Sunday, March 18, 2012

Handheld GPS 101: Routes vs. Tracks

Routes-vs-tracks This is the fourth in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.

I’ve covered both routes and tracks in this series, so now it’s time to do a direct comparison. Here are some key differences:

  • Routes are about where you are planning to go; tracks are about where you have been
  • Backcountry routes typically use straight-line, “as the crow flies” navigation; tracks more accurately reflect the shape of the trail, with all its twists and turns

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Handheld GPS 101: Routes

This is the second in a series of posts designed to help introduce beginners to the use of handheld GPS receivers.

GPS-101-route Routes are used for navigation. As the name implies, they are about where you are going. Routes consist of a series of waypoints, navigated to sequentially in the order you specify.

Most GPS receivers allow you to create a route from waypoints stored on the device. You can also create a route with mapping software and then transfer it to your device. My personal favorite for this task is Garmin MapSource, which allows you to click from waypoint to waypoint to create a route. It’s hard to get any simpler than that!

Backcountry GPS routes are generally laid out as the crow flies, giving you the straight line distance to the next waypoint (as seen in the screenshot at left, which shows a loop route). This is a very important point; the route in the image is 4.2 miles in length, while the actual distance on trail is 6.4 miles. Don’t be fooled into thinking your outing is shorter than it will be!

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