[at-l] Re: [ at-l ] maps

[at2002@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gary Wright)]

On Thursday, January 30, 2003, at 03:51  PM, Slyatpct@aol.com wrote:
> Half the time
> you can hear traffic and almost on the entire trail, with the
> exception of
> the Smokies, you're no more than a few hours or less away from a road
> crossing.  I hardly think it's worth bushwacking or taking a blue
> blaze when
> you can just follow the AT.

I tend to agree with Jack about maps but Sly isn't wrong either.
The fastest way out of a wilderness is often not the "shortest".
Heading towards car noise is sometimes not a good idea either.
I think that with a map you at least have a chance of evaluating
what is the best approach rather than guessing.  Of course
some people just don't understand maps:

This past summer I was coming up on Dragon's Tooth in VA.  The
trail follows a curving ridge line as it approaches the Dragon's
Tooth at the end.  Basically the ridge gets higher and narrower
as you approach the Tooth with steep drop offs to either side.

There is a road down below to the west of the trail (trail west,
which is to the left if you are walking northbound).  I came
across a group of 20-somethings out for a day hike.  They didn't
have a map with them and were trying to get back to their car,
which was on the northbound side of the Tooth, not the soundbound
side where I met them.  After I showed them where they were on
the map and recommended that they simply turn around and head
northbound on the AT until they hit the blue-blaze cutoff that
led to the parking lot, they proceeded to ignore my recommendations
thinking it would be easier to just "go down the hill" to the
road.  Apparently they didn't understand why I was so concerned
about the tightly squeezed contour lines on their proposed route.
It was clearly much shorter to just go straight to the road than
to hike .5 back to the Tooth and then follow the trail down on
the other side.

Bushwacking down a steep wooded mountainside is a good way to get
hurt and/or lost and is rarely the fastest choice with a marked
trail nearby.


Radar www.trailjournals.com/gwright
AT2002,PCT2003?,CDT?