[pct-l] Maps

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

On Dec 2, 2009, at 9:56 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
> Indeed.  People will say you don't need maps..then they'll ask to  
> look at the maps. :)

If somebody is standing there with a map, of course you're gonna ask  
to look at it. It's the only sociable thing to do.

It's nice to have a map when you go through parts of the trail where  
you can anticipate that you might want to bail out, or that the trail  
might be in bad condition or if you are planning to take an alternate  
route, or if you are hiking somewhere not on the PCT and plan to  
follow multiple trails. But the PCT is really well marked, at least  
it seemed that way to me, so mostly I was able to hike for hours and  
hours without doing much more than checking the data book, and  
usually that was out of an obsessive need to know how many miles I  
had gone, not to orient myself.

Where I used maps:
JMT
The section past Tuolumne Meadows to Sonora Pass. There was lots of  
snow and I wanted to take an alternate route. I still got lost, however.
The section between Quincy and Chester because I read a newspaper  
article where Huff-N-Puff had said the trail was in bad shape with  
lots of blowdowns and a map would be really useful (trail did have  
lots of blowdowns, but wasn't too hard to follow now that the snow  
had melted.) I also used a map through there because I didn't have  
the guide book.
Glacier Peak Wilderness. Brought a map of the suggested detour just  
in case I decided to take it. I didn't take it and didn't use any  
maps otherwise.

A map is really just one way of looking at things. At some time in  
the past, humans did not have maps and they were still able to get  
where they wanted to go.