My love/hate relationship with GPS really came into focus recently. The maps/GPS app on my phone did a great job of finding the fastest route between Durango, CO and Taos, NM. We crossed some really spectacular country, and I wasn’t surprised when we started climbing, as there are all kinds of mountains in this area. I kept expecting to come to a mountain pass, then head downhill into Taos. Instead, we kept climbing, climbing and climbing. I had my wife pull up the Altimeter app on my phone … 7,000 feet … 8,000 feet … 9,000 feet … 10,000 feet … and finally, at literally the top of a mountain, 10, 525 feet! Even with clouds all around us, the views stretched out for miles and miles. It was stunning, but also totally unexpected.
Once we got to our destination, I took a closer look at the route on the map, and there was zero clue as to what driving this route entailed. Then I pulled out an actual map for the area (Indian Country Guide Map by AAA), and discovered we had summited Jawbone Mountain! As I continued to look at the paper map, I saw so much interesting information about the country that we had missed by not checking it out beforehand.
What the GPS showed 
What the map showed
At home I have a good-sized storage bin that holds literally dozens, if not hundreds of maps from places I’ve gone. They range from a map of the Western States to topographical maps of trails that cover only a few square miles. I have maps with yellow highter that have routes of road trips I planned that covered half a dozen or more states. I’d sit down with these maps, exploring in my mind’s eye the whys and wheres of a trip – incredible scenery, access to backcountry, historic points of interest, or just something intriguing on the map. And somehow or other, without the aid of a GPS in my car or on my phone, I made it to every place I wanted to visit. Conversely, my GPS has occasionally taken me miles from where I expected … and I have read multiple stories about people who got well and truly lost – and even perished – by trusting their GPS in their car.
In the cold, wet and gray days of winter in the Pacific Northwest, I would spend hours pouring over the maps, reading guidebooks, planning campsites, hikes, explorations. I’d make lists of everything needed to make the trip a success. I could almost see the distant vistas, and feel the summer heat on my back. It was my tofur – two for the price of one, living one vacation in my mind as I planned it, then when I was actually seeing my plans unfold in real life. Looking up the route I had taken this time on a map showed me how much I was missing by using the ubiquitous technology available at our fingertips today. I still have a few days left on this road trip. My maps are coming out, and I can’t wait to see what I find.
I Am Gray 