I assume there are other low tech people out there like me who struggle to figure out the basics of technology. After three years walking with my GPS alone on untraveled caminos, I have finally acquired a sense of comfort with my little Garmin Dakota GPS. The first year, on the Olvidado, I hated it and couldn't figure it out, though at one crucial spot near an abandoned coal mine, it set me straight. The second, on the Girona/Catalan, it was hit or miss, sometimes I could figure it out, sometimes I couldn't. This past year, on the Ebro/Castellano-Aragones and San Olav, my GPS and I reached an understanding, and it saved me on numerous occasions. In fact, at one spot on the Castellano-Aragones, it would have been unsafe for me to walk without the GPS-- remote, twisting hills, no people, no arrows, etc. On the San Olav, Reb and I would have spent a lot of time wandering aimlessly.
We are lucky to have some GPS experts on the forum -- Gunnar, newfydog and Dougfitz (and many others I can't remember) displayed endless patience and helpfulness in sharing their wisdom.
But I thought that learning the experience of a dummie might also be of help to some who are struggling with that little machine. So here are the very simple things I have learned about my Garmin Dakota.
-- Get basecamp on your computer and download tracks from wikiloc or your favorite online GPS source. Even I could figure out how to do the download, wikiloc makes it simple.
-- Transfer tracks from your computer to your GPS. That is also fairly simple, there are tabs to "send to device." BUT make sure that you send them to the memory card you have bought and put in the device and not to the device itself. The GPS itself has a limited memory and if you load up your device with all these tracks, you will find that at some point, the device starts "archiving" tracks to get rid of the overload, and then you can't access them. I learned this the hard way on year two. Since all of this is done at home before walking, I always cheat and get help anyway.
USING the GPS.
-- The GPS will do two things at once -- it will both record what you are walking (that track is referred to as the "current track") and it will also allow you to follow the tracks you have downloaded from someone else. Those are all available in the "track manager" section. As a dummie/novice, I am way more interested in following someone else's tracks but have learned how to save my own tracks. Following someone else's tracks is straightforward, but sometimes at the micro level it is hard to figure out which way to go. You will have to play around with zooming out to see the big picture and zooming in to see the detail of the intersection you have come to. If you are in doubt at an intersection, walk in one direction and after a few minutes look at your GPS to see if the black line (that's you) matches up with the recorded track. If not, backtrack and correct.
-- How to record and save your own tracks. These instructions have been burned into my brain, they come directly from Gunnar.
BEFORE WALKING:
1. Turn on GPS and go to Setup
2. Go to Reset
3. Reset Trip data? Sure? YES
(This makes sure that you start off the day with a clean slate, because sometimes after walking I unintentionally had the GPS running and that made it kind of a mess at the beginning)
AFTER WALKING
1. Track Manager
2. Select Current TRack
3. Save Current track (it will automatically save it with the date as the "name" of the track, you can change the name with the alphabet keypad but I find that cumbersome). Press done
4. When asked after saving if it should clear current track, say yes.
And here are a few more things I've learned:
-- Sometimes the tracks mysteriously disappeared -- when I turned on the machine, there were no tracks in "track manager". I learned, I think it was thanks to Doug, that what had happened was that when changing batteries, I had inadvertently moved the memory card so it was no longer making contact. The memory card sits right behind the batteries with a little floppy clip and moves easily. My solution was to always change batteries one at a time, so the card stays put.
-- When your track is being recorded , there will be either a "back arrow" or an "X" on the lower left. If it's a back arrow, it means that you have (probably inadvertently) "way marked" a spot on your track. Just hit the back arrow to clear it. If the X is showing, it means the recording is going along just fine, and the X will take you out of whatever track you are in so that you can consult other tracks. Even when you do this, your GPS keeps recording your track, though. I did this when I was trying to figure out how Alansykes and I had come in differently into some town on the Castellano-Aragones. But you can always get back to the track you want to follow by going to track manager and scrolling down the list of tracks. The GPS seems to put the tracks that are the closest to your current location at the top of the list, so you don't have to look through too many. And every time you open one of the tracks you have downloaded, the GPS will put you at the spot on the track where you are located, so it's easy to flip back and forth.
--One day for some reason my entire screen turned pink. I had no idea what was going on. I asked a couple of young kids who were playing with phones and they tried to figure it out but to no avail. Finally, I remembered the advice of my tech office at work -- if you can't figure it out, turn off the machine and reboot. And that solved the problem!
