imported post
imported post
To me there are two main aspects to using GPS/GE/GIS. Once you've made a trip to a certain location you rarely need a GPS to find the way again and the only reason for saving it as a track or route is to share it. We all have our favourite places, and of course I keep some of them private, but I think a MAJOR feature of having a GPS is to have the ability to comunicate and share routes. The routes I posted in
http://www.dualsportbc.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=7693&forum_id=56
for example is the kind of information I'd love to have if I was a rider from another area here on a visit.
But another important use for me, is in planning how to get to a new, previously undiscovered point, or a known point using a different route. I do this several ways...converting paper maps and layering them on GE, or by using various other on-line map resources to create GPX files. For example this picture shows a digitized copy of a 100 year old survey map, superimposed on GE. My mapping program "GPS Trackmaker" also will calibrate this map allowing me to create a GPS route or track to any of the interesting locations, and these include mines, ghost-towns, old trails and survey stations lost in the fog of time. In fact GPS Trackmaker will allow me to calibrate and make a map out of any image I can find. Exiting stuff...for me.
While I'm developing a route to these spots I often run across other interesting spots....unusual terrain, abandoned machinery, and even plane wrecks that show up on old maps or GE and I'll develop a GPS route to go those places too. Sometimes I can't make it, or the target is dissapointing but it's still fun to try.
Most of the planning happens over the winter months...then when I'm ready I load the route on the GPS and away I go. So for me, my requirement isn't to have a library of contour maps in my GPS...but rather a library of routes or tracks that I can follow. While following my proposed track, the real track I follow is recorded and saved. I might not want to share it, but It might help some future investigation.
The use of on-line mapping sites is important to me for a couple of reasons. I use a very old laptop for all my GPS stuff...It's slow and with win98 it can't normally use GE. But GPS Visualizer, for example, will allow it to view GE and also any one of 17 other mapping formats...some of which are very sophisticated and not normally not accessable to the average user. And, all the processing is done on-line so my computer speed doesn't matter. Another great aspect is my little computer is not running any applications except a normal browser, so it performs just as fast as my latest desktop.
It's all in the perspective. For most people a GPS is just another neat accessory on their well-equiped bike, and they're more interested in the bike, or the trip and the company. For me GPS/mapping and off-road motorcycles are a unique combination; the ability to accurately plan a ride to a place you've never been before, record the track, and show the way, coupled with a machine that can make it possible. The fact that the information can be recorded and easy communicated and transfered in a tiny universal computer file, is a bonus.
Sparkle
