Following GPS blindly is a bad idea, example MCMXVIII

Submitted by GraniteGeekNH t3_118a27c in newhampshire

From the long-suffering NH Fish and Game:

>Saturday, February 18 shortly after 3:00 p.m. New Hampshire Fish and Game was notified that a vehicle was stranded in the area of Willis Bean and Foss Mountain Road. These roads and many others that lead to them in the area are not maintained in the winter months. Due to poor cell service in the area an exact location was unknown and multiple attempts to establish contact with the group failed. There are multiple access points to the area in Freedom, Eaton, and from Maine as well. Members of the Freedom Police Department, Carroll County Sheriffs, and Oxford County Sheriffs had checked access points with no contact.
>
>Conservation Officers arrived shortly before 5:00 p.m. and located the group at their vehicle on Willis Bean Road just under 2.5 miles from the point the plows stop on Foss Mountain Road in Eaton. Hannalore Tice, 38, of Westwood, MA was following her GPS to the Foss Mountain Hiking Trail. She was driving a Toyota 4 Runner. She had gotten onto Willis Bean Road off of Kennard Hill Road in Porter, ME and drove just over 2.5 miles to a point where she got stuck in the snow.

https://nhfishgame.com/2023/02/21/stranded-vehicle/

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AnythingToAvoidWork t1_j9g37tf wrote

Hahahaha I used to live in Eaton and drove Foss all the time. I was driving my car one time with 3 other people in it with me and we stopped on the incline for some reason and we literally couldn't get going again.

Had to back down and get a running start to make it back up lol

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newenglandpolarbear t1_j9gwapi wrote

Highly recommend using the offline maps feature in google maps. downloads the whole state to your phone. While GPS may not work, at least you have a map to help out. I digress, don't trust the GPS 100%.

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iate3pepperoncini t1_j9hlpw2 wrote

Solid advice. This is how my boss and I ended up in a lake one time

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OldEnoughToKnowButtr t1_j9it3rx wrote

I'm very curious to know their winter hiking prep / what's in their packs?! Were they planning to start a hike at 3pm?

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PoorInCT t1_j9itqdi wrote

I learned there are an abundance of snowmobile crashes too.

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InflationCrazy3789 t1_j9j1e7p wrote

It’s comical that this was blamed on technology. I’m from New Hampshire and I’m currently in Arizona and I was just in an area with no service on an on maintained road going up and mountain and I was confident that I was in fact going to get stuck so I reversed 4 miles down the mountain because it was impossible to make a turn around. Even if I got stuck I wouldn’t have blamed it on technology I would’ve blamed it on me being a dumb ass, these people sound like dumbasses

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BioJoe63 t1_j9jnxb1 wrote

Years ago I had to help a friend get his wife unstuck because of this. She was following a “shorter” route home via her gps and got mired. I took my 4x4 ranger in the other end and we ended up walking the last 1/4 mile because the “road” turned into a lifted off road trail. We got her unstuck and turned around back the way she came.

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movdqa t1_j9jzhk7 wrote

I drove my daughter to Logan many years ago and used voice commands on my Garmin Nuvi to get me there. When we got to 495 (from Rt 3), I noticed that it said that I should drive 80 miles on the highway. Of course that would put me in the Atlantic Ocean. I had her reboot the Nuvi and re-entered the route and it gave us the correct routing. In general, I will map out a long route on Google Maps to estimate time and to take a look at the expected level of traffic and then put in the destination in the car for the Nuvi.

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movdqa t1_j9jzowe wrote

Replying to newenglandpolarbear (#1,906,957)

I often carry an iPad on long trips and my copilot manages the device. GPS usually doesn't give you the big picture so that you can't verify that your route is reasonable while driving while an iPad will give you a good view of your trip and allow you to easily zoom in. We use Google Maps in offline mode of course.

I wish that Apple Maps had similar functionality.

It's always nice to have a second opinion on routes as well.

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