what have you done with your gps

[topcat]

What interesting things have you done with your gps besides geocaching? I use mine to mark trees stands and food plots at my hunting club.

 

If you don't know where you've been.... you will never get to where your going

[Lyra]

I've marked a waypoint at the center of each green at my home club. That way, when I'm in the fairway, I get a pretty good idea as to distance!

 

The 20' or so lack of accuracy doesn't really make much difference to me, since I'm not that accurate with my approach shots. Since it's definitely against the rules, I only do it when I'm not keeping score.

 

Always wear proper caching safety equipment!

[shrekTBA]

speedometer on my 4 wheelers

tripmeter for same

marking fishing spots in my boat

trimming my boat for speed

planning trips and finding locations

hunting

finding boundries of national forest for hunting

aiming my satillite dish

starting to get into APRS

geocahing

and..

the most important, a great tool for my 6 year old son and my dad with me to have something to do.

 

It's not a sport unless there is something dead in the back of the truck when you get home.

[+Hiemdahl]

I connect mine to a Ruggedized PC, a laser rangefinder and a radio and call airstrikes.

 

Hiemdahl

[+Buck8Point]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hiemdahl:

I connect mine to a Ruggedized PC, a laser rangefinder and a radio and call airstrikes.

 

Hiemdahl

---

 

I can assure you he is quite serious.

Keep up the great work guys...

Hope yall can make it to our next campout soon to be announced. Watch the southeast Forum for details..

 

Buck8Point

 

PS. Tell us again which Model GPSr most of yall guys use again...

 

Buck8Point

-------------------------

If I can't Fix it, It's Definately Broke.

[+Mopar]

Connected to laptop for navigation

 

On my waverunner as a speedometer/odometer

 

someday maybe for APRS

 

Tae-Kwon-Leap is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.

[+The Leprechauns]

Like many of you, our Christmas gift list looks VERY different this year! Lots of geocaching-related requests, from Daddy Lep's "dozen ammo boxes" to Little Lep's "new cycling helmet and hiking boots".

 

Little Lep doesn't know this yet, but none of her outdoors-related gifts will be found under the Christmas tree. Instead, there will be a collection of small boxes containing latitude and longitude coordinates. Santa will be hiding the gifts in hollow trees, etc. around the neighborhood and nearby parks. Evil, evil, Santa.

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Next time, instead of getting married, I think I'll just find a woman I don't like and buy her a house.

[FISUR]

Sometimes I use mine to mark points in the woods while looking for human remains. (Work related, not another hobby.)

[+dwmurphy]

have a windshield mount and power cable attached and use it for navigating road trips. Also used it for laying out boundary lines while hunting.

 

I'm not Lost, my GPS says I'm right here....no here......no here.

[+Smitherington]

I bought my GPSr (Garmin Emap) just prior to a trip to Ecuador. I wanted to stand on the equator and have it read zero. It did.

I use it to mark spots I want to return to such as homes, parks, headstones.

I have used it while traveling as my map. Tells me where I am at all times.

I have created tracks while flying: Flight over Grand Canyon in a helicopter, Making short tracks during flight to and from South America, specifically flying over Cuba, Panama, flying into Toronto. While in Ecuador we flew over the place in the jungle where 5 missionaries were martyred in the 1950s and I made a track of that flight. I created small chunks of tracks flying to and from China. I used those and some waypoints created during that flight to have some home school kids create a map of my flight, first over the North Pole on the way from Detroit to Beijing (within 60 miles of the pole), and secondly flying back over Siberia and Alaska. Good way to teach latitude, longitude, and geography. On that flight I flew within 2 miles of my little house in Marquette (son attending Northern Michigan University) except that we were roughly 7 miles up. When flying, I sometimes see some city below and can find out what city by turning the GPSr on.

I have created a track of the trails in a park and have downloaded them to my map program on my laptop and printed them out.

I have used it as a speedometer while walking and driving.

For a geocache I can use the trip computer to show how far one must walk to get to and from a geocache. Not just as the crow flies but how far using the trails. That way I can accurately describe the geocache for future cachers.

Geocaching has definitely added to my use of my Garmin Emap but I would have one anyway.

