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Great advice at the end of the article, "put unknown trails to the sniff test: If they peter out into forest or unmarked desert, or you find yourself unexpected

by krupan 3y ago

Great advice at the end of the article, "put unknown trails to the sniff test: If they peter out into forest or unmarked desert, or you find yourself unexpectedly scrambling up steep or loose terrain, stop." Every one of these "person almost (or does) dies because their GPS led them astray" stories seems like it could have been avoided if people followed that advice. I really do wonder why they don't? I've been hiking a lot and taken some wrong trails and I do know the feeling of, "it probably gets better just around the next corner," but I also have managed to decide to turn around and try again another day when a "trail" gets too difficult, thankfully. It just makes me wonder

brailsafe 3y ago
Seems like you answered your own question; either they didn't get that advice, haven't "been hiking a lot" (or at all), or just feel like they can brute force it for some reason. Hiking is one of the first activities in which I learned the value of reps, as a discrete type of practice. If you go hiking once, you learn something about what you've brought with you, the conditions, different kinds of surfaces, and your own (current) physical ability, if you're paying attention. Do that many times with a little variation between each adventure, and you'll develop a generalization intuition that you can't get in any other way, including about advice itself for a given area, altitude, climate, time of year, etc.. Now that I've been a hiker for years, and continue varying my adventures—usually in the specific mountain range and trails these people were rescued from—I tend to think of different ground surfaces as a metaphor for life. Incidentally, a lot of people probably don't anticipate completely losing cell reception so close to the city.
armada651 3y ago
It's just a part of human psychology, once you've decided to do something it can result in tunnel vision where obvious indications that something is wrong get ignored. It can sometimes be hard to take a step back and re-evaluate. We've long observed the same thing in airplane pilots. When they get takeoff clearance they can get so focused on getting the plane into the air that obvious signals of deteriorating conditions during takeoff get ignored. The Tenerife accident is just one example of this.
boppo1 3y ago
It seems like this could stop you from enjoying a lot of trails. I hiked in Pukaskwa and lake superior provincial parks last year, and the trails at many points became quite steep/rocky. But they were overwhelmingly fun & beautiful hikes. I did lose the trail twice which was quite startling and was glad to have gps on my phone.
- krupan 3y ago
  Oh don't worry, when this happens I always go back to my maps and then make another attempt.

by krupan 3y ago

brailsafe 3y ago

Seems like you answered your own question; either they didn't get that advice, haven't "been hiking a lot" (or at all), or just feel like they can brute force it for some reason. Hiking is one of the first activities in which I learned the value of reps, as a discrete type of practice. If you go hiking once, you learn something about what you've brought with you, the conditions, different kinds of surfaces, and your own (current) physical ability, if you're paying attention. Do that many times with a little variation between each adventure, and you'll develop a generalization intuition that you can't get in any other way, including about advice itself for a given area, altitude, climate, time of year, etc.. Now that I've been a hiker for years, and continue varying my adventures—usually in the specific mountain range and trails these people were rescued from—I tend to think of different ground surfaces as a metaphor for life. Incidentally, a lot of people probably don't anticipate completely losing cell reception so close to the city.

armada651 3y ago

It's just a part of human psychology, once you've decided to do something it can result in tunnel vision where obvious indications that something is wrong get ignored. It can sometimes be hard to take a step back and re-evaluate. We've long observed the same thing in airplane pilots. When they get takeoff clearance they can get so focused on getting the plane into the air that obvious signals of deteriorating conditions during takeoff get ignored. The Tenerife accident is just one example of this.

boppo1 3y ago

It seems like this could stop you from enjoying a lot of trails. I hiked in Pukaskwa and lake superior provincial parks last year, and the trails at many points became quite steep/rocky. But they were overwhelmingly fun & beautiful hikes. I did lose the trail twice which was quite startling and was glad to have gps on my phone.

krupan 3y ago
Oh don't worry, when this happens I always go back to my maps and then make another attempt.