Befuddled With GPS

Recently a hiker published an article about getting slightly lost while trying to hike a trail in Arizona. The result wasn't serious, just some epic brush-crashing. I've hiked that trail myself so I can visualize what happened. This is a classic tale of failure to read maps and an over dependence on GPS.

Don't get me wrong. GPS is a wonderful tool and a lot of fun to use. But a GPS receiver is no substitute for conventional map, compass, and wilderness navigation skills.

Here's an example. You're following a faint, little-used trail through desert canyon country. Knowing the trail might be hard to find, you carefully plotted a GPS route on your digital topo maps at home and uploaded it to to your GPS receiver.

Now, as you hike, you lose the trail. No problem, you think, I'll just use the GPS to hike directly to the next waypoint along the trail. You set out on the direct course to the waypoint and soon find yourself at the rim of an impassible canyon.

What should you have done? The same thing you would have done before GPS- note the point at which you lost the trail, and then search outward from that point, looking along the most likely route the trail would have taken.

Once you find the trail, you can follow it to the natural break the trail builder used to cross the canyon, instead of finding yourself rimmed up along an impassible section.

In rough country, before attempting to walk a direct GPS course (or compass course, for that matter), carefully study your topo map to be sure the route is passable.