Re: [Philmont] - GPS Dead Weight, Not!

GPS in the right situation can be a valuable tool. I might agree that
it's not needed on the (snow-less) trails at most of Philmont. But in a
wilderness setting, it helped our group. We were in the Sierra on solid
granite, & our lead scout lost the trail. We came up to a cliff blocking
our advance. We had to choose to the right or left, up or down a 25
degree slope not knowing if our return would be possible. The GPS told us
the trail should be about 100 yards to the right - it was right on! We
were put back on the trail. Had we gone the other way, we might have
ended up in the next valley and delayed a day in getting home (think how
the parents would react to that). As far as I'm concerned, "...Don't
leave home without it".

YiS,
Rick
"a good ole Buffalo too"

"Call me old-fashioned (which I am not), but GPS is just a bad idea.
Unless you need to conduct yourself in the woods for a living, or yer
trying to find a fishin' hole, using GPS quickly becomes an overkill
crutch ("camp is 30 meters to the left"), with batteries that WILL fail.
Then, you are just carrying a lead weight."

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Received on Fri Mar 28 17:27:32 2003