I think finding your way back to trail is a lot of things. Using what you need to assist you is smart. Identifying a need and ignoring it is stupid. I don't NEED it but I can leave a hiking pole or 2 to mark my way. I actually painted the bottom part a bright orange so they can be seen in the woods. Also, makes them less likely to be stolen as it makes them kind of ugly.

Some of us have an innate sense of direction. MOST of us DON'T. I do. Many years ago coming back from a backpacking trip I fell asleep as #theotherhalf was driving. This was a trip we had done several times and the first time I fell asleep for him to navigate on his own. He woke me up at one point and asked me where we were! I quickly figured it out. We had diverted to NH "somehow" from western MA to Boston. (yep, pretty hard to screw that up). Without any road signs around, and on a highway I had probably been on less than 3 times headed north, I looked around and instantly knew we were either just north or south of Concord. We were south and saw an exit sign in a few minutes. Turns out we were on 93 but since we were living in Boston/Quincy we had always gone up through North Conway to hike in the Whites. This was back more than 23 years ago where people generally used maps or POSSIBLY used a set of google directions you would print out.

I haven't hiked in a couple of years now unfortunately except at the local nature preserve which is way too hard to get lost in. I hope my sense of direction holds true.