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[RC] GPS at the Big Horn - k s swigart

Cindy said:


OK.  I have several friends who say we should just
give up marking the BH traditionally, cause it's a
continuing nightmare and almost impossible for our
tiny group to do.  They say I should just publish
the GPS waypoints, maps on  TOPO!, and have the routes
available to download onto rider's GPS's at the ride and
be done with it.  Having ridden "the Duck's" XPs with
nothing by GPS, I think that's dandy, but I'm afraid
it will cause a total mutiny and threaten our
sanctioning even further???  What do y'all think?


I will preface what I am going to say here with a number of statements
so that you know where I am coming from.

1. Marking the trail with GPS waypoints and a map will not require
special sanctioning.  There is nothing in the AERC's regulations that
specifies HOW a trail must be marked. Just that the course must be
"specified."  GPS waypoints and a map more than meet this definition.
If they didn't, then the ride wouldn't require special sanctioning, it
would require a by-laws change (since the by-laws is where it states
that an endurance ride is defined as an event along a specified course).
Other than requiring that the finish line be marked and that removing
trail markings is grounds for disqualification, as near as I can tell,
the rules are silent with respect to trail markings.

2. I am not a technophobe. I DO own a GPS (actually, I own a couple of
them), and I do know how to use one.

3. I attended at least half of the Duck's 2001 XP ride, and I was
perfectly happy with the way that it was marked (mostly because I almost
never needed to look at the GPS to find my way--how hard can it be to
ride 16 miles straight down a section line :)).

3. The Big Horn 100 has long been on my list of rides I would like to do
(it is actually higher on my list than Tevis).

All that said, if the Big Horn 100 becomes a ride that is marked only
with GPS waypoints and a maps it would move way down on my list of rides
I would like to do.  From what I have heard about the Big Horn trail and
from my own experience in attempting to navigate a trail like that
'marked' with GPS waypoints only; it will not be the case that "I almost
never need to look at the GPS to find my way"  And herein lies the
biggest problem with using a GPS for navigating....the only way for it
to be useful is to look at it; and when you are looking at a GPS you are
not looking at what you should be looking at when you are riding a
horse....down the trail.

There were a few times on the Duck's XP ride where I got "off course"
because I was looking at the trail instead of the GPS, and this wasn't a
problem on this ride because there really wasn't much of anything to run
into, and getting off course didn't really matter all that much because,
by and large, what we were doing was "riding west."  If I (and the GPS)
became sufficiently confused that I couldn't figure out how to get back
to where I had gotten off the "marked trail" (ie the one programmed into
my GPS) and proceed from there, it didn't really matter, I just picked a
waypoint that was well down the trail from where I was and headed
straight towards it. I do recall one time this entailed dropping off a
six foot bank, fording a 20' wide river, and jumping up the bank on the
other side.  I am pretty damn sure I didn't follow the course as marked,
but I didn't feel like pissing around any longer trying to figure out
where I was supposed to cross the river, I just knew I needed to be on
the other side :).

These situations are most likely to happen any time the trail became a
little bit more tricky and complicated....just the time that I DON'T
want to be looking down at the GPS and not looking at the trail.

So, the only type of trail I would be happy to have "marked" with a GPS
waypoints and a map only, would be the kind of trail where I wouldn't
really need the much GPS anyway.  I have my doubts that the Big Horn is
this kind of trail.

I MIGHT go to the Big Horn if it were marked in this way if my intention
was to just go for a long trail ride (rather than attend an endurance
ride); and I can't say that I wouldn't go to the Big Horn for that
reason.  Although if I were going to go for that reason, I would just go
with Frank, and then I wouldn't need the GPS or the map anyway :).

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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