. Just remember not to exaggerate your steps and you too can amaze people with your pacing skills. And thanks to Doc Mendenhall at the University of Alaska for teaching us this!
~Kees~
Topic: Paces To Yards Chart (Read 156 times)