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Rant: guy at the REI in Boise told me my map and compass were "basically decoration" and it got under my skin
I was in the Boise REI two weeks ago grabbing fuel canisters before a 4 day loop in the Sawtooths and the checkout guy spotted the folded topo sticking out of my hip belt pocket. He laughed and said my paper map and compass were basically decoration now that phones have offline maps, and that nobody on the trail carries that stuff anymore. I didn't argue but it bugged me the whole drive up. Day two we hit a stretch where the trail marked on my map and the trail on the ground did not match at all, and my phone had been dead since lunch because the cold killed the battery faster than I planned. That paper map and a $9 baseplate compass got me to the lake before dark while two guys we passed were standing around arguing at a junction with no signal. I'm not against GPS apps, I use one too, but calling a map decoration feels like a good way to end up lost. Curious what the rest of you carry as a backup, and does anyone actually practice nav with it or just stuff it in the pack and hope?
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