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Got caught in a hailstorm on the Rae Lakes loop and now I pack my map in a ziplock
Two summers back I was doing the Rae Lakes loop out of Roads End in Kings Canyon, day 3, just past the suspension bridge over Woods Creek. Sky went dark in about 10 minutes and then golf ball hail started pelting us for maybe 20 minutes straight. My paper map turned into soggy mush inside my hip pocket, and my phone died from the cold, so we just stood under a pine tree guessing which switchback was ours. We ended up walking an extra 2.5 miles the wrong way toward Paradise Valley before a ranger pointed us back. Now every paper map goes in a quart ziplock and I carry a tiny compass even on well marked trails. What is your go to way to keep navigation working when the weather goes sideways?
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angela_hart7h ago
A quart ziplock for the map is smart and cheap, so no arguing there, but I have to push back on the idea that the gear was your real problem. Your phone dying and the map turning to mush happened at the same time, and you still had two working legs and a trail under your feet, the actual failure was that you kept walking when you couldn't see where you were going. Standing under that pine tree for 20 minutes was the right move, the mistake was leaving the tree and guessing instead of waiting out the storm or turning around to the last spot you knew for sure. A compass does nothing if you have no idea where you are on the map, and honestly a wet map plus a dead phone is a sign you were relying on stuff that fails, not a sign you need more stuff. Lots of people carry the ziplock and the compass and still get lost because they never learned to just stop and stay put when things go bad. Doubling down on more gadgets and baggies can make you feel safer while actually making you slower and more sure of yourself than you should be, and out there that confidence is the thing that gets people in trouble.
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