GPS Rant

[Provincial]

This dates me, but I was one of the early adopters of Loran in Alaska bush flying. It didn't give directions, just kept track of your location and calculated your groundspeed and course. I could create waypoints and navigate to/from them. It was accurate within 300 feet in good conditions, and at least a mile in the worst ones. I used it for reference flying in visual conditions, and when flying on instruments, as an additional reference to the actual ones I was relying on. This was the 1980's, so no moving maps! Just numbers.

 

[rabler]

Where we lived in SE Georgia, GPS databases would route you through a ditch to get to our house.

Similar to @Provincial’s loran, flew with an IFR RNAV, basically angle and radius points. That was an exercise in geometry

 

[RickKr]

I carry a state atlas in my vehicle at all times. It shows every road and cow path in the state and will get me back to civilization if needed. I haven't had to look at it in twenty years. Before I undertake any journey into the unknown, I always plan a route before I leave. I have had a GPS in the vehicle for fifteen years and a handheld GPS for twenty but I tend to ignore the GPS when driving as my planned route is usually better.
...snip...

I love maps, always have, especially topo maps, like the now hard to find USGS 7.5' quadrangles I used for backcountry hiking/backpacking and for work. I was into orienteering for a while too. Don't do much of that anymore. For most of my major car travels I rely heavily on GPS, but always keep on my "does that make sense" hat. I have statewide topo atlases for my home state (Oregon, which is always in my car) and six surrounding states and always plan a trip using them and take appropriate ones for the current trip. Very handy as I hate driving through cites, particularly during heavy traffic periods, so the atlases come in handy planning ways around, which then get plotted into the GPS. Very hard to find the old folding maps that used to be given away at "service" stations.

Cannot fully trust GPS. Clearest example I recall is if the family that got stranded in the coast range in SW Oregon, in winter. Got stuck in snow. The father died trying to walk out for help.

 

[homebrewed]

Cannot fully trust GPS. Clearest example I recall is if the family that got stranded in the coast range in SW Oregon, in winter. Got stuck in snow. The father died trying to walk out for help.

We drove that road a few years before that incident (in the summer). Since then there was a big forest fire that went through there, haven't been back to see how it looks. The road may not even be usable now.

The road basically was miles and miles of one-lane road with turnouts. It wound its way over the coast range. Pretty remote, and a scenic drive. BTW, we used our Oregon Gazeteer to navigate it. Like you, we always have one in our car.

 

[RJSakowski]

Cannot fully trust GPS. Clearest example I recall is if the family that got stranded in the coast range in SW Oregon, in winter. Got stuck in snow. The father died trying to walk out for help.

I recall that incident as well. I don't recall that GPS navigation played a part in it. In 2006, GPS was just beginning to emerge. Cell phones had not yet incorporated the technology to a large extent. The mistake the family made was not realizing that rain at a lower elevation becomes snow higher up, in realizing their error, deciding to take a short cut on a little used road, and when the father tried walking out, not sticking to the roads with no knowledge of the terrain ahead.

Back in the eighties, in late March, I was in Denver with some time to kill and I decided to take a drive in the mountains to the southwest. I was driving a 3/4 t. 4WD pickup and fairly confident if its and my capability. On the way up the mountain, it began raining and it soon turned to snow as I climbed. I turned around at the first possible spot and headed back to Denver.

In early September, 2001, The wife and I were starting back from Yellowstone and because my wife has a fondness for mountains, I decided to come back over the Beartooth pass in the Beartooth Mountains. I had driven that route about the same time of the year thirty years before and it is truly a scenic drive. As we left Yellowstone from the Lamar Valley, it was raining and a few miles outside the park, at a point called Top of the world, there was light snow accumulating on the grass on the roadside. The snow turned back to rain and we decided to continue. As we got into the Beartooth's, the snow began again and developed into a near blizzard. It was a white knuckle drive with me attempting to maintain a steady 40 mph as I negotiated all the hairpins and my wife in the passenger seat praying for the both of us. The goal was to make it back to lower elevatins before dark. We eventually got low enough in elevation that we were in rain again and we had cell phone reception and we called ahead to Sheridan for a much needed hotel room.

It was without question, the most challenging driving that I have ever done. I wasn't too worried about getting stranded as we had full camping equipment with us, including food, water, stove, sleeping bags and warm clothes and we could survive for some time. More of an issue was the possibility of sliding off the road on a slope and ending up some 500 feet below. In retrospect, it was probablyy one of my dumber moves though.

BTW, no GPS back then, only a good set of maps.

 

[RickKr]

We drove that road a few years before that incident (in the summer). Since then there was a big forest fire that went through there, haven't been back to see how it looks. The road may not even be usable now.

The road basically was miles and miles of one-lane road with turnouts. It wound its way over the coast range. Pretty remote, and a scenic drive. BTW, we used our Oregon Gazeteer to navigate it. Like you, we always have one in our car.

Yes, Gazateer, that is the name I couldn't recall. One brand is (or was) DeLorme. I've found I like the Benchmark brand of gazateers better.

I knew that location was a lot of backroads, but didn't realize it was as bad as you describe. Weren't they in a van as well? Absolutely no reason for those people in that vehicle to be in that kind of country. Perhaps GPS wasn't involved, I just seem to recall part of the news reporting saying they had tried to follow GPS.

 

[Provincial]

Yes, Gazateer, that is the name I couldn't recall. One brand is (or was) DeLorme. I've found I like the Benchmark brand of gazateers better.

I knew that location was a lot of backroads, but didn't realize it was as bad as you describe. Weren't they in a van as well? Absolutely no reason for those people in that vehicle to be in that kind of country. Perhaps GPS wasn't involved, I just seem to recall part of the news reporting saying they had tried to follow GPS.

My memory of the news articles is that GPS had led them up that road. That may be just "journalism" doing it's thing, but it made sense at the time.

 

[RJSakowski]

My memory of the news articles is that GPS had led them up that road. That may be just "journalism" doing it's thing, but it made sense at the time.

Here is a long contemporary article from the Oregonian. I saw no mention of GPS but there was a mention of them referring to a map.

Kim family's fatal Oregon journey

The Oregonian covered the family's tragic journey for months. Here are the key stories.

www.oregonlive.com

 

[Boswell]

first, I also love maps and I I also love electronic maps with GPS to show your position on the map. For many years in the late 90's and early 2000's I traveled for my job on a regular basis. I would hate having to balance a cheap rental car map or even a decent road map while driving unfamiliar highways. I felt very dangerous. In fact I would often pull of the side of the highway to look at the map and get my bearings. When GPS systems started to become available to the public, I was an early adopter specifically for use on business trips. Of course these where stand-alone units. They were pretty expensive but much better peace of mind when on unknown highways at night at the end of a 20 hour day.

I also would not trust them but It does seem that over the last few years, I have had very few if any "strange" directions. In fact one time I was traveling south on I35 in Texas and the GPS directions told me to take an exit go East and I just laughed and kept going as there was no way that was accurate. Well the joke was on me because about 5 miles further the highway was blocked off and 100% of the traffic was being funneled onto the access road and through a single lane stop light. 5 HOURS later, I got my turn to go thru the stop light. If I had followed the GPS, it might have taken me on a long scenic tour but it would have been better than 5 hours of looking at tail lights close up.

 

[pdentrem]

Was replacing the the winter tires to summer and needed the special nut remover in the glove box. Dug in there and found I had 3 maps in there! Two older version and last years Road Map of Ontario. I always have a map when traveling. I do look it over if headed to areas that I have not been to or not for a while. Reduces the possibility of surprises. No batteries required either.
Pierre