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It's never too late to get back into hiking and gps question

PostPosted: Fri 26 Sep, 2014 2:52 pm
by AtomicPopcorn
Hi to all on the forums, this is my first post but I've been reading the forums for a while.
In my late teens and early twenties I did allot of off track hiking (mostly in the Yengo Nat park). I'm 20 years older and quite a few kilos heavier now but I've always enjoyed walking and car camping (Yea I know, I got lazy).
Last year we moved to the Blue Mountains where I've rediscovered my love of hiking. Mainly due to so many day walks available in the Blue Mountains along with the curiosity of standing at a lookout and thinking "I wonder what it's like down in that valley and how I'd get there".
I've done one solo overnight from Woodford to Sprinwood and this weekend a friend and I are heading down to Dadder Cave. I know these are pretty easy excursions but I'm easing myself back into things and being cautious.

I have a map and compass but to be extra careful I've purchased a basic gps and downloaded the NSW topos for it and started mapping some routes I'd like to eventually do. I've done some searching and found a small number of gpx files to import into my gps (6 foot track and Katoomba to Wentworth falls). Even though there are many track notes and great sites like wildwalks to help planning, I can't find any gpx files that I could load into my gps to use out in the bush.
I hope I'm not breaching any hiker etiquette by asking this (no gps when I was hiking) but I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share some of their gpx files if they have some. I'm staying small at first and doing walks around Glenbrook but I'd eventually like to do some walks in the Grose (upper and lower) and Jamison valley.
I could manually map them from the topo track markings but from reading trip reports and track notes it seems they can be wrong or old.
I've read the forum rules too and have noticed that gps files shouldn't be posted publicly so if you would be willing to share please private message me.
I'd be more than happy to exchange files I walk but I kind of think the walks I'll be doing for the next while will be already mapped
Thanks for reading. :)

Re: It's never too late to get back into hiking and gps ques

PostPosted: Tue 30 Sep, 2014 12:24 am
by icefest
Grab Ent's Australian trails, He's made an garmin IMG with all australian walking tracks of OSM.

Re: It's never too late to get back into hiking and gps ques

PostPosted: Fri 03 Oct, 2014 5:02 pm
by AtomicPopcorn
Thanks for the advice. I looked into it and much of it goes over my head and I can't figure it out.
I do use a Magellan though and not a Garman so I don't think I can import the .img files. I'm pretty new to using gps' and as far as importing tacks and routes I've figured out how to import gpx and kml files so far.
I also experimented with Mobile Atlas Creator which I found to be excellent but my little Explorist 310 locks up when I tried using it's generated maps.
As I was hiking that weekend I wanted something quickly and something that I hoped wouldn't crash on me. So I went and purchased the Magellan map pack which I know is inferior but at least it didn't lock up.
I must say, my experiences with gps so far haven't been very "intuitive". I'm glad I had my topo map and compass with me on the hike.
I'm interested in tracks and routes more than maps though. I found I used the gps to confirm I was generally "on track" and relied on the map and compass for actual navigation. Perhaps its different with the more expensive gps units on the market.
Thanks again for your advice.

Re: It's never too late to get back into hiking and gps ques

PostPosted: Fri 03 Oct, 2014 6:16 pm
by GPSGuided
That's a bummer. Magellan kind of limits your access to a number of valuable resources off the net.

An alternative is go the smartphone route. Do you have one? Most now have built-in GPS functionality and there are many good mapping maps to go with it.