Showerthought: My old paper maps feel like a different world now

Last week I was packing for a trip in the Sawtooths and found my old map case from a 2015 trip on the Colorado Trail. Back then, I spent a whole evening with a highlighter planning each day's miles, and if the trail rerouted, you just had to hope someone left a note at the junction. Three years ago, I started using a phone app, but the battery died on day two near Twin Lakes. Now, I just download the GPX file to my watch, but I still fold that old paper map into my pack, just in case. Does anyone else keep a paper copy as a backup, or am I just being stubborn?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana_kim6620h ago

You mentioned folding that old map into your pack. That physical act of preparing it feels like part of the ritual to me, a real commitment to the route. I'd feel naked without one, even if I never look at it.

robertcarr20h ago

Last season I watched a guy's GPS die at 9,000 feet with a storm rolling in. He had no paper backup and spent two cold hours trying to remember a creek crossing. Diana_kim66 gets it, that map isn't just paper. It's your plan B when tech fails. Folding it means you've thought past the easy part. My old USGS quad for the Sawtooths has saved my butt twice from wrong turns my phone told me to take.

gibson.morgan20h ago

Honestly that backup paper map is just dead weight. Diana_kim66 calls it a ritual, but it's really just clutter when your watch has the exact same data. Carrying extra stuff for a feeling doesn't make you safer, it just makes your pack heavier.