Comment by boothby | Hacker News Reader

Comment by boothby | Hacker News Reader

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One time, I dropped my phone in a parking lot and it landed face down on a pebble rendering my screen completely unusable. That's never happened with a paper map in a ziploc bag.

Funny thing. I was in search and rescue as a teen, and I went though the courses with a friend. A decade or so later, we were hiking on a bright sunny day* and weren't properly prepared. We went off trail, and found ourselves in an unknown position. Our predominant emotion was shame, with the understanding that if we got S&R called on us we would be completely honest about our training (not that our spouses wouldn't be honest for us). We had a paper map but no compass, and were able to navigate to a marked trail with some educated guesswork. In the end, it was a fun adventure, but the shame stuck with us the whole way home.

* note: "bright and sunny day" is the condition that search and rescue teaches one to be the most mindful of. It's where you and everybody else get the most confident, and prepare the least.

I'm surprised you haven't encountered paper maps that are wrong. I had one with a trail that (unbeknownst to me) hadn't been maintained in decades. I followed it to an unmarked cliff and injured myself going around rather instead of backtracking several miles like I should have. Digital maps tend to be much better about information freshness unless you're printing the latest maps from different sources before every trip.

I didn't say I've never encountered an incorrect map, I said they aren't rendered useless by dropping on an ill-positioned rock. You can send digital maps to the printer, and insert them into a ziploc, before leaving your house. I emphasize the ziploc because I have seen paper maps ruined by rain and rivers. And the added heft keeps them from blowing away in a weak gust of wind.

And if you like belts & suspenders and have a laser printer, splurge a little[1]. But still keep your map, compass and pencil in the ziploc.

[1] https://www.riteintherain.com/printer-paper-20-pound#8511-50

I don't know anyone who has a printer capable of printing 7.5 min maps on-demand. That's a job for a print shop. Most SAR happens from day hikes and other light recreation, not multi-day expeditions where you can reasonably justify extensive setup like that.

My recommendation is to take an old phone, make sure it's charged, and throw it in a Ziploc in a back pocket. Then stay on-trail, which you should almost always be doing anyway.

> ...7.5 min maps...

This is the second response in a row where you've read something I wrote and responded to a very specific thing I did not say.

Capable of printing to-scale? No. But I've printed a fair number of USGS 7.5min quads on a standard Brother laser printer. I print them double-sided, with the top half of the map on one side and the bottom half on the other[1]. They fit that way at about 1/2 scale, which is still eminently usable. Perfect for day hikes and other light recreation. And guaranteed not to break when you sit on it in a Ziploc in a back pocket.

Sure, use your phone with offline maps as your primary, but a printed backup map doesn't require anything special or expensive.

[1] With an overlap strip that is printed on both sides, thanks to plakativ[2].

[2] https://gitlab.mister-muffin.de/josch/plakativ

...extensive setup?

Last year I went hiking in Switzerland, so I mailed a couple of different maps of where I was going and picked them up from the print shop in town, which took me...... 30 minutes?

The times I've used my phone for hiking I've always regretted it for one reason or another. Maps are so much better, and it's not extensive setup getting your hands on one, one way or another. Come on.

I've had the exact same thing with an OSM map. Organic Maps showed a trail down, but if it was meant to be a trail, it hadn't been used or maintained in at least a century. It was completely irresponsible to go down it, but we did so anyway because otherwise we'd have to backtrack our entire hike. We got home, but it was quite an adventure.

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