GPS , topo maps or both? What do you bring?

Being a hiker of the older generation, I learned to use topos and compass a long time ago, and I still do. I haven't yet dropped the cash for a GPS, and know nothing about the technology. But I do real well with the topos – in fact, when on a wilderness hike 30 years ago with a local "guide", I shocked him by finding an "unknown" route out of a place which he had never known about. He said he'd never seen anyone able to use topos before – some guide!

At some point, I might get a GPS – I have gotten a SPOT to let my wife know where I am – but I'm not getting one this summer!

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I can understand someone bringing GPS along with a map and compass. Bringing GPS with no map and compass, or wandering around the backcountry without knowledge of map and compass, is a little dangerous. It's just too easy for electronics to fall, break or just stop working.

I'd love to get a GPS for the fun or it but it would never replace my map and compass. Someone could probably argue that if several people went out hiking and there was more than one GPS….well, ok, maybe. But, if one person is entrusted with the navigation, there had better be a map and compass in that pack.

I've thought about taking a course on GPS and getting one. I think it could be a wonderful primary tool as long as a map and compass were there as a backup.

"I've thought about taking a course on GPS and getting one."

There are many training classes for GPS users in my area. Unfortunately, each GPS receiver model is different, so the training classes tend to be model-specific, and that doesn't help you so much if you bought the wrong model.

There are several online resources that will teach you the technical basis for GPS, but then how you apply that with your own model often takes practice and some computer skill.

I taught GPS classes for about 15 years, but it had nothing to do with navigation.

–B.G.–

"The Indians didn't have GPS, compass, and probably not even maps. They didn't get lost."

In fact, we have no good reason to believe Indians didn't get lost. Most Americans, though, have an impression that Indians were omnicompetent in the wilderness. The blame for this false view rests with James Fenimore Cooper.

In his books, such as "The Last of the Mohicans," Cooper invented romanticized Indians. He had no backcountry experience of his own, and neither did most of his readers. They accepted his characterization of the Indians' skills, such as their supposed ability to walk through the woods absolutely silently, not even breaking the smallest twig. (They did this, he said, by stepping on their toes first, then their heels. In fact, they didn't walk this way. He made it up.)

His books made for fun reading, but it was all nonsense. From Cooper comes the idea that Indians had consistent mastery in the wild: They could find water in parched land, food where nothing grew, and game where there was no evidence of wildlife, and they could maneuver flawlessly toward their destination. All hokum.

Sure, the Indians knew their own locales well, as do many moderns. (Just watch how people in large cities can drive along hundreds of miles of often convoluted streets without using maps: years of practice.) But, like moderns, Indians lost their way, took the "scenic route" by mistake, and ran out of water or died of exposure or injury.

In many primitive areas, even into our own times, the natives were wary about going much beyond their local area, partly because they weren't sure if they could find their way back. Thus it was not uncommon to find whole villages, in all parts of the world, where the residents hadn't traveled more than 20 or miles distant. This tended to change, of course, as roads were constructed; those lifelines let people go much further away (and do so more quickly) with a confidence that they could find their way home.

Maps and a GOOD compass first, then a GPS, and more for fun. You need to know how to use the stuff! If 12yo Boy Scouts can learn, you can too.

I like maps and compasses. Using them is empowering and makes you part of a mysterious club: I can find my way home! I know where I am and I didn't use batteries!

Do you know what the mirror is for on a compass? So you can see who is lost!

(in the days before GPS) I was on a cross country ski trip with about ten others, all headed up to a remote cabin high above Lake Tahoe. For the first five miles, it was an unplowed jeep road, so we didn't even have to pull out a map. But then we got to the jumping-off point where we would need to begin navigation in earnest through the woods. Unfortunately, the clouds had settled into the valley, so picking out landmarks for compass bearings had become a real challenge.

There were three designated navigators in the group. One guy, the oldest, wanted to go _this_ way. There were two of us who worked independently and matched bearings within 2 degrees, but the oldest guy's route was 90 degrees off. Reluctantly, he followed the rest of us halfway up the hill in the right direction, and then he said, "Never mind."

After the last two miles, we hit the cabin perfectly.

–B.G.–

I study maps (usually electronic) a lot before I do routes and use a GPS as a secondary navigational aid; 'natural navigation' is my primary tool – as in, 'the route should go that way'.

In the clag (common in the UK) or when uncertain my GPS is my first recourse.

I carry maps too (generally laminated electronic map printouts), and a compass. Only tend to look at these at rest stops or in camp for identifying features and peaks.

"In many primitive areas, even into our own times, the natives were wary about going much beyond their local area, partly because they weren't sure if they could find their way back. Thus it was not uncommon to find whole villages, in all parts of the world, where the residents hadn't traveled more than 20 or miles distant."

Just curious…..are you speculating that natives weren't sure they could find their way home or can you cite authoritative material?

Mostly topographic maps, though with the possibility of falling snow, I'll consider my eTrex GPS unit (fresh batteries)

I bring topos cut to size, a small Silva Ranger compass AND a small GPS (Foretrex 401)- the GPS doesn't have mapping software, but will let me know where I'm at- I prepare all my maps by drawing in the UTM lines w/ a ultrafine Sharpie, I've got a small UTM grid square that makes it a piece of cake to locate where you are (almost exactly).

I got pretty well versed in the use of compass and map early, first in the service and then later in the USFS (I was tasked w/ locating camp sites on a map, pre- GPS), but have completely embraced the GPS as a navigation tool

For work we have E-trex's w/ mapping software (we even have detailed landownership now!)- they are pretty darn handy, no doubt about that.

It's a topo map and small compass (Brunton 7DNL) for me. In fact, the compass is rarely used as I'm usually hiking well traveled trails in the Southern Sierra and I'm comfortable with using just a map and the terrain to tell me where I am and where I need to be.

John Muir didn't need a GPS because he was busy on the internet talking about the new Mont Bell UL down and how to rip some padding out of his Jam backpack to shed 2 ounces (the old Jam, not the new heavy one) . . . Oh wait . . .

Anyhow, I've only used Topo on the past, but I just got ahold of the eTrex vista HCX at a good price, so got one to give it a try, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. As others have mentioned, those major trails are well-marked, and you probably wouldn't need a GPS there–even if you are relatively new. But one thing I've enjoyed is the ability to download GPS tracks for some unsigned areas. It has proved useful at some unclear points along unsigned paths. I also have had a lot of fun importing GPS treks into Google earth to review exactly where I've been when planning places to check out, etc.