toejam

GPS can do some neat stuff, but I haven't felt the need to carry one yet. Once I backpacked in West Virginia where the forest was real thick and the mountains were short and you couldn't get a view of the land - that would have been a good place for GPS. I usually backpack in small Texas parks or mountains with big views and really big landmarks so it's easy to know where you are.

There's also the possibility that I'm just cheap and don't want anything else to have to mess with. I have a friend who takes a GPS everywhere ever since he got lost on a safari in Africa.

Shannon

I have so much fun reviewing my GPS tracks and sharing GPS waypoint data, I think I need to clarify that I carry my GPS more for fun than "necessity" (though, by definition, fun while hiking is a necessity for me... that's one reason the camera always comes along, as well!)

It's fairly difficult to get lost at most State Parks, and on the rare occasion we have, it's only caused a little back-tracking. In the cases where my GPS map includes park trails, the GPS can be useful in helping ensure we don't follow "non-trails," namely footpaths that get formed at busy parks over time, due to many hikers following the same off-trail route (witness Enchanted Rock's many unmarked trails snaking in every which way). GPS is also a nice reference for things like exact sunrise and sunset times, which photographer's ordinarily either need to check before they get to a park or make a mental note of after 24 hours there. And, if I'm ever at a park when Justin's flying, I have a mind to share my GPS coordinates with him so his passengers can take photos of me on the ground, and I can take photos of him in the air. (Yes, I'm a geek... does this still surprise anyone, however?! :no: It's why I run WildTexas.com, afterall.)

For someone like me who enjoys sharing detailed trip reports with others, the exact distance and time hiked, elevation gain/loss and especially useful. I used to have to rely on published mileage, which as you know varies depending on the source. In fact, while writing my Hiking the Guadalupe River Multi-Use Trail trip report (now online!), I noted a fairly significant discrepancy between the park map and the actual trail distances. Unless you're carrying a USGS quad when you visit State Parks, that's something only the GPS can accurately record.

Now, the GPS in my car *is* a necessity... I use that religiously, and it's saved me many headaches on the road.


Justin does a little gratuitous product placement, with his Garmin Rino in his right hand and his Garmin Forerunner on his left wrist!

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hiwayman

I have the basic Garmin Etrex which I use for geocaching. Geocaching has taken me places I might not have gone otherwise.

I have placed several caches myself and plan to place a multi-hydrocache soon on several islands at Lake Fork. One bad thing about geocaching is that the cache contents are degraded fairly quickly due to uneven trades.

I did use the GPSr recently while backpacking on a trail I had never travelled. I was able to tell how far I was from certain features along the trail. I visted www.travelbygps.com before the trip and downloaded the waypoints to various features so I could find them while hiking. Kinda neat, but in my opinion, its just an expensive toy.

OutdoorPhoto.com

Scary image...

Just think, we could walk downstairs and see Blanco standing next to a window with this "Hey Hey! I've got a signal!! I've got a signal!!"

RichO

Shannon,
I want to do what you have done with your Hiking Reports, but I will be doing it for my wildflower route reports. I want to be able to store the waypoints, download them to my pc and then create maps with my waypoints noted.

I also want to be able to capturing altimeter information.

What unit do you recommend?

Thanks,

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RichO
http://www.wildflowerhaven.com
http://www.pbase.com/richo/
'Life is a dance, Love is the music.'

Shannon

Hi, Rich! Good to hear from you (still need to reply to your email, btw)!

The GPS, itself --
Out of all the GPS units we have, I find the Garmin GPSMap 76s the most useful for my hikes and travel logging. Part of the reason it's my favorite is due to the maps I have installed on it -- Garmin's MapSource USA Topo maps, providing full terrain mapping capability in addition to the unit's base maps which provide basic roadway and city detail. The unit is compatible with other MapSource map products, but I find the "topo" fit my needs perfectly.

