2022-01-19, 08:18 PM
OK, that last rant from me got us to a second page 
When I go some place, I put a lot of work into research. Books, maps, web searches, including finding pix and pulling out the coordinates from the EXIF headers in the jpegs Google earth. My own photos. Pestering friends Why? Because I want the best experience I can have in the limited number of days of a trip, and the limited number of years I have left for being able to do such trips. I see no reason to purposely ignore potentially useful info (one of the best pieces of info being knowledge of when you won't be able to get past an obstacle).
But at the same time, when I really know a place I can "pioneer" routes - just put things together and go some place I've not seen any write up or GPS track or whatever for. And I enjoy pushing these - it is a lot of fun to work something out and it works, and adventuresome to try something that fails (I'm still looking for a mythical route to the summit of Bald Peak from the east).
Anybody who publishes a route is putting it out for others. So there is no reason not to go there. Or write a report about it Usually for shorthand I might say "The Steve Hall route to XXX" or some such. But I'm not in the business of putting out enough detail to allow someone to casually replicate it. For instance, here I've mentioned "the old road between 190 and McClean spring on the west side of Salt Creek". That's enough info for you to find it, if you take a look at the sat images (and it's worth going to). Ditto the "old Indian trail to Lemoigne Canyon, the one from 190 but not from Emigrant Campground, which has the second small Roode Rock". If I trust you and you ask, though, I'll give you a GPS track.
But social media is different. I saw an interesting piece a few months ago arguing that posting geo-tagged images of outdoor place was inconsistent with Leave No Trace ethics. I think I buy that argument.
One of the things I have enjoyed about this forum is finding like minded people who will share with me, both give and get, to give me more ideas, more motivation to just get out and be wandering around the desert. But there is a contradiction if people feel they want to talk about a place but still keep it secret. Keep your secrets.
A major exception is petroglyphs. One should not reveal the location of unpublished petros, but can can post un-tagged images out of respect for the original artists. But there's fun in that too Some years ago I was out with a friend in an area where he is without doubt one of, if not the, expert. We went to some published petros. He knew there was another site in the area, but did not know where. We were wandering around in and out of little canyons just looking at the scenery and beautiful rocks, when we came around a corner and found this amazing panel We'd stumbled on the site. That made it SO MUCH more memorable!
When I go some place, I put a lot of work into research. Books, maps, web searches, including finding pix and pulling out the coordinates from the EXIF headers in the jpegs
Google earth. My own photos. Pestering friends Why? Because I want the best experience I can have in the limited number of days of a trip, and the limited number of years I have left for being able to do such trips. I see no reason to purposely ignore potentially useful info (one of the best pieces of info being knowledge of when you won't be able to get past an obstacle). But at the same time, when I really know a place I can "pioneer" routes - just put things together and go some place I've not seen any write up or GPS track or whatever for. And I enjoy pushing these - it is a lot of fun to work something out and it works, and adventuresome to try something that fails (I'm still looking for a mythical route to the summit of Bald Peak from the east).
Anybody who publishes a route is putting it out for others. So there is no reason not to go there. Or write a report about it Usually for shorthand I might say "The Steve Hall route to XXX" or some such. But I'm not in the business of putting out enough detail to allow someone to casually replicate it. For instance, here I've mentioned "the old road between 190 and McClean spring on the west side of Salt Creek". That's enough info for you to find it, if you take a look at the sat images (and it's worth going to). Ditto the "old Indian trail to Lemoigne Canyon, the one from 190 but not from Emigrant Campground, which has the second small Roode Rock". If I trust you and you ask, though, I'll give you a GPS track.
But social media is different. I saw an interesting piece a few months ago arguing that posting geo-tagged images of outdoor place was inconsistent with Leave No Trace ethics. I think I buy that argument.
One of the things I have enjoyed about this forum is finding like minded people who will share with me, both give and get, to give me more ideas, more motivation to just get out and be wandering around the desert. But there is a contradiction if people feel they want to talk about a place but still keep it secret. Keep your secrets.
A major exception is petroglyphs. One should not reveal the location of unpublished petros, but can can post un-tagged images out of respect for the original artists. But there's fun in that too Some years ago I was out with a friend in an area where he is without doubt one of, if not the, expert. We went to some published petros. He knew there was another site in the area, but did not know where. We were wandering around in and out of little canyons just looking at the scenery and beautiful rocks, when we came around a corner and found this amazing panel We'd stumbled on the site. That made it SO MUCH more memorable!