Offroad: Mormon Mesa Point

In order to explore the Mormon Mesa a little more, Gordon, Hugh and I took to the offroad once again and headed south. OK… Gordon had convinced Hugh to go find two mines which were on his mine database, but which no one in recent history had seen. Then somehow we ended up on the trail without the coordinates to the spots so went sight-seeing instead. And I'm glad we did.

The view from the top gives the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon a run for their money; but, I digress. Hugh calls any trailhead in the area, except the water tower, "riding from the girls trailhead." So, once again, we staged at the water tower parking area on Ben Franklin to begin the days ride.

Up and over the Flat Top Mesa is a beautiful ride, in and of itself; but, for me at least, I've already "got the tee-shirt" on that ride so it can be a bit of an impediment to getting to the "real" destination on the other side. Recent weathering and wear has made opening and closing the gates at the top on the steep grade quite an adventure; so, if you're smart you'll make a side-by-side carrying two people go first. The "spare" can climb over to the gate and open it to let everyone through then close it after.

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The Wilderness of Gold Butte

For some time now I have had the BLMs map of their proposal for turning Gold Butte (and Bunkerville Flats) into a WILDERNESS AREA, glaring at me from the middle of my desk top, not knowing what else to do with it except look at it and shake my head in disgust.

Frankly, as a useable map for making an assessment leading to meaningful comment, it is completely worthless; there, I said it. It is nothing more than an enhanced clone of the map the Las Vegas BLM field office foisted on us when they went through and systematically closed close to fifty or so trail segments a couple of years ago. That map was completely worthless to the public, and so is this.

Absolutely NO geo-location marks! Absolutely no latitude or longitude markings! No road names. For the most part NO readable, meaningful labels! All this leaving even the most basic understanding of where things are, woefully complex and time consuming; beyond what most reasonable people are either able or willing to undertake. Then there's obsessive-compulsive me.

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Offroading Home: on Google Earth

Some years ago now Google gobbled up a small upstart company whith a good idea: Panoramio. It was a company which developed software that would allow people with pictures to share – professional and wannabe alike – to geocode their shots with latitude and longitude then upload them to their servers for others to see. Their idea? To cover the earth with photos of actual places to go beyond what you could get with a flat map.

Once the company had succeeded enough to make it obvious that this was a good idea, Google made a couple of developers very rich… and happy! They bought Panoramio and added it to the growing cadre of "add-ons" to their second "cash cow" product – Google Earth.

Offroading Home has been using the service for years – it's a good place to "hang" your trip photos for others to see and the background is the actual earth instead of a wall.

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Gold Butte Trail Monitoring

Offroading Home met with an intrepid group of offroaders who have just quietly and behind the scenes been going about the business of monitoring trail usage in the Bunkerville/Gold Butte riding area.

Probably few of us know that the BLM recruits cooperation from clubs and individuals who can ride the trails taking GPS readings and noting things like wash-outs, land-slides and other trail damage as well as noting usage.

A few members of the Trails and Dunes club from Las Vegas rode the West Bunkerville Flats area today monitoring trails along Nickle Creek Ravine and into the Old Mine area being trained on how to use the BLMs GPS units and what types of forms are necessary to document "hazards and incidents" for the BLM.

Why on earth would an offroad club want to monitor trails for the BLM? Well, there are many reasons.

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Maps To Go Offroad By

"Don't leave home without one" is a great idea – especially if you are talking about a map. I've even had a person tell me that he wasn't lost, he just wasn't on the map for a few hours.

Offroading Home has posted previously about the where's and why-fore's of mapping, in fact several times. You may remember that not too long ago, I completed an entire "101" series on the subject:

• GPS Maps 101: The number systems – Degrees, minutes, seconds, latitude and longitude.
• GPS Maps 102: Coordinate Systems – Conversions between systems and accuracy.
• GPS Maps 103: Measuring Lat and Lon – Calculating lat and lon, stars, chronometers, sextants and history.
• GPS Maps 104: Datums – Satellites, spheres and converting degrees to distance.
• GPS Maps 105: Projections and UTM – Mercator projection, UTM conventions, Northing and Easting.
• GPS Maps 106: Reading a TOPO Map – Understanding a TOPO map for use in the field.

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USGS Map Waypoints: Colorado

Well, what was started over 5 months ago is finally done: the Colorado USGS Features file.   I had a request from a reader to do the same thing for Colorado that I did for Utah, Nevada, Montana and elsewhere and did start it but just too many things got in the way.   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Colorado USGS Features (2.6 mb)]

All that's over now and it's finally completed… all 64 counties of 'em! It does go a bit faster now that I'm used to the grind; but, it's still a fair amount of tedium which is why it probably gets relegated to the back burner so easily.

It has turned out that these USGS Features files are quite a bit more useful than I had anticipated which is why I've had so many requests for them. You may have noticed that Google Earth has changed perceptibly over the past couple of so-called "updates."

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Trail Difficulty Scales - Off Road ATV SUV

Nearly every offroading book I pick up has some kind of scale they use to rate how difficult a listed trail is to ride. The problem is that there is NO one standard rating system so every one is different and unless I want to make my brain explode by trying to "interpolate" between them I'm stuck using all of them in the master maps.

