Amazon has finally done four things with the Kindle series that readers have long been requesting- make it waterproof, add more memory for storing more books and periodicals, include a larger screen, and restore Audible Books capability. The new Kindle Oasis is available for pre-order and will be delivered October 31.
For those of us who love to read on long backpack trips, the waterproof feature is a major improvement. Although it's rare for those with a good tent and a good backpack to get their gear thoroughly soaked, it's always a background worry if, like me, you carry an expensive camera and an e-book reader.
The only real disadvantage of the new Oasis for the avid backpacker is that it's heavier than the lightest Kindle, coming in at 6.8 ounces without a cover. The basic Kindle weighs 5.7 ounces but it has a smaller, 6-inch screen, and the lack of a built-in front light means you'd have to read it like a dead-tree book- with your headlamp. The adaptive front light on the Oasis means you can read in any condition from bright sunlight to pitch blackness, and the light automatically adjusts to the lighting conditions. The adaptive lighting on my current Kindle, the Voyage, works very well, even dimming gradually as I read in dim light, as my eyes adjust. The Oasis promises even better adaptive lighting than the current Oasis and the Voyage.
For me, the extra 1.1 ounce is well worth it, even on a ten-day backpack trip where I'm counting every gram. It's still lighter than a single paperback, and I will never run out of reading material.
The Oasis has a 7-inch, 300 DPI screen, giving it the same resolution as a printed page. (Amazon's Kindle Paperwhite also has a 300 DPI screen and was the first e-reader to match the printed page in resolution.) The new Oasis base price is $249.99 which gives you Wi-Fi connectivity with Special Offers (ads that display on the lock screen, never while you're reading.)
For another $30, you can up the memory from the standard 8 GB to 32 GB, which literally lets you have a small library in your hand. You can add free worldwide 3G connectivity through the AT&T network for $50, and finally, you can get rid of the Special Offers for $20. This brings the cost of a loaded Oasis to $349.99. And you'll probably want a case- the Amazon textured fabric cover is water-safe and runs $49.99. Last, you may want to get a screen protector, which is $12.99 for a pack of two.
Oddly, even though I always install screen protectors on my phones and tablets, I've never used screen protectors on any of my Kindles and I've never damaged the screen. Maybe that's because I always use a cover and my reading environment is generally more stable than situations where I use my phone and tablet. But I'm going to try a screen protector on the new Oasis.
There's a lot of misunderstanding on how the free 3G works on the Kindle e-readers. On the Kindles, you only pay for the 3G at initial purchase. There's no contract with AT&T and no further payments. On the other hand, the 3G is primarily used for shopping in the Kindle bookstore and synchronizing your content. You can use Wikipedia, the dictionary, and translate passages, but you can't surf the web or check your email. The huge advantage of the 3G option for those who travel a lot, like me, is that you can shop the store and buy books nearly anywhere. When you finish a book in a series, you don't have to wait for the next one- you can buy it and it will be on your Oasis in a few seconds. Or if a friend tells you about a book they recommend, you can pull our your Kindle and buy it right then, before you forget.
When Amazon brought out their line of Fire tablets, they removed audio from the Kindle e-readers, pushing customers who want to listen to Amazon's Audible Books (as well as music) toward the tablets. Though I'm not one of them, many avid readers like to listen to audiobooks as well, and if you have both the print and Audible version of on your Fire tablet, they are automatically synchronized. This means you can listen to a book on the way to work, and then pick up right where you left off when you switch to the print version, say over lunch break. With the new Oasis, Amazon has restored audiobooks capability via built-in Bluetooth, so you'll need Bluetooth headphones or speakers to use this feature. And not having speakers or a headphone jack on the Oasis itself helps keep it thin and light.
The Oasis will be here October 31 and I can hardly wait!
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Monday, December 22, 2014
Are There Any Backpackers Out There?
No, I don't mean world travellers who stuff everything into a single giant backpack and hop around the world by airliner. I mean people with boots on the ground, hiking into remote areas for two or more days.
Recently I revisited the western end of the Superstition Mountains in central Arizona. The "Sups" as local hikers call them, have special memories for me, because it was the place I started backpacking as a teenager. Before I was old enough to drive, my parents would take me and a couple of my high school friends out to one of the trail heads and drop us off, returning four days or a week later to pick us up. My mom wasn't a soccer mom, she was a trailhead mom, and believe me, that required a lot more driving.
Of course, I soon had a car and a drivers license. I was supposed to use the car to commute to and from university classes, but, funny thing, it soon became a wilderness approach vehicle. Every school holiday was an excuse to go backpacking, usually in the Sups because the Superstition Mountains were the closest wilderness area.
My friends and I pretty much had the backcountry to ourselves, except for a few remnant miners and prospectors searching for the fabled Lost Dutchman gold mine. Then came the backacking boom of the seventies. Pretty soon popular camping areas were crowded with tents and tarps, and formerly obscure trails became well-beaten paths. Although we missed the uncrowded days, it was good to see all those people getting out.
