I would advise all people who loves to take with the woods to keep trail, the problem is that when we walk into some distance we won't be able to figure out where we came from, most of the directions would look the same and you would be lost. So always leave a trail.

If you are on a hike, leaving a trail is a good backup. You should also use your navigation skills. This would be good practice and you can test your gear. If you leave a trail and mess up your navigation you can still find your way out and learn what mistakes you made and learn from them.

In a SHTF situation, I would not leave a trail. You could show someone who is stalking you to take what you have where you are and make it easy to be found. This could turn bad in a hurry. If you are not in my group, I do not want you to know where I am.

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Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

NRA Certified Instructor for Basic Handgun and Personal protection in the Home.
V.F.W. Life Member
NRA Member
U.S. Army Veteran

I would prefer that you should try out both the methods like you should leave a trails and also use the GPS for more positioning and getting more clear ideas about the route.

If you dont have clear idea about the route then leaving a trial would possible help. But its not sure that it will work. So use a gps too.

Once in trekking, we went through a forest. It was unfamiliar route so left trial and it worked fine.
Do it and hope it works.