Some of the books simply use a 1 through "n" value and leave it up to the reader to visualize whatever they want (where "n" is anything between 3 and 10.) Or, use "ski-run" type descriptions for trails – you know "green circle," "blue square" and "black diamond" (which may or may not relate to: "Beginner," "Intermediate" and "Advanced".

The big difference between them is that they all attempt to rate different aspects of the experience (and there are many) depending upon the mind-set, compulsiveness and preference of the writer. One rates the trail, another rates the riders skill level and still another rates the vehicle. Some describe it in great detail, others show pictures and still others just leave everything up to the imagination.

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Utah Trails Master Map - Complete Re-Do

The Utah Trails ATV-SUV master map has undergone almost a complete revision and update.

The graphic interface for the whole file was enhanced, the entire Central Region was re-done almost from scratch and several new trails have been added which complete loops and from submitted trails.

A frequent trail submitter Michael Davidson added four trails near Beaver in Central Utah following a recent trip to the state: Forest Service roads 129, 137 and 147. They all go through beautiful country and to inspiring views. [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Utah ATV-SUV Trails]

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GPS Maps 106: Reading A Topo Map

[This post is part six in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.

The last (hopefully) in the series of posts about maps: how they're made and how to use them, I wanted to do something quite difficult (on this end) and that I hadn't tried before. Well… you saw what happened on the last post.

As it turned out, the "dummy down" policy of Google Earth [which supports their "paid version"] prevented anyone who didn't have a fairly new graphics card from viewing the presentation.

Therefore, lets attempt to do in writing that which I thought would be much easier in demostration; so, break out that copy of an actual topo map that you have in the glove box and follow along.

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GPS Maps 106: How To Read A Topo Map

[This post is part six in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.

Being (hopefully) pretty much the last post in this series about reading topo maps, what we are going to discuss today is really "rubber on the road" stuff and, in large part builds upon what we've already discussed as well as using a slightly different technique than we've ever used in the past.

This is where we actually hold that piece of crumpled, soiled, many-times-folded paper in our hands and try to find "where the blazes are we?" … No kidding — go get your topo map. It's better if you actually have something to look at. I'll wait.

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Map Update: Great Basin ATV-SUV Trails, South

I'm basking in the light of some help with trail verification here on the Offroading Home blog.

Michael Davidson, who usually rides in southern Nevada near Las Vegas has been following several of the Great Basin ATV-SUV trails and sending in his GPS tracks to verify the trails that I had to hand-draw from the Mitchell book.   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Great Basin ATV-SUV Trails, Southern]

The tracks are almost spot-on, with the exception of a couple of areas where he took an alternate route around a rock or some such.

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GPS Maps 105: Northing, Easting and Mercators Oh My

[This post is part five in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.]

Believe it or not both of these maps at the top of the post are REAL projections of the world map. I would hate to have to use them to ride offroad on my ATV but real projections none the less – just not the kind we're going to talk about today. In dutiful compliance with readers who have so far chided me for "ignoring" the UTM Coordinate system, this post is all about it.

However, I must confess that I sort of feel like a "lamb going to the slaughter" because I don't promise that after we are through you will understand it any better than you do now. I know that I don't think I do, and I've been studying the stuff almost non-stop for five months.

If you thought the last post about spheroids and datums was tough – hang on, this may be a bumpy ride! You almost need to forget everything we've talked about so far (except that the earth is not round) because it's all different as we will soon see. And the bass-ackward differences couldn't be anything except deliberate.

Your best bet during this discussion would be to keep reminding yourself that this UTM stuff was invented back when most of our worlds were what we could display on one map – and did not need to be concerned about the 'big picture.'

Just keep your mind focused that you are trying to merely solve the problem of looking at YOUR journey in YOUR corner of the world, draw it on a paper making it "look like" the ground that YOU were on, be able to easily visualize and calculate YOUR distances and YOU don't even know that there are "THEMS"… much less that there is an Australia.

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USGS Map Waypoints: Arizona

I have it on good authority that Arizona "felt left out" of what is turning out to be a major life's work for me in these western states USGS waypoint files.

Five hours of work, 43,752 waypoints (including those beginning outside the state) and Fifteen counties later… we have mappage.   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Arizona USGS Waypoints]

I never realized that Arizona 7th graders had it so easy in their history class when it came time to memorize the counties in the state – only fifteen. And the file size is only a tenth of California's.

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GPS Maps 104: Satellites, Spheres and Datums

[This post is part four in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.]

I don't know about you but had I been around in the time of the early navigators and been stuck with doing the job, I'd have been just like most of them: staying up at night trying to find a "happy accident" (like the star Polaris just happening to be squatting permanently above the north pole) in order to make the figuring out of Longitude at least bearable.

They couldn't do it. And knowing what we know now I'm sure I would have wasted my time too – with Hubble we now know that there isn't any such "short-cut". Wind up or battery driven watches seem to be the only answer for Longitude.

However, just cause God didn't give us no Geo-synchronous celestial landmark doesn't mean that we can't… or shouldn't… or haven't made up for the seeming… "oversight."