The unit is longer/larger than some, but is not heavy and is weatherproof and floats in water. Garmin markets the GPSMap 76s to boating enthusiasts, as well as hikers and mountain bikers; after dropping it in the mud on a recent hike, I appreciate its sturdiness!

Weather watchers will appreciate the integrated barometic pressure readings provided by the unit, which also makes it able to provide more accurate altimeter readings. The electronic compass works like a dream, including an on-screen indicator when the GPS unit is not being held in a "level" orientation, which affects the accuracy of the electronic compass. These features provide for accurate location, elevation and bearing information. The unit ships with a basemap of North and South America which includes major highways, roadways, rivers, lakes and borders. The unit itself can store 500 waypoints and 50 reversible routes (such as "Campsite to Overlook" and "Overlook to Campsite") and has a total of 24MB of internal memory. The only downside to this unit, in my mind, is its lack of removal memory so I could add in an extra memory card if I desired to store more data (such as additional maps and GPS data). Not all GPS units ship with a "PC cable" so you can sync the GPS unit with a computer, but the GPSMap 76S does. Even our Garmin Rino 100s, less expensive family oriented handheld GPS units, have a "PC cable" connector so while they don't ship with a cable, they can accept one (sadly, not the SAME cable as all our other Garmin units; so much for total interoperability!)

What you'll need in terms of software for your computer --
There are several free apps available ("EasyGPS", for example) to transfer waypoints and track data between your PC and GPS unit. Personally, I use Garmin's MapSource for my hiking reports. If you buy any Garmin MapSource CD (for example, "USA Topo", "City Select", "City Navigator"), you'll be set with the capabilities you need. One thing Garmin's applications lack is a convenient "Export to GIF" capability, so to create my waypoint and track maps, I just do a screen capture ("print screen") when I'm viewing the MapSource data on my computer; I edit the screen capture in a graphics program to the size and resolution I need.

I'm still experimenting on the best, most efficient way to share specific waypoints with people. My current method is a little time-consuming, requiring me to cut & paste the data from my MapSource application into table cells in my trip report HTML template.

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RichO

Thanks for the great reply!

I was going to purchase a unit, but wanted to wait for your input. It sounds like there is still much manual work to get the data into map form to display. What about road details? I travel county roads and often they are not even marked on most maps. MapPoint 2004 seems to have most of them, and it has a GPS interface. Does the MapSource Topo have county roads?

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RichO
http://www.wildflowerhaven.com
http://www.pbase.com/richo/
'Life is a dance, Love is the music.'

Shannon

I'd be happy to post a sample or two of what my MapSource Topo maps look like for a given area so you can compare them to what you already have. Any particular area you'd like me to make a map of, for comparison purposes? The sample maps might not look perfect, since I'll likely have to downsample them a bit so they're not huge files, but it'll give you a frame of reference.

I think a new version of the Topo software is coming out soon, since I noticed Garmin dropped the price a bit. My copy's about six or seven months old.

PS: I added your WildflowerHaven.com to the Web Guide. Great work, Rich! We even used it on Saturday to scout wildflowers -- that field you noted outside of La Vernia is a feast for the eyes! This year does seem to be a little "understated" compared to previous years, though.

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Your Host @ WildTexas.com

Purchases in the Wild Texas Gear Shop support our continued operation. Thank you!

cxl1

As this is my first post...I want to thank the hosts....great message board!

Just a little suggestion here for anyone looking to check out Garmin's Mapsource products. They do have an option on the Garmin website that lets you "try" their Mapsource products from the web.

Here is the URL to the Garmin Mapsource page:
http://www.garmin.com/cartography/

When you get there, look in the top right corner of the page for the Mapsource Map Viewer. Select the map product you're interested in.

