rcaffin wrote:As an alternative to fighting with mobile phone and digital maps, try buying a standard topo map, and carrying a compass. In 30+ years of walking in KNP, I have never used anything else. I admit, these days we don't look at the paper map very much: it is in our heads . . .
I realise that this tangential discussion of digitally aided bushwalking should really be in a new topic. But there have been several contributions to this discussion after Zapruda mentioned the maps.ozultimate planning tool. I wonder, Zapruda, if it is possible to transport the relevant posts to a new topic at this stage? That would make future reference to that tool easier to negotiate.
Roger, like you, I use map and compass to get me where I want; and probably more important, get me back again. Like you, I can do all that without a GPS device. But I’d like to inform you about a few reasons why it may be worth considering such technology without the disdain you express about its use.
But first, as you also mentioned mobile telephones, I’m with you there. I do not have a smart phone and do not need one for any tasks, bushwalking or other. In fact, many of the places where I walk would probably not have coverage, so why would I bother?
I began using map and compass twenty years ago and gradually acquired navigational proficiency in various terrain. All my walks from that time on have been done using map and compass.
However, I bought a basic GPS device perhaps five years ago, for various reasons as follows. I wanted to investigate routes and ideas mentioned in this forum. In general, I use the GPS and associated computer software primarily to prepare for trips, rather than during walks. It is so much easier to prepare digitally rather than rule up routes and measure bearings and distances on paper. It can save hours.
It is possible to end up with more walking options for a given area than one will actually have time to complete on a given trip. But that’s useful if some options become unavailable due to unforeseen events, such as bad weather or, as has happened to me twice, tree fall on an approach road in the Victorian alps.
As Lophophaps remarked in a post here earlier today, marking the location of a critical food/water stash is another good time-saving reason for creating a GPS waypoint.
Most of the time on a walk, my device is not even turned on. It is turned on only (1) for checking when I’m seriously challenged by a route for some reason, or (2) if I’m approaching a very limited number of key decision points that I’ve prepared at home. Then I turn it off again once all is reasonably clear. I have not used it to up to now to record a route, and I record only a minimal number of waypoints for return journeys at spots that are tricky for whatever reason.
I have to point out that I’ve been walking in the Flinders and Gammon Ranges every year in the last decade. Unlike for KNP, where maps have that luxurious 1:25k scale, the South Australian maps are 1:50k. That terrain is generally far more rugged and steeper, with multifarious dry creeks going off every-which-way, than what I have seen in my admittedly lesser number of walks so far in KNP. By far the majority of VicMaps (for my home state) are now also 1:50k. I’m not saying that the different map scales really make a massive difference once one is out on the land. But I am trying to reinforce the idea that walk preparation is decidedly easier with a zoom-able digital map.
A final thought. You use the pronoun “we” when referring to activities. I assume that’s not the “royal we”, and that you have one or more companions when walking. If so, that might aid in solving navigational issues through negotiation with other experienced walkers. At least its an option available to you. My walks are all solo. Any decisions I make are mine and mine alone.
So ultimately I bought a GPS device for the same reason I got a PLB. Both could potentially save my life or save me from serious injury. They did cost a bit, but given that I have amassed a large number of printed topos over the years, I now very rarely need to buy any of those increasingly expensive but potentially fragile items, and I get any necessary updates digitally instead, for free.