When I take my kid hiking, I'll take her off-trail a few times and have her tell me which way the trail is. I'm trying to help her gain an awareness of the world greater than ten feet beyond the trail and enhance her confidence. She has a whistle, compass and flashlight on a lanyard and we practice hide-and-seek using whistles. I've not introduced her to maps or gps, yet.
The California hiking experience is different from the western Washington mountains I hiked as a kid. Up there you can hike for days without gaining an unobstructed view to triangulate off, and the forest undergrowth can be so dense you lose the trail in shockingly little distance. Turn-by-turn navigation with map and compass was the way to travel and heaven help you if there was a significant trail rerouting not on the map or if the trail had disappeared from neglect.
In the Sierra, XC through forest is much more plausable and of course, we have the opportunity for endless days of alpine travel. I don't find myself consulting the map on the go, usually at the day's start and on breaks. My programmed GPS routes and waypoints are printed on the map for a ready cross-reference. Hard to overstate how much I love this system.
Here is where I come across badly. In my opinion, a topographical map is virtually useless without a compass and the skills to use it. If you don't believe me, bring the wrong map someday for a similar trail and see how easily people will locate themselves on it.
Cheers,
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