I never did care for day hiking. As Colin Fletcher said, day hiking is like sticking your toes in the sea and backpacking is like diving in. I like the camping part of backpacking as much as the hiking. Watching a sunset while scarfing down dinner, seeing the sky grow light while the comforting blue flame of my little stove heats up hot chocolate for breakfast, and then watching the sun explode onto the surrounding canyon walls just as I swing my pack onto my back- those things are lost to the day hiker.
Fast forward to the 21st century. I've become a reluctant day hiker. I've written so many hiking guides that I'm constantly revising them- and revisions often mean I need new photos of the trails, as well as GPS mapping. I can cover a lot more ground day hiking so a lot of my photo/mapping trips are day hikes.
So there I was, hiking in the western Sups again, only this time day hiking. It was truly weird to be hiking fast past campsites where me and my friends had woken up to the sound of a canyon wren. Or where a friend and I had hurriedly abandoned our plans to camp when a large, striped skunk made an appearance before camp was set up. We knew there would be no sleep at that overused site, so we took off and hike up onto a ridge by headlamp so we could camp where no one had camped before. Or not much, anyway.
There were no backpackers. None. Two miles in from a trailhead, I had the place to myself, apparently having hiking beyond the range of the other day hikers. The trails faded from overuse, eroded treads to narrow, little-used paths. Yet, returning to the trailhead in late afternoon, my car would be lost among a hundred others. Where are all these hikers? Less than two miles from the trailhead.
You people have no clue what you're missing.
Recently I revisited the western end of the Superstition Mountains in central Arizona. The "Sups" as local hikers call them, have special memories for me, because it was the place I started backpacking as a teenager. Before I was old enough to drive, my parents would take me and a couple of my high school friends out to one of the trail heads and drop us off, returning four days or a week later to pick us up. My mom wasn't a soccer mom, she was a trailhead mom, and believe me, that required a lot more driving.
Of course, I soon had a car and a drivers license. I was supposed to use the car to commute to and from university classes, but, funny thing, it soon became a wilderness approach vehicle. Every school holiday was an excuse to go backpacking, usually in the Sups because the Superstition Mountains were the closest wilderness area.
My friends and I pretty much had the backcountry to ourselves, except for a few remnant miners and prospectors searching for the fabled Lost Dutchman gold mine. Then came the backacking boom of the seventies. Pretty soon popular camping areas were crowded with tents and tarps, and formerly obscure trails became well-beaten paths. Although we missed the uncrowded days, it was good to see all those people getting out.
I never did care for day hiking. As Colin Fletcher said, day hiking is like sticking your toes in the sea and backpacking is like diving in. I like the camping part of backpacking as much as the hiking. Watching a sunset while scarfing down dinner, seeing the sky grow light while the comforting blue flame of my little stove heats up hot chocolate for breakfast, and then watching the sun explode onto the surrounding canyon walls just as I swing my pack onto my back- those things are lost to the day hiker.
Fast forward to the 21st century. I've become a reluctant day hiker. I've written so many hiking guides that I'm constantly revising them- and revisions often mean I need new photos of the trails, as well as GPS mapping. I can cover a lot more ground day hiking so a lot of my photo/mapping trips are day hikes.
So there I was, hiking in the western Sups again, only this time day hiking. It was truly weird to be hiking fast past campsites where me and my friends had woken up to the sound of a canyon wren. Or where a friend and I had hurriedly abandoned our plans to camp when a large, striped skunk made an appearance before camp was set up. We knew there would be no sleep at that overused site, so we took off and hike up onto a ridge by headlamp so we could camp where no one had camped before. Or not much, anyway.
There were no backpackers. None. Two miles in from a trailhead, I had the place to myself, apparently having hiking beyond the range of the other day hikers. The trails faded from overuse, eroded treads to narrow, little-used paths. Yet, returning to the trailhead in late afternoon, my car would be lost among a hundred others. Where are all these hikers? Less than two miles from the trailhead.
You people have no clue what you're missing.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Finally, A Usable Touchscreen Trail GPS
Up until now, I haven't liked touchscreen trail GPS, at least as implemented on the Garmin Oregon series of GPS receivers. I found the Oregon 450 to be slow, unresponsive, and awkward to use. It was impossible to use it with gloves, even thin liner gloves. The screen was hard to see in sunlight. I much preferred the buttons on my old Garmin 76Csx, and later, Garmin 62s.
I never tried the Garmin Montana series as they are just too heavy for backpacking use- and I'm more a backpacker than a day hiker. But even day hiking I like to keep my weight down. Of course, then I load up with with heavy photo gear.
Now, touchscreens have their place. They work well on street GPS receivers, e-book readers (I love the Kindle Paperwhite), tablets, and smartphones.