I know that many people have strong opinions on the GPS, and I will admit that I had to make a conscious effort to avoid relying on it as my "go to" source. I would only look at it if the arrows were unclear, if there were no arrows, etc. I just didn't want to be that person walking with her head facing down into the GPS. But that takes willpower. Once I hit the Salvador/Primitivo, I put the GPS away and relied only on arrows, since those routes are so well marked and well traveled. But the first day going out of Leon on the Salvador, I felt some mild nervousness when I came to an intersection where the way to go wasn't immediately clear. But after the first few hours, I was "weaned" from the GPS and happily back to self- reliance.
-- To transfer tracks from your GPS back to your computer. It's easy, once you have walked, if you want to look at your tracks on basecamp, just plug the GPS into the computer and open basecamp and then hit on "device"/"receive from device." Then up pops a screen telling you what your options are and you can retrieve the tracks from your GPS to basecamp.
-- To post tracks on wikiloc. That is also easy. I am sure I am doing it in a roundabout way but this works for me so I'm sticking to it. First you have to "export" your files to a download in your documents so that you can then upload your files from your downloads onto the web/wikiloc. For me, that just involves highlighting the file you want to upload to wikiloc, clicking on File/Export/Export Selection and clicking on it. That moves the track to a pdf file in downloads. Once your tracks are in your downloads, go to wikiloc, and click on upload. It will then give you the option of "selecting the file" by browsing, and you find your downloads, and scroll through them till you find the pdf you want. Then wikiloc takes you through a few screens, where you can add pictures, rate the trail, tell whether it's hiking, biking, etc, and a few other things. And then the trail is there for all to see!
-- To get tracks from wikiloc to your GPS or to your computer. There is some way to transfer files directly from wikiloc to the GPS but it requires a "Garmin Communicator" and I have always been unable to figure out how to get it on my computer and then use it. SO, I do it the old fashioned way, transferring them first onto my computer by downloading the trail, then going to basecamp and going File/Import and it will take me to my downloads. I select the track I want to get onto the computer, and click, and it then becomes a track on my computer.
The GPS can do an amazing number of other things -- tell you how fast you're walking, how much elevation gain you've had, how far you are from the next stop, etc etc. But since I'm not a big techie in "real life", that wasn't much of a temptation for me. And I really wanted to keep the GPS as something that would help me out in a pinch, not as my constant companion.
I would never recommend that anyone use a GPS on the Frances, Norte, Portugues, Vdlp, Sanabres, Primitivo, etc. On those caminos, it's overkill, but that's just my opinion.
So, I know this is long-winded but I was just cleaning out my backpack and found all these notes so decided to write it up while it was fresh in my mind. And since next year I will be starting off from the beginning again, maybe these notes will help me remember how to use it! Buen camino, Laurie
We are lucky to have some GPS experts on the forum -- Gunnar, newfydog and Dougfitz (and many others I can't remember) displayed endless patience and helpfulness in sharing their wisdom.
But I thought that learning the experience of a dummie might also be of help to some who are struggling with that little machine. So here are the very simple things I have learned about my Garmin Dakota.
-- Get basecamp on your computer and download tracks from wikiloc or your favorite online GPS source. Even I could figure out how to do the download, wikiloc makes it simple.
-- Transfer tracks from your computer to your GPS. That is also fairly simple, there are tabs to "send to device." BUT make sure that you send them to the memory card you have bought and put in the device and not to the device itself. The GPS itself has a limited memory and if you load up your device with all these tracks, you will find that at some point, the device starts "archiving" tracks to get rid of the overload, and then you can't access them. I learned this the hard way on year two. Since all of this is done at home before walking, I always cheat and get help anyway.
USING the GPS.
-- The GPS will do two things at once -- it will both record what you are walking (that track is referred to as the "current track") and it will also allow you to follow the tracks you have downloaded from someone else. Those are all available in the "track manager" section. As a dummie/novice, I am way more interested in following someone else's tracks but have learned how to save my own tracks. Following someone else's tracks is straightforward, but sometimes at the micro level it is hard to figure out which way to go. You will have to play around with zooming out to see the big picture and zooming in to see the detail of the intersection you have come to. If you are in doubt at an intersection, walk in one direction and after a few minutes look at your GPS to see if the black line (that's you) matches up with the recorded track. If not, backtrack and correct.
-- How to record and save your own tracks. These instructions have been burned into my brain, they come directly from Gunnar.
