Re: RC: GPS rides

[DreamWeaver <nvrider@home.com>]

At 06:04 PM 11/15/01 -0800, you wrote:
>  I guess the best answers I would like to hear are from the people who 
> did 40 days with them.   Kat votes no, the Mitchells vote yes. And of 
> course the riders can vote with their pocketbooks at rides. That should 
> be the final say, not an AERC rule.

Jim.......Does 38 count?  Kat did 4.  Okay, I'll bite.  I would like to see 
more rides gps'd, so we can get more accurate maps and the routes 
downloaded if we want.  In either case, I find riding any endurance ride 
with a GPS makes me feel more secure --- I know that if I get lost I can 
find my way. This is important when you are remote and doing point to point 
or all your checks are 'out' like most of the rides I've been doing.  I 
always carry extra batteries (or, I can take them out of my camera if the 
GPS becomes more important).  I would be more likely to consider attending 
a ride if I knew I could get the routes downloaded -- to me it's an 
electronic map -- a whole lot more accurate than what most RM's give us now 
(if you're a RM I'm not talking about you <G>, you're maps are 
excellent!).  :^)))

Since the XP ended, I've ridden another 500 miles using different GPS 
receivers, on trails that were marked with waypoints and ones that weren't 
(all were marked with ribbons too). Once I added an external antenna, I 
picked up the whole trail.  I know this because I've downloaded my tracks 
and the waypoints I marked into my software and can see it.  Never had any 
of those problems that Bob talked about -- and that is in 2400 miles.  The 
last few rides have been in heavily forested areas with lots of mountains, 
canyons, etc.   I'll let you know more when I get more experience with it 
tho.  :>)

k

P.S.  one other benefit of a trail that has been GPS'd is that it can be 
re-marked the same year after year by different people