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Its pretty hard to walk more than a few hours in a straight line anywhere on the east coast without hitting a road of some sort. Even the so-called 100 Mile Wi

Its pretty hard to walk more than a few hours in a straight line anywhere on the east coast without hitting a road of some sort. Even the so-called 100 Mile Wilderness on the AT in northern Maine is crisscrossed with dozens of logging roads. Basic map and compass training would be better than GPS

kwhitefoot 9y ago
> Basic map and compass training would be better than GPS Surely any kind of hiking should include at least a little informal training in using a map and a compass. I had that in primary school in the UK. Mind you that was in the early sixties. Here in Norway children get an early introduction to simple woodcraft (shelters, fire, tools, maps, compasses) in primary school and have outings into the woods. My children would come home with a brief letter saying that a trip to the woods was planned and could we make sure that they were supplied with sausages to cook over a fire and a knife to cut sticks with to make the fire and a rudimentary shelter. And they did it before mobile phones were common too. One of my sons was accidentally cut by a classmate but we didn't sue and he came to no lasting harm. The trip was not called off, the teacher simply and effectively bandaged it up and they all carried on. If primary school children can manage then surely 20 year olds can.
- bsder 9y ago
  Maps are great if you know where you are. If I'm in the woods, that may be non-trivial to figure out. In addition, GPS works fine in the standard conditions where you can't see very well (heavy rain, snow or fog) which would make figuring out where you are pretty stupidly difficult. This is extremely helpful even when using a map. Teach people to use a map and compass? Absolutely. However, GPS is really useful. > One of my sons was accidentally cut by a classmate but we didn't sue and he came to no lasting harm. The trip was not called off, the teacher simply and effectively bandaged it up and they all carried on. If primary school children can manage then surely 20 year olds can. Most people think like this. The problem is that if even one parent/student winds up winning a big lawsuit, it ruins it for all the sensible people.

kwhitefoot 9y ago

> Basic map and compass training would be better than GPS Surely any kind of hiking should include at least a little informal training in using a map and a compass. I had that in primary school in the UK. Mind you that was in the early sixties. Here in Norway children get an early introduction to simple woodcraft (shelters, fire, tools, maps, compasses) in primary school and have outings into the woods. My children would come home with a brief letter saying that a trip to the woods was planned and could we make sure that they were supplied with sausages to cook over a fire and a knife to cut sticks with to make the fire and a rudimentary shelter. And they did it before mobile phones were common too. One of my sons was accidentally cut by a classmate but we didn't sue and he came to no lasting harm. The trip was not called off, the teacher simply and effectively bandaged it up and they all carried on. If primary school children can manage then surely 20 year olds can.

bsder 9y ago
Maps are great if you know where you are. If I'm in the woods, that may be non-trivial to figure out. In addition, GPS works fine in the standard conditions where you can't see very well (heavy rain, snow or fog) which would make figuring out where you are pretty stupidly difficult. This is extremely helpful even when using a map. Teach people to use a map and compass? Absolutely. However, GPS is really useful. > One of my sons was accidentally cut by a classmate but we didn't sue and he came to no lasting harm. The trip was not called off, the teacher simply and effectively bandaged it up and they all carried on. If primary school children can manage then surely 20 year olds can. Most people think like this. The problem is that if even one parent/student winds up winning a big lawsuit, it ruins it for all the sensible people.