 |
| Gaia Screen shot |
Long a map and compass guy, I have for the last few years been varying my areas of exploration so much that trying to obtain paper maps is either inconvenient to impossible, or just too expensive. So the future has finally caught me and drug me by my stubborn neck into the era of electronic navigation.
As I expanded my areas of exploration, I started printing online topos but pretty quickly got tired of that mostly because I couldn't get enough coverage at sufficient detail on a letter sized piece of paper. I reluctantly decided to buy a GPS unit but had virtually no clue as to what to buy or how to use it. Researching online I made the decision to buy a Garmin Oregon 600 series. I then found sites that helped me learn its use and how to create routes. Luc Mehl has a very good tutorial on building routes and importing them into your GPS. In a nutshell it uses Google Earth and/or Google Maps to plot out your route which you then import into Garmin's Basecamp software, then download to your GPS unit.
I used this system for awhile but it never really grew on me. You have to first download base maps to your unit for whatever area you plan to travel. Buying them from Garmin is expensive but there are free GPS map repository sites out there such as GPS File Depot. Downloading those maps with their various formats was a significant learning curve as well. The other downside was battery usage. The Garmin unit sucked battery power down like the Joker blacking out Gotham City. That required me to always carry a way to recharge my external battery in order to continually recharge the Garmin, in my case a solar panel. It all got very cumbersome and time consuming.
Then I discovered Gaia GPS, a phone app for both Iphone and Android, $20 US. (Gaia is now subscription based for $10 $20 annually) Most of the time my explorations take me far out of cell phone range. Gaia provides a way to precisely navigate without the need for cell coverage...provided you download maps for offline use (free) prior to going out of service areas. This was like manna from heaven for me. A good 'ol topo interface and you can download satellite imagery to boot! (Luc's page tells you how to get Google Earth vs the default sat imagery). There are many Gaia tutorials out there but here's a good you tube to get you started. Do you have to download maps? yes, but the interface in Gaia makes it easy, and you download directly to Gaia vs. yet another software interface. I often go both road-less and trail-less. The ability to easily toggle back and forth between topo and satellite is a huge bonus. Once I identify an area of interest, I plan a track on Google earth, (be sure to save as file type .kml or .kmz) then import the .kml file to Gaia. You can directly email yourself the .kml file then save to Gaia from your email message! Another option is to upload to your Gaia GPS website account and then sync with your phone. Download Gaia map/satellite section to cover your route and voila, electronic bliss! If your route source is a .GPX file you can easily convert to phone friendly .kml using Gpx2kml.
*Update: Very detailed Gaia video tutorial
One additional note for route plotting: Be sure to load the topo overlay Earthpoint, into Google Earth, so you can toggle between satellite and topo map views. Click the 'topo map' tab on the bottom left of the page, then click 'view on google earth' button.
For street navigation all over the world there is Maps.me. I have not had the opportunity yet to use this one but it looks good from the outside.
I am not going to say don't stay with, or use paper maps. I still love 'em. But I just can't buy maps for every area I plan to visit. That said if you drop your electronic device in the water or otherwise lose it, well its good to have a backup plan. See 2021 update for backup plan!
*Update 04/2017: Its been over a year now and I wanted to update my thoughts. Gaia continues to be my go-to method for navigation. I sold the GPS on Ebay. I no longer carry the solar panel unless I'm out longer than a week, and even then have rarely needed it. It does come into play when Joannie goes with me because we are both then drawing on the battery for our needs. (See 2019 update below.) If the battery does go completely flat it takes around 8 hours to recharge via the panel in full sun. The external battery *almost* always goes with me/us. I briefly considered getting a generator (dynamo) hub and relacing the front wheel on my bikepacking rig since many of our adventures are via bike. But as I looked into it, it doesn't seem useful for us. The hubs in general don't begin to charge until 14 kmh or about 8.6 mph and faster, and there is the disadvantage of not generating power if we are not riding.
*Update 05/2018 Recently starting plotting routes on Ride With GPS. It's easier than drawing a route on Google Earth - as long as your route follows Google or Open Street (in cycling overlay) mapped roads and/or trails. It has a utility for freehand routing but if you do a lot of it, its just as easy to do on G.E. You can export files in .kml format to use in Gaia or G.E. So to summarize, I find a general area of interest, followed by mapping/routing in Ride With GPS and or G.E. I always at least review the route in G.E. satellite view for marking springs or potential camps or whatever (for example potential river put-ins.) Save as a .kml, then import to Gaia and download maps for use in the field.
*Update 08/2018 On my recent bike trip in Oregon I used a new (to me) Iphone app called MapOut in parallel with Gaia. It uses OpenStreet mapping and worked very well. In fact I used it more than Gaia. It seemed to be able to find my location quicker and the maps are less cluttered, which by default means less detail. I won't go without Gaia, but for use while actually riding this was easier to see. I believe it currently only supports IOS devices.
*Update 2019: About the solar panel: I find my self taking it on pretty much every trip again. I'm now using it to keep charged a GoPro, a Garmin Inreach Mini, my phone and the external battery. I'm also carrying a lightweight USB charger for my camera battery so on a rare occasion I use it charge my camera battery as well. Pro tip: Use a 2 panel solar charger (~14 watt) vs 3 panel (~20 watt).
That way you can hang the panel over your front roll and charge on the
fly. The 3 panel is just too big. See "power" on this page.
Garmin Inreach Mini
Google Pixel 3A XL.
Foldable Solar Panel from Amazon - Pro tip: Use a 2 panel solar charger (~14 watt) vs 3 panel (~20 watt). That way you can hang the panel over your front roll or rear panniers and charge on the fly. The 3 panel is just too big and the 2 panel seems to charge just as fast.
External Battery
More info on the subject of Electronic navigation:
Stockalpine
Andrew Skurka
Luc Mehl
Another good Gaia tutorial
Outdoor Gear Lab (written by Luc Mehl)
Gaia you tube tutorial
No comments:
Post a Comment