Debate: Should you follow your GPS or your gut when a trail disappears?

I was on the Long Trail in Vermont last fall when my GPS said to go left through a boggy mess, but my gut said the trail markers veered right. I went with the GPS and ended up waist deep in mud for an hour. What would you do when the map and your eyes disagree?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.rose1mo ago

The Long Trail is notorious for those boggy sections, especially after a wet fall. Actually, the trail markers are supposed to take priority over GPS because the official path is maintained for hikers, not the algorithm. GPS just pulls from old satellite data, it doesn't know a beaver dam flooded that left turn last week. I'd say trust your gut when the trail markers and the GPS disagree every time. Maps are just a guide, but the markers are the actual trail.

kim_hart71mo ago

Exactly. This whole GPS vs. markers thing is just like how people trust their phone directions over obvious road signs in real life. Went to a new town last month, GPS told me to turn down a dirt road that was clearly marked as private. But people just follow the blue dot right into someone's driveway. We've outsourced our common sense to a battery.