Sunday, October 9, 2011

Walk - Moccasin Kill Sanctuary

I just bought a new GPS, and wanted to see how it worked in the field. So I downloaded a map of the nearby Moccasin Kill Sanctuary, loaded it up, and set off for a short walk in the woods. This GPS (a Garmin eTrex 20, just released) is so far above the older GPS I'd been using for the past 10 years that it took some time to figure out. Once I spent some time with it, I can see that this new one will provide a lot of the things I've always been missing, the biggest of those being on-board topo maps. The other really neat feature is the ability to download any map as a JPG image and load it into the GPS for use on the ground. That's what I did today, and it worked well.

I walked all of the trails at the Sanctuary, but it only amounted to about 1.33 miles. But there was a lot of up and down and it was a warm day, so that was OK. It was clear that there had been a LOT of water running through here during last month's flooding events, with plenty of debris and rocks strewn about everywhere in the streambeds.

It was a short walk, but served its purpose. I traced all the trails with the GPS and came home and played some more with this new toy. Can't wait to use it for some real bushwhacking.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Rich! Have I seen you on a trail in the Mocc. Kill before? I roamed those parts as a teenager long before there were any marked trails. Have you gotten any deer ticks in any of those locations? I grew up in #1621 and #1650 the newest house on Crawford Road. Now it has a new owner, his name is John R. III. Go over and introduce yourself sometime. He's from Berne and he just wanted a little peace and quiet. Lucky man, that John, to live so close to a nature preserve.

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