Not that hard to tell directions even without a compass. The sun comes up in the east, sets in the west, and the ecliptic leans to the south in the northern hemisphere. You can set up a vertical stick and look at the shadow and how it moves over the course of 15 minutes to estimate the cardinal directions. From that you can set waypoints to walk toward and then again look at the shadow of a vertical stick to reorient yourself to a new waypoint. At night you have Polaris to tell you due north and knowing a few star patterns or simply watching the motion of the stars or moon will help you lay out the cardinal directions that you can use the next morning. You can also look for skyglow from cities to judge your location and which direction the glow is coming from.
NONE of the methods you mentioned work when the forest is so dense that you can't see the sun, let alone the sky. That was easily her case. Take a compass with you, but use it.