The majority of navigation, made by following a downloaded GPS track, was planned to cut out time wasted in way finding. This approach, while not recommended, allowed all energy to be channelled into forward progress as any mistakes, however small, were keenly felt. Maps were used as a backup and to aid day, route and water planning logistics, no guide book was taken due to weight saving. The downside being that no historical, cultural or factual information could be added to the experience, although this was a calculated compromise from the offset.
My Gps, a Garmin Gpsmap 60CSx was loaded with waypoints, obtained from the Web, which allowed me to accurately follow and correct any errors in my orientation along the way.
Two Footprint Coast to coast strip maps, East and West, were used and found to be very good on the whole, although a frustrating lack of detail in certain areas was experienced.
I downloaded a copy of the strip maps onto my phone as a backup but on losing my map days before the finish, I also ran out of power, so this redundant backup was of no use to me but maybe to a future "unplugger".