To GPS or not?

A rider with no rally experience posted on the LDRiders forum if a GPS would help on a 5 or 10 day rally. Here was my response:

Friend, I have no experience on a 5 or 10 day rally. But I do have
experience preparing for a new challenge and completing it. You say
you have zero rally experience, so my first comment is that I would
say your are diving into the deep end of the pool and may want to try
the shallow waters of a 12 or 24 hour rally. Try it without a gps and
computer, see how you like it. If you have fun and are happy with your
performance then adding a GPS will not be necessary.

Are you trying to be competitive? Are you relatively technology savvy?
Are you there to place well or just have fun? If you don't do well and
have lots of routing mistakes, and wish you finished higher, then a
GPS might help the situation. It will not help every rider in every
situation.

I am a complete tech geek. I have a GPS and love it. I also don't
think it works for all riders. I have multiple map programs and have
been practicing entering in rally information. I think I have a good
system that will be tested early next month in a 12 hour rally. I'm
sure it will not work as well as I hoped, and the learning will be
incorporated into the rally after that (next year after the snow
melts).

A few things that I hate about the GPS:

1. It is not as good as local knowledge. I use it around town in my
car and there are many roads it wants to send me down that I know are
"shorter," but due to local traffic patterns I know are total time
sucks. So learning your area is still very valuable. Because I have
this knowledge in my home town, when I am in far off lands I adjust
its timing to leave room for this lack of local knowledge.

2. When it does something unexpected it can be a time waster. Have it
freak out in a rally and you may lose valuable minutes trying to
revive it.

3. If you become reliant on it you can loose skill with maps. Believe
it or not I was a cartography major in college. The more I use mapping
software the slower I become with the paper maps.

I strongly believe that a very competent map reader will beat an
average GPS user. However an average map reader will be killed by a
below average GPS user. If your not good at working with Maps a GPS
will help. However you do not want to be learning any of these skills
as you are handed the route sheets for a 5 day rally!

Here is what I recommend, right now the Resdez-vous rally has their
bonus listing on line: http://www.rendezvousld.org/2009/en/bonus.htm.
Go to the site and get it. Use paper maps and create a nice 12 hour
route. See how you do as far as points and time to create the route.
Next download Microsoft's free trial for Streets & Trips
(http://www.microsoft.com/streets/en-us/trial.aspx). Enter the bonus
locations and make a nice 12 hour route. Compare your points and
times. For me I do the computer version a LOT faster and get a higher
score.

After that exercise have a friend pick 12 local places within a 100
mile radius. Create a route on paper and ride it. Then pick 12 local
places, do the route on S&T and ride it. It should give you a feel for
if computer mapping will give you an advantage over paper mapping.

Good luck!