Can you feel north?

[2RR2NV]

i wouldn't say i know which way is north per se, but i do know where i am goin. i've tried to get lost and it don't work. i just think for a moment and i can pretty much figure out which way i need to head...not necessarily which Direction...(N, S, etc) i pretty much figured that skill out when i was 8 yrs old and my parents were trying to decide which was the best way on the I-system or back roads to get to Wash D.C. i looked at the map, looked at signs and whatnot and told them to go "thatta way". surprisingly, they listened to me and tried it. i guess they just wanted to humor me, but lo n behold, we popped right out in downtown D.C., right where we wanted to be. after that, anywhere we went on vacation, i got automatic shotgun. WOOOHOOO..pissed off my siblings. still works pretty good today. as i get older, i have to think a lil longer to get my bearings. last vacation to WI, the wife n I didn't have maps with us (cause i know the route in my sleep), and wouldn't ya know it, we get a dang detour. wife was starting to freak out, but i pretty much just said trust me, i'll get us around it. took some different turns and finally ended up in 1 of the towns OTW still on schedule. Loved it. wife didn't but at least her stress level dropped.

[jay547]

i believe that i have the internal compass but it probably helps that i am a licensed land surveyor.

[Leanintree]

I usually have that feeling, but it may have something to do with being raised in the mountains. Just an awareness of what ranges are around me, and my relation to them. A few years ago, I went out to the plains (Eastern CO near Nebraska) and it wasn't as easy as I thought. No instinctive knowledge, and no landmarks to ping off of. Oh, and the roads were all straight. Weirded me right square out.
Leanintree

[Mydlyfkryzis]

In the northeast, the trees tend to have moss growing on the north side of them. So, it is subtle, but just looking at a tree can suggest a northerly direction.

[Johnny Monsoon]

Of course you can feel north: we all have a deposit of metal in the tip of our noses (no kidding) which makes us 'feel' north.

I'm 100% serious here; we all have an iron deposit (I believe it is iron anyway) in the tips of our noses.  I understand that it's something we share with all vertebrae.

[jay547]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/17/the_odd_body_nose_compass/

[Mac]

I can feel up and down real good.

[bubba zanetti]

Ahh ... Canada ... yes ... you can feel its attraction !!  ....  

[Thor]

Nope.  No sense of direction at all.  Bring me to an unfamiliar shopping mall, spin me around twice, and it may be a very long time before I find my bike again.

Just the other night I was driving home from teaching a class at a college I don't normally teach.  I was supposed to go South on the highway 1/2 mile and exit East.  I just kept going South.  It took me about 10 miles of driving to realize I was going the wrong way.

I scare me sometimes.

(Maybe it's because my nose was broken as a kid.)

[Mac]

Ahh ... Canada ... yes ... you can feel its attraction !!  ....  

It must be the Borscht.

[Hillbilly_on_Speed]

No, I have absolutely no sense of direction.

[Against The Wind]

Yep I think so. I'm rarely in a situation where I get disoriented but it does happen. I also think there are lots of subconscious clues.