Map reading - can anyone do this now?

[hamster]

The ideal for me would be some sort of combo of the electric and the paper - there was a foldable A3 e-ink jobbie knocking around a few years ago - imagine one of them in colour and waterproof... with all your maps on! Oh Bliss!!
http://news.softpedia.com/news/LG-Devel ... 2222.shtml

It never went to market. E-Paper is struggling as consumers increasingly bought tablets instead of e-readers.

[Tangled Metal]

Everyone can get lost even those with high skillset in navigation. The real trick is what you do to relocate and solve the problem. When in the hills my first solution revolves around a time out. I seriously stop to have a drink, eat some food and just look around me. Then I get the map out again and compass perhaps even the GPS if I am carrying one. That break works to take your mind out of the pattern it had got into about where you are and you can go back to first principles with a fresh view on the situation. Plus the food/drink time gives you a rest so your mind stops panicking and you can actually think more rationally. Try it if you get lost in the wilds, it does work wonders. I learnt that myself through experience (that nearly resulted in an MRT call out). however I did read it later in an advice piece in a magazine by a MIC and some time MRT member.

I do agree a sat nav can make it all easier at times but it is all about tools right for the job. IMHO a map and a compass will always have a time and a place even if the format of them changes. Perhaps a flexible and thing screen one day with a built in compass may replace a paper (or now plastic) map and a separate baseplate compass.

I do think even the most committed GPS/sat navvers will admit to liking a well made map such as the OS series (even if it is on a computer screen).

[fausto copy]

I've always loved using maps and still do all of our cycle planning using OS.
As an OS Getamap (now superseded by OS Maps) user I plot a route and print it out to use on my bar bag.
All has worked well until last week in Worcestershire.
We'd followed the NCN routes through the city (confusingly marked as route 6, 45, 46 and 442 all at once) and came upon the start of Route 3 to get us east of the city. However, I misread the way the blue sign pointed and took the wrong road out. After 20 minutes or so, arriving at the A38 I realised I'd gone wrong, but couldn't for the life of me work out where we were (as it was off the bit I'd printed out).
There were a couple of road crews nearby, so I asked for assistance and they hadn't the foggiest idea where we actually were and couldn't work out a route using their Satnav ( ).
After some time on a ring road I found one local chap walking his dog who put us roughly in the right direction and some time later I was shocked to find ourselves back at the start of route 3 again. There I realised my mistake and managed to get us on track again.
As it was my birthday and Mrs. Copy hadn't bought me a present, I suggested that maybe it was time to invest in a GPS of some sort.
I've always been reluctant to buy one as I always imagined I'd be missing out on the surrounding features if slavishly following a purple line or whatever. Now I'm not so sure.

[Mike Sales]

GPS must take a lot of fun out of getting lost.
I remember being on top of the Glyders in a white out and getting a suspicion we were going the wrong way. I got the compass out but had to ask whether the red end or the white end points north. We were going the wrong way, by 180 degrees.
Or being in the Cuilins in thick mist and again having an uneasy feeling. The rocks are often magnetic so the compass can't be relied on. We had to retrace our steps back and forth to pick up the main ridge again.
What larks.

[Neilo]

I did the same thing on the Glyderau not that long ago, a schoolboy error on my part. I have been going into the hills for over 35 years. I learned to navigate when I was in the Air cadets 30 years ago. I have been amember of Mountain Rescue for nearly 20 years and am a qualified Mountain leader, so I was rather embarrased with my self at getting the compass 180 degrees out.

As for GPS, I have one in my rucksack, don't use it a lot. It is another tool in the toolbox. Prime usage is radioing in a precise Grid ref when on a call out with MR. Used it in a white out in Scotland along with the paper map, compass, pacing and a 50m climbing rope. There were cliffs near by and we didn't want to walk ofer the edge.
In the hills, first learn to use a paper map and a compass and take one with you, then you canuse a GPS. A paper map and compass do not get flat batteries.

As for cycling, I do not see the need for me to use a GPS. If I do not know the route I will take a paper map.

Neil

[shane]

GPS must take a lot of fun out of getting lost.

Don't worry even with map and GPS its still possible to get hopelessly lost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfDHxpAeyFo

[eileithyia]

When i first went on a road trip with Phil, I was shocked and dismayed to find a satnav stuck into the car!!!! I did not need one to navigate to Abergavenny from Horwich and i certainly did not t'other woman to tell me to turn left at the end of the road...
I did concede and allow it be used to navigate to our overnight accommodation.... oh how i laughed until cried when 'she' led us down an increasingly narrowing lane ending in a field with the announcement we had arrived at our destination!!!!

Paper Maps for me, when in a new area i will often have them on a map clip, love seeing the pictorial landscape opening up before me, spotting features i may not have noticed when i first planned the route, and spotting side routes etc., to go and explore....

[glasgowjim]

For route planning in the uk use

hugthemap look it up its freeware

[simonineaston]

The ideal for me would be some sort of combo of the electric and the paper - there was a foldable A3 e-ink jobbie knocking around a few years ago - imagine one of them in colour and waterproof... with all your maps on! Oh Bliss!!
http://news.softpedia.com/news/LG-Devel ... 2222.shtml

It never went to market. E-Paper is struggling as consumers increasingly bought tablets instead of e-readers.