[+MercRocks]

I bought mine(Mag315) to take fishing off the West coast of BC when it get's real foggy...Sure glad i did..It wasn't the best time to try out the Goto function though..I had figured out how to mark the house, dock, channel entrance etc...The fog came up one day so hit Goto house...Heh A nice line to follow back...Heh what the ??? there's land right there..managed to keep it off the rocks and learned a bit about Goto function...Another cool thing though was when we hit a fish I marked it, landed it, then started fishing again...Bang got another, marked it..So started going back and forth between the 2 waypoints and hit a fish every time we went North through the 2...Nothing caught on the South pass though...that's fishing I guess..

 

"Do a cache, haul out some trash, one piece at time, we'll get the world clean, in no time"....

[+Web-ling]

I use mine on trips to see how far I still have to go until my next stop.

 

I also use it on backpacking and mountain climbing trips.

 

[+Smitherington]

I also use my Garmin Emap with downloaded maps to see what services or rest areas are up ahead of me as I travel. The list is no longer current because I bought the map software a couple years ago but I get an idea of which exits have restaurants, fuel, food, etc. When traveling the interstates it also displays the exits that are coming up and how far away they aree.

[+gsdvr]

Originally posted by topcat:

What interesting things have you done with your gps besides geocaching? I use mine to mark trees stands and food plots at my hunting club.

 

I'm a public safety diver for our local organization. Use mine to mark coordinates for search areas.

 

Gsdvr

Huntsville

[+Planet]

Found a grea restaurant on Cape Cod, 1.92 miles SW of the cache, called Clem and Ursie's. Combo jamaican/african/raw bar/sushi bar/barbeque/you name it restaurant.

 

To map out my route for showing houses (I am a used house salesperson)

 

To draw a happy face on a map of a lake in case we wanted to shovel the snow in the ice into a happy face (also mow a lawn in that way)

 

to tell a friend where a truck he wanted to look at in another state was, and the closest highway.

 

to tell a lost man where to go.

 

and just to see how high are we? On a HILL!

 

Cache you later,

Planet

 

"To err is human, to forgive....$5.00"

[+evergreenhiker!]

I use mine during hunting season to mark good stands or any other area that looks good to me. It's also useful to mark your deer or whatever you bagged so you can find it later (if getting help to get it out).

 

I have TOPO! and like to explore areas I'll be hiking in. I'll usually plot in a few waypoints from ther software so if I get an itching to off trail to someplace, I'll be able to do that.

[+Jamie Z]

Here's another list of other uses.

 

Some more ideas here.

 

But these are the best.

 

I like the lawnmower idea.

 

Jamie

[+briansnat]

I used it for a winter snowshoing trip to a lake, over unfamiliar terrain. To mark the exact spot of a deep drop off, where the fishing is good on hot summer days. To find an alternate way to work and

I haven't yet, but I plan to take it skiing so I can clock my speed. When I'm skiing fast, I've often wondered exactly how fast.

 

I WISHED I had it a few years ago to mark good backpacking camp sites. Me and my friends found a great spot several years ago. A fairly large, flat area, on the side of a mountain, with a nice stream flowing past. I was in the same area this year with my wife and kid and we planned to camp at this fantastic spot that I told them about. Never did find it.

 

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues" - Abraham Lincoln

[Red Tractor]

Use mine to calculate area of planted ground.

[+poksal]

standard except,

I'm an E-trex fanatic, meaning to me that I like to feel I leave some of the chase/hike teck-no free. (silly but true - also a bit of a lie)

 

.. other than geocaching I only use the E-trex do get back in an emengency or lost situation.

 

Example: (GOOD reason to carry a proper pack in back country)

 

Summer before last, the wife and I were deep into the Rocky Mountain NP back country on a older, lesser traveled trail system. We decided to take an even less used cross trail towards a last minute direction change (to add a small lake to our list). The trail soon vanished. The weather changed to fog, mist, overcast, and very cold. We lost the way back to our slightly better trail. Bearings were only good for general directions. We were in an area that is far too thick to go across country as the crow flies, there were cliffs between us and camp, and we do not do that. We could not see out of the trees to get sight bearings. At this point we were not sure which direction our base camp was from our present location. We were somewhere in a huge loop of connecting trails we had picked out. We were lost and had NO excuse to be lost. I pulled out my E-trex which I had turned on, marked, and cleared as we left base camp. Well, "track back" (which can not be turned off) gave me a picture of the shape of our trek so I could compare to the topo. This gave us a visual grasp of where the vanashied trail should be on the topo. We made the connection. We do not believe in trampling all over virgin tundra, that day we had no choice, but the E-trex saved the day. We compleled the loop. While up there we took a close-up picture of an elk bull sticking his tongue out at us, a rare and wonderful picture.