BEFORE WALKING:
1. Turn on GPS and go to Setup
2. Go to Reset
3. Reset Trip data? Sure? YES
(This makes sure that you start off the day with a clean slate, because sometimes after walking I unintentionally had the GPS running and that made it kind of a mess at the beginning)
AFTER WALKING
1. Track Manager
2. Select Current TRack
3. Save Current track (it will automatically save it with the date as the "name" of the track, you can change the name with the alphabet keypad but I find that cumbersome). Press done
4. When asked after saving if it should clear current track, say yes.
And here are a few more things I've learned:
-- Sometimes the tracks mysteriously disappeared -- when I turned on the machine, there were no tracks in "track manager". I learned, I think it was thanks to Doug, that what had happened was that when changing batteries, I had inadvertently moved the memory card so it was no longer making contact. The memory card sits right behind the batteries with a little floppy clip and moves easily. My solution was to always change batteries one at a time, so the card stays put.
-- When your track is being recorded , there will be either a "back arrow" or an "X" on the lower left. If it's a back arrow, it means that you have (probably inadvertently) "way marked" a spot on your track. Just hit the back arrow to clear it. If the X is showing, it means the recording is going along just fine, and the X will take you out of whatever track you are in so that you can consult other tracks. Even when you do this, your GPS keeps recording your track, though. I did this when I was trying to figure out how Alansykes and I had come in differently into some town on the Castellano-Aragones. But you can always get back to the track you want to follow by going to track manager and scrolling down the list of tracks. The GPS seems to put the tracks that are the closest to your current location at the top of the list, so you don't have to look through too many. And every time you open one of the tracks you have downloaded, the GPS will put you at the spot on the track where you are located, so it's easy to flip back and forth.
--One day for some reason my entire screen turned pink. I had no idea what was going on. I asked a couple of young kids who were playing with phones and they tried to figure it out but to no avail. Finally, I remembered the advice of my tech office at work -- if you can't figure it out, turn off the machine and reboot. And that solved the problem!
I know that many people have strong opinions on the GPS, and I will admit that I had to make a conscious effort to avoid relying on it as my "go to" source. I would only look at it if the arrows were unclear, if there were no arrows, etc. I just didn't want to be that person walking with her head facing down into the GPS. But that takes willpower. Once I hit the Salvador/Primitivo, I put the GPS away and relied only on arrows, since those routes are so well marked and well traveled. But the first day going out of Leon on the Salvador, I felt some mild nervousness when I came to an intersection where the way to go wasn't immediately clear. But after the first few hours, I was "weaned" from the GPS and happily back to self- reliance.
-- To transfer tracks from your GPS back to your computer. It's easy, once you have walked, if you want to look at your tracks on basecamp, just plug the GPS into the computer and open basecamp and then hit on "device"/"receive from device." Then up pops a screen telling you what your options are and you can retrieve the tracks from your GPS to basecamp.
-- To post tracks on wikiloc. That is also easy. I am sure I am doing it in a roundabout way but this works for me so I'm sticking to it. First you have to "export" your files to a download in your documents so that you can then upload your files from your downloads onto the web/wikiloc. For me, that just involves highlighting the file you want to upload to wikiloc, clicking on File/Export/Export Selection and clicking on it. That moves the track to a pdf file in downloads. Once your tracks are in your downloads, go to wikiloc, and click on upload. It will then give you the option of "selecting the file" by browsing, and you find your downloads, and scroll through them till you find the pdf you want. Then wikiloc takes you through a few screens, where you can add pictures, rate the trail, tell whether it's hiking, biking, etc, and a few other things. And then the trail is there for all to see!
-- To get tracks from wikiloc to your GPS or to your computer. There is some way to transfer files directly from wikiloc to the GPS but it requires a "Garmin Communicator" and I have always been unable to figure out how to get it on my computer and then use it. SO, I do it the old fashioned way, transferring them first onto my computer by downloading the trail, then going to basecamp and going File/Import and it will take me to my downloads. I select the track I want to get onto the computer, and click, and it then becomes a track on my computer.
The GPS can do an amazing number of other things -- tell you how fast you're walking, how much elevation gain you've had, how far you are from the next stop, etc etc. But since I'm not a big techie in "real life", that wasn't much of a temptation for me. And I really wanted to keep the GPS as something that would help me out in a pinch, not as my constant companion.
I would never recommend that anyone use a GPS on the Frances, Norte, Portugues, Vdlp, Sanabres, Primitivo, etc. On those caminos, it's overkill, but that's just my opinion.
So, I know this is long-winded but I was just cleaning out my backpack and found all these notes so decided to write it up while it was fresh in my mind. And since next year I will be starting off from the beginning again, maybe these notes will help me remember how to use it! Buen camino, Laurie
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