GPS heading some Gatineau Park hikers astray

Gatineau Park hikers relying on their cellphones for directions rather than a park’s maps are removing mislaid when record fails, something guides and park staff are endangered about.

“It’s a flourishing problem,” pronounced Nathalie Gauthier of Great Canadian Trails, a forest debate association that runs tours opposite a country. 

“I consider that people forget that their phones have limitations.” 

Poor reception, emptied batteries and bad route information from their GPS device have led trekkers down a wrong path, said Gauthier, adding cellphone directions frequency embody sum on formidable terrain.

Rachel Paquette (right) recommends hikers squeeze a map and ask park workers for information before streamer out on a trails. (Sandra Abma/CBC News)

Paper maps better

Staff with a National Capital Commission could not yield numbers of hikers who are led erroneous by their phones, though pronounced it is something they see. 

“We inspire people to have a paper chronicle of the Gatineau Park route map,” pronounced Rachel Paquette, a park’s module officer for inlet interpretation.

Since dungeon use in a park is spotty, Paquette advises people to stop in during a caller centre to collect adult a map and obtain detailed information from park workers about trail problem and continue conditions. 

She pronounced a paper map will come in accessible if something goes wrong. 

“All of a remarkable if your GPS isn’t working, you might get lost. Once we get mislaid it’s a lot harder for us to find you,” pronounced Paquette,

“It will also be a lot harder for we to tell us where we are.”

Along a paths of Gatineau Park Monday, hikers admitted to relying on their phones alone for directions.

“I roughly forsaken my phone in a lake earlier, ” laughed Oumou Camara, who pronounced her dungeon had mislaid service.

“It would have been accessible to have a paper map.”

Article source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/hiking-gatineau-park-gps-cellphone-lost-1.4792260?cmp=rss