I personally own the following Garmin Mapsource products:
US Roads & Recreation
US Topo
MetroGuide USA
North America City Select

Also, I'm a GPS nerd and converted Garmin addict. Here is a list of the GPS units I've owned and the order in which I owned them:
Eagle Explorer (Battery Gobbler!! 3 hrs on 4 AA --- OUCH!)
Lowrance GlobalNav (Battery Gobbler!! 4 hrs on 4 AA)
Lowrance GlobalNav 212 (Battery Gobbler!! 4 hrs on 4 AA)
Magellan Colormap (Slowwwwwwww - Low resolution screen)
Garmin GPS III+ (Got me hooked unit - mapping - lower res - no WAAS)
Garmin GPS V (My current unit for the last 2+ years - would be almost perfect with more memory - CF Flash card please!!!!!!)

The GPS V has been an excellent unit for me. It is small enough that I can take it anywhere, from in the car, to the boat, on the bicycle, to canoe & hiking trips.

Even though the City Select is specifically made for the GPS V unit I curenty have, because of the traveling I do to pursue my fishing interests, I have found the Roads & Rec product to be my Go-To product. The only drawback is the maps do not support auto-routing and does not contain the POI's (restaurants, gas stations, hotels, etc) like the City Select or Metroguide. But I find that the maps are much smaller for the covered areas as a result and the roads, land, and water features appear more accurate than in any of the other Garmin products. The size of the maps is importatnt as the GPS V has only 19MB of non-expandable memory, so for an 1100 mile fishing trip, I need to be thrifty and plan carefully when it comes to space.

The GPS V is a very versatile unit. I have two external antennas, and of course, all the possible power data cable combinations made! The external antennas are excellent for Car travel, as the satellite reception is awesome. The GPS V indicates the estimated accuracy and in areas where it will only report approximately 25 - 30 ft with the portable antenna, the external antenna will usually lock enough satellites to give me 6 - 7 ft accuracy.

For short car travel trips, I will use a Beanbag mount and set the GPS V on my dash. For longer trips, I use the combination power/data cable to connect my GPS to my laptop PC, which allows me to use Mapsource on my PC directly with my GPS. This is a fantastic combination....unlimited track size (ie, 62,000 points for trip from WI to Texas!), plus the advantage of full coverage Mapsource detailed maps for EVERYWHERE, plus the ability to switch to any of the different Mapsource products I own instantly. Also, my color laptop screen as a heads-up display instead of the GPS V....wow, knock your socks off! In this configuration, I use a two outlet power inverter for my PC power supply and the power cord for my GPS....no battery issues here!

I could go on much longer...as I said, I'm hooked on GPS!

Next trip begins this coming Wednesday...again WI to Lake Fork, Texas for a 10-day fishing trip!!! Ahhhh...and the extended weather forecast is excellent! Will sure be nice to leave the 20's and 30's behind for some fun & sun in the 70's and 80's.

Thanks again to the hosts! :cool: :cool: :cool:

Shannon

Thank you for the excellent post, and welcome to WildTexas.com!

That's a superb find -- I hadn't noticed that ability on Garmin's site in prior visits. The US Roads & Recreation product you mention sounds right up our alley; will have to check that one out!

That testimony is enough to make me wish Justin and I had a long distance road trip planned sometime soon. It'd never occurred to me to let the laptop do the "dirty work" of storing the immense track data and maps needed on a long haul trip. We always take at least one laptop on such trips, anyway, so it'd be a perfect union, so to speak. Heck, we even have the power inverter, since in addition to the laptop there are digital camera batteries we're always charging on long trips like that; it's a necessity in my Corolla, and only less important in Justin's F150 (which has three or four outlets built-in).

Sounds awesome -- enjoy it! We've been doing 2-3 day short trips the past two weeks. It's not the same, of course, but it sure is nice to get out and enjoy the weather. We're headed to the coast later today... our focus is primarily bird and wildlife photography and I've often been jealous of the fishermen and boaters since the birds park themselves right next to them. If I could figure out how to hold a camera AND fishing rod, I would do it!


Thanks again, and welcome to the site -- we're glad to have you! :yes:

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com

Purchases in the Wild Texas Gear Shop support our continued operation. Thank you!

