Rookie mistake

[maximo]

Yesterday I unexpectedly found myself with a few hours free time, so I decided to go ride up in Plumas County, specifically the Genessee-Beckwourth Rd. I had recently given it as a recommendation, and since I'd not been on it for a few years I wanted to check it out. This is a tiny (sometimes one lane), out-of-the-way road that connects two small towns through remote country that is dotted with gravel and dirt forest roads. There are faster ways to get from one town to the other, so there's little reason to go on this road, other than the sheer joy of riding it. 

So I quickly punched in the directions into my phone and headed up the mountains. I got onto this glorious road, and within 15 minutes I realized I was not on the right road. I hadn't actually checked the details on Google maps before leaving, and the route led me through shorter, but gravel roads. I had no cell coverage, so I couldn't download the needed details onto the map, and my rookie mistake, I did not take my trusty paper maps. I spent an hour crisscrossing gravel roads, trying to get to the right one, to no avail. So I pulled the plug and backtracked out of the wilderness on the shortest possible gravel road back. 

Just another reminder to myself, technology is awesome, but old school sometimes saves the day. 

[kilo3]

Cache your google maps. I do my entire state so I always have maps offline if need be.

[maximo]

1 minute ago, kilo3 said:

Cache your google maps. I do my entire state so I always have maps offline if need be.

I do, but unfortunately in this area the maps were not accurate, so I needed the satellite view to see what was really there.  For example, look at this (which is what originally tripped me up) 

Google Maps

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

 the road shows as dead end, but when you switch to satellite view you see that it's actually there, it's just not mapped. I ran into a couple of these in the area.  It's a spaghetti bowl of forest roads in here, I can't blame the Google folks for not getting them all right. 

[kilo3]

Ah, yeah you'd have to use open maps or something of the like for back road satellite view.
I do that with gpx pro.

[knyte]

And this is one of the many reasons I'm shopping for a dedicated GPS unit!

I've had a far better experience with a Garmin than I have with my phone.  Yes, maps can be cached, but my S8 has soft buttons that don't work with my moto gloves, and it does not have a glove mode.  Yes, there are touch-screen gloves.  Those are hit-and-miss in my experience.  I'd FAR rather a dedicated unit than fiddling with that ()#@&^@) phone.  When I'm riding I have ZERO wish to be a systems analyst.  I do that enough all day and don't need the distraction when riding.

I have an Xcover 4 for just this reason, however it's not much better TBH.  Phones just don't cut it for me.

Can't decide between a TomTom moto and a Garmin.  ATM I'm leaning toward the TomTom for the traffic updates.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your experience - and I've been there, down some back road and oops, no cell service, dang it where the heck am I.

Edited July 20, 2020 by knyte

[maximo]

1 hour ago, kilo3 said:

Ah, yeah you'd have to use open maps or something of the like for back road satellite view.
I do that with gpx pro.

I'll take a look at that, thanks!