Maps or GPS?

[oldsarge]

Originally Posted by 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.

I don't think a map would have helped them either. Sometimes people just don't know when to make a judgement call and turn back. Hind sight is 20/20, we can always look back and say something about what happened . It's a tragic and sad event, but you hear more and more about folks getting lost and blaming it on a GPS. There were some women in a car that turned down a road and right off a boat ramp, "They thought the road was under water" Then why try and drive it? Who puts a road under water, other than the Viet Cong running supplies down the Ho Chi Min Trail. People! Stop and think!!!!

[Johnny]

First of all I bring a map, then compass, then GPS. But I always keep small button compass in my pocket just in case. It's not precise as you would expect but it can offer some help.

[ppine]

I have recently become a fan of GPS for some remote locations. Always carry a map however to avoid gross-level errors, the kind that can get you in trouble. The only people that get lost on the way to my house are the ones that rely on a GPS alone.

We are still looking for the Canadian guy who got lost in NE Nevada last spring by following a GPS that does not recognize the road hierarchy. Stay on the main roads especially in winter on a road trip. Do not use short cuts. Around here some of the state highways are dirt and not maintained.