[pct-l] Follow-up to the earlier GPS discussion

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good evening, Carl,



When hiking I don’t try to log my entire track so I have no reason to leave
the GPS on all the time.  I may turn it on 5-6 times per day, and then only
for a short time.  Two AAA batteries have always lasted me between resupply
points but I carry an extra pair anyway, at 0.39 ounces each.  In town, I
arbitrarily change the used pair in the instrument.  Maybe, if it was a
really bad snow year, I would carry two extra pairs instead of one.



My only predictable use of the GPS is in the evening while I’m in the sack
writing my daily journal notes.  I turn the GPS on long enough to get me a
tight campsite location to include in the notes, and I save that point in
the GPS memory by date.  There’s really no good reason for this but when I
get home I like to import and save all my campsite locations on the TOPO!
mapping software.



During the day when I stop to take a breather I may turn the GPS on briefly
to affirm my location just out of curiosity.  The quick way I do that is to
select the “nearest waypoint” function.  That tells me where I am relative
to the waypoints that I happen to have onboard.  These occasional checks
also serves a semi-useful purpose:  The time required for the GPS to gather
 information and determine a location is dependent upon how far one has
traveled and how much time has passed since the last log-on, so these
occasional start-ups help the GPS to react more quickly when I really need
it.



I do install a few hundred waypoints, and some of my favorites are the big
passes.  The ridges in the Sierras can run every-which-way and the trail
approaches to the passes aren’t always intuitive.  For example the approach
to Muir Pass is across some pretty big expanses of snowpack and the nominal
approach heading is approximately southwest.  On other passes the actual
crossing point isn’t readily apparent from below.  Approaching Forester for
example, few people can guess which little notch has the actual pass.



After crossing a pass the nominal north side is usually more heavily
snow-covered than the approach side, but a quick glance at the map will show
that the trail drops down into a huge drainage and generally follows the
outflow creek.  One seldom needs a GPS for that: Just head downhill and keep
the eyes open for the trail.  Usually I can easily see it below somewhere so
I just head for it on the most promising route across the snowpack.



I will admit that sometimes I pick one of my waypoints to “go-to”, and I
keep the GPS on and watch the distance click down just so I can see how
close I happen to be when I reach it -- mildly amusing in a geeky sort of
way.



Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 5:22 PM, Carl Siechert <carlito at gmail.com> wrote:

> As usual, very interesting post, Steel-Eye.
>
> I'm a long-time map and compass guy, so I'm in the habit of carrying the
> folded map in my front pocket and pulling it out frequently (say, every 20
> minutes) for a reality check. I usually don't stop or even slow down for
> this, and don't bother orienting the map; just look at the terrain and
> compare it with topo terrain.
>
> Given the limited battery life, I'm curious about how you GPSers operate.
> Am I correct in assuming that you can't just routinely leave the thing on
> and follow it? What about when you're traveling across snow? Leave it on
> continuously while on that terrain? Otherwise, do you flip it on only when
> you think you might be off trail? Or do you do periodic checks every ___
> minutes/hours? Or???
>
> On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 12:57 PM, CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>wrote:
>
>>
>> well-marked nature of the PCT occasionally exacerbates the problem.  To be
>> effective with only a map and compass it is necessary to maintain close
>> and
>> ongoing situational awareness of the terrain by looking at the map
>> regularly
>> and always rationalizing the apparent terrain with the terrain depicted on
>> the topo’ map.  When doing so, one must stop instantly whenever there is a
>> real-vs-map disconnect or inconsistency and do whatever is necessary to
>> resolve the issue before proceeding further.  Any continued travel without
>> resolution is most likely to increase the confusion rather than resolve
>> it.
>>
>