GPS: When to use, when not to use on hike

By using satellites, the global positioning system can find your spot on the Earth to within 10 feet. With a GPS device, you can preprogram the trailhead location and mark key turns and landmarks as well as the hike’s end point. This mobile map is a powerful technological tool that almost certainly ensures you won’t get lost – so long as you’ve correctly programmed the information. GPS also can calculate travel time and act as a compass, a barometer and altimeter, making such devices virtually obsolete on a hike.

In remote areas, however, reception is spotty at best for GPS, rendering your mobile map worthless. A GPS device also runs on batteries, and there’s always a chance they will go dead. Or you may drop your device, breaking it in the process. Their screens are small, and sometimes you need a large paper map to get a good sense of the natural landmarks around you.

So which should you use, paper map or GPS? Simply put, GPS isn’t enough. I recommend carrying both paper maps and GPS. Being a technogeek, I like to mainly use GPS, but there have been a number of times I was glad to have my paper topo map with me. Regardless, I do all of my planning on paper maps and then program it into my GPS device.

When buying a GPS device, the tradeoff almost always is between being lightweight and the number of functions it can perform. If you want to program in map routes and have a compass/altimeter/barometer, you’ll need a heavier (or at least more expensive) model.

Familiarize yourself with the GPS device and practice using it, perhaps at a local playground, before heading into the wilds. The unit won’t do you much good on the trail if you don’t know how to use it. Finally, make sure you get a waterproof case for it.

Of course, to keep hiking inexpensive, you can dispense with GPS altogether. Paper maps and compass cost virtually nothing and do the same thing.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.

Carry a wristwatch on a day hike with kids

A watch not only tells time but can serve as a makeshift compass.

A wristwatch may seem redundant in the age of mobile phones, but if your phone goes dead or is lost, a watch lets you know what time it is.

This can be valuable in helping you gauge how far you’ve traveled. For example, if you know your brood covers about half a mile every half hour, and only 15 minutes have passed, then you’ve probably traveled a quarter mile. If you’re lost, you’ll need to know how soon you should think about going into emergency mode and staying the night in the wilds.

Wear a watch with hands, not a digital one. While digital watches come with all kinds of gizmos, like a barometer, altimeter and compass, most of them require a battery, and batteries have a way of going dead just when you need them most.

In case your GPS dies or you lose your compass, a wristwatch with hands also can be used to tell direction. Simply point the watch’s hour hand toward the sun. Now imagine a line between the hour hand and the 12 on your watch; that line is true south. If you’re currently on daylight savings time (in the United States, this is from the second Sunday of March to the day before the first Sunday of November, except Hawaii and the non-Navajo sections of Arizona), you’ll need to pretend the hour hand is one hour earlier than it appears on your watch (so if the hour hand is on 11, pretend it’s on 10). If cloudy, simply line up the hour hand with the brightest part of the sky.

Finally, make sure your watch is waterproof or water resistant. You don’t want it to stop working during the rain or in case you accidentally take it into the water.

Read more about day hiking with children in my guidebook Hikes with Tykes.