View Full Version : Over reliance on technology.
Interesting story on an example of how easy it is to be led astray.
Either with technology or without technology, stuff happens.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/03/03/nb-gps-driver-speaks.html
Wouldn't it be nice if any GPS used on the AT would automatically lead you to the nearest AYCE?
fredmugs
03-04-2011, 12:43
Wouldn't it be nice if any GPS used on the AT would automatically lead you to the nearest AYCE?
Why can't it? Find out where they are. Google maps will tell you the GPS coordinates. Enter it as a waypoint. Go fetch.
Isn't that the only reason anyone carries them?
Why can't it? Find out where they are. Google maps will tell you the GPS coordinates. Enter it as a waypoint. Go fetch.But you could end up at a Alternative Centre for Youth Employment, on an empty stomach. Not the worst outcome for many hikers however. :-)
Ray Jardine used a smartphone and its gps feature on his last adventure.
garlic08
03-04-2011, 14:03
The same thing could easily have happened to me last winter in the Coastal Range in Oregon. I was trying to drive from Brookings, OR to Eureka, CA and the car's unit had me going over the range on a USFS road that I knew was snowed in, and more snow was coming in. That storm was tough enough on the paved highway farther south in CA. Last week a guy self-rescued from the same area in Oregon, but in 2006 a man lost his life trying to hike out, also same area. His family stayed in the car and survived. I don't remember for sure, but I think that family was following a GPS, too.
SwitchbackVT
03-04-2011, 14:39
Couldn't resist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yyKrS8jwSY
Tenderheart
03-04-2011, 14:46
The first time I tried to show Cup the summit of Max Patch, we followed GPS directions to the "back of beyond". I don't know where we were exactly, but it sure wasn't Max Patch. We even passed a sign on the highway that said GPS was wrong in this area. It seems that this occurs predominantly in the mountains, which is where I actually would use the thing.
litefoot 2000
My boyfriend was really into Geocaching for a while and he would purposefully take advantage of the misleading nature of GPS to create caches. You could be on a trail and the GPS would indicate the cache was right next to the trail but because there was a steep hill, the cache would really be way up on the hill with the only way to get to it to walk a half mile in a completely different direction to another trail that would take you there.