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Hot take: Ditch the paper map for Gaia GPS on the PCT
I spent 3 seasons using paper maps for the Sierra section of the PCT and thought I was old school cool. Finally tried Gaia GPS on my phone for a 5 day stretch last summer and I could see camp distances, water sources, and elevation changes in seconds. Now I'm wondering how many detours and dry camps I missed because I was squinting at a folded piece of paper?
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emmam891mo ago
Damn, my buddy got totally lost for 3 hours with a paper map last year.
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viola_lopez301mo ago
My buddy Mark tried a paper map on the John Muir Trail last summer and ended up hiking an extra 4 miles because he thought a dotted line was a trail. He said he spent like 20 minutes every night trying to guess where he'd find water the next day, and got it wrong more than half the time. Idk, he switched to an app after that and told me he felt way less stressed about messing up a reading.
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mary_nelson711mo ago
Paper maps are great for the romance of it but I wasted so much time hunting for water sources off trail because I misread a contour line. How many nights did you end up camping way earlier or later than planned because you couldn't tell how far the next reliable creek was on paper? The elevation profile feature on Gaia alone saved me from a brutal 3pm climb I would have missed with a topo map. I still carry a paper backup in my pack for when my phone dies, but I'm never going back to paper as my main nav. Did you find yourself second guessing your map skills less once you switched?
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