Enter the Garmin Oregon 600. Garmin claimed a greatly improved, multi-touch screen and a revised user interface. So I ordered one to try. And I'm very pleasantly surprised. The touchscreen is smooth and responsive, like my Android phone and tablet. You can do all the things you expect with a touchscreen, like pinch-zooming and two-fingered rotation. The user interface is logically laid out and very customizable.
As a writer of hiking guides, there are two things I do constantly on my trail GPS- marking waypoints, and recording tracks. On the Garmin 62s, two key presses, Mark and Enter, save a waypoint from any screen. On the old Oregon, saving a waypoint was slow and awkward. First you had to get to the main screen, then touch Mark Waypoint and then touch the save icon. As I said above, this didn't work with gloves.
On the Oregon 600, there are two programmable physical buttons- the power button and the user button. The power button can be set to perform two actions in addition to turning the power on and off, and the user button can perform three actions, depending on whether it is pressed, double-pressed, or long-pressed. By default, a single-press of the user button brings up the Mark Waypoint screen, no matter what screen is displayed. Then touch Save to save the waypoint. Since the Oregon 600's screen works well with liner gloves (though not with thick gloves), it's just as easy to save a waypoint on the 600 as it is on the 62s.
Track recording is where the Oregon 600 really shines. There's a Current Track page that lets you start and stop track recording, and clear and save the track. You can also view track statistics, view the track on the map, and view the track's elevation profile.
In addition, in Track Setup you can set the unit to start recording a track as soon as it acquires satellites, and to automatically pause when you stop moving. This last feature is really useful because it prevents the little random track points that appear around a point where you've stopped. (These are caused by the GPS receiver continuing to record position fixes up to 10 meters away from your actual location, a result of the accuracy limits of GPS.) In the past, I've had to carefully edit downloaded tracks on the computer to eliminate these extra bits of track. In my tests so far, with automatic track pause turned on, the Oregon 600 records a really clean track, compared to the 62s.
I think I'm going to like the Oregon 600- but only some field experience will tell.
I have the two physical buttons programmed as follows:
Power button long press: power on/off (not programmable)
Power button double-press: Main Menu
Power button single-press: Status screen
User button long-press: Current Track screen
User button single-press: Mark Waypoint screen
User button double-press: Start/Stop track recording
There are four models in the Oregon 600 series:
600: Includes all features above, plus tilt-compensated magnetic compass and barometric altimeter
600t: Adds preloaded 1:100,000 U.S. topo maps
650: Adds an 8 megapixel camera
650t: Adds both camera and topo maps
I don't recommend the "t" models because you can get much better 1:24,000 topo maps free from gpsfiledepot.com.
Buy the Garmin Oregon 600 series on Amazon here.
I never tried the Garmin Montana series as they are just too heavy for backpacking use- and I'm more a backpacker than a day hiker. But even day hiking I like to keep my weight down. Of course, then I load up with with heavy photo gear.
Now, touchscreens have their place. They work well on street GPS receivers, e-book readers (I love the Kindle Paperwhite), tablets, and smartphones.
Enter the Garmin Oregon 600. Garmin claimed a greatly improved, multi-touch screen and a revised user interface. So I ordered one to try. And I'm very pleasantly surprised. The touchscreen is smooth and responsive, like my Android phone and tablet. You can do all the things you expect with a touchscreen, like pinch-zooming and two-fingered rotation. The user interface is logically laid out and very customizable.
As a writer of hiking guides, there are two things I do constantly on my trail GPS- marking waypoints, and recording tracks. On the Garmin 62s, two key presses, Mark and Enter, save a waypoint from any screen. On the old Oregon, saving a waypoint was slow and awkward. First you had to get to the main screen, then touch Mark Waypoint and then touch the save icon. As I said above, this didn't work with gloves.
On the Oregon 600, there are two programmable physical buttons- the power button and the user button. The power button can be set to perform two actions in addition to turning the power on and off, and the user button can perform three actions, depending on whether it is pressed, double-pressed, or long-pressed. By default, a single-press of the user button brings up the Mark Waypoint screen, no matter what screen is displayed. Then touch Save to save the waypoint. Since the Oregon 600's screen works well with liner gloves (though not with thick gloves), it's just as easy to save a waypoint on the 600 as it is on the 62s.
Track recording is where the Oregon 600 really shines. There's a Current Track page that lets you start and stop track recording, and clear and save the track. You can also view track statistics, view the track on the map, and view the track's elevation profile.
In addition, in Track Setup you can set the unit to start recording a track as soon as it acquires satellites, and to automatically pause when you stop moving. This last feature is really useful because it prevents the little random track points that appear around a point where you've stopped. (These are caused by the GPS receiver continuing to record position fixes up to 10 meters away from your actual location, a result of the accuracy limits of GPS.) In the past, I've had to carefully edit downloaded tracks on the computer to eliminate these extra bits of track. In my tests so far, with automatic track pause turned on, the Oregon 600 records a really clean track, compared to the 62s.
I think I'm going to like the Oregon 600- but only some field experience will tell.
