No Backpacking at Big Basin

Berry Creek Falls, Big Basin Redwoods State Park, © Rebecca Bond

Bummer. I wanted to do the approximately 30 mile Skyline-to-the-Sea trail over Thanksgiving weekend. It runs from Castle Rock State Park in the hills above Los Gatos through Big Basin Redwoods State Park down to the ocean at Rancho Del Oso and Waddell Beach. But, according to the reservation office, due to budget cuts Big Basin has closed all trail camps from the beginning of November this year to the end of April. The lack of financial support for State Parks is getting ridiculous.

• Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail reservation info other trail camp information
• Article on Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail by Tom Stienstra at SFGATE
• Official Big Basin Redwoods State Park Website
• Official Castle Rock State Park Website
• Excellent FREE trail maps of Big Basin & Castle Rock from Virtual Parks

GPS Arcana

Okay, so yesterday I posted about a geocaching urban walk that I did, and I realized that I don’t do much gear talk on here even though I’m kind of a gear/gadget geek. You may wonder what inspired this internet outing of my inner geek? Well last weekend I had to give a GPS Basics presentation to a bunch of leaders in the local Sierra Club snowcamping group I belong to and had to brush up on the technology and fill in the gaps of my own knowledge.

In order to enlighten myself, I did the usual web surfing, but I also bought a really good PAPER book (GPS Made Easy, Fifth Edition 2008, by Lawrence and Alex Letham). Why did I choose this particular guide you ask? Because a.) the edition was published within the last couple of years—as opposed to five years ago which in electronics' years might as well be 50 years ago, and b.) the book used screen shots from my family of GPS’s: the Garmin GPSmap 60 series. The reasons I say this is a good book are that it boils the technical stuff down nicely, you don't have to start at chapter 1 even though it's a good idea to, it gives reasons WHY I might want to do something or use a feature, and demonstrates different navigation scenarios.

Now why did I capitalize “WHY” in “reasons WHY...” of that last sentence? Because the Garmin owner’s manual SUCKS. I repeat: it SUCKS! Are you listening Garmin??? It doesn’t show all of the features or screens and it doesn’t explain WHY I would want to use any of these features, or barely HOW, or what they are for, thus leaving a beginning GPS user crying tears of frustration and pulling out her hair. I’ve had this GPS for four years now and I’m STILL figuring the thing out.

In Garmin’s defense I will say this: Garmin is today—mostly—Mac compatible. And that is why I bought a Garmin. I originally bought a Magellan but made an about face when I realized I couldn’t use it AT ALL with my Mac (even today Magellan’s & DeLorme’s Mac solution is for Intel chip Mac users to run Windoz through Bootcamp—“bite me” is what I say to that). And lucky me, the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx units are still one of their most popular handhelds, so Garmin continues to put out firmware updates and compatible accessories. (Note: my unit is the 60Cx—basically the same as the 60CSx but lacking the real compass and altimeter.)

Alright so the point of this rant is not all pointless. I’m going to share with you, dear reader, the mostly Garmin-centric GPS mysteries I have unravelled so far:

• Why would I want to “project” a waypoint?

To project a waypoint is to create a new waypoint based off of another waypoint using bearing and distance. This may be handy if you are using a paper map & compass and want to create a waypoint for a location but you don't have a map with a UTM grid or don't know how to come up with the latitude & longitude coordinates for a location (hint: it takes a special map tool you can buy).

So for example, you would like to hike over to that peak labeled Pk1195 on your paper map, but it's not showing up in your GPS receiver but another nearby point is in your GPS & on the map (this will be your reference waypoint), so using the ruler on your compass you measure the distance and then take a map bearing from your reference point to Pk1195 on the map. Let’s say you got a distance of a .5 mile and a bearing of 270 degrees from your reference waypoint. Now you select your reference waypoint via the FIND button an hit enter... now you access a sub-menu by hitting MENU and select PROJECT WAYPOINT and at that time you enter the distance and bearing of your desired destination and voilé! You have a new waypoint.

