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Semper Fi - 1775 |
Took a solo vacation in the Northern Wisconsin boonies. Heading to a place to hike, no signal out here. Car GPS is useless. Glad I brought (and can read) a highway map! I shake my head when I think of the average person sitting in their car, absolutely panicked because they cannot get a GPS signal on their map and don’t even know how to get back into town, much less go find this this trail to the waterfall. ___________________________ All it takes...is all you got. ____________________________ For those who have fought for it, Freedom has a flavor the protected will never know ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ | ||
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The Unmanned Writer |
Rand McNally! Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. "If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own... | |||
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| Min-Chin-Chu-Ru... Speed with Glare |
I'm not proficient in using a compass but I could certainly read a highway map presuming I had a sign or some kind of marker indicating what road I was on or what road I was approaching. But I'm surprised your car GPS was useless, as I thought all built-into-the-vehicle GPS systems (and Garmin/Tom-Tom type portable GPS devices) work by linking to satellites. At least, my cars' GPS work that way. In addition to paper maps and my car GPS, I keep an old Garmin and charger in my car just in case my cell phone can't get a signal. | |||
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| Member |
I always keep an atlas in my vehicles. Its paid off more than once and sometimes helps with random detours and avoiding tolls. | |||
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His Royal Hiney |
I've gone through places where there was no signal but my gps seems to still work until it could pick up a signal again. Those times I already had a destination programmed. "It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up  |
I can read a map and can use a compass, but I have a handheld Garmin if needed. I like multiple layers in case one fails. | |||
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| Saluki |
I work with many younger drivers, somewhere around 40 map reading is rare. I’m surprised at how difficult it is to even buy a map. ----------The weather is here I wish you were beautiful---------- | |||
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אַרְיֵה |
GPS works, in terms of "knowing" the present location's latitude and longitude coordinates. Cell service might be required in order to download a map. With no map, the lat / lon coordinates are not too useful. If you already had a destination programmed, the required map segments were probably already pre-loaded. הרחפת שלי מלאה בצלופחים | |||
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Optimistic Cynic |
When they make a cell phone screen large enough to provide locational context like a paper map can most of my frustrations with them will be gone. Of course, it would probably be too heavy to carry around so there's that. I'm sure that some enterprising software developer is working on a VR mapping program, likely coupled with an AI "assistant," but wearing a VR headset while driving seem somewhat problematic. I'm not tossing my paper maps yet. I always pick up a State map at a "welcome center" when crossing into a new State. The nice ladies at the counter are always delighted to provide these, I suspect they secretly curse the Waze lady when saying their nightly prayers. | |||
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Member |
Back in the day...I had a Magellan GPS with 7 inch screen for the car. One of the best features of it was the bread crumb trail... remembering and displaying on the map every where you had been. If you got lost, needed to back track or wanted to save a trip route etc it was great. I wish my current cars had the feature. Collecting dust. | |||
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Member |
I’m always trying to remember to get me a good road atlas for me and my family so we won’t be blinded when GPS goes down from attack, solar storm, etc. Retired Texas Lawman | |||
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Member |
Absolutely. I always look at a map (Google maps/atlas) prior to departing on a trip to see where I am going. The map picture is in my head. GPS then simply confirms where I need to go and how to get there. I don't trust GPS. It's done some screwy things in the past. I trust my own dead reckoning and common sense before I trust GPS - it's simply a backup. _________________________________________________________________________ “A man’s treatment of a dog is no indication of the man’s nature, but his treatment of a cat is. It is the crucial test. None but the humane treat a cat well.” -- Mark Twain, 1902 | |||
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Baroque Bloke |
What makes you think that there’ll be no GPS signal in Northern Wisconsin? Maybe if you’re in a tunnel, or have constant dense overhead foliage… Serious about crackers | |||
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| Member |
Another lost skill. They still sell compasses I believe. I wss taught to reae a map in forth grade. | |||
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| Member |
Thanks, Going to AAA this week for some maps. Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency. Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first | |||
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Member |
I don’t buy the maps but if going remote, or some place I don’t know too well, I print out maps on my printer so I have the whole area cased. Fold em up and carry them around with me just in case. Emergency lighting, blanket, water, etc. These Gen Z’s, oh my, they’d be fucked. They have to have the device in their hands at all times like a baby and a pacifier  What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone | |||
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Objectively Reasonable |
I train folks who will spend a good chunk of their career outdoors. For many, showing them a topographic map is like handing a first-grader a Physics textbook. Explaining contour lines and asking them to visualize the landscape? Might as well ask them to speak classical Greek. This was 12-year-old Boy Scout stuff for me and my contemporaries. Dad showed me how to shoot an azimuth younger than that, and we were suburban dwellers, not hardcore survivalists. The next natural or man-made disaster that takes out the grid in any significant way, for any significant time, may be the first in history where the "elderly" fare better than those in their theoretical prime. If you can figure out how to make fire, secure clean drinking water, find elementary food, make your way without GPS, or protect the provisions you DO have from those who don't, you're positioned to be a local warlord. I look forward to taking my pick of abandoned stuff in the aftermath, though. | |||
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| Baroque Bloke |
Why quote your own post with no additional information? And probably fourth grade, rather than forth grade. I know: a simple typo. It caught my eye because I know a programming language named ‘forth’.  It’s an interesting threaded language.P. S. I now suspect that you intended to edit your post rather than quote it. I’ve made that mistake myself. Serious about crackers | |||
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Member |
N WI, Sprint was the worst, 10 years ago, could very different now. | |||
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