Finding lakes…GPS or old school?

[PopeShawnPaul]

I use to find lakes in the old days…10 years+ ago like the rest of us…with a good topo map and a compass. Sometimes I had to zig zag and sometimes I had to “look” around for some of the tiny lakes I would hike to. Now I’ve discovered that my gps is more than just a device to pinpoint my halibut and shrimp hotspots. I have used it on all my hikes this year and have had mixed results. I own the basic Garmin etrex. Anyone who owns it knows that it loses signal if a bird flies overhead, much less being under cover or trees. It works, however, and plots a nice line where I have been. When I get home I can sync it with my National Geographic Topo software and it shows me where I have been and saves my routes.

I see a huge advantage with this software. I can now plot routes on the map at home and upload them to the gps. I can save routes I have found and plot them on the topographic maps. More importantly for trailblazers, when you find a route to a lake, you can simply share the route by emailing the data to the friend. Additionally, the altitude functions and the ability to tell me how far the lake is has been extremely helpful.

Any yeah, I know some of you old timers will scoff at needing such a piece of equipment, but I think there are benefits to most people. In addition, I think this helps with backcountry safety. If you have been to some of the hell holes I have been to, getting lost for a period of time can be an issue. I remember one time I hiked and found the wrong lake. The lake I was looking for was one ridge over, but in the thick canyon brush I had lost my bearings.

So…what do you guys use? I can envision the ultimate setup being one of these Garmin 60CSX models that get reception under trees. Pair that with good topo software and I believe this is the greatest advancement in backcountry hiking/fishing in the last 20 years. Additionally, the exchange of date between others would be amazing. If I had a great route to say…Jordan Lakes…I could simply email it to another that is going to hike there the route I found that was easy. In terms of hiking to some of my spots, this would be a benefit. Often, the trail gets overgrown and I lose it from year after year. Not anymore. Anyone else have a system they are using? What GPS do you think is ideal and more importantly, what software?

[Brian Curtis]

I was never in the map and compass camp. I’ve always been a map and altimeter guy. I used to say that GPSrs weren’t where they needed to be but then one day someone pointed out that they finally were where they needed to be. I bought a 60cs and I’ve never looked back. I also use the Topo! software. I don’t tend to upload routes, though. I might put in some waypoints, but that’s about it. I’m now a confirmed map and GPSr guy. I love being able to save exactly where I’ve been hiking.

One other fun tool I use is GPS Photo Linker. It is a fabulous app that takes the time stamp on photos and compares them with time stamps on the save GPS track and puts the lat and long into the photo header. So all my photos can be geolocated.

[wwarner]

I am only 30, but the map and compass was drilled into my head in the military. We later used GPS, but I always liked that sense of accomplishment of getting to a location using nothing but a map and compass. I have found though, not everyone can use a map and compass well. You definitely need a good sense of where you have been, where you are, where you are going and being able to identify the smallest land formations on topo maps. It also helps to be able to keep an accurate count of your paces or get to a point where you just “know” how far you have gone. I will always have the map and compass with me. Maybe someday I will come into the technological world and buy an altimeter.

[giantbrookie]

I’d have to say I’m strictly Old School on this. In my profession as a geologist, GPS has a lot of uses (and I use it), but it can’t evaluate the feasibility of routes getting from point A to point B, and I don’t even remotely consider it in my future recreational hiking plans. I’ve used a topo map without a compass for hiking to my favorite CA high lakes (in contrast, as a geologist I use a compass for all sorts of things) for the 30+ years I’ve been planning and leading my own trips. Perhaps this is because the CA high country is relatively free of dense tree or vegetative cover, so the line of sight nearly always has distinctive topography one can locate off of. There were a few times doing off trail hikes in dense trees that I sort of wished I had a compass, but I always emerged from the greenery in good shape in the end. GPS gives exact position, but it doesn’t give you topography which one needs from a topo in order to navigate off trail. If I want to precisely relocate a rock sample I take for research purposes, GPS is the way to go. A high country lake is an enormous target by comparison, and a topo map is more than adequate to locate it, provided the topo is correct. If it isn’t, the GPS won’t really help you anyway. I mention this because I did find a lake in the Russian Wilderness that was mislocated on the topo map by a whopping 600 vertical feet. Imagine bushwhacking your way to the head of cirque only to find a brush covered bowl instead of a lake! This error was present in the old USGS 15′ series (the biggest error I’ve seen in that series) and also on the USFS Russian Wilderness topo. It was corrected on the new USFS Russian Wilderness topo (don’t know if it’s correct on 7.5′ USGS series). Too bad the error only obscured the location of a lake with average sized brookies; it would have been a nicer story if lunkers swam in there.

[Brian Curtis]

I should be clear that the GPS does not replace a paper topo map in any way. Instead, it supplements the map and adds another navigation aid. And I always leave it on to trace my route and later overlay the track on a topo map so I have an exact record. I find it to be a lot of fun.

We had several good sized lakes that were completely left off the 15 minute series here in WA. They were truly secret for a while. But they all appear on the new 7.5 minute maps.

[PopeShawnPaul]

What I think is so new and great about this situation is the new topographic software like TOPO. I would agree that if I’m going into a lake that I have never been before I use my topo map and pick the best route visually. However, I have found easy routes to lakes and not been able to find the “easy” route again in the future. Also, routes get overgrown. In addition, lets say that Brian has gone into a lake with his tracks on and then overlays his route on his software. This can create a route that he could email me so that I could follow his route. It also keeps track of time and how long it takes for reference in the future. I believe the new gps from Garmin has a good altimeter in it.

There is no doubt with just a topo map that I could find any lake I want to. It would just make it easier this way. I would love to have a database of tracks and routes for hikes that I can overlay on my mapping program. I have also noticed errors in the maps such as the trail routes they have on the maps. The tracks correct these mistakes. I think the exchange of information and integration with the new mapping software is the real advancement in navigation.

[giantbrookie]

@Brian Curtis wrote:

We had several good sized lakes that were completely left off the 15 minute series here in WA. They were truly secret for a while. But they all appear on the new 7.5 minute maps.

In point of fact, in addition to the monumental mislocation of Wicks Lake in Russian Wilderness, I know of at least three trailless trout-bearing lakes in the northern Sierra that were not shown on the 15′ series but are on the 7.5′–all in the same quad, no less. I admit in those three cases that I didn’t even know where these lakes were until I had the 7.5 in my hands (so they weren’t “secret” unlike Wicks, that I located by simply looking around and following my gut).

[bavnuts88]

In point of fact, in addition to the monumental mislocation of Wicks Lake in Russian Wilderness, I know of at least three trailless trout-bearing lakes in the northern Sierra that were not shown on the 15′ series but are on the 7.5′–all in the same quad, no less. I admit in those three cases that I didn’t even know where these lakes were until I had the 7.5 in my hands (so they weren’t “secret” unlike Wicks, that I located by simply looking around and following my gut).

Ah, a Fresno man. I grew up in Madera fishing Eastman and Hensley Lakes. Good bass.

Anyways, I just got a GPS today. Im gonna start mapping my tracks when I get the software. If anybody wants to share some good tracks on email, I’m game, as I will share mine when I get them. Daniel

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