{"id":31315,"date":"2026-05-25T11:40:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=31315"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:40:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:40:44","slug":"gps-error-shoulder-pain-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=31315","title":{"rendered":"GPS Error + Shoulder Pain = Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I was on my way to Tucson for a mini-vacation, and I’d made big gains in my hiking distance and elevation during the past week, so I was temped to skip Sunday’s hike completely. It wouldn’t impact my conditioning and it would give my knee and foot a break \u2013 they’re still on the edge of chronic inflammation.<\/p>\n

Plus, the high at home \u2013 at 6,000 feet \u2013 was forecast to be in the low 80s, and the route to Tucson is nearly 2,000 feet lower and ten degrees hotter. I looked hard and couldn’t find a convenient high-elevation hike between here and there.<\/p>\n

So I packed, and of course the packing triggered my shoulder pain. And at the last minute, my Calvinist masochism led me to do a partial hike in the mountains south of here. The trail would be exposed, the sky was mostly clear, and it was already warm in town \u2013 but it should yield just the right amount of distance and elevation to avoid damaging my joints.<\/p>\n

I was drenched in sweat and swarmed by flies within a hundred level yards of the trailhead. Then the trail began climbing, and of course, I’d forgotten how steep it is. Sweat was clogging my head net \u2013 I had to keep taking it off, wringing it out, and swabbing my head with one of the bandanas I carry. That all made my shoulder pain worse, but I was running out of pain meds and had to pace myself for the next week.<\/p>\n

On the plus side, it’s a rocky landscape \u2013 some kind of granite-like igneous boulders and exposed bedrock \u2013 and the cactus flowers were gorgeous. And as I climbed higher, little clouds were forming overhead and giving me brief episodes of relief from the heat.<\/p>\n

The hike to the peak is a little over 4 miles \u2013 I was just aiming for the top of the ridge, the edge of ponderosa pine habitat, for a little over five miles out-and-back. Like everywhere, the small pines here were dying off from drought-induced bark beetle infestation.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/a>
The climb begins <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And gets steeper <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6274\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nice <\/a>
Nice shadows on the plain <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6277\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6281\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6284\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Heading <\/a>
Heading for ponderosa pines on ridgetop at far right <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_6289\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Beetle-killed <\/a>
Beetle-killed ponderosa <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Still <\/a>
Still living nearby <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Panorama <\/a>
Panorama south <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Today's <\/a>
Today’s route <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On the way down, I stopped for a drink of water \u2013 I’d stored my water in the fridge overnight and it was still cool. And a guy in his twenties passed me on his way up. An obvious stranger, he was likely visiting from a distant city for our big event of the year \u2013 a music festival \u2013 and picked this hike because it’s part of the world-famous national trail. He was dressed very neatly in white t-shirt and crisp REI-style synthetic shorts, and he’d obviously done the climb in this heat without breaking a sweat.<\/p>\n

I’ve been plagued by flies during the past month, and have encountered several other hikers like this one who seemed to have no issues \u2013 so I have to recognize I produce excessive amounts of sweat. I believe that’s why I’m attracted to warm, arid climates \u2013 my body is unusually efficient at cooling itself, even though I do seem to be more heat-sensitive as I get older. Also, I remember vegetarian girlfriends claiming I attract insects because I eat meat \u2013 but my younger girlfriends were always looking for an opportunity to make me feel inferior.<\/p>\n

\"Midway <\/a>
Midway down, trail rollercoasters over series of low hills <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nice <\/a>
Nice lichen <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

On to Tucson \u2013 another two and a half hours of mostly interstate highway driving. And the activities of driving an ancient unautomated vehicle \u2013 shifting gears, controlling the A\/C, managing music on my iPad, and taking photos and notes on my camera, all on the seat beside me, and all using the injured shoulder \u2013 escalated my shoulder pain to the point where my stress got out of control and made me drive recklessly when I reached the congested zone an hour from the city.<\/p>\n

But again on the plus side, pre-monsoon clouds were spreading until they became continuous and were producing rain in the south. And shortly after I arrived at the hotel it was thundering and pouring down, and because I always have rain gear in my pack I was the only guest prepared to cross the courtyard without getting drenched.<\/p>\n

I’d recorded a waypoint up there on the ridgetop with my GPS message unit, in a broad clearing where it immediately found a satellite.\u00a0 But amazingly, when I checked it the next morning, it was off by a third of a mile<\/em>. What could cause such a huge error? That’s really troubling \u2013 what if I was snakebit and needed rescue? Apparently this can happen if the device and your mapping software are calibrated differently \u2013 but waypoints have been mostly accurate for years, and I’m not aware of any recent changes.<\/p>\n

\"Heading <\/a>
Heading west toward more clouds <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nice <\/a>
Nice view south from interstate, at edge of congestion <\/div> <\/div>
\"And <\/a>
And storm southeast of city <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was on my way to Tucson for a mini-vacation, and I’d made big gains in my hiking distance and elevation during the past week, so I was temped to skip Sunday’s hike completely. It wouldn’t impact my conditioning and it would give my knee and foot a break \u2013 they’re still on the edge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,49,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-burro-mountains","category-hikes","category-southwest-new-mexico"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_6289.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31315"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31338,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31315\/revisions\/31338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}