Why you should always bring a map

[blackbird04217]

This may be different during the wintery season especially, or different trail systems, but I didn't take a map during my 2009 thru-hike and can't say I ever felt like I needed or even wanted one. I did have a guide book to go on, and the trail is pretty well visible and easy to follow. Maybe I just got lucky for nearly 2200 miles, but I passed each blaze minus a small flooded section where a road detour.

For some other trails, particularly less traveled, I wouldn't consider leaving without a map- or if I'd be hiking in a any amount of snow as the trail becomes nearly impossible to follow when everything glistens white, signs buried under the white stuff are hardly useful.

[earlyriser26]

Where in Pa. were you, Early Riser?

Hiking from PA 183 to PA 501. Took Shower's Steps trail out. Not exactly an easy out in snowy conditions.

[Debbie]

I remember that section-I just did it in November-totally different without the snow, I'm sure. The reason I asked is that I'm coming back up next week to start my next section from Port Clinton to Lehigh Gap.

[CarlZ993]

The AT is the only hike I've been on that I didn't have some sort of map w/ me the entire time. I added a map for the White as I anticipated more problems there (plus, that was one place I didn't want to get lost in). On the rest of the hike, I missed a few turns here & there (daydreaming but making really good time). I backtracked & figured out my mistake (after a session of cursing like a sailor).

[Traveler]

It's good to have a map, but if you don't know how to tell where you are on the map, it doesn't do a lot of good!

I guess the answer would be in the form of a question, "why would you have a map and not understand how to use it?"

[AO2134]

On the AT, I have never taken a map. Never felt the need. Common sense + trail guide was always enough for me. However, I plan to hike the BMT as well. I got a feeling after getting out of GA, I will need to get a map and campus and learn how to use them.

[rock steady]

hey! good hiking! You already know this but with a compass and map job one is put them on a level surface and ORIENT THE MAP​. take care and God bless

[Tom Murphy]

No, that's where GPS becomes very helpful. If you can't determine where you are a map and compass aren't going to help since you don't know where you are on the map. Although if you have a map and compass and know "about" where you are, they can lead you in a direction towards something and not deeper into trouble.

I do not often disagree with you but....

I have often used a map and compass to estimate were I was by taking a bearing on two land features and triangulating back to where I am on the map. Of course you can't do that in fog or deep woods. But that's when handrails and backstops are key.

The things I have trouble with, when off trail, is estimating my distance traveled and guessing whether or not a stream I crossed was too small to be shown on the map I am using.

[Another Kevin]

I do not often disagree with you but....

I have often used a map and compass to estimate were I was by taking a bearing on two land features and triangulating back to where I am on the map. Of course you can't do that in fog or deep woods. But that's when handrails and backstops are key.

The things I have trouble with, when off trail, is estimating my distance traveled and guessing whether or not a stream I crossed was too small to be shown on the map I am using.

Even that small stream is likely running down V-shaped contour lines. (Here in the East, U-shaped contour lines for a valley are a dry one; V shaped ones mean a stream.)

Another thing that really helps in the mountains is having an altimeter. As long as you've maintained some sort of siituation awareness (to the level of knowing what mountain you were on, at least!) you can often come really close to your position using just altitude and aspect of slope: "I'm at 3900 feet elevation, and the ground falls off in about direction 330 degrees" often gives you quite a narrow stretch of contour line. It essentially makes every contour line into a handrail, and it works even in whiteout or dense fog.

And, as you said, handrails and backstops are key. When I take someone on a bushwhack for the first time, I like having it be in a situation where I can say something like, "Down goes to the river, and downstream goes to the highway. The car is parked north of the bridge.

And when all else fails, does the mountain you're on have a trail at the summit? The summit is up. Go up, the trail will be there.

[Namtrag]

What he said ^^^^. Just make sure you synchronize your altimeter periodically at a known elevation!

[Cotton Terry]

All good stuff. Can anyone suggest a good book on orienteering?

Edit: Oh, and an acceptable compass?

[4eyedbuzzard]

For a thru hike, with no detours during typical spring, summer, fall conditions, and have one of the better guides, I'd agree that the guide is likely more useful on a day to day basis, and that a thru-hike can be done without maps (although they can be very useful in some areas like the Whites). Same if you know from past experience the trail(s) you are hiking. But if you're sectioning and/or doing loops and such where there are many trails, I think not carrying a map is a bad decision.

[squeezebox]

I would like to learn about how to triangulate

[Another Kevin]

There's a course syllabus here, and a textbook here.

My personal recommendation is to learn with an inexpensive baseplate compass. Brunton, Suunto and Silva all have serviceable ones in the $15-$20 range. Look for one with a transparent baseplate and obviously a rotatable housing. The last time I taught a course in land nav, I offered a packet of materials that was about $40 and had a baseplate compass, GTA 5-2-12 protractor and UTM/MGRS scale, topo map of the area we were practicing in, and paperback textbook. (I don't think I have any left, this was a while ago.)

If you get into serious bushwhacking, you'll want a better compass. (And if you're doing winter mountaineering, you need one with a clinometer). But you should first learn the basics, so that you'll know whether you want a mirror sight (like the Brunton Pocket Transit series) or a lensatic (like the US military ones), and whether features like a tritium illuminator or an adjustable declinator are things you want or useless bells and whistles. By that point, you'll know someone with a better compass than yours that will let you borrow it to try it out.

If you are in halloaing distance of Eastern New York State, and want to give bushwhacking a try, drop me a line. I'm a weekender, but I get out fairly regularly and about a third of my hikes are off-trail. I'm always hurting for someone to go with.

[Cotton Terry]

Thanks, Kevin.

[Jake2c]

I'm agree earlyriser. You have been hiking a lot and if you have also used a map a lot the you are probably proficient with it and with recognizing where you are on it. Like anything else, it's not enough just to have a piece of safety equipment, you also have to be good at using it. How helpful it is, is directly related to how familiar you are with it. When I go in the woods I take a map, when I go to sea I take a chart.

[fiddlehead]

GPS would have been the better choice in this case.
You probably would have never had to leave the trail.

I bought all the maps for my CDT hike in '98.
I don't think anyone does that anymore.
They use Jonathon Ley maps or similar.
Which is designed to work with a GPS

GPS is the new mapping.

[Gray Bear]

There's a course syllabus here, and a textbook here.



If you get into serious bushwhacking, you'll want a better compass. (And if you're doing winter mountaineering, you need one with a clinometer).

I never gave an clinometer much thought. I don't recall ever hearing about them being used as a nav tool. How are they used?

[Traveler]

GPS would have been the better choice in this case.
You probably would have never had to leave the trail.

I bought all the maps for my CDT hike in '98.
I don't think anyone does that anymore.
They use Jonathon Ley maps or similar.
Which is designed to work with a GPS

GPS is the new mapping.

GPS is a great tool, when it powers up and works properly. When it doesn't you either have a map or are holding anatomy not typically associated with route finding.