[pct-l] pct-l] Follow-up to the earlier GPS discussion

[Eric Lee]

TrailHacker wrote:
>
Piper, a friend and I set out on a four day backpack trip. The three of us
took off and at the first creek crossing our friend dropped his GPS in the
creek. Four days later when we came out, we went back and looked for the
GPS. Piper found it about 30 feet downstream underwater still in full
functional condition. Our friend was very pleased and we were all amazed by
Piper's sharp eyes and deductive reasoning - dropping a stick in the stream
and following its path.

My brief time on the PCT this year tells me that everyone is either using a
GPS or HalfMile's excellent maps which are based upon GPS tracks. Looking at
HalfMile's maps you can see that on the underlying maps the PCT is often
incorrectly placed, sometimes by a considerable degree. I suppose that those
using only maps are okay with the trail being some 100 feet or so off from
where they are actually walking.
>

Regarding GPSes and water: I actually did drop a GPS unit into a lake once
and ruined it.  It was supposed to be water resistant but turned out not to
be.  But anyway, I think the point stands that the more high-tech an item
is, the more ways there are for it to fail spectacularly.

Regarding sticking close to the trail: once nice thing about deep snow cover
is that you often don't have to stay precisely where the trail runs.  All
the brush is buried so you feel free to pick whatever route make the most
sense to you.  I really enjoy winter snowshoeing for that reason.  However,
the one good reason to be concerned about the exact location of the trail is
that in difficult terrain the trail will sometimes thread its way through
one of the very few routes that don't involve large cliffs and drop-offs.
In that sort of situation you do want to stay pretty darn close to the
actual trail route even though you can't see it.
 
Eric