Description

I own no land, instead I have wheelestate. I’ve been a full time RVer since 1997. Working summers as a Park Ranger takes me to many beautiful places and playing during the winter takes me to many more. This blog is simply the story of my life's adventures.

Moved

Thank you for stopping by. Just to let you know, I'm still blogging but have moved to Geogypsytraveler. Hope you'll follow my adventures. Just click here.

Monday, August 23, 2010

MWT – Get a Map, Please

01 Lion Guardian

Lion Guardian in Africa from Web

Technology is wonderful! I love my internet and being able to stay connected with people from around the world. However……

02 Lion with GPS

Check out what happens when National Park travelers depend too much on their techno toys. This New York Times article tells it like it is.

03 Gaelyn in VC (749x1024)

How many maps can you find?

As a National Park Ranger who loves to help people it is very frustrating to deal with this kind of mentality.

04 Sunset over canyon from BAP trail NR GRCA NP AZ pano (1024x368)

So, Please, get a map. Then stop by the Visitor Center and I’d be happy to help you, with a map of the park.

mwtnarrowbanner

To tour more of the world via technology and without a map go to My World Tuesday by clicking here.

19 comments:

Diane said...

Gaelyn I love my GPS but I would never be without a map at the ready if I need it. The former has a mind of its own when it comes to short cuts. At least the map is to the point even if out of date at times:-)

Anonymous said...

Idjits.

Sylvia K said...

I do appreciate modern technology, but too many people do really dumb things like the ones in the NYT article! Amazing and has to be a pain in the butt for workers in the Parks! Great post for the day! Enjoy your week!

Sylvia

Elaine said...

I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of some people. Technology can be wonderful, but in a lot of ways I think it is making a portion of our society dumber. When it comes to technology and wilderness areas, it can save lives when people are stranded, but to use it like the people in the article were is very wrong, and I think they should pay the cost of the emergency service they summoned. People don't realize that there are not cell phone towers everywhere, and there is a lot of area that receives no signal at all. By the way, that is true of most of Alaska and the Yukon Territory. If you break down on the Alcan or any of the other roads, you can't rely on your cell phone to call for help. And, yes, an old fashioned map is the way to go.

Carolyn said...

Haida Gwaii up until last year was a "cell phone free zone" and you would think the world had ended when we told visitors that. We did find that how we "framed" the comment made the world of difference. If you said there is no cell service there was many a melt down however if you said that we were a cell free zone, there was this look of dispair that gradually turned to a smile!
City folk in particular have no idea what the cost of rescue is and that it puts many people in danger.
Thanks for sharing this post Gaelyn it is well worth sharing.
Smiles

This Is My Blog - fishing guy said...

Gaelyn: That was really a cool look into your world.

Rajesh said...

Interesting stuff. I enjoyed the cartoon.

Al said...

We see the same thing in Colorado. Where I live, every summer tourists start hiking up Pikes Peak, where it may be over 90 degrees at the base when they start. But it can be below freezing at the top, and afternoon thunderstorms are almost a daily occurrence in the summer. There is also a road to the top, but that can be closed by unexpected snow any time of year. So these tourists can end up dehydrated, dangerously cold, and expecting someone to look after them. Several have died. Some people don't seem to understand that this Western wilderness is not a controlled theme park.

Barb said...

Hi Gaelyn, I liked this article. Living in a resort town with inexperienced people trying to hike in the wilderness, I have encountered many that don't know what they're doing. Some families with children attempt dangerous things. Last week the Mama Bear and her Twins were in our neighborhood. A man with a little boy was following her, allowing the child to run ahead and get close to the bears. Dad was snapping photos, of course. I went out on my upper deck and yelled - "She's dangerous - watch your child!" He ignored me and went on taking pictures. They seem to think the animals are benign when actually they are wild things.

Loran said...

When I moved out west from Virginia I was clueless about the dangers of being out in the wild unprepared. I learned the hard but I learned! I like park maps better than the GPS which sometimes is pretty clueless about where you want to go. Great post!

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

Sometimes, all I can do is shake my head at the things I see, hear and read. Thank goodness dumbness is in the minority.

Kathie Brown said...

Gaelyn, I LOVE maps and I have them all over the place of all kinds of places! Even on our trip to Kentucky when I had my new phone with google maps and a GPS in it sometimes it would not be getting service and I still had to have a paper map! I bought an atlas of the USA in a convenience store and it never went offline our was out of service range! Imagine that!

Small City Scenes said...

Should I just scream out--what happened to common sense--? No, because not everybody has it and they never will.

I love maps and can spend an evening just seeing where I have been and may want to go--local too.

The Times article was interesting. MB

Pat said...

My son loves his GPS and maybe I would, too, if I had one, but I still prefer paper....

I wonder if they bother to teach map skills in a major way in elementary schools anymore.

Arija said...

Great post Gaelyn. Love the lions.

Ruth said...

Very interesting article. Some people are really out of touch with the natural world. GPS and other technologies are great tools, but not a substitute for common sense.

Diane AZ said...

An entertaining look into your world! I love maps and atlases and wouldn't even know how to use a GPS. I do think it would be neat to know the elevation when hiking though.

Craver Vii said...

I did not see what the big deal was until I read the article. I shouldn't be surprised that people can be so numb between the ears. Common sense is perhaps less common than we would like it to be, eh?

Pat said...

Frustrating for you, but hilarious: "in an effort to home in on “contributing factors” to park accidents, the service recently felt compelled to add “inattention to surroundings” to more old-fashioned causes like “darkness” and “animals.” "

People need to rely a bit more on common sense than their technology!

Google Analytics