River Navigation With A Legend

[+gnbrotz]

I'm preparing for a spring canoeing trip and would like to put my gps to work as much as possible.

 

There are several camping options along the way (3-day trip), but the actual stopping points aren't determined until we're on the way. I have waypoints for all of the camping spots, as well as other various points of interest, and even an accurate track of the river's course from last year's trip.

 

What I'd like to do is be able to know "How far is it to 'campsite B' as opposed to 'campsite C' ", but I'd like this info in actual river miles rather than straight-line. The section I will be on is literally like a series of the letter "S" turned on it's back and connected in a string, so straigt-line navigation isn't very helpful.

 

Other than creating routes for every possible combination of trip segments, is there an efficient way to do this?

Edited February 26, 2005 by gnbrotz

[+Olar]

I'm preparing for a spring canoeing trip and would like to put my gps to work as much as possible.

 

There are several camping options along the way (3-day trip), but the actual stopping points aren't determined until we're on the way. I have waypoints for all of the camping spots, as well as other various points of interest, and even an accurate track of the river's course from last year's trip.

 

What I'd like to do is be able to know "How far is it to 'campsite B' as opposed to 'campsite C' ", but I'd like this info in actual river miles rather than straight-line. The section I will be on is literally like a series of the letter "S" turned on it's back and connected in a string, so straigt-line navigation isn't very helpful.

 

Other than creating routes for every possible combination of trip segments, is there an efficient way to do this?

I'm not familiar with the Legend or it's features but I tried what you want on my 76C. With the previous trip's track displayed you can at any point during your trip do a TrackBac to any waypoint on the track you choose. The unit prompts you to choose between follow roads or track. Choosing track creates a route to navigate following the original track. The travelling "distance to the destination" waypoint can be displayed in a data field on the map or compass page.

 

Cheers, Olar

[Neo_Geo]

Olar's response assumes that you've been down the river before and have the tracks saved from that trip. Having read your original post, I'm assuming that you do not have any such tracks, and thus I will say the answer to you question is "no". There may be some obscure program out there that has routing data for rivers, which is what you'd need to do what it is that you're asking. I'm not aware of any such programs, and if they do exist, I'm sure they won't be cheap!

 

I would create the routes myself.

[+gnbrotz]

I have waypoints for all of the camping spots, as well as other various points of interest, and even an accurate track of the river's course from last year's trip.

I do have an accurate track of the river's course, so I'll look into the method that Olar suggested. Previous to last year's trip, I had traced the river in ExpertGPS to create a track, but that generated many more track-points per mile than my unit would accept and it took considerable time/processing power to use the "Simplify Route" option in ExpertGPS to pare it down to a manageable size. Now that I have recored tracks, it's just a matter of deciding how to break it up for different options.

 

I'll do some expertimenting with Olar's method and see how that works, though of course, the actual trip will be the true test.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Olar.

[peter]

My eMap doesn't have the capability mentioned by Olar for the 76c of being able to do the TracBack to any point along the way. Once I record the Saved tracklog (I use USAPhotoMaps to trace the river's course if I haven't been there before), the eMap will only TracBack to the end of the track. So I use a somewhat more round-about approach. I can use TracBack directly to find the river distance to the end of the trip and I then put the eMap into Simulation mode and choose a "New Location" that corresponds to the camp of other intermediate destination. TracBack can then be used to find the distance from that point to the end of the trip. The difference between the two distances then gives me the distance from my current position to the camp. E.g. if it's 17.6 miles from here to the end and 9.5 miles from the camp to the end, then it much be 8.1 miles from here to the camp.

[+Olar]

In the case of a GPSR that will only TracBack to the end of the track you might consider splitting the original track up in to multiple segments with each being a track in itself. An example would be Greg's planned trip. Track 1 could be from trip start waypoint to campsite #1. The next from campsite 1 to campsite #2 and so-on to the trip end. I would then download to my unit the original full-length track as well as the newly created segment tracks. Now you have the flexibility of creating the TracBack for the full trip or just the planned section for the current day's paddle.

The other very important requirement is a strong canoe partner to do all the paddling while we GPS fans do all the navigating.

 

Olar

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Maybe you could create "mile marker" waypoints, using Expert GPS or another mapping program. At least that way you could just calcualte it in your head. It's probably not the automatic GPS solution you were looking for though.

 

Rich Owings

www.MakeYourOwnMaps.com

 

"We were desert mystics, my friends and I, pouring over our maps as

others do their holy books." - Edward Abbey

[+raouljan]

I feel your pain!

 

I use my GPSr on river trips all the time.

One thing I have found is that in sinuations, river miles tend to be about 2X "crow flys" miles.

 

One thing I would really, really like if for MapSource to create a track following a contour line or some natural surface feature, like, say, a river.

 

I have done the San Juan and the Green rivers with the 'ol GPSr in hand. One of the things I do is put river mile markers on the map by reconciling the MapSource map to the "Mile by Mile" maps that are avilable in the handy little river books.

[+W7WT]

Back in the 70s, I took a kayak trip down the Noatak River in Alaska. This was way before we had GPSs. Knowing waypoints along the river would be a great help. One of our biggest problems was as we got down into the delta part of the river was picking the right channel. Being so low on the water either in a Kayak or canoe makes it difficult to read the river. The other problem we had was we were sure to tie off the kayaks so if the river came up during the night we wouldn't lose them. Artic foxes loved to chew on the lines. I suppose it was somewhat salty from our hands. We would chase them away and they would soon return. Sounds like it would be a wonderful, once in a life time experience. Good Luck Dick, W7WT

[+Alan2]

Have you tried a google search. You didn' mention which waterway but here's one I found. http://www.travelbygps.com/premium/Chattah...attahoochee.php

 

Ther maybe others who have canoed your river and tracked it and ahve made the route available.