I have the two physical buttons programmed as follows:
Power button long press: power on/off (not programmable)
Power button double-press: Main Menu
Power button single-press: Status screen
User button long-press: Current Track screen
User button single-press: Mark Waypoint screen
User button double-press: Start/Stop track recording
There are four models in the Oregon 600 series:
600: Includes all features above, plus tilt-compensated magnetic compass and barometric altimeter
600t: Adds preloaded 1:100,000 U.S. topo maps
650: Adds an 8 megapixel camera
650t: Adds both camera and topo maps
I don't recommend the "t" models because you can get much better 1:24,000 topo maps free from gpsfiledepot.com.
Buy the Garmin Oregon 600 series on Amazon here.
Monday, November 26, 2012
GPS Accuracy- Who Needs It?
I'm really impressed with the accuracy of my latest GPS receiver, the Garmin eTrex 30. Capable of receiving the Russian GLONASS satellites as well as the aviation WAAS satellites, it has been achieving accuracy of 7 or 8 feet in the few days that I've been testing it. The eTrex 30 seems to consistently be several feet more accurate than my other trail GPS, a Garmin GPSMAP 62s. The 62s can receive the WAAS satellites but not GLONASS.
So what? The guaranteed civilian GPS accuracy of 30 feet is plenty good enough for road, trail, and cross-country navigation. The most accurate maps available (at least in the U.S.), USGS 7.5-minute series topographic maps, are not as accurate as civilian GPS.
If you can't find a trail, road, or campsite when you're within 30 feet of it, your basic wilderness skills need a bit of work.
More accuracy will certainly make it easier to find a geocache, but on the other hand being able to walk right up to a geocache instead of using the written clues to find it seems to take some of the fun out of it. Of course, when you hide a new geocache, you should take advantage of all the accuracy features of your GPS receiver, including WAAS, GLONASS, and waypoint averaging, if your GPS receiver supports them.
The only other time the 30-feet accuracy standard fails to be good enough is when you're hiking and trying to measure trail distance and speed on the GPS receiver. As I've written previously, the track points recorded at walking speed are too scattered to allow the GPS to accurately measure distance and speed. The more accurate your GPS receiver is, the less scattered the track points are, and speed and distance measurements become more accurate. You can improve speed and distance measurements on most GPS receivers by setting it to record less track points, thus averaging out your route.
Far more important than accuracy is the sensitivity of the GPS receiver and the number of satellites it can receive simultaneously. GPS satellites are in 12,000 mile orbits and the signal is extremely weak by the time it reaches the Earth. Also, the radio signals are line-of-sight and are easily blocked by forest cover and buildings.
The first civilian GPS receivers were not nearly as sensitive as current units, and even worse, they multiplexed. Just one receiver channel was available and it was switched through each of the satellites in turn. These receivers rarely worked well if a significant portion of the sky was obstructed. In forest, I'd usually have to stop in a clearing to get a satellite lock.
So what really impresses me about the eTrex 30 and GPSMAP 62s are their ability to lock on to satellites and stay locked on in forest and canyons where the sky is partly obscured. Even the cheapest of the current trail GPS receivers from the major manufacturers all have high-sensitivity receivers that receive 12 or more satellites simultaneously. Since a minimum of 4 satellites are required for an accurate position fix, the newer receivers stay locked on and generate an accurate position fix even when part of the sky is hidden.
The moral of the story is- don't buy an old, used GPS receiver for serious back country navigation. And don't depend on smartphone GPS for the same reason. The GPS in phones is intended to let 911 dispatchers locate you in an emergency, and is not nearly as sensitive as dedicated trail (or street) GPS units.
One more rant- don't hike along staring at your GPS screen! GPS is a very useful tool. It makes my job as a hiking and outdoor guidebook author much easier. I can set the GPS to record a track as I hike, save waypoints at trail junctions and other landmarks, and then download the data and map the trail back at home. But it's all too easy to pay too much attention to your GPS instead of the trail and the (presumeably stunning) scenery you're hiking through. Put the GPS in your pack as a backup and follow the trail!
So what? The guaranteed civilian GPS accuracy of 30 feet is plenty good enough for road, trail, and cross-country navigation. The most accurate maps available (at least in the U.S.), USGS 7.5-minute series topographic maps, are not as accurate as civilian GPS.
If you can't find a trail, road, or campsite when you're within 30 feet of it, your basic wilderness skills need a bit of work.
More accuracy will certainly make it easier to find a geocache, but on the other hand being able to walk right up to a geocache instead of using the written clues to find it seems to take some of the fun out of it. Of course, when you hide a new geocache, you should take advantage of all the accuracy features of your GPS receiver, including WAAS, GLONASS, and waypoint averaging, if your GPS receiver supports them.
