I'll be there friday through tuesday, minimum. I *might* extend a day or two past tuesday if I don't end up with a copilot. Can't say whether I'm +1 yet or not.

Haven't got digs at PSR yet. If I can't, well, I'm planning on sleeping in the truck, so I don't much care where I end up.

Tentatively, I'll be with the group friday -> sunday morning, then going to more hiking related activities, hooking up again sunday night, then ...? Still working that out.

 

Damn! I knew that I shouldnt have moved out here to atlanta. I spend the last 3 years wheeling those trails and I am jealous! Sounds like a great trip! You might run into the Ridgecrest Gear Grinders out there. Great group of people.

 

Still has me as tentative but I did confirm my attendance in post #110.

 

First post updated (again!)

 

RE: Post #54. I will only be able to join in on Monday.
The first page still shows me as "Monday - Friday"

 

Any luck getting a gps route? I have a book that has some gps waypoints for some of the different trails, some of them correspond to our itenerary. I will get out the map tonight and post some of the ones that coincide with different road junctions we will hit.

Ryan, while you are updating the first post, you can change mine to +1, not +2

 

I am working on it. Death Valley is massive--to get the whole park with high level detail, I am downloading four 1:250K quads, seven 1:100K quads and 123 1:24K quads. That's 1 GIG in maps!! Good thing I have a 4 GB SD card.

 

Ken, once you get those, will those of us with just regular gps be able to grab waypoints off it? I have a garmin and I haven't got the topo software, right now I just use waypoints in conjunction with following along on a paper topo map. I usually try to get major road junctions we will use and sites we will hit. Actually works pretty good, probably nothing like have a carputer though.

 

Once I finish downloading the maps and get them into my software, I can post coordinates for major features (i.e. trail intersections, major features like the Geologist's cabin, etc.).

Anything that you feel you're missing, we could pull the coordinates off my machine in camp Friday evening. Anywhere I click I can get coordinates. If you happen to have bluetooth or infared I can beam them to you.

 

To everyone, I apologize for not being able to update the first page as much. All I can say is that your tax dollars are hard at work right now

Please bear with me until I can get on something better than a dial-up connection.

 

Darwin Loop has two options, so I posted one of them as an alterate route. I saved this ROUTE in GPX file format, so it should work with most GPS units, Garmins for sure. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.



RIGHT CLICK SAVE AS. (15 KB GPX file) Internet Explorer wants to save it as a XML file, but most GPS units seem to handle that format too.

If someone can test this and get back to me, I am willing to create additional routes for DV.

 

Ken, do I save the page with all the code and waypoints or do I just right click and save the map you posted? I have to get the directions out for my gps, to see how to download to it. I was told that my garmin etrex legend will only accept a certain software, but I don't know for sure. I will try to play around with it tonight.

 

When I was in the Marines, workups for the WestPac's were way worse than the actual deployment (obviously that was during peacetime though). I bet your workups are just as crazy.

 

Okay, I went through my two offroad books (Death Valley is so big, part of it is in the so-cal book and part is in the nor-cal book), these are by Charles A. Wells. I went through the trails it covers and grabbed GPS waypoints that are pertinent to our itenerary. This could help for those of us that just have basic GPS that you use in conjuntion with a map. I tried to do this in a way that somewhat follows our itenerary, but if you don't have a map this will probably not make any sense. Mainly these are junction of roads that we will use and some scenic sites.

Saturday:

Junction of Indian Ranch Rd. and Jail Canyon- 36 08 41.5 117 13 58.3
Cabin @ end of Jail Cyn- 36 11 36.4 117 10 48.9
Junction Ballarat Rd., Wingate Rd., and Pleasant Cyn-36 02 52.5 117 13 23.7

Wingate Rd. and P52 (Goler Wash)- 35 51 33.3 117 10 44.5
Goler Wash and Rd. to Newman Cabin- 35 51 42.3 117 07 37.3
Goler Wash and Rd. to Barker Ranch- 35 51 38.1 117 05 45.4
Barker Ranch- 35 51 34.6 117 05 15.4
Mengel's Pass/Grave- 35 53 59.9 117 04 52.9
Junction to Russell Camp- 35 54 51.9 117 04 54.4
Junction of Rd. just below Geologist's Cabin- 35 55 24.0 117 05 01.0

Sunday:

Entrance to Warm Springs Mine- 35 58 09.1 116 55 34.3
Junction of Butte Valley Rd. & West Side Rd.- 35 57 14.5 116 44 44.5
190 and Echo Cyn- 36 26 15.4 116 49 23.9
Echo Pass- 36 31 48.1 116 40 17.3
Echo Cyn & way to Inyo Mine- 36 29 46.8 116 42 35.3
Inyo Mine- 36 29 36.4 116 42 10.8


Monday:

Hwy 374 and one way entrance to Titus Cyn- 36 51 33.4 116 50 42.3
Leadfield- 36 50 54.5 117 03 29.7
Hwy 267 and end of Titus Cyn- 36 47 16.4 117 11 26.0
Teakettle Junction- 36 45 36.2 117 32 29.0
"Moving Rocks" parking lot- 36 39 56.6 117 34 02.2
Lost Burro Junction- 36 43 46.6 117 30 15.3


Tuesday:

Saline Valley Rd. & Rd. to Hunter Mtn.- 36 31 36.1 117 32 45.8
Junction of 190 and Saline Valley Rd.- 36 21 51.2 117 37 29.9

I am going to see if I can borrow another book that may have waypoints for some of the other sites.

 

Chris,
You need a Garmin to PC interface cable. Not sure if Garmin units come with them or not. The map I posted just shows the route I drew. If you download the GPX file I posted and pass it to your Etrex, you will have the line feature on your screen regardless of whether or not you have the actual map.

Another thing came to mind--if yours is a ETrex Cx variety with the integrated SD card, you can copy the file to the SD card via a card reader.

 

Sweet! I got it to work! I had to download the free EasyGPS program, and once I saved it to my documents, I had to change the name of the file back to a .gpx file so that EasyGPS could read it. Thanks Ken!

 

Workups are worse than the real deal.

I've been playing around with my GPS unit lately, put a couple of the waypoints you listed, Chris and maybe I'll get to it putting the rest in.

I need to find better software than the generic stuff that came with my GPS.

 

Ryan, try EasyGPS, it is a free download program. I just started useing it so I could enter waypoints easier. Also, once I am done entering all those waypoints, I could probably email the file to whomever wants it. I was also able to use Ken's route using easygps. My gps didn't come with any software, so up till now, I have had to enter everything straight on my gps (major PITA).

 

Glad it works. I will plot the routes for the trails that I am familiar with and make them available for download in .GPX format.

 

Here are the routes for Saturday and Sunday. Right click and save as...for Garmin users, follow the instructions that Chris described above. These files are 1 KB to a max of 13 KB, so file size should not be an issue.

Saturday Mar 16:
Darwin Loop
Jail Canyon
Mark for Lotus Mine
Goler Wash to Mengel's Pass/Butte Valley to West Side Road

Sunday Mar 17:
Continue through Butte Valley to West Side Road (use file above)
Mark for Warm Springs Mine
Mark for Grantham Mine
Mark for Johnson Canyon (optional)
Mark for Trail Canyon (optional)
Hole in the Wall Trail
Echo Canyon Trail

Use at your own risk!