Roadrunner

[QUOTE=Shannon]If you are a GPS user, what make/model GPS unit(s) do you use and what's your primary usage of them, for example -- driving, hiking/backpacking, fishing, boating, flying, etc.

I use a Garmin GPS12 mostly for driving. The map page is useful on my trips to Kerrville from San Antonio when I take the scenic route 16 to if I recall correctly 173 (the sign that says Kerrville that way!). One night on my way back there was a nice drizzle and a fog. With the map page I was able to adjust my speed for the curves before actually seeing them. It's like playing a real life video game where your steering wheel is the joy stick and all you have to do to stay alive is keep the little diamond on the line! I got lucky there weren't any obstacles in my path. Night driving and a GPS is a lot of fun especially in the rain and fog. I also carry a military Cammenga compass and a map just in case the batteries go dead.

Roadrunner

Post Script:

I'm sure most adventurers would know about Microsoft's Terra server, an excellent web for topo/aerial maps. Here's one where any address in the U.S. can be entered and the GPS coordinates/map are returned:

http://geocode.com/modules.php?name=TestDrive_Eagle

I use it whenever I have an appointment to "what's that street?" I enter the coordinates and my GPS12 points the way!

Michael

I recently bought a Garmin Foretrex 101. My initial use was at Big Bend National Park & it worked out great. Some of the trails through the washes were hard to follow (rock crains). I could see where I wanted to go so all I had to do was go there. To get back, no problem, just hit "Go To" & start walking. I will enjoy this for a long time to come.

01ACRViper

i have used it, but only trying to follow faint sections of the CDT in Colorado we had 18 hours of a drive up there to program points in, but using it locally and at places i go all the time seems like a waste of time to me

Shannon

Parks and such are pre-programmed in many units -- depends on what kind of you purchase, as well as what kind of maps it supports. The ones we use in our cars and in Justin's rental aircraft have everything from parks and gas stations to restaurants, hotels and shopping centers. Mine has rest stops, which is nice when you get out in the boonies and someone's asking "Have you seen a rest stop sign" every 15 minutes. For those like me who get turned around easily, a GPS is a godsend even in a city I've lived in for over 2 decades (though I'm 31 so I wasn't driving that whole time!) Also, I often leave mine on and it provides more situational awareness than normal driving -- "Ah, that's where thus-and-such is..." or "Cool, there's a Tai restaurant within 1 mile of here!" It's an exploration tool as much as a navigation tool.

For hiking, I have a topographic unit that I use in conjunction with a park map and (though rarely used, since my GPS has a built-in electronic compass that is easily calibrated) compass. I've discovered 'new' (undocumented) trails that link up some of my favorite rural parks with this device, whereas I wouldn't have bothered following the trails without the GPS due to not knowing how far I might end up away from where I parked my car (these are solo hikes, so as a female I like to know where I might put myself, especially if I'm several miles from familiar territory and my vehicle).

For exercise, I have a wrist-worn unit that calculates calories burned and keeps a running log of all my exercise activities -- I need to post a logbook entry from that soon. It proved VERY useful during the rehab after my knee surgery, being able to see improvements in my pace (miles per hour) and distance travelled.

GPS units are tools just like computers. Some people still do their taxes with a pencil, paper and calculator. Some still write their letters with stationary and a nice fountain pen. Etc. No way is better or worse, but each fills a need.

Justin and I are obviously geeks, so we keep buying units that fill a need we have. The average person can do well just with one handheld unit, since even handhelds can be used in vehicles for travel as a preventive measure of having to stop and figure out where you are exactly.

We bought our cheapest GPS units, the Garmin Rinos which have GMRS radios built in (great for families -- parents keep one and give the other to the kids, and can keep track of where they are and talk to them when its time to come back to camp). Cost? $49 per unit, on clearance. Deals are everywhere. Considering what people pay for cellular phones, cable tv and other luxuries, a GPS falls right in line with all that.

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com

Purchases in the Wild Texas Gear Shop support our continued operation. Thank you!