The only other time the 30-feet accuracy standard fails to be good enough is when you're hiking and trying to measure trail distance and speed on the GPS receiver. As I've written previously, the track points recorded at walking speed are too scattered to allow the GPS to accurately measure distance and speed. The more accurate your GPS receiver is, the less scattered the track points are, and speed and distance measurements become more accurate. You can improve speed and distance measurements on most GPS receivers by setting it to record less track points, thus averaging out your route.
Far more important than accuracy is the sensitivity of the GPS receiver and the number of satellites it can receive simultaneously. GPS satellites are in 12,000 mile orbits and the signal is extremely weak by the time it reaches the Earth. Also, the radio signals are line-of-sight and are easily blocked by forest cover and buildings.
The first civilian GPS receivers were not nearly as sensitive as current units, and even worse, they multiplexed. Just one receiver channel was available and it was switched through each of the satellites in turn. These receivers rarely worked well if a significant portion of the sky was obstructed. In forest, I'd usually have to stop in a clearing to get a satellite lock.
So what really impresses me about the eTrex 30 and GPSMAP 62s are their ability to lock on to satellites and stay locked on in forest and canyons where the sky is partly obscured. Even the cheapest of the current trail GPS receivers from the major manufacturers all have high-sensitivity receivers that receive 12 or more satellites simultaneously. Since a minimum of 4 satellites are required for an accurate position fix, the newer receivers stay locked on and generate an accurate position fix even when part of the sky is hidden.
The moral of the story is- don't buy an old, used GPS receiver for serious back country navigation. And don't depend on smartphone GPS for the same reason. The GPS in phones is intended to let 911 dispatchers locate you in an emergency, and is not nearly as sensitive as dedicated trail (or street) GPS units.
One more rant- don't hike along staring at your GPS screen! GPS is a very useful tool. It makes my job as a hiking and outdoor guidebook author much easier. I can set the GPS to record a track as I hike, save waypoints at trail junctions and other landmarks, and then download the data and map the trail back at home. But it's all too easy to pay too much attention to your GPS instead of the trail and the (presumeably stunning) scenery you're hiking through. Put the GPS in your pack as a backup and follow the trail!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Ultimate Trail Reader
For those of us that just have to have reading material on a backpack trip, Amazon has started shipping the ultimate book reader, the Kindle Paperwhite. It weighs just 7.8 ounces and has the same 30-hour battery life as the Kindle Touch that it replaces. Like the Touch, the Paperwhite will last through all but the longest wilderness trips.
The Kindle Paperwhite has built-in front lighting so it can be read in anything from full, direct sunlight to a dark and stormy night in a tent. And the lighting doesn't noticeably decrease the battery life, at least in my tests so far.
How does this work? Unlike a tablet or a computer, which have backlit LCD screens, the Kindle Paperwhite uses E Ink technology like the older Kindles. E Ink uses tiny black ink capsules controlled by electric charges to draw the screen, so the page created much like a printed page, with tiny black dots on a white background. The process uses power only when a new page is drawn, so E Ink Kindle's only use power during page turns. In contrast, LCD screens are constantly refreshed so they use much more power.
Since E Ink screens work like a printed page, the brighter the light, the easier it is to read- just like a printed book. LCD tablet screens, which are dependent on backlights, work better under lower light and wash out under bright light. And the LCD backlight uses even more power, so most tablet computers have a battery life of about 8-10 hours.
Until now, reading an E Ink Kindle in the dark required an external light, just as a printed book does. Since we backpackers carry efficient LED flashlights or headlamps these days, that hasn't been a problem. But the Kindle Paperwhite goes this one better with it's built-in LED front lighting. Four white LED's light up the screen from the edges, and a special screen layer "pipes" the light evenly across the screen. With the light off, the screen looks like the older E Ink Kindles, black type on a light gray background. With the light on, the background becomes white and the black type stands out even more. The light can be adjusted different levels with an on-screen touch slider. This Kindle looks more like a printed book than any other e-book reader.
The Kindle Paperwhite comes in two basic models, the Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi and the Kindle Paperwhite 3G. Each of those comes with or without Special Offers- adds that appear as "screensavers" when the Kindle is off, and as small banners on the bottom edge of the Home screen when it is on. Ads never appear when you're reading. Most people don;t seem to mind the ads, and many like them because they save money on the discounts offered. I suggest you save the $20 or 30 and buy the Special Offers version, because you can pay the difference at any time and the ads will be removed. As an aside, I have to say I really like the "screensavers" on the models without Special Offers- they are really elegant.
A more important decision is whether to buy the Wi-Fi-only Paperwhite or the 3G model. For wilderness use the difference is not critical since you should have the wireless off most of the time to save the battery. The 3G models use the At&T cell phone data network to allow you to connect to the Kindle Store on Amazon to shop for and download books. The Wi-Fi-only models require you to be in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot. Since most backcountry areas have neither signal, you'll need to make sure you have enough reading material on the Kindle to last the trip. Since the Paperwhite holds more that 1000 books, this shouldn't be a problem!
Personally, I prefer the 3G model so that I don;t have to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot while traveling to and from the trailhead, and on other non-wilderness trips as well.
