And I thought that a map (not sure about compass, never used one, never needed one) is standard part of any travelling equipment.
I normally use the map so that I know the over all direction and to check if the destination on the GPS device is my desired destination. Living in a village of the same name as a much bigger village some 3 hours away (Remember I'm swiss not american, to us that is nearly half the country away) I see quite a few people who trusted their GPS device more than their brains.
When it comes to signal GPS is reliable. Mobile phones not so much, back in 2010 we had no signal on Skye (with a british provider) not even in Portree.