 

You ask why we didn't just 'track back'. Because we were WAY too far past the point of no return of a huge loop.

 

** The worst suggestion of a life time may be the catalyst to the best idea of the century, don't fail to listen to suggestions.

[+Newenglandah]

I bring it with me hiking all the type ,esp when in a new forest so i dont get lost but i always realize 3 miles into the woods that i didn't take a reading at the car!!! ooopsssssss

[+writer]

I finally found out just how long my usual hike through the local reservation area is.

[+ron50eli]

We bought ours to use for boating to replace the Loran.

(spell check please)

And for traveling. Then Geocaching came along. That's when I learned how to use one.

rocker51

[+ron50eli]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Natureboy1376:

I bring it with me hiking all the type ,esp when in a new forest so i dont get lost but i always realize 3 miles into the woods that i didn't take a reading at the car!!! ooopsssssss

---

 

Glad I'm not the only one. Even when eli says Mark your spot. I still forget. Thanks goodness I have a good sense of direction. Or, most of the time anyway. But not on the water.

rocker51

[+cachew nut]

I also bought mine originally for lawn mowing, but now I just use it for geocaching.

[+Squirrel Nut & Beersnob]

I'll admit, we're they type that (prior to getting the GPS) often walk up and down several rows of cars, especially at this time of year...

 

I walk the Maze of Moments, but everywhere I turn to, begins a new beginning, but never finds a finish... -Enya, Anywhere Is

[+travois]

I got my etrex to stop my wife from fretting when I go hiking. Ialso use it to mark things that interest me, and on long drives I use it to mark the speed traps for the trip home( has saved me at least twice).

Travois

[+Blue Man]

I used my Garmin 12XL to kill a roach last weekend. Those things are full of goo!

[+Kewaneh & Shark]

I use mine for work, but I like the roach idea.

 

Keep on Caching!

- Kewaneh

[+Sluggo]

Flying (that's what I bought it for - it's a Garmin GPS III Pilot) and geocaching.

 

Occasionally to decribe a resturant location to someone.

 

 

Unknown objects are operating under intelligent control... It is imperative that we learn where UFO's come from and what their purpose is... - -Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter Director, Central Intelligence Agency 1947-1950

[+MaxEntropy]

I use the GPS on my boat to mark the exact spot that by had blows overboard. The marine GPSs have a MOB (Man Overboard) button that with one touch, immediately marks a waypoint and directs you to that spot.

I haven't ever had a person go overboard, but it's saved many a hat.

 

Once when I was bored, I tried to spell my name with the track on the GPS. I have very bad handwriting when used in this manner. For even more fun, try it with a boat without running aground.

[+MaxEntropy]

Ya, what he said.

[+Team Teuton]

My dog, a black lab, occasionally escaped from the yard and disapeared for a while, sometimes for as long as two days.

So I put my Legend in a calculator case, hung it from her collar and gave her the chance to poof. When she showed up a couple of hours later (and five pounds heavier), I took the GPS from the case and examined the track log. Incredibly enough, the odometer showed that the dog had traveled more than 14 miles in the short time she had been gone.

I followed the tracks back to a point that seemed to be the common denominator in her journey, and ended up at a house about three blocks away.

It turns out the old guy who lives there has been feeding the dog, taking her for rides in the front seat of his Volvo, and allowing her to sleep with him in his bed. Frankly, I think it's a wonder she ever came back home at all.

Now he calls me when she shows up, but still won't let me come get her until they've taken a spin around the neighborhood.

 

I swear, it's like living in Mayberry

 

I've been going in circles my whole life. May as well make a hobby of it.