You'll want a protective case or cover for the Kindle Paperwrite- see my forthcoming post in Travels With Kindle for reviews.
Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi, $119 with Special Offers, $139 without
Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi plus 3G, $179 with Special Offers, $199 without
The Kindle Paperwhite has built-in front lighting so it can be read in anything from full, direct sunlight to a dark and stormy night in a tent. And the lighting doesn't noticeably decrease the battery life, at least in my tests so far.
How does this work? Unlike a tablet or a computer, which have backlit LCD screens, the Kindle Paperwhite uses E Ink technology like the older Kindles. E Ink uses tiny black ink capsules controlled by electric charges to draw the screen, so the page created much like a printed page, with tiny black dots on a white background. The process uses power only when a new page is drawn, so E Ink Kindle's only use power during page turns. In contrast, LCD screens are constantly refreshed so they use much more power.
Since E Ink screens work like a printed page, the brighter the light, the easier it is to read- just like a printed book. LCD tablet screens, which are dependent on backlights, work better under lower light and wash out under bright light. And the LCD backlight uses even more power, so most tablet computers have a battery life of about 8-10 hours.
Until now, reading an E Ink Kindle in the dark required an external light, just as a printed book does. Since we backpackers carry efficient LED flashlights or headlamps these days, that hasn't been a problem. But the Kindle Paperwhite goes this one better with it's built-in LED front lighting. Four white LED's light up the screen from the edges, and a special screen layer "pipes" the light evenly across the screen. With the light off, the screen looks like the older E Ink Kindles, black type on a light gray background. With the light on, the background becomes white and the black type stands out even more. The light can be adjusted different levels with an on-screen touch slider. This Kindle looks more like a printed book than any other e-book reader.
The Kindle Paperwhite comes in two basic models, the Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi and the Kindle Paperwhite 3G. Each of those comes with or without Special Offers- adds that appear as "screensavers" when the Kindle is off, and as small banners on the bottom edge of the Home screen when it is on. Ads never appear when you're reading. Most people don;t seem to mind the ads, and many like them because they save money on the discounts offered. I suggest you save the $20 or 30 and buy the Special Offers version, because you can pay the difference at any time and the ads will be removed. As an aside, I have to say I really like the "screensavers" on the models without Special Offers- they are really elegant.
A more important decision is whether to buy the Wi-Fi-only Paperwhite or the 3G model. For wilderness use the difference is not critical since you should have the wireless off most of the time to save the battery. The 3G models use the At&T cell phone data network to allow you to connect to the Kindle Store on Amazon to shop for and download books. The Wi-Fi-only models require you to be in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot. Since most backcountry areas have neither signal, you'll need to make sure you have enough reading material on the Kindle to last the trip. Since the Paperwhite holds more that 1000 books, this shouldn't be a problem!
Personally, I prefer the 3G model so that I don;t have to look for a Wi-Fi hotspot while traveling to and from the trailhead, and on other non-wilderness trips as well.
You'll want a protective case or cover for the Kindle Paperwrite- see my forthcoming post in Travels With Kindle for reviews.
Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi, $119 with Special Offers, $139 without
Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi plus 3G, $179 with Special Offers, $199 without
Monday, July 9, 2012
Arizona Summer Hikes
As an Arizona-based hiker, I often get asked where to hike in the state. Usually I'm asked by summer visitors. While summer is the prime hiking and backpacking season on most parts of the United States, it is NOT the best season in Arizona- unless you like hiking in a kiln. We're talking about desert temperatures of 115 F and 2% humidity.
Fall and spring- and even winter in the desert- are the best times to hike in Arizona, But since we can't control the seasons, what to do?
One caution- this post is not a hiking guide to specific trails. I've already written plenty of those- see my booklist. Instead, I'm going to point you to state regions and activities that make sense in the summer.
Actually, Arizona is not all desert, contrary to the Hollywood-TV image. Elevations ranges from 70 feet to 12,633 feet. And there is a lot of Arizona above 8,000 feet, where the highest summer temperatures rarely reach 90 F and high 70's are common. The four major high elevations of the state are the Kaibab Plateau, the San Francisco Peaks, the White Mountains, and the sky island mountain ranges in southeast Arizona.
Forming the highest portion of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau rises to just under 10,000 feet and is covered with a beautiful mixed forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, blue spruce, and quaking aspen, broken by alpine meadows. The Kaibab National Forest contains about 75% of the plateau and features plenty of hiking trails, the most famous of which is the 800-mile Arizona Trail. The south end of the Plateau is in Grand Canyon National Park and has some especially scenic hiking trails.
The San Francisco Peaks has the highest summit in the state and rises about 1,000 feet above timberline. An extensive network of trails covers the mountain and its nearby satellite mountains- see my book Hiking Northern Arizona for plenty of suggestions.
