I live in a rural area where gravel and dirt roads outnumber paved roads by an easy 100 to 1. The issue with these roads is that they change with the season, the weather, the stage that farmers are at and the health of the county road department. Those nuances are known to locals but cannot be expected to be known by gps. I travel gravel and dirt daily by paying attention to butte landmarks, the location of the sun, certain farms and barns but most importantly, local gossip. I recall Los Angeles friends visiting and exclaiming "oh my gawd how in the world do you drive these roads -- no signage, no businesses, no gps?" I said all you have to do is look and listen very well and I can drive roads here I have never been on. Look ma..no gps..just eyes and ears.
What you describe is "using common sense" - unfortunately a sense a lot of us have lost because we live in place where road signs are reliable and digital maps are up-to-date.
It took me quite a few months to relearn what you are practicing every day but now I'd say that this is a must on every curriculum. After I moved to a third world country (and did my re-learning) I understood that in case of a zombie-apocalypse (used as a place-holder for your "no tech works anymore"-scenario) people from less developed countries are so much more likely to cope than 99% of the 1st world population.
I just recently had my gps get me to try and drive down a gravel road (not that bad) and through a ford that was clearly far too deep for my car, and had a sign on it saying that it was unsuitable for cars, all to save about a minute.
Google maps also doesn't seem to know whether roads are gravel or tarmac, and since they both have a 100 km/h speed limit, it will direct me down a shorter gravel road, that will actually take longer because I'm not suicidal to go 100 km/h down a windy gravel road.
