[pct-l] Droid X GPS w/Halfmile's waypoints

[Lisa Freathy]

I am seriously challenged with electronics, but after weeks of avoiding the task 
I finally downloaded Halfmile's waypoints (THANK YOU HALFMILE!) to my Droid X on 
the app Backcountry Navigator. I wish I had easy, step by step instructions for 
this process as it would have made the task so much less intimidating for me 
(even though it ended up being pretty easy), so I thought I would share the 
steps in case there are any others out there who shy away from these types of 
things like I do. I will try to use the simplest of instructions as that is how 
I would need them, please no offense if I am dumbing it down too much!


~1st I downloaded BackCountry Navigator Pro onto my phone. I had to pay for the 
Pro version. (I think they are currently offering a free trial)

~I then downloaded Halfmiles waypoints which you can find here onto my computer. 
I saved them under a file I created for this purpose. You can download 
individual sections of the trail from this page, or scroll to the bottom of each 
state to download "california state way points" "oregon state waypoints" & 
"washington state waypoints" which will give you each entire state in only one 
download for each. Once these were saved to my computer they showed up as a 
"compressed (zipped) folder" on my computer.

~I then plugged in my phone. I opened "my computer", found the removable drive 
that my phone was connected to and double clicked on the phone which brought me 
to a list of folders on my phone, I opened the file titled "bcnav" and I then 
copied the zipped halfmile waypoints from my computer to the bcnav file on my 
phone.

~Next unplug your phone (you need to do this to access the memory card on your 
phone). 


~You need to unzip the waypoint files. I think you can do this before you copy 
to your phone, but the way I did it was to open the file on my phone containing 
the zipped waypoints. I clicked on the way points and when asked if I wanted to 
"extract the contents of the file into the current folder' I said yes.

~I then opened BCN app. I pushed the menu button on my phone which gave 
me several menu options. I opened the tile titled "Trip Data" and selected 
"Import..." From there a list of my saved phone files appeared, I selected 
"bcnav/" and selected the CA waypoints (double click). This brings up a new 
screen where you can import into a new trip which you can name (mine is PCT thru 
hike) and I clicked start import. You should see some gray & black lines 
scrolling mid-screen to indicate the import is working. (The download took a 
long time... my screen would go black and I am not sure if it was still 
downloading when this would happen. I ended up turning off the screen saver on 
my phone settings to ensure the download was working)

~After the download is complete you should be able to open BCN, select "find a 
place" and type in a city near/on the PCT, this will bring the map to the PCT 
and you should be able to see all of the waypoints. (this is where at first I 
thought I had no maps and had screwed something up, but I was just zoomed out 
too far. You can can see the red scale bar at the top, zoom in/out using the + - 
buttons on the screen) You should be able to see the waypoints at a closer zoom 
and if you can then SUCCESS!

The next step that I have not done yet is to now download "tiles" of the map 
onto my phone to be accessible even when I can't get a cell reception. There 
does not seem to be a quick way to do this. You need to highlight shaded boxes 
of areas to download and do them section by section. Here is a youtube video 
which shows this process.

I am not sure how much space/memory is needed to download for offline use. I am 
hoping I can get the entire trail on my phone pre-trip, but I have a feeling I 
will have to download as I go deleting the portions already passed.

Happy Hiking!
Lisa 


"Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb 
a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."
~ John Muir