Another example (this is from the book above) is if you are Search and Rescue and somebody tells you that they saw an injured person about a mile away due East. The SAR person can then project a waypoint to the estimated location of the injured person from her current location.

• Why does my accuracy suck when yours is rockin’?

I embarrassingly just figured this one out today. I had always suspected my accuracy was not as good as it could be despite having one of the more accurate consumer receivers and secretly suspected that mine was defective. I had read that in ideal conditions I should have an accuracy of about 9 feet with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) activated.

Well the best I ever got was about 14 to 21 feet and often 30 to 60 feet. And last week before my GPS Basics talk I had the opportunity to play with several different GPS receivers and the Garmin Vista & ETrex were kicking my 60Cx’s butt. To add insult to injury, when on my geocache yesterday even my iphone GPS was more accurate. So I did some searching and found tonight on the Garmin support forums that if the Battery Saver option is turned on, it decreases your accuracy. OH SILLY ME! I didn’t know that saving battery power was a BAD thing?! Especially since it DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING about it IN THE MANUAL. Nice. Thanks Garmin.

This is the direct quote from the Garmin support forums:

Question: I have noticed a high EPE reading on my device since changing the mode of the unit to Battery Saver, is this a normal response to such an adjustment?

Answer: The products with high sensitivity GPS receivers will show an increase in EPE (estimated position error) while in Battery Saver Mode. An adjustment of Battery Save Mode back to "Normal" or "WAAS" modes will assist in lowering the EPE.

• What is that little D in the bar graph on the Satellite page?

I also just discovered this one today because ALL ALONG I'VE HAD BATTERY SAVER TURNED ON except for tonight when I learned that it kills your WAAS accuracy and therefor I turned OFF Battery Saver Mode (EVEN THOUGH the GPS said I had WAAS turned on in the settings menu all along *ahem*). Well now I’m seeing these little D's popping up in the reception bar graph on the bottom of the Satellite Page. And pouring through the owner's manual gives absolutely no clue as to why. Well thanks to Google and gpsfaqs.org I now know. It means my WAAS is being activated to increase the accuracy. Who woulda thunk?! Not I obviously...

• What’s the difference between trip odometer vs. odometer?

Okay I admit I got this answer from the owner’s manual glossary and then fooling around with the Navigation Page settings. It’s in theory like the difference in your car’s “tripometer” and odometer, except for the GPS's default is to reset the trip odometer AND the odometer at the same time, so the difference isn't so obvious unless you UNCHECK reset odometer. This way you can keep the odometer rolling as long as you want, but keep resetting the trip odometer when you tell the GPS to Reset Trip Data which resets all of your trip statistics.

• Why aren’t my loaded topo maps showing up?

Basically there is a map displaying hierarchy and there are sub- sub-menus you need to access in order to easily switch off which maps you want to see. You can individually switch off map sections, but if you have a lot of maps loaded that option sucks.

My story is that I have Garmin’s City Navigator maps and Garmin’s Topo U.S. 2008 maps, but I can’t view my topo maps unless I switch off the City Navigator ones. I originally was doing this individually one “quad” at a time, but when you have several quads loaded this method sucks. But there is a sub- sub-menu that allows you to switch all on or off that I stumbled upon one day. Here is how to access: go to MAP PAGE, press MENU, select SETUP MAP hit ENTER, scroll right to the “i” icon, hit MENU again, scroll down and select “Hide City Navigator”, hit ENTER. Now all of your loaded topo maps will show up.

• The hidden tide graph!

Here is a little sub- sub-menu gem. Don’t bother looking for it in the owner’s manual either. It's not there. On you Maps Page scroll to a coastline, for instance the San Francisco Bay area. There are several round icons that look like sideways blue ying yang simbols. Highlight one of those and hit ENTER. Those are little Tide Prediction Stations, and a little tide table will pop up for that location and date. You can also change the date. If you hit MENU you will get more viewing options. Play with it. It’s fun! You can also access the tide stations closest to you on the Find Page and then scrolling down to Marine Points, hitting ENTER and then Tide Stations. It will list the Tide Stations closest to you!

