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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Jonathan is, of course, right</span><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>: “</span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>it really depends on
how you learn about and navigate the world”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>There’s also an enrichment issue, in addition to the
method issue. It depends on just how you view your environment and what
you want to learn about it and from it, as you go. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Staying found is the absolute bottom line. Maps can do
that. But, in addition, there are many hikers who view their hike as
possibly a once-in-a-lifetime experience and they want to wring all they possibly
can out of it. That usually requires information. My, do I love
maps and I usually hike with three or four of any given area. Often it
takes consultation with several before the particular answer, lurking on the
paper, reveals itself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>But next to staying found, locating water has to be right up
there in desperate importance. Often guidebooks tell of a water source
slightly off the obvious path that simply isn’t marked – at least
in an obvious way – on the map. Jim Wolf is particularly good at
helping you find those. He spent a lot of time looking for water for you.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Many hikers are just interested in walking speedily from Point
A to Point B and checking out the views as they go. That’s
cool. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>However, some are fascinated that runaway slaves who killed
their overseer were caught and hanged right here on the trail, or that a
moonshiner had his cabin 100 yards to the right, with hundreds of old bottles
in that gully, or that the area just ahead is famous for the unusual fly-eating
pitcher plant or that a huge, especially fine example of conglomerate rock can
be found here just by sticking out your left hand or that the spring ahead has
been tested and found to have too much uranium in the water or that there are
lots of bleached cow bones in the bottom of this shallow lake or that this
notch you’re going through used to be called xxx and why or that a
particularly famous explorer crossed the Divide right here, going east to west,
on a particular date. Just random memories from the guidebooks for the
AT, PCT and CDT. A impossibly long, but delightful, list of info learned
only through reading a guidebook could be made. Yet, it’s absolutely
true that info like that just doesn’t interest some hikers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>The elder statesman of the CDT, Jim Wolf, has devoted all his
free time for many decades setting forth for future hikers all he could learn
about the trail and its environment, as well as being a champion for
challenging the Forest service to do the right thing in the actual treadway
placement. When I did the CDT, I wanted to be the beneficiary of all his
work and knowledge. Do I think his guidebooks are perfect? No. Would
I like them readable in either direction? Of course. But the
changes I’d like would be much too costly for him to manage, with the
limited finances available. Hiker cost? Somewhere
either on this list or PCT-L, years ago, I believe someone wrote that if you
couldn’t afford to buy the guidebooks, you probably couldn’t afford
to do a thru-hike. You’ll spend more than that in a good town stop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Some buy the books, then to save weight extract what they
think they need and mark up their maps with many little details. Namie
Basile told me that the first two times he hiked the CDT he just used Forest
Service maps, nothing else. He’s got more guts than I do.
Obviously, there’s no “right way” to hike a trail, hence the
motto HYOH. It boils down to the type of experience you want. I’m
one of those old farts who thinks of life as “continuing education.”
It doesn’t matter which trail we’re on… for me, guidebooks
help that education. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>OK, this came off as more “preachy” than I
wanted, but I’m too lazy to go back and change it. I’m still
working on my early caffeine and I may be – as Click and Clack say
- </span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>“<i>Non impediti ratione cogitationis</i>.” - <em><span
style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";font-style:normal'>Unencumbered by
the thought process. But some of you have thought that of me for
years…</span></em></span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>Dr Bob<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";
color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> cdt-l-bounces@backcountry.net
[mailto:cdt-l-bounces@backcountry.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Jonathan Ley<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:27 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> CDT MailingList<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Cdt-l] Maps & Guidebooks<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I think it really
depends on how you learn about and navigate the world. Not sure if anyone here
has studied different learning/communicating styles, but I think this has a lot
of relevance:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://people.usd.edu/%7Ebwjames/tut/learning-style/styleres.html">http://people.usd.edu/~bwjames/tut/learning-style/styleres.html</a></span><br>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Many people are
primarily visual, in which case the maps alone might work. Others are more
auditory or kinesthetic learners, who might work better with a textual
description of where the trail goes. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Think about
this… When someone asks directions from you, do you draw them a map? Or
tell them where to turn? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>When you are driving
around in the city, do you feel more comfortable looking at maps? Or reading
directions? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If you catch a bus,
do you need to know exactly which streets the bus is going down in order to
figure out where you’re going? Or do you just rely on the names of the
stops? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Personally, I’m
a much more visually-oriented person. For instance, when I print out directions
from google-maps of where I’m trying to go, I only print the map, and
could care less about the turn-by-turn directions. Others are just the opposite.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>When I was on the
PCT, I never read the trail descriptions. I just used the little guidebook
maps. I would meet some other hikers and if they asked about some point on the
trail, I’d point to the map. They’d reference some mile-point, or
description that was in the guidebook. I could never figure out why
they’d make it so hard on themselves to navigate that way. But,
I’ve come to the conclusion that it just matched their learning style
better. Or, maybe I'm just a crackpot ;-)<br>
<br>
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>So, either or both
approaches are good for different people – we all have to hike our own
hike. One thing though… out on a trail like the CDT, you do really need a
map, as if you get off-route, directions won’t help much. However, if you’re
not primarily a visual thinker, reading and using a map is likely to be harder
for you. It’s something you’ll probably need to practice a lot to
get right. There are a lot of books out there about navigation… I always
recommend “Staying Found” by June Fleming, as I found it very well
put together, and readable:<br>
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/Staying-Found-Complete-Compass-Handbook/dp/0898867851">http://www.amazon.com/Staying-Found-Complete-Compass-Handbook/dp/0898867851</a><br>
Also the mantra here is to “stay found” – i.e. the key to not
getting lost is to always know where you are. Always. With every step (i.e. no
putting your head down for hours and getting lost in some iPod music then hours
later trying to figure out where you went wrong). Not quite as easy as it
sounds... </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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