That probably is what happened to me last month driving my vehicle up in Northern Minnesota on a gravel road. I needed to go a straight shot about 25 miles according to the county paper map.

My Garmin Nuvi kept telling me to instead do a 200 plus mile circuitous route instead. Photo below:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1d945a1462.jpg

I also had my general recreation GPS that I use for camping and bike touring. I turned that on and put in my destination into it. It also told me to drive a couple hundred extra miles when I set it for car routing. I was driving an SUV, but I often set that GPS for tour cycling, so I just did that to see what would happen. When set for tour cycle routing, it followed the county road perfectly. (Sorry, no photo.)

So, the GPS map must have had a short section of missing road that car routing would not accept, but bicycle routing would accept.

My handheld GPS was using Open Streets maps for routing. My Garmin Nuvi for my vehicle was using whatever Garmin uses for their map updates, I had updated the Nuvi maps a few months before.

Your comment is why I said not to be a slave to the electronic map. All maps…all maps…have problems and mistakes. Google maps is convenient but the user has to use their discretion as well. Here in Colorado we have had too many examples of people following Google maps into situations where they can’t back up and can’t go forward. They should have made the decision to turn around far sooner. Sometimes it’s better to look at the road in front of you and ignore then map on the phone that is insisting that you go its way. What the map looks like on the screen is less important than what the road in front of you looks like.

Yep, a backup is always nice. That's why I bring at least two phones with downloaded maps when I'm really out there. For tricky unnamed road/trail sections I'll do a cue sheet with each turn also showing the approximate bearing of the road I'm turning onto so I have a good idea it's the road/trail I want

I get lost all the time 😆 Times have changed and I use Komoot and Google Maps nowadays but still have a paper map and compass. Still I get lost as I daydream too much and end up asking locals to point me in the right direction.

I‘m amazed at how much planning some of you guys do ✌️

Just reminiscing, but on my first long tour from Sweden to Spain in 1985, the only map I had was a Michelin map of Europe 1: 3 000 000 🤣
I got there on my five speed bike with plastic pedals and barefoot all the way.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3a119c004.jpeg

I rode Paris to Gien on your suggestion. I'm in Gien now waiting for the train back. It's 2 degrees so we gave up on the ride to Orléans.

The Loire at Gien:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...160f8b214b.jpg

^^^ great photo! 👍