Eastern Arizona's White Mountains is the states second highest mountain area, topping out at the 11420-foot summit of Mount Baldy Mountain creeks tumble down from the rounded summits, forming the headwaters of most of Arizona's rivers. Much of the area lies above 9,000 feet and never gets really hot. There are many hiking trails, including two trails to the summit of Mount Baldy. To the east of the White Mountains, the Blue Range Primitive Area straddles the Arizona-New Mexico state line and offers some superb wilderness backpacking at elevations from 5,000 to 9,000 feet.
The basin and range country of southern Arizona reaches its culmination in the isolated sky island mountain ranges in the Tucson area and to the south and east. Several ranges reach above 9,000 feet and offer a network of high elevation trails. The summit area of the Santa Catalina Mountains is reachable by paved road, as the the high ridge of the Pinaleno Mountains. Both ranges have plenty of trails and backcountry wilderness. The Chiricahua Mountains are a bit more remote, though a good dirt road leads to a high elevation trailhead at Rustler Park at the north edge of the wilderness.
For hikes in the White Mountains and southeast sky islands, have a look at my state-wide hiking guide, Hiking Arizona.
Another great summer activity is canyoneering, the sport of descending desert canyons. Because most canyon descents in Arizona involve a lot of wading and swimming, they are best done during the summer when the water is a tolerable temperature and the warm air temperatures make it fun to get wet. Although some canyons require technical means such as rappelling to traverse, others require just swimming and floating your pack. See Todd Martin's book, Arizona Technical Canyoneering, for descriptions of some of Arizona's classic canyons.
Late summer, July through September, is the monsoon season in Arizona, when tropical moisture moves in from the Gulf of Mexico and sets off almost daily afternoon thunderstorms over the mountains. When the monsoon is active, plan your hikes for the morning hours and get off exposed ridges and summits before the clouds start to build. Temperatures can drop 50 F during a thundershower, and heavy rain can cause canyons and drainages to flood. Avoid camping in dry streambeds and stay out of slot canyons during the monsoon.
With this post I'm introducing a new subject- where to hike in Arizona by season. Although my published books break out hikes by season, I'm going to offer a few specific suggestions here.
Fall and spring- and even winter in the desert- are the best times to hike in Arizona, But since we can't control the seasons, what to do?
One caution- this post is not a hiking guide to specific trails. I've already written plenty of those- see my booklist. Instead, I'm going to point you to state regions and activities that make sense in the summer.
Actually, Arizona is not all desert, contrary to the Hollywood-TV image. Elevations ranges from 70 feet to 12,633 feet. And there is a lot of Arizona above 8,000 feet, where the highest summer temperatures rarely reach 90 F and high 70's are common. The four major high elevations of the state are the Kaibab Plateau, the San Francisco Peaks, the White Mountains, and the sky island mountain ranges in southeast Arizona.
Forming the highest portion of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Kaibab Plateau rises to just under 10,000 feet and is covered with a beautiful mixed forest of ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, blue spruce, and quaking aspen, broken by alpine meadows. The Kaibab National Forest contains about 75% of the plateau and features plenty of hiking trails, the most famous of which is the 800-mile Arizona Trail. The south end of the Plateau is in Grand Canyon National Park and has some especially scenic hiking trails.
The San Francisco Peaks has the highest summit in the state and rises about 1,000 feet above timberline. An extensive network of trails covers the mountain and its nearby satellite mountains- see my book Hiking Northern Arizona for plenty of suggestions.
Eastern Arizona's White Mountains is the states second highest mountain area, topping out at the 11420-foot summit of Mount Baldy Mountain creeks tumble down from the rounded summits, forming the headwaters of most of Arizona's rivers. Much of the area lies above 9,000 feet and never gets really hot. There are many hiking trails, including two trails to the summit of Mount Baldy. To the east of the White Mountains, the Blue Range Primitive Area straddles the Arizona-New Mexico state line and offers some superb wilderness backpacking at elevations from 5,000 to 9,000 feet.
The basin and range country of southern Arizona reaches its culmination in the isolated sky island mountain ranges in the Tucson area and to the south and east. Several ranges reach above 9,000 feet and offer a network of high elevation trails. The summit area of the Santa Catalina Mountains is reachable by paved road, as the the high ridge of the Pinaleno Mountains. Both ranges have plenty of trails and backcountry wilderness. The Chiricahua Mountains are a bit more remote, though a good dirt road leads to a high elevation trailhead at Rustler Park at the north edge of the wilderness.
For hikes in the White Mountains and southeast sky islands, have a look at my state-wide hiking guide, Hiking Arizona.
Another great summer activity is canyoneering, the sport of descending desert canyons. Because most canyon descents in Arizona involve a lot of wading and swimming, they are best done during the summer when the water is a tolerable temperature and the warm air temperatures make it fun to get wet. Although some canyons require technical means such as rappelling to traverse, others require just swimming and floating your pack. See Todd Martin's book, Arizona Technical Canyoneering, for descriptions of some of Arizona's classic canyons.