• The hidden elevation profile!

I thought that only the 60CSx with it's altimeter showed elevation profiles but you can view them on the 60Cx too!!! And don't expect the owner's manual to tell you about this because, just like the tide graphs, it’s not there (well it is sort of mentioned in passing, but not exactly made explicit). You have to have a route created on your GPS first to view. So make a route and on the Route Page and highlight it, hit ENTER, now hit MENU, on the list scroll down and select “Profile”, hit ENTER and then select which elevation data the GPS should use, and POOF! an (estimated) elevation profile for your route appears. Hit MENU again and you can control the exaggeration and length

Okay that was a long blog posting, but hopefully somebody somewhere will find it useful. As I make new discoveries, I will post them.

A Letter To Our Representatives RE: State Park Closures

I just sent a letter concerning the closure of California State Parks via the California State Parks Foundation website, text follows below. If you are as disappointed as I am, feel free to write your representatives too. The link is at the bottom.:

Dear Legislators and the Governor,

I am seriously dismayed at the threat to basically shut down 80% of California's State Parks and pretty much all of the state parks in my region. I think it would be a mistake to shut down OUR parks for the following reasons:

1.) The State Parks represent a fraction of the state budget yet they attract millions of tourists and millions of tourist dollars from all over the country and the world. 

2.) Many small communities are heavily dependent on the tourist dollars that their local State Parks attract especially in places where they've transitioned from resource destruction to environmental conservation (i.e. from logging to eco-tourism). Park closures would destroy many of these communities.

3.) This one's for the governor: I hated exercise until I discovered hiking. Hiking is one of my main sources of exercise. Most of my favorite places to hike are in my State Parks. What if somebody threatened to shut down all of your gyms when you were becoming a body builder? 

4.) California State Parks are home to THE TALLEST trees in the world, hundreds of miles of protected coastline (a precious commodity considering our ever increasing development), endangered animals such as the California condor, and many also protect important watersheds that provide clean water for our communities. If there are no employees stationed to protect our parks, they will fall prey to unauthorized trespassing and potential abuse & vandalism (and what about those destructive illegal pot farms springing up on public lands guarded by outlaws with machine guns waiting to shoot a stray hiker?!?).

I voted yes on most of the latest propositions (except for 1C—we need to stop borrowing money we can't pay back). However, even though I was in the minority, I know how the majority feels, and to say that California voted down the latest propositions because "they don't want to pay for it" (it being services) is disingenuous. We are just tired of paying for waste. If we felt our money was being used as efficiently and usefully as possible we would have no problem paying more.

And because I don't want to see my parks shut down but realize the money needs to come from somewhere, this is what I propose: There were 33.2 million registered vehicles in California in 2006. So if there was a $20 state park fee added to the registration of each of those vehicles that guaranteed California state residents free entry (but not covering other fees, just entrance fees), that would mean $662,000,000 in funds to keep our parks running and maybe even allow them to catch up on some badly needed maintenance! And since registration fee payers are getting something in return (free entrance), it makes it much easier to swallow.

Like many I've been hit hard financially by the current recession, but would gladly find a way to pay that extra $20 if it went to my state parks and guaranteed me free entry into those beautiful places.

Sincerely,

Rebecca Bond

Write your own letter here.

Rant Alert: Drill Baby Drill

At under $2 per gallon do we really need to rape our coastline? Well guess what folks: Ol' Georgie Porgie Bush wants to sneak in some last minute sales of OUR coastline to oil and gas exploration.

I think we all learned from the recent precipitous drop from over $4 to under $2 per gallon in gas prices that "supply and demand" wasn't completely controlling the price of gasoline (was it the fat-cat CEOs at Chevron, Shell, BP, Etc.?). But the Bush administration, after years of ignoring California politically, still plans on profiting off of us by selling off our coastline, and is still ignoring the majority of us Californians who oppose drilling off of our shores.

