My buddy insisted on using a paper map from 2003 on the Lost Coast Trail

Last month we did the Lost Coast in California and my friend brought this old, faded map he got at a garage sale. I was using the Gaia GPS app on my phone with the real-time topo layer. The paper map showed a creek crossing that had been washed out for like a decade, so we bushwhacked for two hours before I checked my phone and saw the actual trail was 300 yards south. The app even showed the tide charts for the impassable zones. Has anyone else had a partner stubbornly stick to ancient info and waste half a day?

3 comments

3 Comments

valh321mo ago

You mentioned the "real-time topo layer" on Gaia, but that's not a live feed. It's just a recent map download. Still, way better than a 2003 paper map.

michaelf511mo ago

That real time label is a bit misleading for sure. I was up near the Trinity Alps last fall and the Gaia topo showed a trail that washed out five years ago. The real value is having multiple map sources in one place. You can cross check the USGS layer with something like OpenStreetMap to spot those changes. It's not live but it's a lot closer than waiting for the forest service to print new maps.

milaprice26d ago

Nah, I'd rather have that 2003 paper map. At least it knows what it is and doesn't pretend to be something it's not. Plus when the battery dies on my phone up in the backcountry, that paper map is still gonna be there.