Is GPS just a 'Stupid Guy Thing?'

While I think it is more important to use a map & compass, I like to use my GPS as well because I like to keep up with technology and I work in the GIS profession.

If I'm on a trail though, I'd much rather depend on that map & compass to navigate with.

Personally, I have found that a GPS can be a great "professor" as you practice map and compass skills. You can check your calculated bearing, see if your are progressing correctly, see how well you can hold a bearing, and figure out what went wrong (my experience, lol).

Ive also used one to turn footstep counts into miles, although trail signs are handy enough for that purpose.

cbcbd said:

Guys (even men) like toys, women not as much.

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Au contraire, mon frere -- I like women plenty. (Even more than my beloved 60CSx...)

For the most part my GPS is usually a toy, but it has proven to be very useful in a whiteout/fog above treeline at least a couple of times.
It's the time I put in playing with it that let me be comfortable with it when I really needed it. I probably could have used my map and compass for wayfinding during the whiteout but the GPS literally brought me within 10 feet of exactly where I wanted to be. I generally bring it with me on my hikes - at least to play with.

GPS vs Map

GPS in my short history has failed me at least 20 many times while a map (in my long history) maybe once (a non existent bridge over a river)

Brambor said:

GPS in my short history has failed me at least 20 many times...

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Weird. In my ~3 years using a GPS pretty extensively, it's never failed me. Of course, in my ~15 years using a compass, that's never failed me either.

I'm trying to perfect my GPS skills, in preparation for Earth's upcoming geomagnetic reversal. I've read that, according to data from the Steens Mountain lava beds, the poles were moving between 3 degrees and 8 degrees per day during the last flip. That could obviously make navigation by compass pretty difficult for a little while. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't have alternative navigational tools, when that time comes again. I'm hoping it comes sooner rather than later, if only for the increased Aurora activity.

Is this where everyone tells me not to expect the flip in my lifetime? Damn naysayers!

I used GPS extensively when I was section hiking the AT down south. Despite using it extensively, I never actually carried it on the AT. What I used it for was finding difficult to locate forest service roads that appear on Delorme maps. In many places in rural NC and Tennesee, the fire roads are not marked and frequently leave the main road via what looks like a driveway to a farm. I would prelocate waypoints at key turns and turnoffs from the Delorme and it gave us the confidence to drive up what looked to all extents to be a road through a barnyard complete with goats and chickens. Over several trips, it was the only thing that got us to some of the places we needed to go.

We also used it to navigate some of extensive backcountry forest service road networks that literally could be 30 or 40 miles of driving with no road signs. On occasion we also used it to confirm that the road we were driving had a chance of being the right one.

One last use was to locate shelters near back roads, we were hiking off season and on occasion, when it was too late in the day to start hiking, we would find the road nearest to a shelter, then park and follow the inevitable maintainers route to the shelter where we would stay for the evening.

I have to admit I got one mostly as a toy, but also as an expensive altimeter. Stopped using the piece of junk when it couldn't keep a signal for 75% of the time I was in the woods, and bought a barometric altimeter. $150 down the drain - now that's stupid.

Never owned one, or cared to, but really glad that Jason does!

Guys (even men) like toys, women not as much.

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Women like toys, too; just different ones.

Stinkyfeet said:

Women like toys, too; just different ones.

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Please now, Stinky, this is a family forum!

gps

I'm not too interested in a GPS. I love maps. I read them like a book almost. Really, by the time we go for a hike I can visualize where we are supposed to be on the land. Of course, we are using a compass too. I like knowing the names of the other mountains and the names of the streams. I like seeing the planned route on the map and then knowing when we're on the ridge.

My husband got an altimeter, but I'm not real interested in that either. Most of our hiking lately has been in the Catskills and it seems pretty easy to tell by the change in the landscape how close you are to the summit. I just like being out in the woods and the mountains are like old friends now.

It is kind of fun seeing peoples routes in their trip reports and I am guessing that is generated somehow by the GPS, but I think that is really just my enjoyment of seeing a line on a map more than a desire to have the toy.

Can't stay to talk. I have an appointment this morning to talk with students about involving them in a project using GPS receivers and a GIS. They're going to generate trail maps for the publicly-accessible conservation lands in our town, so that people can enjoy hiking locally. What a stupid idea.

Help

BobC said:

I have to admit I got one mostly as a toy, but also as an expensive altimeter. Stopped using the piece of junk when it couldn't keep a signal for 75% of the time I was in the woods, and bought a barometric altimeter. $150 down the drain - now that's stupid.

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My experience has been the same as BobC's and I'd like to draw on the experience of the group. I love my map and compass, but I'm also a believer in redundancy for safety's sake. So I want to get a GPS that gets a signal in a reliable fashion. So all you experienced GPS users - of whatever gender - which make and model should I get????

