Everyone needs to remember that a GPS is not the end all to be all for never getting lost. If you don’t believe me just try going out into some mountainous terrain and following the exact trail back that you walked in on - no cheating either… Yes, that means that you can’t put out [...]
Everyone needs to remember that a GPS is not the end all to be all for never getting lost. If you don’t believe me just try going out into some mountainous terrain and following the exact trail back that you walked in on - no cheating either… Yes, that means that you can’t put out any markers.
Your GPS doesn’t know the terrain before the route or track is made unless you have it programmed into the GPS so everything is in two dimensions until the GPS knows different. There’s a couple of things you should always remember when it comes to navigating outdoors with your GPS.
1) A GPS tells you how far it is to the waypoint “as the crow flies”.
2) A GPS tells you how far it is to the waypoint “as the crow flies”.
This makes me remember a time when I was out in the bush trying to locate a concrete monument that was being used to mark a mining claim. I was down in a riverbed with a rock wall on one side of me going pretty much straight up 30 meters and on the other side it was a gradual gain in elevation for about 100 meters before hitting the same type of rock wall.
My GPS was telling me that I was right on top of the monument (I had programmed the known coordinates into my GPS before leaving for my hike) but I couldn’t see it anywhere.
In the valley my dilution of precision was getting pretty bad, I was down to about 4 satellites most of the time so I was wondering really how accurate the readings could be. I had followed what the GPS told me and it pretty much put me up against the rock wall face… Crazy… There was nothing there so I moved on to the other side of the river on the flat where I though that it might be. The monument is man-made so it should be easily accessible… Right?
I walked around looking for about ten minutes and still had not encountered it… I sat down for a second to try and keep my GPS still so I could get a little better accuracy. Looking over to the other side of the river at the top of the 30 meter high rock wall right above where I was standing before was the monument I was looking for.
Now I always remember… Look up… and for that matter… Look down too!
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