Originally Posted by B. Carfree;19899053[B
]One of the problems with our current information stream is that it is incomplete and inaccurate but gives the illusion of being both complete and accurate. I have had fantastic days riding on roads that simply aren't shown on any on-line maps or that are shown as dead-ends on those maps.[/B] If I had relied on on-line sources instead of intuition, observation and deduction (if there are pick-up tracks, the road has to go somewhere, and in some settings that somewhere almost has to be "through"), I wouldn't have ventured off the beaten track. Alas, this likely means that us old-timers will be a dying breed and those charming dirt roads will be less and less ridden as time goes on as those who replace us rely exclusively on electronic maps.
That said, I did happen upon a small group of twenty-something-year-old riders a couple of years back while on my way home. They had gotten lost on their four-day outing, but were riding with just an orally given description of the route they wanted to take. I got them back onto a course that took them to their desired ending place for the night. They ended up with a trip of almost the exact same distance, just a different fork of one of the rivers. I also gave them my "map" of the area, which was actually just a printed photograph of a large BLM sign that had a partial road map of the area which I happened to have in my bag. Trips like they were on don't make for bucket list rides, but they are the sort I have always loved.
Did you in fact try every online map or just googled it and called it a day? Because there are a lot of online maps out there. Where I live certain free online maps are actually the most accurate out there since they are THE government provided official topographical maps and most up to date there is. This varies of course on where you are, but there are still a lot of online maps and a lot of them are accurate. We had really good luck with Open street maps in Europe. During 3 months of touring we had two instances where the map was inaccurate (one was a campsite which was no longer open due to a recent flood and one was a bridge which was no longer in use, but we still crossed it)
On another subject, do people really use computed routes with a GPS device? Those routes almost never work since they as of yet do not have good enough algorithms for bicycle use. For car use they are usually pretty neat since Google Maps actually evaluates the traffic situation and gives you the fastest route even if it is a little weird at first. But it's absolutely no use for bicycles.
What many here seem to fail realize is that it's not the technology, it's the people using the technology. A paper map is technology and can be misused just as efficiently as an electronic map can. Some people cannot read maps since it actually takes some training to use maps properly. I'm pretty good at it since I'm military trained to navigate using a compass and a map in areas with no roads etc. but most people do not have this kind of experience. Some may have experience in the boy scouts or hiking or whatever but there are still people who set out with no knowledge on how to use a MAP and they would be just as SOL with a paper map as they are with a GPS device. Paper maps are not some sort of salvation or inherently better.
But it needs to be kept in mind that a map that is on a screen is still a map and needs to be used as a map. What the GPS brings to the equation is much faster locating and real time road following. But the route still needs to be manually planned, decisions still need to be made and it's up to the user to make those decisions. It comes from general navigation experience whether those decisions are good or not.
I also would not consider battery power to be an issue these days since charging can be very easily managed through a variety of methods, many of which do not cost much in terms of weight or money. But carrying three or more months worth of accurate paper maps would probably require a separate trailer as well as thousands of dollars in map cost.
Our setup consists of two 20 000mAh battery packs, two smart phones (one for each) with two different navigation software, (I prefer Locus Maps) and a Garmin Glo bluetooth GPS device which boosts smart phone energy efficiency by 50% or more. When you put on the GPS on a smartphone you essentially halve the battery life. By having a separate device makes life much easier since the GPS capabilities of the smartphone still work.