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Why does nobody talk about how fast trail data gets outdated
I was planning a route through the Smokies last weekend and pulled up a map from just 2018. Turns out a whole section of the Appalachian Trail near Fontana Dam got rerouted in 2019 and my old GPS route had me bushwhacking through someone's private property. Has anyone else gotten burned by old maps or am I just the unlucky one?
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jesseb209d ago
Did you try downloading the map from Mapquest in 2005 too? That 2018 map is basically ancient history in trail years, man. I got burned last year following a 2020 GPS track on the Benton MacKaye Trail and ended up at a dead end where some guy's shed used to be. Turns out the trail club rerouted it around a washed out bridge and nobody bothered to update the open source maps. Honestly at this point I just assume any map over 2 years old is a lie and I carry paper backups from the ranger station. Consider it a rite of passage for getting too comfortable with technology in the woods.
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