[pct-l] navigational aids

[Kevin Cook]

Halfmile,

I wasn't trying to say anything negative about your maps. In fact, yours are
probably the most accurate I've seen. I was making a comment about off trail
navigation, especially in the snow. Like you said, only us folks that carry
a GPS ever notice that trails are sometimes not exactly where the maps says
they are. Yes, the difference is usually small, but it's often greater than
the accuracy of the GPS. My point was that, in the snow, it's silly to try
and stay where the map says the trail is. IMHO, when the trail is buried,
even partially, in snow, it can often (usuallly?) be physically easier to
just choose your own path of least resistance.

I really appreciate you sharing that data with the community. I plan to
share my GPS tracks openly as well. I'm excited at how many people now carry
a GPS into the backcountry just because they have their phone with them, and
then upload the tracks to sites like everytrail. We, hikers, are going to
end up having access to exceptionally accurate and detailed trail maps as a
result of this community effort.

Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you didn't think I was suggesting your
maps were in accurate. It was a more general statement to make the point
about snow travel. Thanks again for your site. :)


On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:01 PM, Ron Dye <chiefcowboy at verizon.net> wrote:

> Halfmile,
>
> I used your maps exclusively in 2009 and thought they were perfect.  I only
> regretted that, at that time, you hadn't finished the entire trail.  They
> were highly informative, accurate and couldn't be made better.  We are all
> indebted to you.  Thanks again.
>
> Burning Daylight
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
> On Behalf Of Halfmile
> Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 10:54 PM
> To: Kevin Cook
> Cc: pct-l
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] navigational aids
>
> Kevin,
> You are correct that maps often have trails marked incorrectly,
> although usually (but not always) it's within a few hundred feet of
> the correct location and only people with a gps usually notice those
> kind of small errors. Sometimes maps are outdated or sometimes
> mapmakers just get it wrong and you occasionally see some pretty big
> errors.
>
> All my tracks and the maps made from them come from a GPS attached to
> the shoulder strap of my pack recording the exact location of the
> trail as I hike usually at 2 second intervals. I have re-hiked a
> number of sections of trail multiple times and I am always amazed by
> the GPS accuracy. My tracks are almost always within 50 feet when I
> hike the trail a 2nd time and usually twice that accurate or better.
> I'm not perfect and I am using a consumer grade GPS, so maybe there
> are some errors I don't know about, but I don't think very many.
>
> 2010 was the fist year I had maps available for the entire PCT (this
> has been a four year project, so far) and I have been very please with
> the reaction from hikers who have used them. Three time PCT hiker
> freebird recently called my maps "The most accurate that I've seen so
> far" in one of his wrap up journal entries here:
> http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=331822
>
> -Halfmile
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 5:34 PM, Kevin Cook <hikelite at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > If you look at the tracks from folks like Halfmile,
> > there are always spots where it appears they are off route. I suspect the
> > trail is marked wrong on the map. Since I started carrying a GPS into the
> > backcountry, I've found this happens pretty often.
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