Old-schoolers insist on carrying maps.  Paper maps.

I used to carry paper maps.  Back in my Army Ranger days, some 40 years ago – always.  Of course, that was before GPS.  Since then — not so much.  In August 2021, I was thru-hiking the John Muir Trail, and I distinctly remember reaching into my pocket for the map, but it wasn’t there.  I’d stopped at Woods Creek to filter water and placed the map on a rock to keep it from getting wet.  This was two miles back.  I was so upset when I realized I’d have to go back to retrieve it.

Today, I rarely carry paper maps, and never in the Catskill Mountains, which lie in New York’s Hudson Valley, an area I know intimately.  Instead, I use technology.  That’s not to say I’m ignorant of the risks. The more you stare at a compass needle or screen, the less you look around and think. David Barrie, a fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, describes GPS as one of the great achievements of modern times. But then he comments on what the technology is doing to us, now that we’ve become dependent: “Though we may not realize it, we are fast becoming navigational idiots.” Continue reading “Hybrid Navigation Approach for the Catskills Off-trail Regime” →