[pct-l] "The PCT Project"

[Jack "Union" Haskel]

Hey Mike,

    The wrist watch ones are pretty neat. Did you keep in on the whole time?
What sort of battery life did you get?

    I used a Magellan Meridian Gold. It stayed on all day, about 10-14 hours
a day. And 2-AA lithium batteries would last about two days. I went through
a ton of batteries.

    Staff writer? I wish! I'm a Map Correspondent.

    -- Jack

On 12/5/06, Mike Saenz <msaenz at mve-architects.com> wrote:
>
> Yeah I read that. That was you, huh?
> Very cool.
>
> I hike with a GPS. One of those small Garmin Fortrex wrist-watch gizmos.
> I've never used it for navigation. Like you, I've found the PCT a broad
> boulevard that's hard to loose (or at least it takes a fair amount of
> inattention to loose).
>
> I use my GPS to track my average speed, mileage and altitude. It helps
> me decide when to pitch camp or keep walking.
>
> But I thought I read that you were a BP Mag staff writer?
>
> Michael  Saenz
> Associate Partner
>
> MVE & Partners, Inc. | Architecture + Planning + Interiors
> Irvine + Oakland + Honolulu
>
> 1900 Main Street, Suite 800 | Irvine, California 92614-7318 | T
> 949.809.3388 | www.mve-architects.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net
> [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Jack "Union" Haskel
> Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 2:36 PM
> To: PCT List
> Subject: [pct-l] "The PCT Project"
>
> Hey Community!
>
> I'd just like to too my own horn a little. Toot-Toot!
>
> The current issue of Backpacker Magazine, February 2007(!) has a short
> interview with me in it. It's titled "The PCT Project". They hooked me
> up
> with a GPS, some shoes and socks and funding to hike the trial this
> summer.
> In exchange, I kept the GPS on all of the time and recorded waypoints
> and a
> track log of the whole trail.
>
> Every 40 feet or so the unit recorded a bread crumb and every mile or so
> I
> recorded a waypoint. Waypoints are points of "interest", so deemed by
> yours
> truly. Mostly, waypoints are the water sources, trail junctions and
> roads
> along the trail. Some pictures that I took will be attached to the data.
> The
> magazine blurb is in print but the data hasn't been posted yet.
> Hopefully it
> will be in then next few days. You'll see it at backpacker.com/hikes
>
> It's a pay website ($15/year). But there is a 90-free trial, during
> which
> you can download the track and the Google Earth file. Funny thing is,
> the
> whole PCT is far too big to load in to a GPS unit. There goes your hopes
> of
> hiking the trail with a GPS crutch huh? Luckily, as someone that HAS
> hiked
> the PCT with GPS, I can confirm that it's truly NOT necessary. What this
> project does provide, is a new detailed track and more importantly a
> waypointed track! Trust me, it's super cool when loaded in to Google
> Earth.
> And it doesn't have the weirdness of the Forest Service track which
> thinks
> that we want to view the hike southbound.
>
> To you avid thru-hikers, some of the interview might make be seem like a
> bozo. Trust me, I am. But understand that a magazine interview such as
> this
> is largely "paraphrasing" from a long conversation. Still, I'm really
> happy
> with the end result. I spent a week in Boulder with the Map staff.
> They're
> top notch and doing some cool GPS mapping of the states. The AT was also
> (hopefully) mapped this year and they've got an interesting project for
> the
> CDT next year. I STRONGLY encourage the long distance hiking community
> to
> look in to the CDT project. It's introduced in this same issue and you
> can
> sign up for the project (if you so choose) at backpacker.com/cdtmap
>
> So,
>       - I'll write again when the track is actually online.
>       - First person that finds a spike off the trail (which marks a
> spot
> where I hiked off to go to the bathroom), gets a fresh, steaming pile of
> poo
> via Priority Mail.
>       - First person that actually uses this track, better give me
> feedback!
>
>      Kindly,
>              Jack "Union" Haskel
>
> P.S.: Like many hikers in '06, I skipped a burning section in Oregon
> around
> Mt. Jefferson. So there's a 50+ mile gap in my life which I hope to hike
> and
> GPS next summer.
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