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

[Carl Siechert]

As usual, very interesting post, Steel-Eye.

I'm a long-time map and compass guy, so I'm in the habit of carrying the
folded map in my front pocket and pulling it out frequently (say, every 20
minutes) for a reality check. I usually don't stop or even slow down for
this, and don't bother orienting the map; just look at the terrain and
compare it with topo terrain.

Given the limited battery life, I'm curious about how you GPSers operate. Am
I correct in assuming that you can't just routinely leave the thing on and
follow it? What about when you're traveling across snow? Leave it on
continuously while on that terrain? Otherwise, do you flip it on only when
you think you might be off trail? Or do you do periodic checks every ___
minutes/hours? Or???

On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM, CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>wrote:

>
> well-marked nature of the PCT occasionally exacerbates the problem.  To be
> effective with only a map and compass it is necessary to maintain close and
> ongoing situational awareness of the terrain by looking at the map
> regularly
> and always rationalizing the apparent terrain with the terrain depicted on
> the topo’ map.  When doing so, one must stop instantly whenever there is a
> real-vs-map disconnect or inconsistency and do whatever is necessary to
> resolve the issue before proceeding further.  Any continued travel without
> resolution is most likely to increase the confusion rather than resolve it.
>