[bertr4nd]

Re: maps. Eh. Some people tend to romanticize the pre-GPS era with stories of serendipitous adventures, but that doesn’t match my experience at all. My recollection is that wandering around lost was time-wasting, frustrating, and sometimes downright scary. I’m not sure I can recall a single positive unexpected experience that resulted. I don’t miss it one bit. If the price is that I sometimes ask for directions to a place I’ve been before, I’ll take the trade.

[m3047]

I used to do a lot of solo hiking / scrambling in the (PNW) Cascades. I rarely looked at maps when actually hiking, except to identify some landmark in the distance. I spent time (hours) casually perusing an open topo map laying somewhere at home; sometimes I'd discover that overflight photos were available at one of the libraries. =)

When in the field I rarely looked at a map to see where I was going. I never carried a compass.

Today I can get satellite photos on the internet, (quality? meh. some of the overflight photos were stereo. I suppose I could pay) but "up and down are forever".