I don't like looking at maps, or even cue sheets, while I'm riding. Part of the reason for this is that as I age, it's getting increasingly difficult to focus my eyes on a map; and doing so cramps them up so I can't enjoy the scenery as well afterwords.

On my recent tours --this year, that is-- I've been using a GPS. It's a simple navigational GPS; there's no interface to a computer, it doesn't track where I've been, etc. But it can figure out where I am, and I can enter the address of the place I'm going, and it will tell me how to get there.

So what I've been doing is this. Before I start out for the day, I study the map and figure out as much as I can about my destination for the day and whatever points I want to visit along the way; and I note whatever obstacles I want to avoid, such as highways. Then, based on my map study, I start on my way, choosing the roads that tempt me. I turn on the GPS only if I lose my sense of direction. Later in the day, when my destination is relatively close, I turn on the GPS. If it puts me on a road I don't like, I turn it off again, continue on roads I like for another few miles, and try again. Typically it will tell me something like "continue 2.4 miles" in which case I turn it off and ride 2 miles before I turn it on again. As I get closer to my destination, I spend more time with the GPS on.

The results of this method have been generally good; I've had lovely days of riding rural roads, enjoying the scenery with no worries about where I am. But not always. Occasionally I find myself on a road that's busier than I wanted, without good alternatives. That is, there might have been better options if I had taken a different route earlier, but having missed a turn some miles back, I am now stuck on a less-than-optimal road. In such cases, there's no alternative but to stick it out and hope a better route presents itself before long.

It's not perfect, that's for sure, but it is a method that works well enough for me, and I hope to get better at it over time.