One GPS to Rule Them All

A natural question for GPS users is, "Why can't I use one receiver for both trail and street navigation?" The short answer- you can. The long answer- you shouldn't, mostly.

There are more and more trail receivers that can be used for road navigation by buying optional street mapping. And many street GPS units can be used with optional topographic mapping. (By trail, I mean all backcountry uses, including hiking, backpacking, mountain biking, hunting, fishing, paddling, etc. By street, I'm referring to navigation in cities and on highways and roads.)

The problem is that the the two uses are completely different. On the road, a touchscreen GPS works best, preferably one that accepts voice commands. You need loud spoken directions including street names. You also need a large, bright screen. On the other hand, battery life is not important, because the unit will be powered from the vehicle except for short periods.

On the trail, you need a unit that can be operated easily with gloves. Rubberized buttons work much better than touchscreens in the field. With a little practice, you can operate the buttons by feel and location without looking at them. Though touchscreens do work with gloves, accuracy suffers and even without gloves you have to constantly look at the screen to operate it.

You also need long battery life and batteries that can be replaced in the field. Trail GPS units have replaceable batteries that last 12 to 25 hours, as opposed to 30 minutes to 4 hours for street receivers. And nearly all street receivers have internal, rechargeable batteries that can't be swapped out for a fresh set.

Few trail units have speakers, so they don't give spoken directions. (A few units have headphone jacks and can be connected to the AUX input on your car audio system or to a mount with a speaker.) Trail units have much smaller screens than street units. Trail receivers usually have screens measuring about 2.7 inches diagonally, while street receivers have 3.5 to 7-inch screens.

Many street GPS units come with lifetime map updates and free, ad-supported, lifetime traffic. Traffic information alone is a good reason to buy a street GPS because no trail units give traffic information. Street maps are usually an extra-cost option on trail GPS receivers and you will have to buy updated maps to keep your unit current.

That said, the best two choices for combined trail and street use are currently the DeLorme PN-60 series and the Garmin Montana series.

If you primary use is trail, check out the DeLorme PN-60 series. The PN-60 has a small screen but is light and compact, weighing 7.6 ounces with NiMH batteries. The unit comes with DeLorme Topo North America, which covers the US and Canada with vector topographic and street mapping at 1:24000 scale. Both trails and roads are routable, which means the unit will not only give you directions to the trailhead but also turn-by-turn trail directions to your favorite fishing lake. There is no headphone jack so you will have to look at the small screen while driving, although it does beep to warn you of upcoming turns. With this unit it is safest if a passenger does the navigating.

The Garmin Montana series is one of the heaviest and bulkiest receivers on the market at 10.2 ounces but it has a 4 inch touchscreen that automatically orients to to horizontal and vertical positions. A headphone jack allows to you connect it to your car stereo or an optional vehicle mount with speaker. For street use, you'll have to buy street maps for the area of interest, and then pay to update them. Traffic service is not available.

Here's the clincher- for the price of the Montana 600 you can buy an advanced street receiver such as the Garmin nuvi 2595LMT with lifetime maps and traffic, as well as a mapping trail receiver such as the Garmin Etrex 20 which accepts Garmin topo maps as well as custom maps and weighs just 5 ounces. And if you want, you can load topo maps on the nuvi and street maps on the Etrex.

Why Hike in the Grand Canyon?

The average visitor to Grand Canyon National Park spends two hours. In contrast, Professor Harvey Butchart spent 1,500 days hiking about 12,000 miles in the Canyon during his 40-year Arizona hiking career. Why? This piece says it pretty well- http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/lure+grand+Canyon/6281454/story.html

More on the Kindle Touch Battery Life

Now that I've had time to put some more miles on my Kindle Touch 3G as a backcountry reading device, I've noticed that the battery sometimes gets depleted pretty quickly, even when I'm not using it. There are a couple of possible reasons for that.

One is leaving the Kindle on and closing the cover. That's a real no-no if you then stuff it in a bag, as I learned with the Kindle Keyboard. Until the device goes into sleep mode, any pressure on the cover could press keys and cause it to stay on and possibly do page turns. I know that happened with the Kindle Keyboard because I'd turn it on and find it was on a different page than where I left it.

Accidental key presses can happen with the Touch also, because of the Home button on the front. Every it gets pressed, the Home screen is refreshed, even if you're already on the Home screen. Of course, the solution is to manually turn the Kindle off with the power button when you're done reading. It's become a habit and now I turn the Kindle's off even when I'm just going to set it down.

