Pre-Run Fun Series: Navigation

[1leglance]

Pre-Run Fun Series: Navigation
This is a multi-part series to get ideas flowing on what folks do to get ready for a day trip or longer off highway adventure. For the first of many explorations into my twisted way of making things happen let’s take a look at Navigation.

The Prelude
First you hear about a great sounding trail or camping area. So if you are like me your first question is "Who is taking me there?” Then again if you are like me the answer to that question is usually "Oh yeah sometime soon". So after waiting a suitable amount of time, like 5 minutes or so, or at least the amount of time to gas up and get snacks I figure I need to figure on figuring it out on my own.

The Search Begins
I am on my own at this point so time to start the same place every elementary school kid does...Google. Of course if it is a little less well known area then it’s off to trails.com (which has pdf’s of most books) or off-road websites and forums.
adventure4x4.net
Expedition Portal: Vehicle Dependent Overland Community
trip travel cheap flight hotel at 4wdtrips.com
But wait, you are thinking, surely he will pull out the trusty paper maps that are so colorful and don’t require batteries. Well I admit that other than to make sure I have a map of the area I usually don’t play with paper too much. Can I use a map and compass? Yes and well since I teach it to cubscouts. Does it feed my techno-lust? No, not really.

Next comes my favorite part, using any landmarks or gps info I have, Google Earth gets fired up and off I go flying around the terrain of my choice looking at ways in, ways out and ways around. I can also lay down some placemarks / waypoints then once I have something I like the general look of, phase 3 begins.

The Laptop & Ozi
Saving my Google Earth escapades as a .kml file allows me to import directly into Oziexplorer on my laptop. This beat up Panasonic Toughbook is filled with free maps from the USDA:NRCS:Geospatial Data Gateway:home which has just about any ol' map you could want.
Since Google Earth is fast and fun I already have the majority of my work done. Now I like to just go in and make sure all the waypoints are in order, match up to maps I have and add any notes to the trip.
I will also note the closest cross streets and plug this info into Iguidance which is the best street navigation software I have used. It not only gives those fun "Turn left in 500 yards" tidbits, but it also includes most Forest Service and known or marked roads I have traveled.

On the Run again, just me and my friends on the Run again,
I know I titled this as a pre-run insight...but you are kind of pre-running until you are done running right?
Either way one of the things I am trying to get better at since I now have the pre-run stuff down well is to add waypoints, events, and notes as I am on the trail. Things I want to know for my return to that place in the future or things for others to know if I save the file and pass it around. Lookouts, shade, water to play in, animal spotting are all great things to note on your run.

I hope this gets a good bit of chatter going on my methods and what others do to prep for a run when it comes to navigation...
If not then just follow me because we are only one U-turn away from a good time on the trail.

[shane4x4]

Great post (as usual) Lance!
I'm currently a paper guy, but have used MapTech + laptop in the past (when I was on SAR). I really don't want to go w/the laptop in the FJ - the wife doesn't want it in her lap - Plus, we do a lot of hiking - so something that's useful out-of-FJ is important.

I've thought of grabbing everything from the Delorme PN-20, Magellan Explorist XL, and the Garmin eTrex Legend CX. I'm still not decided which handheld GPS i'm going with, but I can't grab any of them right now for a few reasons:
1) Money - Saving up for the All-Pro all around
2) Maps - While the PN-20 can come with decent maps, all the GPS's fall a little short (IMO) for hiking TOPO's. I'm a 24k DRG type of guy

So, my good friend bough an iPhone - and gave me his old Nokia E62. The neat thing about the E62 is that there are TONS of apps for it, including:
SmartcomGPS
This inexpensive little app allows me to load as many custom-maps as I want. It also uses the Ozi format for tracks, maps, & waypoints. Since I already have OZI, I'm set. Add a BT GPS to that and WHAM - I've got a handheld GPS that meets my every need.

In my search for maps...I recently found this link:
GSTC Clearinghouse > States & Territories
Which includes 24K DRGS (all updated in the 90's) for every bit of land that touches Forest Service. This means that I have the files for 80% of Colorado. Of course, I have to process them.
I took a day last week & downloaded all the maps, imported them into Ozi, and converted them to the proper format for my SmartcomGPS. So....as soon as my hardware gets here (2gb miniSD + BT GPS) - I'll be good to go.

I'll probably eventually get something like the eXplorist XL, because of the GIANT screen + portability, but this sub-$100 solution will work for the short term.

[tibaal89]

Wow guys, thats some serious stuff. Sounds useful and like a lot of fun.

I am a lowly grad student and as such work primarily off paper maps - crude, impossible to read, zoomed out, incorrect maps! woo-hoo!

But honestly I have zero navigation strategy, and I don't think its a bad thing. If I were crossing the Baja, I'd make severe preperations and have equipment and such, but I'm over here in Tucson - none of the trails I've been on are more than 50 miles from the city, and the mountain ranges are very easy to identify in order to quickly descern your location. If I get lost out here, then I'm a dumb-@!$&%& and deserve it!

[twc13]

As my first foray into navigating with the Lowrance gets closer I still need to get the map create software and sd cards to save the Mojave road to. I intend to practice on the lowrance sight to get down some of the details and then I just need a copilot that I can teach and drag along with me to Mojave. Anyone else?

[1leglance]

Shane...once you have it down pretty well with your nokia & gps be sure to do a write up here and folks are constantly asking questions (then again if they don't do a search then what good is the writeup?)
Anyway thanks for the headsup on that program as I had not heard of it and the more solutions out there the better.

Mike-tibaal Hey paper is the old standby that everyone should be able to use no matter how much techno stuff they have...
Like I said I am always teaching my cubscouts how to make and use maps & compasses


twc you should also post an indepth review of your setup once you have a comfort level built up...we have lots of folks saying what they are using but there isn't enough how-to so that new folks can make buying choices

[shane4x4]

So,
After I said all that about the Nokia - I decided to go with the Garmin Legend. It turns out that the SW + GPS + time for the nokia wouldn't do everything I wanted - and battery life could be a problem.

I picked up a the Legend CX on ebay for just under $200 w/lots of goodies.

Now i'm in the process of creating custom maps for use on Garmin devices. I'm hoping to have custom 24K vector topo's for all of colorado within a month or two - I'll keep everyone updated.