Just doing a little boondocking.

There are a lot of people who will blindly follow the GPS regardless of where it may say go. Elderly I can somewhat understand as they did not grow up in the techy environment. Others?????I had an older Garmin that did very good job of providing directions. However, once it tried to take me the back way into Great Sand Dunes NP. That is a 4 wheel only off road route over a mountain pass. Good thing I had been there on previous occasions and knew advance that was not the way to go. But makes me wonder if anyone was lead off on that route by the same misdirections.

Well i can assure you it doesn't only happen on the Left coast, and don't ask me how i know.:SNow my situation wasn't that bad but it came within a few inches of total disaster. The wife and i was on our way to a campground in the ozarks. I had the gps set to hard surface roads only but i soon learned not to trust that either. It had me turning on a gravel road and i thought no i shouldn't turn but i was commited so i went ahead and turned. So after turning and going a short distance it had me doing a very hard left angle turn up a very steep hill. I started the turn then my truck spun out and i said no way i'm not doing this. I then started backing and found myself within inches of going off in a steep ravine with the trailer :o Don't ask me how i got into that mess other than plain old stupidity :S. A longer story short we got out of that situation and now i'm really wondering if i should ever trust our gps again. :B

Quite a few years ago, when GPSs first became popular, DH and I were on a business trip in Socorro, NM. After dinner, we decided to go for a drive to watch the sunset. We saw a side road that went into BLM land and up onto a hill. So we went and enjoyed the sunset. We were kind of clueless as to how to get back so we used the GPS. 4 hours later, we found ourselves in a field of longhorn steer. It was pitch black, but we did manage to see a sign on a fence, "Entering New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Bombing Range." It took us another hour to get back to hard surface road (15 minutes to push through the cows alone)and back to the hotel. I have never trusted a GPS again and carry detailed paper maps of any area we travel.

I was checking mileages for our Colorado trip on Google Maps. It said from Lake City to Ouray was 30 miles. I knew it had to be more than that so I zoomed in to check and it routes you over the Alpine Loop which is a 4x4 offroad trail.

Why does this happen so often on the left coast?

ktmrfs
Explorer II
Oct 02, 2013
wilber1 wrote:
Never, ever select the shortest distance option.

Well, I'll qualify that. On my GPS you can select "No unpaved roads" Do that and then shortest distance is much safer. In fact when I'm towing I always use the "no unpaved roads" option.

why so many folks get lost out west vs east????

Well, the west has lots of FS roads that interconnect lots of major paved roadways. Many FS roads are pasable by passenger cars, many many others aren't. But gps if you make the wrong choices will try routing you on those for the shortest route.

And a hint, if your on or see a FS road. If the sign has the road numbers horizontal, the road should be passenger car passable in good weather. If the sign has the road numbers Vertical, then it is designated as high clearance 4wd passable. that should be clue #1.

And in the case of "high clearance" roads, the top of the sign will in most cases have the connecting passenger passable roadway number labeled horizontally in smaller type on the top.
Ski_Pro_3
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
DianneOK wrote:
Most of the route from Boise to W Yellowstone is freeway and up to 75mph......

You are correct. I just checked. Just about all of it is 75mph. Although I don't think I'd be driving that fast. thanks!!
dakonthemountai
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
Ya know, I'm the Director of Administration for an academic research institute at the university, and I LOVE research and technology... However I've never had a GPS and am not sure I ever will for reasons just like this. My other half LOVES it and has gotten lost numerous times. I LOVE paper maps and sitting down and plotting out my travels and the fun of imagining just what lies ahead based on the topographical indicators on the map... But that's just me... kinda old school when I'm on "vacation".... :)

Yup, even old school folks still live on the "left coast"... ;)
Dak
DianneOK
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
Most of the route from Boise to W Yellowstone is freeway and up to 75mph......
RVUSA
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
skipro3 wrote:
I challenge anyone to make that route in any rig at that pace and not break the posted speed limits. Not many cars even have that kind of range; 400 miles.

I assume the mapping software knows the allowable speed limits along the route. I do not believe that any of them account for stops for any reason. Just straight drive time. I have seen my phone actually modify my ETA due to traffic, but it's just averaging my current speed in.
TOMMY47
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
Same in Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Eurocamper
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
I work at a land-management agency and I am occasionally asked for directions to campsites or back-country areas. Many people I talk to seem to have no navigation or map skills, or even rudimentary sense of direction.

They usually want me to just give them an address to plug into their GPS. I have to explain to them that campgrounds deep in the forest don't receive mail so they don't have an address.
fla-gypsy
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
A whole generation of people will be geographically ignorant and be unable to navigate from a map.
Ski_Pro_3
Explorer
Oct 02, 2013
RVUSA wrote:
skipro3 wrote:
I went on-line just now to check a route from Boise, ID to West Yellowstone MT.

Mapquest says:
I-84 E 386.67 miles
5 hrs 44 mins

Do the math;
You would have to average 67.3mph to do that run. REALLY?!???!!!
I don't think so!

Probably for a car?

I challenge anyone to make that route in any rig at that pace and not break the posted speed limits. Not many cars even have that kind of range; 400 miles.
Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Oct 02, 2013
When we first hit the road we got a Garmin.....

Miss Garmin took me on a road that turned into a logging road then turned into a pipeline road.....finally found an area wide enough to do a 6 point turn around and got out.
Checked the paper map and that road was clearly marked......'unimproved'
My mistake for trusting Miss Garmin.

But I was a slow learner......
We were headed to a CG in UP Michigan.
Tooling along knowing we were getting close Miss Garmin said to turn left 500 yards.
Then turn left now....so I did.
Road got narrow, tree lined with canopy........kinda looked like it would lead to CG besides I was committed.
1/2 mile down road saw an entrance with gates.......right into a cemetery.
Great! Now I'm having to maneuver around pine trees and headstones to get back out to main road.

CG was 10 more miles down the road on right side.

Miss Garmin went into exile...in a box taped shut.
Paper maps work pretty darn good