Maps or GPS?

[SpencerT]

Does everyone here a GPS or regular maps when they go on a road trip? Seems like everyone I know uses a GPS system so are maps becoming outdated just as cassette tapes did? Honestly, I don't think it's a bad idea to keep an atlas in the car that has a map of all the states just in case something happens with the GPS.

[Grandpa]

Maps are still in existence. Even diehard GPS users carry maps in the backcountry as backups. As one wit put it, maps are a backpackers pornography.

[Bojib]

I definitely like the ease and convenience of having a GPS.

I still carry a map with me though. Never know what will happen with a GPS.

[hiking_and_biking]

Originally Posted by SpencerT

Does everyone here a GPS or regular maps when they go on a road trip? Seems like everyone I know uses a GPS system so are maps becoming outdated just as cassette tapes did? Honestly, I don't think it's a bad idea to keep an atlas in the car that has a map of all the states just in case something happens with the GPS.

We have a GPS that we depend on more than anything, but we do have a state map in the dash, just in case the GPS were to ever quit working.

[Grandpa]

Sad GPS story here. This spring an elderly couple from Canada were going to a business meeting in Arizona. They had a gps in the van and were zigzagging around seeing the sights. The gps showed a road "between here and there" so they took it. The gps did not tell them the road went from pavement to gravel to mud and over a high pass that is snowbound until July. So after traveling 100 miles over S. Idaho high desert they were only 20 miles from the next town, on the Nevada side of the line, when the van got stuck in the mud. The gps did not tell them that 20 miles was over a high snowbound pass or that the town was population 7, so the husband headed that way for help. Forty seven days later, shed hunters on 4 wheelers found the woman, still alive but barely and saved her. They still haven't found her husband. Don't put your life in the hands of something that might fail.

[state_camper]

We use both. We like the convenience of the GPS, but not wanting to become a horror story like the one Grandpa just told, we also bring along a paper map of the route we're planning to take from point A to point B. We keep state maps in the glove compartment and we Mapquest our trip, too, so we actually have 3 references to go by.

[rockclimbing_n_rappelling]

Originally Posted by SpencerT

Does everyone here a GPS or regular maps when they go on a road trip? Seems like everyone I know uses a GPS system so are maps becoming outdated just as cassette tapes did? Honestly, I don't think it's a bad idea to keep an atlas in the car that has a map of all the states just in case something happens with the GPS.

We use a GPS when we go on road trips, but we always keep an up-to-date paper map in the glove compartment, just in case.

[Bojib]

Originally Posted by state_camper

We Mapquest our trip, too, so we actually have 3 references to go by.

That brings up a good point too. When we go somewhere, we do the same thing. So we have a written copy too.

Even when hiking, I have a list of the important waypoints written down, usually on the back of the map, or in a logbook/journal I take with me. On the front of the map I have the waypoints marked as well. That way, if anything happens with the hand held GPS I still have the important information for back up.

[oldsarge]

I like the GPS, but will always have a map in addition to it.

[Refrigerator]

I always use both