{"id":3085,"date":"2024-02-02T21:25:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T21:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3085"},"modified":"2024-02-02T21:27:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T21:27:21","slug":"from-the-vaults-misplaced-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3085","title":{"rendered":"From the Vaults – Misplaced – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in June of 2023, the first part of <\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Misplaced <\/span><\/i>(6-21-23) discussed the 25 years we took our Ontonagon Area Schools eighth graders on an annual orienteering hike in the Porcupine Mountains.\u00a0 In orienteering, we used map and compass skills to travel from point to point without relying on trails, trail markers, or signs.\u00a0 Naturally, there were times when a group of students did not arrive at their appointed checkpoints – but in those cases, we purposely avoided using the term \u2018lost\u2019.\u00a0 Groups were equipped with the knowledge of how to find their way back to the Lake of the Clouds parking lot (and had a couple of adult \u2018helpers\u2019 on hand should they get really turned around).\u00a0 We reasoned, \u201cIf they get back to the bus, do not spend the night in the woods, and we do not have to call in Search & Rescue, they weren\u2019t lost – just misplaced.\u201d\u00a0 Even with more than adequate training in the art of navigating with map and compass, this Geography \/ Earth Science major admits to being part of more than one \u2018misplacement\u2019 (see <\/span>Misplaced – Part 1<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 If you never admit you can get misplaced, you might actually end up getting to spend the night in the woods or being found by search and rescue.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One thing I never did receive any formal training to use was something most folks with a cell phone are already familiar with:\u00a0 GPS.\u00a0 Phone users below a certain age are proficient with this common phone app – even so,\u00a0 some have no idea that GPS is short for Global Positioning System – the hardware that makes GPS aps possible to begin with.\u00a0 As I said, I have never been formally trained to use GPS, but I was introduced to it early on by a volunteer chaperone on one of our earliest orienteering hikes at the Porkies.\u00a0 In those days, we always took the hike twice – the first to train our student helpers and after which took the eighth graders on the actual hike.\u00a0 In later years, we downsized our helper group to an adult or two and a couple of students embedded in each hiking group.\u00a0 The adults had all been on this trip enough times we eliminated the training hike altogether.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On this particular training hike, Jerry Myrblom showed me his new fangled hand-held gadget.\u00a0 He was anxious to show us how it worked and claimed it would soon displace the compass as the preferred tool for wilderness hiking.\u00a0 I reminded him that we preferred to keep teaching compass skills the old fashioned way.\u00a0 When he asked, \u2018Why?\u2019 I countered with my own question:\u00a0 \u201cWhat happens if the batteries die?\u201d\u00a0 As we traveled west on the Escarpment Trail, it was rather impressive how this little device tracked our route while pointing out the compass bearing we needed to follow.\u00a0 When we descended the north side of the Escarpment into the dense forest below, we found the flaw in this early iteration of his GPS device.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u2018S\u2019 in GPS could also stand for \u2018Satellites\u2019 and Global Positioning units in those days required input from at least 3 satellites to pinpoint your location.\u00a0 GPS satellites are positioned in what are known as geosynchronous orbits – they orbit the Earth at the same speed the planet rotates – thereby keeping them over the same spot all the time.\u00a0 As long as there are three of these Satellites \u2018above the local horizon\u2019, the GPS device can use information from them to correctly locate the unit\u2019s position on the surface.\u00a0 When we got to the base of the Escarpment, we found Jerry\u2019s GPS unit couldn\u2019t \u2018see\u2019 through the tree canopy enough to make contact with three satellites.\u00a0 With more satellites in orbit and advancements in the technology of newer GPS units, this has become less of an issue than it was thirty years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the WOAS West Coast Bureau was still located in Los Angeles, I would marvel how they would use GPS to navigate around the city.\u00a0 Having never driven in L.A. myself, I was always a passenger and could spend my time keeping an eye on the GPS directions.\u00a0 The voice directions (which the WCB dubbed \u2018The Lady\u2019) were clear enough and perhaps I only sensed a little panic in \u2018her\u2019 voice when we missed a turn and she would try to get us back on track.\u00a0 I have used GPS to look up routes and distances since the WCB relocated to Oregon, but most of my long trip planning was still done with old fashioned maps.