My GPS sent me to a dirt road that ended in a lake

I was driving to a friend's cabin in northern Wisconsin and followed Google Maps for 45 minutes down a logging trail that got narrower and muddier until i hit a sudden dead end at a frozen lake. Turns out the map had a seasonal road marked as a regular street and the lake wasn't even shown. Has anyone else gotten stranded by a map that forgot to update after spring thaw?

3 comments

3 Comments

calebrivera3d ago

Man I've been there. Always keep a paper map or offline topo in the car up north, cell service dies and those seasonal roads are a real trap. Download the area to your phone before you leave pavement.

faith_perez3d ago

Honestly, I used to just wing it and figured my phone would work everywhere. Then I got stranded on a forest service road with zero bars for three hours last fall. Now I download the whole route onto my phone before I even leave the house, learned that lesson the hard way.

allen.amy3d ago

Paper maps are great until you drop coffee on them, ask me how I know.