Ditch the GPS!

ski3pin

ski3pin

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Here's an interesting opinion article from the Washington Post -

Ditch the GPS. It's Ruining Your Brain


Some of my favorite stories are about being asked by fellow travelers on 395 - in cell dead zones - "Where am I?" They are all relying on cell phones for navigation - that happy voice saying "Turn here." Old fashion basic skills - and using a bit of our brains - are disappearing. I happily remain a luddite.
 
I’m still going to use both GPS and paper. I can be a bit of a retro grouch, but the GPS comes in handy at times, in particular when finding an address.

Now I have to complain about paper... I bought three new Oregon back country maps, and the price went up $2.00 :p
 
As I'm reading this I'm setting up an iPad to be a scrolling map GPS. I carry Benchmark & DeLorme paper maps. The GPS confirms where I think that I am on the paper.
 
I'm the opposite. After decades of map, altimeter and compass and teaching navigation courses, I'm lovin' the GPS. My brain cells are fading due to age, but the basic skills are locked in tight, fortunately. It's like riding a bike. Um... how do you turn those pedals again? Uh-oh, time for an electric bike! OK, I'm not quite ready for an E-bike...
 
I use iPhone Maps verbal directions in unfamiliar cities. I don't have a navigator so having to juggle a map, drive, and look for road signs is a recipe for an accident. But I prefer maps in the back country. BUT I always have my Garmin active when hiking; I have had to get back to camp in close to zero visibility more than once.
 
I got an eye roll and a sigh from a younger fellow when I told him we use a Garmin GPS when traveling along with paper maps. I told him we use the phone for trips around cities but out in the boonies it simply doesn't work, especially if you want to change your route because the road is closed or whatever. He travels all over the world but never leaves coverage it seems.

The wife insists on verifying GPS directions with the paper map. Haven't caught any big mistakes yet, but sometimes the algorithm can choose an odd path with many turns to save a couple of minutes or miles. OTOH, we've found some interesting places that we would have bypassed had we stuck to what looked like the obvious path on the map.

Best thing about GPS is comparing its distance to a town with a gas station to the range display on the truck when far from civilization. Comforting.

Alan
 
Maybe I use the GPS differently. I map out the route at home, studying maps and guidebooks. Then upload it to our Gaia app. Of course, sometimes roads are closed and we have to backtrack and find another route, but I don't generally do routing on the fly (off pavement anyway). I do the same for hiking and bike riding. These methods don't rely on cellular service since the routes are uploaded to a device at home. Well, I put it on multiple devices except for bike riding cuz I like backups.

Our truck has mapping but it's kinda crummy. Works ok for seeing roads and it seems to have most off pavement roads.

Oops, thread drift. The topic was supposed to be about NOT doing this!
 
I fall on the 'I really like my GPS' side.

Most of my travels have historically been with my wife. She loves to navigate so we'd decide on a general idea of how we want to get somewhere and she'd make it happen. I'd get state road maps and DeLorme Gazetteers and we'd make a very general route plan. We'd outline the next day's route in more detail each evening and she'd keep us on track. (And I enjoy finding old maps with her highlighting on them).

We went to Florida one winter and when the next winter came, I assumed we'd go again as we had really enjoyed it. But she's a been-there-done-that sort and has her own winter projects. So I was on my own. That's when I decided I needed a GPS for turn-by-turn navigation. It's easy enough for me to get to Florida-- it's pretty much just an 850-mile drive down the interstate. But once I'm there I put on another three to four thousand miles driving all over the state for a month or so before I head home. My GPS is invaluable for the ad-hoc nature of that. I don't know where I'm going to be from day to day (sometimes from hour to hour) so when I decide I want to go to a specific place, Michelle helps me out. (The name of the voice I use on my GPS is "American English - Michelle").

I also sometimes like to use Apple Maps turn-by-turn directions on the iPad mini4 I have mounted beside the steering wheel. I call that one Chatty Cathy as her directions are more verbose than Michelle's. I tend to use that one if I have traffic concerns. During rush hour in Orlando one day last March, I had both Michelle and Cathy going and Apple's routing was taking traffic into account but Garmin's was taking me into the big jam-up I could see ahead on Apple Maps. (My Garmin Montana doesn't do traffic)

I also use the iPad with Earthmate, Allstays, GaiaGPS, and MapMe maps when I'm driving in more remote areas but those aren't auto-routing (turn-by-turn) maps so I'm not sure they'd be part of the discussion.

I've also noticed that my trust in finding my way with GPS isn't shared. When we were about to be kicked out of our Outer Banks rental last September because of an approaching hurricane, I figured we'd take the lower bridge off the Outer Banks and let the GPS route us to our destination. But my wife and her brothers stayed up late figuring out each turn and the distance between turns for the whole route.

Also--- I'm not sure I agree with the article's premise. Do we really do that much driving to new places? Don't most of us spend the greater part of our lives driving familiar routes and only occasionally need to turn to a map or GPS? Even if we take long trips, it still doesn't add up to all that much does it?

