Discussion: Colorado 5 Day routes

I have posted my routes from the Colorado 5 Day events (all except the Prolouge and Chase). I used the Garmin Forerunner 301 downloaded to GarTrip. The tracks received were excellent - I don't think I received any "Weak GPS" messages.
Beuna Vista
Blue Mountain
Lake George
Manitou Lake
Round Mountain

What a hoot! That has to really be fun to see where you went. I know pretty much all the weird places I went (except for one little lapse on the Chase), but it would be fun to see it just show up. Looks like you got better and better as the week went on! Congratulations.

Val, Please explain a little more how you did this. Is GarTrip a website or a program? Is the map a scan that you are able to line up with the track? Pretty cool stuff!

I started to improve after Peter the Great gave me a 15 minute lesson. I probably learned more in 15 minutes than I have in the last 10 years.

Since I had such accurate tracking, the routes you see was really where I was, I am sorry to say.

I scan the map, upload the tracks and waypoints into GarTrip. Then I calibrate the tracks to the map. The easiest way to do this is to take some Waypoints at some of the controls. I usually try to do the Start and one control furthest from the start. But I also learned this week that I can manully enter a Waypoint into Gartrip, so if I only get the start or finish, I can manually enter a second Waypoint and still calibrate the map easily.

I'm pretty sure it was more like 30-45 minutes. There was a lot to cover.... :-)

Okay, maybe it was 30 minutes. At least it didn't seem like it was hours and hours. ;) And there was a lot to cover - did you know those funny looking brown lines are called contour lines?! And there is a way to figure out which was is up and down?!

I would also like to thank Sandy F!! Sandy discovered that I was holding my thumb compass at the wrong angle. And even though this knowledge didn't prevent my stupidity on Days 1 & 2, it kept me from drifting left during the Night-O.

And Sandy also gave me my first pace counting lesson as well. I have never even tried pace counting. Another tool to practice. I could be really dangerous soon - I will probably end up in Canada during the Oregon events, right, Peter?

Charlie, I really enjoyed seeing my routes from the Forerunner because often (quite often), I had no idea where I was!! The Beuna Vista control 2 still makes me kick myself since I had navigated to the trail on purpose, but when I saw others climbing the wrong hill, I doubted myself and followed them over there.

Confirms what I've suspected since 1994—there are some sizeable middle-scale distortions on the Manitou Lake map, but not on any other maps, not on Buena Vista in particular.

Peter's 30 minute lesson was pretty absorbing. I stopped by and listened to about 5 minutes worth, and picked up a nugget that probably saved me a 5 minute bonehead error at the night-o. Too bad it's not on videotape. Anyone who likes orienteering would profit from hearing it.

Probably the biggest single jump in my orienteering ability came in the 10 minutes or so it took Peter to talk about how he ran his course one day in probably 1985 or 1986 somewhere near St. Louis (I think). It was in front of a group. Events don't seem to do that anymore, but I think they should. It really opened my eyes.

Of course, don't tell Peter we said any of this good stuff about him. It'll
go straight to his head.

Results have been posted here.

I think someone should video tape Peter's lessons, edit it into short segments on specific topics/aspects of orienteering and post the series as digital video clips here on Attackpoint.