Post
by Charley » June 26th, 2016, 6:39 pm
I've been a map snob for years. I love them and always carry hard copy. Two, if I can find different ones (shaded relief, topo, trail schematic, whatever).
I started adding in a GPS (Gaia app on my phone) after having a real hard time finding the route on a ski circumnavigation of Crater Lake. We might have found the road eventually, but it might have taken hours of frustration and hard skiing. It happened twice, and both instances were in meadows, where the road is buried under a dozen or more feet of snow and quite unmarked. There's no real chance of stumbling across the road again if it takes a not-obvious switchback in a meadow. Luckily, in these instances, I was able to get reception well enough to slowly load Google Maps.
So nowadays on off-trail trips, especially on snow, I'll take that Gaia GPS app, download the maps at home, and have them in the event of a navigation crisis. I think the GPS as back up allows me to further develop backcountry navigation skills, while providing me with a measure of security.
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.