I realize that the petroleum availability problem is greater than our gas tanks. I realize that plastics are a petroleum product. And having an uncle with a small "mom & pop" fiberglass shop (NJ Fiberglas, inherited from my grandfather, est. 1969), the price and availability of petroleum affects his materials costs in a big way. I understand the issue is more complex than just what we drivers pay at the pump. But if less oil is burned as fuel in our gas tanks and we reduce our consumption of plastics (all you people drinking bottled water and then tossing the bottle: I'm talking to you!), and all the other things we could do to curb our plastics/petroleum consumption, would we really need these new supplies?

And what if there isn't much oil there off our shores, would the drilling amount to a small drop in the bucket? If we were successful in curbing our consumption, wouldn't it all just go to China and India? Would it really help the small businesses here in California? Like the Enron scandal, California would end up pants down bent over a barrel with our coastlines full of tar and sick animals and sick people. We already have a sewage problem on our coastlines—thanks to real estate developers and the legislators/councils/commissions that don't require the developers to build new sewage treatment for all the population growth they encourage, ARGH!

Oh, and guess what my hommies in South O.C. and San Diego, the coast off of the San Francisco Bay Area is safe, but the coastline along your beaches is up for grabs...so you like surfing in tar? Want to add that to the nasty rash you already have from polluted water? Look at the map below:

Illustration from The San Francisco Chronicle (click to read the article):

Bear Attack: Lessons to be Learned

I just got done reading an article on backpacker.com's blog: Getting Beyond the Bear. It was a pretty scary and graphic story about a father and daughter surviving a bear attack in Glacier National Park. I'm glad the two victims survived and lived to tell the tale. However, my frustration with outdoor survival (or tragedy) stories is that they tend to avoid any criticism of the victim's actions. I understand that the victims have been traumatized enough, but I think these stories could have a more useful purpose besides scaring the reader if more objective analysis of the mistakes made would follow. So here are two mistakes that I noticed that were not addressed by the story involving bear pepper spray:

1. Bear spray was carried but not handy—Those “handy” mesh side pockets on backpacks are not so handy when it comes to accessibility. Whenever I store stuff in them I inevitably have to take my backpack off to reach it. Charging Momma Bear is not going to wait for you. Carry your bear spray like a cop carries a gun—near the front, easy to grab, unobstructed.
   
2. Hiking partner did not know how to release the bear spray safety tab—Know how to use the bear spray—that includes your hiking partners. The daughter saw the bear pepper spray laying on the ground (it fell out of the mesh pocket during the attack) and grabbed it, but panicked because she DID NOT KNOW how to release the safety tab. PRACTICE! Releasing the tab should be second nature because NOBODY can think clearly in a panic situation. Everybody reverts to instinct. Knowledge becomes instinct when practiced thoroughly.

(View my photos of Glacier National Park on flickr.)

Okay So I Gave In

Instead of hosting this blog on my paid webhosting service's servers, I decided to have this hosted on Google's servers. This gives me the option to add all sorts of doodads and thingamajigs without having to work or think too hard (if at all). However I commit to this with trepidation due to a loss of control and the fact that I can't backup all my work so easily now... I guess only the future will tell whether or not this was a good idea.

You call 911, get an AED and come back!

So I want to lead backpacking trips. And one day I hope to get PAID to lead backpacking trips. One of the requirements for doing such is advanced CPR. After last night I'm not only officially certified in Wilderness First Aid but also "BLS for Healthcare Providers" (i.e. Basic Life Support). However the need for CPR in the wilderness is dubious at best because where most people go backpacking it is miles and hours away from relief and an AED machine. Also due the the miles and hours, I don't think I will be saying as we were instructed: "You call 911, get an AED and come back." "Sorry lady no cell reception" and 5 hours later, that person that needed the AED machine is probably toast. Also of note (as I was instructed in Wilderness First Aid) is that one of the few scenarios that CPR in the wilderness would be beneficial is if someone is unresponsive after being struck by lightning.
So please DON'T get struck by lightning because I hope to never have to use my training...