It sounds like you no longer have the means to navigate any of the routes
(cleared, expected, filed) described in 91.185.

Exactly. In my scenario, you've lost nav too, except for NDB. So use
that. You use what you have to avoid becoming a newspaper article.

Back to the original scenario, you still have a handheld GPS. So you
can still fly your (direct) clearance.

(c)(1)(i) makes it sound like I just keep mowing on to my 200 mile
away destination. If I have no GPS *at all*, I'm pretty much dead-
reckoning my way to get close enough to the closest VOR at my
destination. A handheld would make that more accurate.

IF you have no GPS you can't navigate direct (except under certain
circumstances). IF you have VOR, use that to stay alive. If you are
down to dead reckoning, your original clearance is no longer important.
Fly whatever you can to get yourself somewhere you can land safely,
without regard to 91.185.

Jose
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