BobC said:

I have to admit I got one mostly as a toy, but also as an expensive altimeter. Stopped using the piece of junk when it couldn't keep a signal for 75% of the time I was in the woods, and bought a barometric altimeter. $150 down the drain - now that's stupid.

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It would appear that you got an obsolete GPS. Modern high-sensitivity units do not have this problem.

MonadnockVol said:

My experience has been the same as BobC's and I'd like to draw on the experience of the group. I love my map and compass, but I'm also a believer in redundancy for safety's sake. So I want to get a GPS that gets a signal in a reliable fashion. So all you experienced GPS users - of whatever gender - which make and model should I get????

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I use lots more than GPS, map, and compass: sun, moon, stars, weather, occasionally a mechanical altimeter, terrain, sense of direction, common sense, etc.

There have been many threads on choosing a GPS. The most recent is http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=35023 The Garmin 60CSx is the most popular--certain other models also work well.

Doug

DougPaul said:

It would appear that you got an obsolete GPS. Modern high-sensitivity units do not have this problem.

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Perhaps. I have a Garmin E-Trex Legend. Not exactly a top-of-the-line model, and now a discontinued product.

A question for those who don't use a GPS: What's your S.O.P. for white-outs ? especially when wind whipped in winter and above tree line ? If you could be so kind as to describe what you actually do and not the theories behind what can be done. I see little or no use of wands, trailing ropes or map and compass in these conditions. Thanks.

Chip said:

A question for those who don't use a GPS: What's your S.O.P. for white-outs ? especially when wind whipped in winter and above tree line ? If you could be so kind as to describe what you actually do and not the theories behind what can be done. I see little or no use of wands, trailing ropes or map and compass in these conditions. Thanks.

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I got out my cell phone and credit card, ordered a GPS, and waited for UPS to deliver it. (BTW: overnight it.)

BobC said:

Perhaps. I have a Garmin E-Trex Legend. Not exactly a top-of-the-line model, and now a discontinued product.

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My first GPS was an (original) ETrex Vista, which has the same GPS receiver as the Legend. It often lost lock and had difficulty acquiring lock when under tree cover, etc... (It was fine when it had a good skyview.) The modern high-sensitivity GPSes, such as the 60CSx, are dramatically better in this respect. I simply turn mine on, acquire lock, throw it in the top of my pack, hike my hike, and at the end of the day have a solid track recorded. (The Vista track used to have lots of gaps.) It will also acquire lock under the trees far better than the Vista. My advice is that purchasers only consider high-sensitivity units.

A while ago, I posted some fairly careful comparisons between several GPSes. (FWIW, the performance of the 60CSx was so much better than the others (all non-high-sensitivity units) that I replaced my 60CS with a 60CSx.)
Bakeoff plus Tecumseh hike
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=14406
GPS Bakeoff #2
http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=15025

Doug

Chip said:

A question for those who don't use a GPS: What's your S.O.P. for white-outs ? especially when wind whipped in winter and above tree line ? If you could be so kind as to describe what you actually do...

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Active and enthusiatic prayer, promising all sorts of things in return, if ...

Chip said:

A question for those who don't use a GPS: What's your S.O.P. for white-outs ? especially when wind whipped in winter and above tree line ? If you could be so kind as to describe what you actually do and not the theories behind what can be done. I see little or no use of wands, trailing ropes or map and compass in these conditions. Thanks.

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The following events occurred well before anyone even heard of GPSes:

My first ascent of Mt Washington was in blowing fog with visibility often down to 50ft or less. (Via Tuckerman Ravine in summer, so snow wasn't an issue.) There were two of us--one would wait near the last cairn while the other went to search for the next. (Cord or rope could have been used as a tether to keep the searcher from getting lost, but we probably didn't have any.) There were enough short gaps in the fog that we were always able to spot the next cairn. (The only way that we realized that we were getting close to the summit was the car noise from the parking lot.) We chose to descend via the Auto Road which was easy to follow in the dark and fog (we also didn't have any lights...).

The trails near Mt Washington are extraordinarily well marked with frequent giant cairns and yellow paint and are fairly straight so it was pretty easy to guess where the next cairn was likely to be. If the trail had not been so well marked, we probably would have retreated.


On Katahdin Tableland in summer rain and fog, we once followed the wrong trail out of a junction until we came to a sign associated with the wrong trail... In winter, we were required to carry wands. We ascended Abol Slide, placed some wands marking its top, and walked across the Tableland to the summit. The slide is not visible from the Tableland (from the Tableland, three sides just drop out of view). The wands were helpful in full visibility and would be even more helpful in limited visibility. (The Tableland is pretty featureless--if the visibility was bad, we would have needed to follow a compass bearing to find the summit and probably would have placed a lot more wands.)

BTW, the Tableland of Katahdin is reported to have magnetic anomalies, so your compass is likely to be inaccurate.

Doug