Old School vs. New School

How to navigate the Great Divide Trail?
Adventure Cycling Association does a great job producing routing maps for all of their routes. I'm lucky in that they just refreshed the GDMBR  last year so the data is current. There are 6 maps chocked full of info, elevation, distance, where to find water, food, local history, camp sites etc. In addition, I'll be using my Garmin Etrex 20x GPS. All the tracks have been loaded for the route, easy peasy just follow the pink line.
While smart phones and car GPS devices are intuitive, the Garmin etrex has a big learning curve. It's like using DOS compared to a modern smart phone. Mona and I have been practicing with the unit on our weekend hikes. Why not just use google maps on your phone? The smart phone is too fragile, the battery life is too short and getting  a satellite signal is not dependable. The phone will be the triple backup! I'll likely pick up state maps as I work my way down.

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