Fixit and I are seriously DINOSAURS out on the trail.  And it’s not just age (68 and 76).  It’s the whole technology thing.  We are map-and-compass people; in fact, Fixit is really good at it!  One of his just for fun things to do when we are on ordinary backpacking trips is to spot some obscure little lake on the map (way off the trail) and use the compass, landmarks, etc. to walk through the woods, over the obstacles, and then bingo–there it is, the lake!  Fixit nailed it again.  Even better in my opinion–he can find his way BACK to where we started.

But we read Yogi’s CDT book and it said “You need a GPS for the CDT.”  And we when we hiked a bit of the CDT near Lordsburg a couple of years ago, we met happy hikers using Guthook’s CDT app.  So we bit the bullet and (gasp) bought a cell phone (Iphone 5) and ever since then have been agonizing over “How does this thing work?”  We figured out how to make phone calls on it, but other than that we cannot figure it out.  Fixit got TWO books on “how to use an Iphone” and we can’t make any sense out of the books, either.  The whole thing is like a giant mystery.  And after a few months, we cancelled the phone service.

“Wait!” you may say.  “What!!! You guys don’t have a cell PHONE???”  Yup, that’s right.  We still just have a good ol’ landline with an answering machine.  The occasions when we might wish we had a cell are so few and far between that the added cost of having cell phone service just made no sense.  When we got the Iphone, we did try phone service for awhile–several months–and in that entire time made only 2 calls.  That’s why we finally said, “Forget this,” and cancelled the service.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel, though.  We have Millennial friends, and one of them has offered to tutor us on the mysteries of the Iphone.  All we care about, honestly, is getting to Guthook’s app, and maybe a weather report.  And Fixit is still muttering about, “Don’t need no stupid GPS.”  So we will see!   In the meantime, we do have the Bear maps and Ley maps, which I carefully marked up so that at a glance we can tell how the two map systems work together.  And of course, there is the trusty compass!