RE: Marking an Endurance Ride with a GPS

["Bob Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

Sorry to say I am adamantly against the use of GPS in
marking a trail and requiring the use of a GPS unit in order
to complete the ride. While our By-laws state in Article V
Definitions Section 1. Endurance Riding is defined as an
athletic event in which the same equine and rider cover a
specified course of not less than 50 miles.... and our Rules
state in Rule 6d. Following the prescribed course...I do not
believe that the use of GPS was the intent.

Now you can all say that it is a good way to do rides , but
remember that it would be a requirement that the rider
possess a GPS unit and know how to use it efficiently. A
requirement not covered in our rules. Where would most
riders be if I put on a ride and stated all the trail would
be presented to you in terms of distances and compass
bearings? This would meet the By-laws and Rules requirements
in the same way the GPS does.

No, we have a well proven (many thousands of miles of
competition) way of conducting our rides and of defining the
trail. I do not think that GPS is the way to go at the
current time.

Besides this, there is the question of accuracy. I have used
a Garmin with an external antenna mounted on my helmet. This
provides the best reception and accuracy. I have overlaid my
route on Orthophotos and found great discrepancies. As much
as three to four hundred feet off the actual route I was
following. Now if you are going on unmarked terrain like on
the open plains this error can accumulate. If you are on
trail you do not need the GPS. You need good written
directions or markings. Then again, the use of GPS in heavy
over story is limited by lack of signal. What do you do then
if you cannot receive the satellites?

Perhaps I am being old fashioned but I have GPS'd many
hundreds of miles of trail with survey grade instruments and
am very aware of the problems. Had to sit waiting one day
for over an hour to get readable satellites. Would you want
to do that during a ride?


Bob Morris

-----Original Message-----
From: guest@endurance.net [mailto:guest@endurance.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2001 4:58 PM
To: ridecamp@endurance.net
Subject: RC: Marking an Endurance Ride with a GPS


K S SWIGART   katswig@earthlink.net


While I have no complaints about the Duck having marked the
trail for this
summer's XP with a GPS and was ecstatic to actually get
riding directions
and maps that were actually useful in helping find the trail
:), I must
confess that I dislike the idea of it becoming common
practice for
endurance rides to be marked in this way (other than the
part about being
given good directions and a good map).

And here are the reasons:

While I encountered absolutely no problems when the
instructions required
that we ride 5 miles west down a section line, turn north at
Avenue J,
ride 2 miles up the section line, turn west...etc, when the
waypoints got
so that they were yards apart instead of miles apart the map
became
unreadable AND (more importantly) it became necessary to
focus your
attention on the GPS (and map and instructions?) in your
hand rather than
the horse underneath you and the trail ahead of you.

It requires that the rider almost consistently do something
that I spend
hours every day as a riding teacher telling my students NOT
to do....look
down (a serious failing of many a rider, and almost all
novices).

I found it to be almost the equivalent of driving while
talking on a cell
phone...it takes your hands and your mind from much more
important
business at hand (which is keeping your hands on the
steering wheel/reins
and your eyes and attention on the road/trail).

As I said, I fully understand why the Duck marked 2000 miles
of trail in
that way (and know that even that was a colossal effort) and
have
absolutely no complaints, but I honestly would hate for it
to become a
standard practice at all endurance rides, especially for any
ride that did
not have the rather simple overriding instruction of "head
west."

I mention this (rather out of the blue), because the
question about GPS
Units reminded me that I do think that it is worthwhile to
mention that
there are very good reasons for not marking an endurance
ride in this way
(I will admit there are some very good reasons for doing so
too, but don't
think that they are outweighed by the safety reasons for not
doing so).

Additionally, another reason for not doing so it that there
is no way for
a rider to know if or whether s/he has actually followed the
marked trail.
Getting to the vet checks and the finish line is NOT the
same thing as
following the specified trail.

There were certainly several times at the XP where I can
honestly say I
have no idea whether I had followed the trail or not.  There
were times
when I was sufficiently confused and maybe off course (and
had no idea as
to exactly WHERE I might have gone off course, that I didn't
bother to try
to figure it out, I just picked a way point that I knew was
well ahead of
where I currently was and rode straight to it.  I have no
idea what, if
anything, I may or may not have add or cut out by doing so).

This, of course, can be done by anybody who wants to
intentionally cheat
(and the same can be said for any trail marked in any other
way), but the
problem for me here was that unless you are looking at the
GPS constantly
(and there are really good reasons for not doing that) there
is no way to
know if you have actually followed the trail.

I would be interested in anybody else's views with regards
to this matter.

kat
Orange County, Calif.


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