It was unclear how the trail in British Columbia had appeared on Google Maps in the first place.

Hikers rescued after following non-existent trail on Google Maps::It was unclear how the trail in British Columbia had appeared on Google Maps in the first place.

  • mob@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Twice I’ve had to find people I know heatstroking out on trails in the mountains. I found them due to dropping pins and being able to follow the trails they’ve followed on Strava or Google Maps or whatever.

    They probably would have went up there without trails being on Google maps, but I probably would have been bushwhacking to find them if I couldn’t see the trail networks to know where they went.

    I vote against removing trail maps. Hurts the good just as much, or more, than it tries to mitigate the bad.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I am fully against designing things to be easiest for the lowest common denominator. Add information to educate people, offer guides and other resources, but if someone takes the rope of freedom and ends up wrapping it around their own neck, that’s on them. We don’t need to redesign ropes or ban them so that they can’t be wrapped around necks.

      • mob@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        So, the proposal would just to make it more difficult to access trail maps? Seems like that wouldn’t be advantageous in scenarios like mine.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I don’t what country you’re in but in the US it’s not a proposal. They absolutely have these maps available for free online and at visitor/ranger stations.

          • mob@sopuli.xyzEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, but the original comment was talking about getting rid of accessibility to those trail maps/gps

    • Syd@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Did they call you, or did you just stumble upon them?

      • mob@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        They called me. The area they started feeling squirrelly in is pretty much my “backyard”. If they were in serious trouble, they would have contacted S&R, but in a rush I can get to any peak relatively quickly. You’d be surprised with how fast someone can recover from exposure/minor heat stroke with just some Gatorade, shade and water poured on them

        Might not be the recommended method, but it has a 2/2 record for me so far ha