GPS cure: Just ask

The recent rash of GPS acolytes getting stuck on snowbound Oregon back roads has prompted a predictable flurry of precautionary advice.

This is a good thing.

It’s always appropriate to remind travelers that although orbiting satellites can tell you precisely where you are, they can’t turn your SUV into a sleigh.

To put it another way, even the most sophisticated microprocessor is awfully stupid when put up against a human brain.

If your GPS tells you to keep going but your eyes insist that you’ll bog down in the bumper-high drift just ahead, trust your eyes.

Many commentators recommend drivers bring a paper map. That’s wise, but it’s not a panacea.

After all, if the map shows the same road that the GPS plots you on, then the traveler who has a map might be more likely to make a dangerous decision than is the traveler who has only a GPS.

The safest course, obviously, is to never stray from paved highways — the more lanes the better.

But for drivers who can’t resist the lure of a GPS-endorsed shortcut, we offer this succinct suggestion: Stop and ask.

Pull into a store or a gas station, ideally one that’s close to the road you’re thinking about taking.

A map and a GPS can tell you where to go, but it’s the cashier or the gas jockey who’s going to tell you about the blizzard that came through a couple days ago.

Like most of rural Oregon, Baker County is chock full of sideroad traps just waiting for a GPS-reliant traveler to take the bait.

If you’re driving west on Interstate 84 near Huntington, for instance, and you’re headed to Halfway, the road over Lookout Mountain will save you a good 60 miles. The road even has its own freeway exit.

But ask pretty much anybody in Huntington or Farewell Bend or Durkee and they’ll tell you you’ll never make it if you go that way this time of year.

This advice, we’re certain, won’t cost you a cent.

Failing to seek it out, though, could cost you considerably more than that.