Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

better bring a map and compass

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/ ... -gps-rise/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

an up to date map. and know how to use it. I just ranted on another board about blindly following "maggie" or "Ms Garmin." Like the car that drove off the cliff with the caption..."recalculating"

Interesting trend, and not unlike the articles not that many years ago blaming cell phones for some people getting in over their heads, because they were thinking it would be easy to call in a rescue if needed...

"Technology, of course, is not the only denominator to those disasters. Others include poor planning, faulty judgment, bad luck and the lemming-like rush of visitors to Death Valley in the summer, many of them unfamiliar with the danger – making heat-related illness and fatalities nearly as predictable as the searing temperatures."

"People are so reliant on their GPS that they fail to look out the windshield and make wise decisions based on what they're seeing," said Alley."

"I guess there was no reason to call it "Death Valley" before the GPS was invented, right? "

My GPS lead me through a rock quary on the way to the cossatot. It claimed we were on a road and we were like WTF?

Luckily the guy working the yard found us and gave us directions.

I'm used to Dallas where the GPS is usually right, damn Arkansas and its back roads!

I was camping with an outward bound group last summer when we see head lights coming towards us as night is falling. We were at a dead end on a narrow, sketchy, disused road that is across a 50' ravine/river from a community of 3-5 buildings. I walk over to the guy in the car and he asks if he is getting close to the place across the river and shows me his car navigation system saying he should be there. I grab our map and show him that needs to turn around, drive 15 miles (in the dark) back to where he started this "shortcut", and then get back on the main road to drive 25 miles to where he is trying to get to. Now it's dark, and this is major moose country, so if the guy has any sense of self-preservation, he won't drive more then 15 mph till he gets to the dirt road. I think he wanted to chuck his GPS in the river.

Oh, and the best part? That bridge has been gone for 20+ years.

Shep

Never have trusted those gps, map and a compass are the best things to have!

I can see that. I've seen a more than a few folks check their car GPS to figure out how to get out of a parking lot.

- Fish

gadgets like GPS are a good thing to have along, conditions permitting

common sense and being aware of what is going on, is even better

I have been using GPS along with river mile posts to track progress on river trips, my buds just tracking visually with a river map have about the same accuracy as I do, sometimes better in steep narrow river canyons.

There are times tho when having an exact GPS location and a working satellite phone are really nice to have.

The more toys we have, the more options we have.

This is a good thread, because people do need to be aware of how overconfidence or over-reliance on a gps can get you into trouble.

But I still have to say, it’s just a tool. A very good tool.

I've seen hikers with topos that didn't know where they really were, and I've heard many stories of folks with paper maps driving hours in the wrong direction. (With a GPS, you usually figure this out before you even get on the freeway, or within a few minutes if you're really tired and not paying attention.) Pretty much everyone who takes a lot of road trips has been 25, 50, or more miles off their intended path at some point in time.

Even the trusty compass (and I do love them too!) is limited by the skill of the user. When I rented a boat in Florida, I asked the marina operator why on earth it didn't come with a dash-mounted compass. He said he had removed the compasses after he grew tired of heading out at sunset to look for the folks that had set something metallic down next to the compass, and then driven miles out into the ocean in the wrong direction.

One of the interesting aspects of the gps maps is that they show thousands of roads and trails, many of which are not shown on a paper map. With all that extra data, it isn’t always up to date. Yes, it can send you down a road that is no longer passable. If you’re silly enough to bet your life on it, that can be a problem. But if you’re not, then it can be a source of many adventures and a few funny stories, some of which end with having to backtrack, and others of which end with an amazing shortcut that added fun and spice to your day. I've got a few stories in both categories.

For a lot of these stories, we could just as easily blame the 4WD for the deaths of those involved. If they hadn’t had a 4WD, they wouldn’t have kept trying to go down that road, out into the wilderness. Yeah, over-reliance on the 4WD killed them for sure. But I’m not about to give up my 4WD and go back to 2WD to keep myself out of trouble. It’s just a tool.

I just brought my first car GPS

a tom tom

kind of fun to play with, I still plan to drive with road maps I get from AAA or state supplied free road maps.

having made most of my living working with computers, I can see how the gps works or even how the device figures out where it is on a map.

What just astounds me is how they get all the "current" road information into the device. I have worked with business systems most all my working life and keeping them current is a big deal. The amount of data involved is massive for all the roads in just the US of A.

Surprised to see how well the device shows all the detail it does.

As Cowper posted, GPS is just another tool to have.

okieboater wrote:I have been using GPS along with river mile posts to track progress on river trips, my buds just tracking visually with a river map have about the same accuracy as I do, sometimes better in steep narrow river canyons.

I’d like to bring your buds on one of our swamp floats, on a rainy day, and see how that works out for them.

While paper maps can shine where the terrain provides many landmarks, in swamps there are fewer unique landmarks and the routes are constantly changing as a function of water level, so paper maps aren’t always as useful as you might think. And the rivers and channels change with the passing years, just as new roads open and old ones become unpassable, so neither gps nor paper maps give you the complete story.

On a recent trip to some unfamiliar swamps in LA, Debo and I saw the advantages of both paper maps and gps. The paper maps were far superior for studying and figuring out where we wanted to go explore the next day. You got the “big picture” overview of your options, clues to what might be worth looking into, and relatively accurate information on where the public accesses might be. But once we headed into the swamp, it was the gps that told us exactly where we were at all times, and allowed us to plan out the day, use all the daylight, and arrive back at our truck about 15 minutes after sunset.

okieboater wrote:The more toys we have, the more options we have.

Bingo! I agree completely!

I stand corrected.

my visual procedures work great on most western river runs. I agree not so well in a swamp environment.

Not yet being a member of the swamp boating scene, I agree with Cowper who is familiar with both western river and AR swamp boating.

Same might be said of Boundary waters tripping. I have been up there some years ago with map and compass in constant use. After a while everything looks the same and if you loose your visual concentration and compass bearings, it is easy to get lost even on a lake.

I will add that right now most roads out of Tulsa are just recently open with one icy lane. With the lack of rainfall this season I might have to join up with Debo and Cowper on one of their swamp runs just to get a feel for my kayak or canoe. Unfortunately, more big snow forecast for next week.

Just in from another round of snow shoveling. A tip for those having to shovel snow. Spray some silicone or WD7 spray on the shovel inside blade surface to help prevent snow build up. Works great for about the amount of time I can shovel without total tiredness.

GPS is great for recording irregular routes and area boundaries within known sets of larger routes and areas (Cowper's and Debo's personal experience in areas they float bring more to the table than the tech they carry with them, I'm guessing).

Not so much for "adventures" afield into unfamiliar territory. I've followed several folks in the woods and on water w/ GPS looking for that "shortcut", only to double back to where we started after hitting a deadend.

Having floated and waded a few swamps, for me, nothing beats a good topo, a trustworthy compass AND a recent aerial photo.

Good advice Richard!