.
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I've found my magellan TRX7 (I think thats the model) useful yet unreliable. It helped me find my campsite by Flagstaff when I foolishly didn't have NF maps (and the benchmark atlas was less than helpful) yet on the way out it told me to turn left where there was no road. Helped me find a Walmart yet told me the wrong way to the fairgrounds. I'm stubborn, if I think I know better I ignore the gps.

I like paper maps for trip planning but unfolding a paper map in the cab while driving, well its problematic to say the least. I miss the days when I was the family navigator. Riding shotgun with a map in my hands.
 
I notice that all who have posted, no matter the tools used, are engaging their brains in the process. That's the important point.
 
Still using paper maps and Benchmark map books, especially for planning. I’ve just dipped my toe in the water with a new Dual gps puck and iPad loaded with the Gaia freebie app. I’m trying to drag myself into the new century.
 
Seems like this subject comes up allot around here :rolleyes:! Still old school for me(mostly)! I had a job with the BLM before GPS that required I know where I was at (most of the time) so I could record what I found so we manage, etc., it properly. My major recreation was/is backpacking where again map reading skills we also required if you expected to come back in one piece. There is also something about sitting down with a bunch of maps and planning out a trip somewhere and then heading out and using those maps and a compass and straight edges to get somewhere. Maybe it's the feel of the paper or something ( still read real books not E-books). All that said, GPS made things much easier as long as you remembered to have back up batteries and could see the sky! I still carry an old Garmin GPS as a back up to my paper maps and it never hurts to know where you are in the checker boarded lands (fed/state/private) many of us play in. As some have said, GPS has a use in cities and the such, but I don't go there unless I have too!

Many people who do not regularly play where we do ( and some who do), also do not understand about using maps in general. I don't know how many times I got stopped over the years my some lost hunters, camper or someone who took the wrong turn out there asking where they were! A quick and funny story. A while back we had a dude ranch (of all things) that provided the "Cowboy" experience to people from back east and the world I guess. Anyway, part of the experience was to go on a real trail drive with cows, cowboys and all the trimmings; because most of the drive was over BLM land they needed a permit from us. We then worked with the ranch and meet them out there at their camping spot and gave some talks about the area, history, etc.,a good learning experience for the greenhorns about life out west. Our area has a very rich history of early trail drives from the California Central Valley to the mining camps in Idaho and Montana and the gold fields of Nevada.

Well one time, some of our guys went out to the camping place to meet the herd. They waited and waited and waited ....and no herd! So my word, we know they left they ranch so I guess we had a lost herd out there somewhere on the range. So the call went out and everyone started looking for the lost herd and they eventually found it. It seemed that the trail boss took a wrong turn somewhere-the normal story-no need of a map, much less GPS, he'd been that way a thousand times (something we have been guilty of too). Yep-we all can make mistakes, and in this instance no harm was done, so no new folk songs about the lost herd wandering around the high high deserts of the Great Basin (no new ghost riders in the sky) :(.

Smoke
 
GPS is no substitute for map and compass skills, but it's really quite handy.

The ability to research obscure locations online, and save some waypoints to your tablet or phone is a real breakthrough.

I've got a banker's box of topo maps in the closet, but the entire states of CA,OR and NV in my pocket with Delorme/Garmin. I'm ready for impromptu travels, offline too.
 
Lighthawk said:
I've got a banker's box of topo maps in the closet, but the entire states of CA,OR and NV in my pocket with Delorme/Garmin.
Click to expand...
Yes. What I like about Gaia is having multiple maps. I really like the historic 1915 and 1930 60' maps. It's fun to follow where you are in the boonies and see if others were doing it 100 years ago (probably with mules). Also having the US Forest Service maps, USGS 15' series, satellite photos in rare cases, and even the simpler digitized maps that were crowd sourced that are perhaps more accurate of man-made features like roads and trails is all a lot of fun. The National Park maps are really handy in places like Death Valley and Mojave Preserve. And all of it in your pocket. Maps are so much fun, either on screen or on paper.

I have drawers full of topo maps, sure spent a lot on 'em back in the day. Also drawers of old maps I bought on Ebay and junk stores. But I'm not looking at them as much as before.
 
Lighthawk said:
GPS is no substitute for map and compass skills, but it's really quite handy.
Click to expand...
Exactly my contention for many years now--there is no complete substitute for a map, a compass, and the skills to use them.

For a dozen years or so, my very practical-minded baby boy (actually a 6'3" 225 lb former Navy Seabee) has said "I love my iPhone, but it makes me stupid". That's about right, son!

Foy
 
Foy said:
For a dozen years or so, my very practical-minded baby boy (actually a 6'3" 225 lb former Navy Seabee) has said "I love my iPhone, but it makes me stupid". That's about right, son!

Foy
Click to expand...
Ah, getting back to the point of the article.

An additional point, unrelated to the article but involves choice of tools, that is on the top of our list of survival rules - never trust your life to something that runs on batteries.
 
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