I'm quite fond of e-ink displays - I have a couple of devices that use them, a Kindle Paperwhite being one example. Big plus is the whopping battery life, as they hardly use any current... my Kindle stays charged for up to 3 weeks! For me, it's perfect for 'type-written' reading material, like books. I've never taken to the glossy full colour look of tablets just as I am perfectly happy reading old-fashioned paperbacks, in preference to a glossy 'coffee table' hardback. At one stage I experimented with using map screenshots saved as pdfs and reading them on my Kindle, but b&w maps don't do it for me.
Talking about navigating across strange towns, I did these for towns that I knew I was going to visit on trips to northern France. At one stage, soem versions of Kindle could use built-in technology to geolocate themselves - not a proper GPS chip, but used cell masts I think...I took a screenshots from Geoportail. Sort-of worked, but the act of getting the Kindle out, turning it on and browsing to the right page was in practice, too much trouble. Fun to have a go, though... in some ways it was quite successful, in that I knew I had a decent map image of the town as a fallback - better to get the paper colour map from the toursit information centre, tho'...
(Remember the old A-Z series? I was a motorcycle courier for a while and the London A-Z was our 'bible'...)

[pjclinch]

"GPS" and "reading a map" are not antithetical. Especially if you're using a mapping GPS unit!

Navigation isn't just knowing where you are, it's being able to plan a way to get to where you're going too. If you can't use maps, be they on a screen or on a piece of paper, then you're not much use at navigation. You could use a "turn right in 50m" gizmo on a delineated network like the roads, I suppose, but you'll be a slave to the ideas of a good route of whoever programmed it. Not so much of a problem if you're doing deliveries by van, but for touring (be it by bike, car, foot, whatever) the route selection is fundamental to the whole operation.

People are less sniffy than they used to be about GPS, but especially in hillwalking there remains a strong core who think it's cheating by just throwing technology at it, and then they get out their precision engineered compass and their satellite derived map and fail to see they're actually doing the same compared to the folk who pioneered their routes. They're all tools and you need to know how to use them to get the best out of them, and which one will work best for you in whatever context.

Pete.

[pwa]

Paper maps and GPS devices work best together. Either, on its own, will let you down from time to time. I often go walking with a paper map in hand and a GPS in the pocket to be pulled out if and when I want confirmation that I am where I think I am. The GPS (Satmap) has a reasonable screen, but I want to be able to see what's further along the route without having to fiddle with a gizmo. And paper maps work well in full sunlight, where all electronic screens are rubbish.

[simonineaston]

There's always somebody who'll confuse 'easier' with 'cheating'... mayonnaise made in a blender. Tastes Good to me!

[meic]

I have quite happily hiked in the Brecon beacons with a 1:25 000 OS map and see little need for GPS there (except in a whiteout) - I have quite a good sense of direction I think.

I regularly cycle in that area (but call it by another name) with a GPS and have no need for a map.
On the other hand try going through the Brechfa Forest with a map and compass and see how much fun you have.
The only "landmarks" visible are trees and paths. The former are only marked on maps as areas and the latter are frequently rerouted and not as shown on the map.

I still heat my house using a wood fire, most of you have a more advanced technology making your life much easier, like gas or electricity. Does your lack of practice at having to go through the repetitive task of preparing a fire and clearing ashes all the time mean that you no longer know how to light a fire? Should you carry on lighting a real fire every day to keep your skills valid, even though you have a machine that saves you all that tedious work? and is clean and is rapid and doesnt require a large storage area for fuel.

I "acquired" a full set of 1:50,000 maps for the UK in the 1980s, there value at the time was around £1,000!
Compare that to the price of an electronic device that does it all for you.

I will agree with a previous comment about "needing" map reading skills in order to prepare your routes rather than be in the hands of the Routing Software's Wise Guidance. Yet when I did my navigation training (pre-GPS) there was a hierarchy of good navigation methods and top of that hierarchy was not map and compass but local knowledge.
Modern routing like Cycle travel seems to be feeding from such local knowledge in a way that mapping does not.

On my recent French tour, I put myself in its hands and it did better than I could because I dont know how to judge which French roads would give the best riding (CycleTravel has access to traffic volume data which isnt on maps, doesnt it?) Also it is more up to date than any paper map.

I bet the same army manual now has GPS as second place under local knowledge. Though of course the army has to keep map and compass as we may one day fight somebody big enough to "turn the GPS off".

[meic]

I did the same thing on the Glyderau not that long ago, a schoolboy error on my part. I have been going into the hills for over 35 years. I learned to navigate when I was in the Air cadets 30 years ago. I have been amember of Mountain Rescue for nearly 20 years and am a qualified Mountain leader, so I was rather embarrased with my self at getting the compass 180 degrees out.

As for GPS, I have one in my rucksack, don't use it a lot. It is another tool in the toolbox. Prime usage is radioing in a precise Grid ref when on a call out with MR. Used it in a white out in Scotland along with the paper map, compass, pacing and a 50m climbing rope. There were cliffs near by and we didn't want to walk ofer the edge.
In the hills, first learn to use a paper map and a compass and take one with you, then you canuse a GPS. A paper map and compass do not get flat batteries.

As for cycling, I do not see the need for me to use a GPS. If I do not know the route I will take a paper map.

Neil

I always assumed that Mountain Rescue units were locals who knew the ground. I would not trust my GPS's accuracy to guide me along a cliffside path in the fog. My Brecon based sister was a little disappointed when I warned her (now Ex-) husband that a GPS would not reliably provide this service on his regular walks in the hills.

[thirdcrank]

The ability to read a map is a valuable skill, as others have pointed out, but it's important not to be a Luddite with new technology. There was probably a time when the people who could get around by watching which way the rabbits were hopping etc were scornful of the new-fangled maps and charts.