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Essential Skills: Map a Trail with Your GPS
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READERS COMMENTS
Thanks for introducing folks to mapping a trail with a simple Garmin GPS!
However, the first thing to do is to make sure your GPS has actually received signals (batteries, etc?) from several satellites by checking the Satellite Page diagram. Then Page to Mark and mark your start at your car! Then go to the Waymarks Page and make sure it is there as waypoint 001.
(You should download each and every adventure to your computer when you get home, and clear the Tracks and Waypoints on your GPS receiver.)
These are serious errors in your brief video!
Then, before you start, you must actually clear and turn on your Track function. (You should have Track turned off unless using it. You can download your tracks to your home computer as well as your waypoints.)
Next, check to see if you are actually recording your track. Are you seeing the plot along the track you have just walked for a short distance?
Note that you must remember to turn off and save your track when you return to your car or your track will be ruined with along line recording the trip back home. If you fail to save the track and just turn the GPS off, you will have a straight line back to your home from the trail head - that you may not be able to erase!
Minimizing instruction details like these may lead to disaster (can't find the recorded waypoints or the car) or frustration (with waypoints and tracks not matching the computer maps you are trying to annotate).
Here is a good free instructional web page on how to use your map, compass and GPS together:
http://traditionalmountaineering.org/Seminar_Navigation.pdf
You can also use a program such as Robogeo to geotag your digital photos. It requires you to sync your GPS and camera times. Saves you time from marking waypoints and noting pictures. It will also watermark your photos with the coordinates.
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