Originally posted by Justin
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I carry a Garmin GPS as my main navigation which I keep in a zipped pocket and have a regular compass tied to my pack inside a readily-accessible pocket in case my batteries die and I lose my spare batteries for some reason. It's always a good idea to have a backup, especially when your primary device is electronic.
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Originally posted by Boreal Fox View PostI carry a Garmin GPS as my main navigation which I keep in a zipped pocket and have a regular compass tied to my pack inside a readily-accessible pocket in case my batteries die and I lose my spare batteries for some reason. It's always a good idea to have a backup, especially when your primary device is electronic."Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman
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Originally posted by Wldrns View PostYour choice, but the order is backward in my opinion. Compass and knowledge of map with eyes on terrain should be primary, then GPS is only an optional backup tool best left buried in a gear bag.
GPS is for recording data.
If you rely on a GPS as your primary navigational tool (in the backcountry or in your car), you're doing it wrong!
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GPS is a great tool! I don't use one. When in the woods one wants to be focused on the woods, aware of one's surroundings, aware of your escape from the modern rat race. Methinks that the GPS hinders said awareness. But to each their own, if it gets you out there in the first place then it is a good start."A culture is no better than its woods." W.H. Auden
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My compass is a backup to navigation by terrain association techniques, I use the landscape (and the sun) among numerousother navigation clues to guide me through the woods. A pevious poster was corect, a GPs is for data collection, Mine is used mostly to verifySAR area coverage and for canoe race target speed monitoringLast edited by Wldrns; 10-11-2016, 08:28 PM."Now I see the secret of making the best person, it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." -Walt Whitman
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We all use our map and compass when we hike and backpack. In this busy world, I find myself using marked trails more often as I want to get to a desired location with the available time I have. Maybe the extra few hours will get me to "X" rather than to "Y".
I have to remind myself to spend more time going off trail and seeking new points of interest never seen before. The exercises alone will keep the map and compass and navigational skills honed. Sometimes, it's also fun to get off course, scratch you head and wonder how that happened, and find an alternate route to the desired location.
My GPS is always with me but I would consider it a defeat to have to put the map down and use the GPS for navigation purposes.
I've hiked with friends who live out west and, in the open spaces where they hike, landmarks are always easy to find on the map. In the dense forests of the Adirondacks, where I always seem to be under the canopy of trees, reading the subtlety of terrain features, as Wldrns said, becomes a more important skill.
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