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USGS Map Waypoints: Montana

I bet no one saw this coming: I completed the file with all the USGS Waypoints for Montana. Neither did I.

Why did I do Montana before Arizona or Colorado, Offroading Homes usual group of states with offroad maps? One reason – I haven't heard anything from readers in either of those states for a long time and I had a brand new trail submission from Montana.

Besides, lest we all forget, this is the state with Yellowstone! They even have a county named: Lewis and Clark!

So 54 hand-coded, mind-numbing counties and 65,249 waypoints later – "we've got mappage!"   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Montana USGS Features]

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GPS Maps 103: Coordinate Commandoes - Lewis and Clark

[This post is part three in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.]

By now you realize that there are many ways to represent geographical data, even for the same location; and most likely you have found a favorite method based upon what works for you.

Decimal Degrees: 36.9956433, -112.0059717
Decimal Minutes: N36° 59.7386, W112° 0.3583
Deg-Min-Sec: N36° 59' 44.316", W112° 0' 21.498"
    (DMS)

And what works for you pretty much depends on how you go about navigating in the field and the ratio of paper to electronics you have in your life. The more paper – the more you fumble with degrees, minutes and seconds.

Also, after reading the previous posts, you should be able to recognize that every one of these coordinates point to the identical place – The Wave in southern Utah and Arizona. But, I can tell you, I had a mighty easier time obtaining these numbers than those intrepid souls who attempted it a hundred, fifty or even thirty years ago!

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GPS Maps 102: Coordinate Systems and Conversions

[This post is part two in a multi-part series about understanding the GPS system and its coordinate grid.]

Ok, you should remember from the last time we spoke that there are "Parallels of Longitude" drawn east-west [equator] and "Meridians of Latitude" drawn north-south [Greenwich Prime Meridian] and where any of them cross into each other is where you are! [or want to be]

But, the main thing is, that those coordinates are radial angles expressed in degrees or fractions thereof and have nothing to do with actual distances – except probably tangentially (speaking linguistically not geometrically).

Additionally, thousands of years of "trial and error" efforts have left us with several, sometimes very confusing, alternate methods of recording locations and often the need to convert from one old system to the other.

Conversion Between Systems

It may be cumbersome, but it is not impossible for a rider to convert from the Decimal system into the Sexagesimal system [of or relating to or reckoning in sixtieths]; or, as commonly called the DMS (Degrees/Minutes/Seconds) system – again, they are NOT the same.

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USGS Map Waypoints: Nevada

Cathedral Gorge

I mentioned that I had created a USGS Features Master File for Clark County Nevada, as I had done for Utah and I recieved several requests for other counties as well. So here it is: The entire state of Nevada!   [For a free Google Earth file of this route see: Nevada USGS Features]

All of us have our favorite riding areas and once we have ridden all the way there we just hate to find that we had missed something. Especially if we later find that our track went within yards of something interesting.

I hear that all the time from riders who have taken a ride then afterwards found our Master Maps containing all the extra waypoints for items of local interest. A trip is all the more enjoyable when you know about all the things you are seeing.

The Cathedral Gorge for example, just up old US93. Well worth a day's journey up from Las Vegas. That's a place I'd have never known about except that I saw it on the "Features File" that I had open when I was looking at a trail which had been submitted.

While I have been wandering around the web I have found that there are a few other sites who have now stumbled upon these USGS Feature files which are created with taxpayers money and available free of charge from the USGS…

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GPS Maps 101: The Numbers

[This post is part one of a multiple part series about understanding and using GPS coordinates in offroad travel: Latitude, Longitude and coordinate display conventions.]

One of the most universally known, but nearly always the least understood, object is — the circle.

All at the same time it is so elemental that the youngest of children can recognize it, turn around it and tell you that wheels, balls and clocks are all circles; but, so sophisticated that it nearly takes a PhD in mathematics to understand and use it.

It takes a bit more sophistication, but not much, to know that you can divide it into segments, either equal or not; and, that when the segments are uniform they "look right," like spokes of a wheel and numbers on a clock, when they aren't, they don't.

Ask any middle-school child to do a "one-eighty" and see if they understand or a skate-boarder if they can do a "three-sixty." There will not be a moments hesitation.

Very little after first grade do we learn that the big hand is half-way between one and two when it's "one thirty." But talk about "degrees" and you had better be referring to wearing a coat or eyes will roll and corneas will glaze over.

Why are there 360 degrees in a circle? …

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Great Basin SUV Trails: Southern Nevada

Well it's done. There are some great SUV ATV offroad trails in the new map; but, I have to say that it's completion was pretty much through obsessive-compulsive cussedness. It wasn't an excessive amount of fun.

If I'm not riding, then going through others' rides and coding them for all to see — I like; sweating through and correcting errors, clarifying directions and filling in omissions – not so much!

I've spent the past month or so gleaning location information for trails from a book that I've had on the shelf for some time: "Great Basin SUV Trails, Vol 1 Southern Nevada."

I have to say that finding some errors and feeling that I needed to verify every waypoint…

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