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Started writing mile markers on my hand with a Sharpie and it fixed my route finding on the AT in Vermont
I kept missing turns on the Long Trail section near Killington last month because I was staring at my phone every five minutes and still second guessing myself at every blaze. The problem was I would check Guthook at a junction, then forget the next turn two miles later. So I started writing the upcoming turns on the back of my hand with a Sharpie before I left camp each morning, like "2.3 to spur, then left at brook." Sounds stupid but I quit pulling my phone out constantly, and my battery went from 30 percent by dinner to still over half. I also started noticing the actual woods more instead of just the screen, which was kind of the point of being out there. The ink fades after a day or two of sweat but that forced me to rewrite it every morning, which made me actually read the map at breakfast. One guy at a shelter near Stratton laughed at me but then asked me to write his next two turns down too. Anyone else do low tech stuff like this or am I just old?
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ivan16019d ago
I laughed because my version of this is writing "WATER" on my forearm so I do not walk past a stream while daydreaming about a cheeseburger. Mine backfires though, I sweat it off by noon and end up with a blurry smudge that looks like a bad prison tattoo. The part about rewriting it every morning is the real trick, that forces you to sit with the map for five minutes instead of trusting the phone to hold your hand. Half your battery still left at dinner says it all.
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