The problem is in places where I do most of my hiking in the Michigan woodlands. There are no visible landmarks and the elevation change is in a range less than the contour lines on the topo. Often you cannot see more than 500 feet and you can go for hours without crossing a stream. Usually you end up crossing two track roads within a few miles but only about a quarter of them are shown on the map. You can follow the two track roads on the theory that sooner or later you will end up at a known point but most of the two track roads do not even begin to go in a straight line. Once you have lost the trail the only thing you can do is backtrack or head towards a known handrail point.