\u00a0 My first use of GPS on the road happened by necessity on Election Day of 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The morning of the 2020 Election, I had driven our son Daniel to the eye clinic in Calumet.\u00a0 He had been seeing a shadow at the side of his visual field and the doctor confirmed he had a torn retina.\u00a0 We left Calumet with instructions to go right to Green Bay and the address of the eye care clinic there.\u00a0 We had to stop at home to pick up things for an overnight stay and departed the gas station promptly at 3:00 pm EST.\u00a0 We had to do a little additional prepping as this all took place during the early days of the COVIC-19 pandemic.\u00a0 The vaccines had not been rolled out yet and the Green Bay area was exploding with cases.\u00a0 Just before we left, I punched the clinic address in my phone and jotted down the route we needed to take knowing my navigator was not going to feel much like keeping an eye out for road signs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Others who travel to Green Bay frequently remind me the quickest route there runs diagonally across the U.P.\u00a0 I have always been comfortable heading south on US 45 to Wittenberg and then east on US 39 into Green Bay.\u00a0 Apparently the clinic expected us to be there by 4:00 pm CST as they called the house twice to ask my wife why we weren\u2019t there.\u00a0 When my cell phone rang at 6:00 pm EST, Daniel answered it and said they clinic wanted to know where we were.\u00a0 I said, \u201cTell them we are 30 miles out on 39 and will be there as soon as we can.\u00a0 The traffic is kind of heavy right now.\u201d\u00a0 Once we hit the beltway in Green Bay, it was a couple miles down, take an exit and hang a left.\u00a0 Easy enough with my scant directions and a ten year gap since the last time I was in Titletown.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By then it was 7:00 pm EST (6:00 pm CST) and the parking lot was empty.\u00a0 A nurse met us at the door, told me I could not go in with their restrictions so Daniel went in, had a rapid COVID test and went in to see the doctor.\u00a0 I had been reluctant to stop on the way down so after four hours, I had to resort to finding a brushy area behind the parking lot to take care of business.\u00a0 Half an hour later, the nurse came out and apologized for not thinking to let me in to use the restroom.\u00a0 As long as I had her there I inquired what, when, and where Daniel would be sent for his surgery.\u00a0 She told me he would no doubt be scheduled for the morning so with time to kill, I punched in the GPS directions to the hospital.\u00a0 I am glad I did because when Daniel came back to the car, he had a hand scribbled map of the beltway with instructions to \u2018go to the ER entrance right now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The GPS directions were clearer than the hand drawn map the surgeon had supplied.\u00a0 Being a little hard of hearing, I had Daniel translate the voice directions so I could concentrate on driving.\u00a0 Fifteen minutes later, he was whisked off for surgery prep and I settled in a chair in the lobby where I would spend the next four hours marveling that I had passed my first GPS \u2018trial by fire\u2019.\u00a0 Having located lodging within sight of the hospital, we did not have far to go when he was signed out at nearly 2:00 am EST.\u00a0 We were told to be back at the clinic at 9:00 am CST the next morning so the last thing I did before turning in was punch in the reverse directions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All in all, we ended up making three trips to Green Bay over four weeks and found using the same GPS directions made staying at our original hotel handy.\u00a0 The fact we saw one 30 mile stretch with some wet snow coming down near Eagle River on three trips taken in November and December as a real bonus.\u00a0 I never dreamed I would be putting my new found GPS skills to use again three years later when my wife suffered a heart attack that landed her in Wausau.\u00a0 It turns out I was a little rusty by then.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Before I departed for Wausau the day after she was transported there, we had talked on the phone and she said the construction around Rhinelander made for a real bumpy ride.\u00a0 Pulling out my phone, my map reading brain hatched a plan – take US45 down to Pelican Lake and then go diagonally from there to Merrill.\u00a0 I was more familiar with this route anyway and the lack of traffic on that snowless Sunday afternoon in late October made the trip less stressful as I worried about how my wife was doing.\u00a0 With my less than optimal hearing, I happily sailed past my intended route just past Pelican Lake.\u00a0 When I saw a sign that said \u2018Antigo, 20 miles\u2019 it compelled me to pull over and make a new plan.\u00a0 The option with the least amount of time was to continue to Antigo and then go west to Merrill on W64.\u00a0 Arriving 30 minutes later than planned after what turned out to be a very scenic drive, it took me a while to navigate the Aspirus campus to find where my wife was holding up.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with Wausau but I did find navigating from the hospital to my overnight lodging more difficult than it had been in Green Bay.