Late summer, July through September, is the monsoon season in Arizona, when tropical moisture moves in from the Gulf of Mexico and sets off almost daily afternoon thunderstorms over the mountains. When the monsoon is active, plan your hikes for the morning hours and get off exposed ridges and summits before the clouds start to build. Temperatures can drop 50 F during a thundershower, and heavy rain can cause canyons and drainages to flood. Avoid camping in dry streambeds and stay out of slot canyons during the monsoon.
With this post I'm introducing a new subject- where to hike in Arizona by season. Although my published books break out hikes by season, I'm going to offer a few specific suggestions here.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Finding the Trailhead with GPS
Navigating to a trailhead with GPS is not as simple as it sounds because most street GPS receivers don't have trailheads in their points-of-interest (POI) databases, unless the trailhead is located at a park or other general attraction. And street GPS mapping, while remarkably good for highways, county roads, and city streets is often poor for back roads, especially in the western U.S. And finally, when street mapping does show back roads, it often doesn't distinguish between maintained, gravel dirt roads that are passable to most cars and unmaintained roads that often need a high-clearance or four-wheel drive vehicle to travel. Trail GPS units don't do road navigation unless you buy optional street maps, and then you still have the limitations of street mapping.
The solution to this problem involves a bit of planning at home before trying to find a backcountry trailhead at the start of your wilderness adventure. Just look at it as an extension of the planning for the wilderness part of the trip, where you're traveling on foot, by paddle, or other self-propelled means. The secret is to use a variety of resources to solve the problems:
If you have a guidebook description of the route, you can follow along on a topo map and mark GPS waypoints at critical intersections. With a trail GPS, you can create a route and download that to your receiver before the trip. It is very helpful to have detailed topo maps of the approach route in your GPS, and you probably already have such maps loaded for the wilderness part of the trip. The guidebook should also tell you if you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach the trailhead.
You can use a street GPS receiver to create waypoints and a route to the trailhead, but most street units won't download waypoints and routes directly from a computer mapping application. You may be able to save the route as a GPX file and transfer that to the street GPS via USB cable. This is worth the effort because of the road routing capability of street GPS receivers.
If you don't have a guidebook description of the trailhead, then you'll have to work a little harder. You'll need to locate the trailhead on a topo map and then work out the best roads to reach that trailhead. Use caution with U.\SGS topo maps- they are often out of date and don't show changes to roads (although they are the most accurate maps for natural features such as terrain.) Often, you can get a road map from the land management agency in charge of the area that is much more up-to-date on the road system. Privately-produced printed recreation maps and online or computer-based maps are often the most current road maps. And Google Earth is a valuable resource, especially in desert areas where you can often get a good look at roads. Even in forested areas, you can at least tell if a road is likely to be maintained- if the road shows in a cut through the forest, it is wider and therefor more likely to be paved or at least graveled.
Whatever you do, don't blindly charge off onto backcountry roads trusting your street GPS receiver. That's a good way to find yourself at a dead end, or worse, with a broken or stuck vehicle.
The solution to this problem involves a bit of planning at home before trying to find a backcountry trailhead at the start of your wilderness adventure. Just look at it as an extension of the planning for the wilderness part of the trip, where you're traveling on foot, by paddle, or other self-propelled means. The secret is to use a variety of resources to solve the problems:
- Locating the coordinates of the trailhead
- Finding the best route to the trailhead
- Setting up your GPS receiver to navigate the route to the trailhead
- Determining if you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle
If you have a guidebook description of the route, you can follow along on a topo map and mark GPS waypoints at critical intersections. With a trail GPS, you can create a route and download that to your receiver before the trip. It is very helpful to have detailed topo maps of the approach route in your GPS, and you probably already have such maps loaded for the wilderness part of the trip. The guidebook should also tell you if you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to reach the trailhead.
You can use a street GPS receiver to create waypoints and a route to the trailhead, but most street units won't download waypoints and routes directly from a computer mapping application. You may be able to save the route as a GPX file and transfer that to the street GPS via USB cable. This is worth the effort because of the road routing capability of street GPS receivers.
If you don't have a guidebook description of the trailhead, then you'll have to work a little harder. You'll need to locate the trailhead on a topo map and then work out the best roads to reach that trailhead. Use caution with U.\SGS topo maps- they are often out of date and don't show changes to roads (although they are the most accurate maps for natural features such as terrain.) Often, you can get a road map from the land management agency in charge of the area that is much more up-to-date on the road system. Privately-produced printed recreation maps and online or computer-based maps are often the most current road maps. And Google Earth is a valuable resource, especially in desert areas where you can often get a good look at roads. Even in forested areas, you can at least tell if a road is likely to be maintained- if the road shows in a cut through the forest, it is wider and therefor more likely to be paved or at least graveled.
Whatever you do, don't blindly charge off onto backcountry roads trusting your street GPS receiver. That's a good way to find yourself at a dead end, or worse, with a broken or stuck vehicle.
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