Spent 3 hours reading a map wrong because I forgot my glasses at the car

Last weekend on the Ozark Trail I took what I thought was a shortcut on the map. Turned out I was reading the contour lines completely backwards because I left my reading glasses in the glovebox. I hiked an extra 4 miles in the wrong direction before I pulled out my phone to check GPS. The whole detour cost me about 90 minutes of daylight and I had to finish the last mile by headlamp. Has anyone else had a dumb navigation fail that just made you feel silly for hours?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_kim158d ago

Man I just read something about how our brains fill in missing info when we can't see clearly, so it literally makes you more confident you're right when you're actually wrong. That's wild. I'd probably just blame the map too.

the_piper8d ago

Did you have your phone on you the whole time? I always tell myself I'm saving battery by not using GPS but it never works out.