\u00a0 My good old GPS skills failed me again when I missed a turn on the less than two mile drive to the hotel and ended up in a church parking lot looking for the right way to go.\u00a0 In the morning, I asked the desk clerk the quickest way to the hospital.\u00a0 Retracing the steps I should have followed the night before, it became obvious that paying attention to the GPS made me miss the side street where the hotel was located.\u00a0 To make matters worse, Mr Map did the same thing the next day and ended up in a different parking lot looking over the directions.\u00a0 At that point the bright hotel sign just off the freeway caught my attention so I resorted to driving in that general direction until it loomed in front of me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By Tuesday morning, we knew we would be heading home so we checked out the Google maps again to find a coffee shop we could hit up before heading north.\u00a0 We IDed several but as per my previous GPSing around Wausau, we got tangled up in a maze of one way streets and never got near one of the places we were seeking.\u00a0 The other Google map decision we had made was to avoid the construction in Rhinelander and simply take US51 north to Arbor Vitae, jog east to Eagle River, and then jaunt home the rest of the way on US45.\u00a0 Having never been to the Minocqua \/ Arbor Vitae area, it sounded like a nice alternative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The \u2018north on 51\u2019 plan also solved the where to get a cup of coffee and snack problem.\u00a0 As soon as we neared Merrill, the \u2018food next exit\u2019 signs directing us to the Golden Arches gave us the quick stop we needed without having to get too far afield.\u00a0 If we need to venture back to Wausau in the future, that is the route we will take.\u00a0 I have since talked to several folks who travel to Wausau regularly and they confirmed that is their favorite route to travel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With GPS in such wide use, one might wonder \u2018how did we ever get by without it?\u2019\u00a0 As an old pen and ink map drawing guy (cartography became more of a computer driven field long after I got out of college), traveling by map was never an issue.\u00a0 The first year we were back in Ontonagon after living in Marquette the first year we were married, I was asked to be the best man at my old friend Jim\u2019s wedding in Westland just outside of Detroit.\u00a0 We plotted our route and we arrived at the church late Friday evening just in time for the rehearsal and dinner.\u00a0 The wedding and reception were held early Saturday afternoon so a group of us who had all traveled down from the U.P. decided to go out and have a little post-reception social of our own.\u00a0 My brother was there and knew the area, having worked in the Lansing \/ Detroit area for some years.\u00a0 He suggested a place down the road that everyone\u00a0 seemed to be familiar with except for us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWell,\u201d I told my wife, \u201cwe can just follow one of them.\u201d\u00a0 It was a great plan until they all roared off and we got hung up at a stoplight.\u00a0 By the time we were on the road again, they were all long gone.\u00a0 Ron had said the place was \u2018only about ten miles away\u2019 so when we neared that magic mark, I started looking for familiar vehicles.\u00a0 If we hadn\u2019t spotted my brother\u2019s Camaro out front of the Holiday Inn, we may have made it all the way to Lake Michigan before we found them.\u00a0 We knew we had passed the place we were staying on the way to the lounge so it was pretty much a straight shot back the way we had come from.\u00a0 When we cruised back through that area to get on the freeway going north the next day, I marveled that it was actually more confusing in the daylight.\u00a0 The land was flat and the criss-cross grid of roads and streets provided very few identifiable clues.\u00a0 In a landscape like that, GPS certainly would be helpful!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They say the difference between a four-wheel drive vehicle and a two wheel-drive vehicle is this:\u00a0 You can get a lot farther from the paved roads before you get stuck.\u00a0 Geographers and people who like maps are in a similar position as I have learned over the years:\u00a0 One can get twisted around and misplaced by \u2018knowing where you are going\u2019 but not admitting you really don\u2019t.\u00a0 It never hurts to check on the \u2018I know where I am part\u2019 with a map before getting twisted into a knot.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top Piece Video – Remember – you can not get misplaced if you never wander – just ask Dion!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in June of 2023, the first part of FTV:\u00a0 Misplaced (6-21-23) discussed the 25 years we took our Ontonagon Area Schools eighth graders on an annual orienteering hike in the Porcupine Mountains.\u00a0 In orienteering, we used map and compass skills to travel from point to point without relying on trails, trail markers, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3088,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3085\/revisions\/3088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}