Plan a multi-day backpack trip with GaiaGPS.com
This video was made by Travis Prescott, who is an expert digital navigation instructor for the Seattle Mountaineers. Check out Travis’ website, TheAlpineGeek.com.
Backpackers: watch this excellent video and learn how to use modern navigation tools like GaiaGPS.com to plan a multi-day trip. (The example is for a backpack trip, but it certainly has applications for other types of wilderness travel.) The video is a bit longer than most, about 30 minutes, but it gets into some of the more advanced features of GaiaSGPS.com that make it such an effective planning tool.
Here are a few of the many trip planning tips covered in the video:
Using the “snap to trail” feature to make a track that exactly follows your trail
Using the “elevation profile” feature to figure out steepness and length of each trail segment
Stacking different map layers on top of each other by changing the opacity of a layer
Using folders to keep your map data organized
Creating waypoints with a name, color and symbol
Finding possible campsites and water sources
Using the Gaia “Public Tracks” map layer to see possible cross country scramble routes
A clever use of the “roadless areas” map layer to show where bail out possibilities might exist
And that's just what I remember. There’s more, good stuff, check it out!
Below is a screen grab, showing each segment of a multi-day trip, and campsite location.
