Measuring with a GPS

[guest@endurance.net]

K S SWIGART katswig@earthlink.net


Karen said:

>>How do you ride holding a camera all of the time?  Following a trail
with a
GPS that has an activated 'route' is sure a lot easier than carrying a 35
mm camera.  <<

Actually, there is a good chance that it was carrying the camera that put
me into the tree and landed me in the ICU...so I know whereof I speak.

I had to CONSTANTLY remind myself at the XP this summer NOT to carry
the camera while I was riding down the trail on the days that I was riding
this particular mare (and yes, I did it sometimes anyway...and took my
chances :))

However, with the camera there are a couple of differences.

1) I don't need to carry the camera in order to complete the ride.
I do need to be able to find the trail in order to do so.

2) It is only worthwhile to operate the camera while the horse is
standing still, so while I am carrying the camera while riding, I am not
actually using the camera while riding (35 mm cameras don't take very good
pictures that way).

3) I don't have to look down at/with the camera (unless I want to take a
picture of my feet...or something on the ground, in which case I get off
the horse to do so).

Yes, this is a pain in the ass.  And yes, I know that riding with a camera
in my hand significantly increases the dangers associated with riding.
And yes, I know that riding along and ttaking pictures and allowing myself
to be distracted in such a way significantly increases the dangers
associated with riding....

...and I suspect that were endurance riders told that in order to
complete
the ride they had to take a camera with them and take pictures along the
way or to ride with somebody who did, that there would be some
disagreement
about the appropriateness of such a requirement :).

I was very careful to say that I have NO complaint about the way the 2001
XP
was marked.  I, personally, think that it was nothing short of ingenious.
And
I think that if ride managers provide accurate maps, good written
directions
for the trail, and GPS waypoints so that anybody who has one can use it in
whatever way they see fit, that it will go a LONG way in keeping riders
from
getting lost.

But I also think that if it were to become a common practice to mark a
trail
using GPS waypoints ONLY, that this would be a mistake.

kat
Orange County, Calif.

p.s.  My apologies to Bob Morris.  I misunderstood you.

p.p.s.  I cannot speak knowledgeably about National Parks and National
Monuments, but I can say that trail riding is already permitted in most
wilderness areas, and endurance rides are forbidden from wilderness
areas not because of the way that the trail might be marked but because
ALL forms of competition are forbidden in wilderness areas (It took an
act of Congress to preserve the Western States Trail competitions, when
portions of the Tevis Trail became specified as wilderness areas...and
lack
of visible trail marking or not, the reason this summer's XP ended in
Nevada and not Sacramento had nothing to do with how the trail was going
to be marked.)