The other cause of battery drain appears to be the 3G connectivity. I've noticed that when wireless is on and I'm in an area with little or no 3G service (and no Wi-Fi), the battery often loses half it's charge in about eight hours without ever being turned on. The answer is to make sure wireless is off if you'll be out of 3G and Wi-Fi range for long periods of time and don't have an easy way to charge the Kindle.  On a long wilderness trip, you'll do this to extend the battery life to weeks, but you may not think to turn off wireless for the drive to the trailhead.

By the way, I haven't noticed such quick battery drain on the Kindle Fire. This is probably because there are no buttons on the bezel to be pressed by the cover, and also that the current Fire only has Wi-Fi, not 3G.

"Everyone is Entitled to Enter National Forests Without Paying a Cent."

So says one of the three judges who just shot down the illegal US Forest Service fee program on the Santa Catalina Mountains on the Coronado National Forest near Tucson, Arizona. The case is the result of four Tucson residents filing suit against the Coronado National Forest for requiring an entrance fee on the Catalina Highway, which imposes a fee for backcountry access that is clearly illegal under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA).

The three judges soundly rejected the Forest Service argument that since the amenities required by FLREA are present within the Mount Lemmon area, everyone entering the area has to pay for them, even though they don't plan to use the amenities and intend only to park, travel through the forest, visit scenic overlooks, camp in undeveloped areas, or hike into the backcountry. The judge further wrote, "The statute is abundantly clear that a standard amenity recreation fee cannot, under any circumstances, be charged for those activities."


Have a look at the Appeals Court decision- it contains such gems as "The Forest Service fails to distinguish—as the statute does—between someone who glides into a paved parking space and sits at a picnic table enjoying a feast of caviar and champagne, and someone who parks on the side of the highway, sits on a pile of gravel, and eats an old baloney sandwich while the cars whizz by."


http://www.westernslopenofee.org/pdfuploads/2012_02_09_Mt_Lemmon_Decision_Reversed_and_Remanded.pdf

For more information on the fight to restore free access to the public lands which YOU own, see http://www.westernslopenofee.org

Forest Service Recommends Eliminating Many Fees

The US Forest Service has sent memos to its regional offices recommending that fee areas be greatly reduced or eliminated in order to comply with the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA): http://www.kvsun.com/articles/2012/01/24/news/doc4f1f237de8cae097339429.txt. It's up to the individual National Forests whether they comply with the recommendations.

FLREA is the law that replaced the original Fee Demo program. For background information, see http://westernslopenofee.org/.

Kindle Battery Life with Wireless On

Just a quick update to say that I finished testing the Kindle Touch 3G with wireless on continuously. The Touch had a strong Wi-Fi connection the entire time, and I used the reading light once for about an hour. To my surprise, the Touch lasted at total of 10.57 hours before the low battery warning came on the screen, which is almost exactly what Amazon claims.

Keep in mind that the Touch will use more power in areas of weak W-Fi or 3G coverage, partly because the data rate slows down and the wireless transceiver stays on longer to transfer books and other items. If you don't have access to a charger at least every few days, it's best to leave wireless off, turning it on for a few minutes at a time to sync and check for new items.

Kindle Battery Life

I just completed testing my Kindle Touch 3G with wireless off. The test conditions were as follows:

• Wireless off except for 5-10 minute periods to sync and check for new items
• Wireless usually Wi-Fi but occasionally 3G
• Reading periods of 5 minutes to an hour
• Some use of the reading light on the Amazon Lighted Cover for Kindle Touch

Unfortunately, I blew it toward the end of the test when the battery was down to about 40% by leaving wireless on overnight by mistake. In the morning the charge was down to about 10%. By that time I had logged 23.25 hours of reading. That matches up well with Amazon's claim of 30 hours battery life with wireless off based on 30 minutes per day for two months.

I'm partway through a test with wireless left on continuously with a strong Wi-Fi connection. So far I have 5.65 hours logged with about 30% left on the battery indicator. It looks like I'll fall a little short of Amazon's claim of 10.5 hours with wireless on, based on 30 minutes per day for three weeks.

The difficulty of testing battery life with wireless on is that battery drain varies with the strength of the wireless signal. Data transfer slows down with weaker connections so that transferring a book or blog takes more time and uses up more battery.

My conclusions so far are that the battery on the Kindle Touch 3G will last through most wilderness trips as long as wireless is off. Using the light on the Amazon Lighted Cover for Kindle Touch seems to add little to the battery drain, which makes sense because the cover uses a single LED.

Since most backpack trips are a week or less, wilderness hikers should be able to read as much as they like, unless they read for hours on layover or storm days. River runners on extended trips (such as the full three week trip through the Grand Canyon) are going to need a way to recharge the Kindle, which usually means a solar charger. I'm going to look at some solar chargers over on my new blog, Travels With Kindle. I'll also look at travel accessories such as covers and sleeves.