Overheard a guy at REI say this map was 'close enough'

Was grabbing some carabiners last week and heard this dude telling his friend that a crumpled gas station map of the Sierra Nevadas was 'close enough' for a weekend hike. He pointed at a trail that was literally 2 miles off from where it actually goes on the real topography. Took me right back to that time I followed a map from 1988 and ended up staring at a cliff instead of a campsite. Anyone else ever trusted a janky map and paid for it with blisters or worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_henry11d ago

Close enough for a weekend hike" is code for "I'm gonna be sending my coordinates to search and rescue by sundown" lol. Man, that 1988 map story is brutal though, I once used a map that had a lake that literally dried up 20 years ago and ended up hiking an extra 4 miles through a dry creek bed. Nothing builds character like trusting a map that's older than some of the people reading this thread haha. Some folks treat navigation like it's a choose your own adventure book and that's how you get a free helicopter ride.

karen_sanchez109d ago

Read an article last week about how GPS coordinates on old maps can be off by a few hundred feet because the satellites weren't as precise back then, so people end up searching for a trailhead that's actually on the other side of a ridge. That lake thing reminds me of a buddy who followed a map marked "seasonal pond" and ended up bushwhacking through what was basically a parking lot in July. The wild part is that some of those old maps are still the best option in certain areas, so you're not even wrong for trusting them, you're just playing a game of geographic roulette.