Getting There with Goto

Kyoto: Hiking from Kibune to Kurama

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Fifth article in a seven-part series

Once you have a location saved in memory as a waypoint, you can activate an electronic direction finder that will take you right to your objective.

For example, I saved the location of my camp in memory before I headed out for a dayhike.

In the afternoon, when I'm tired, hungry, and more than happy to get back to my comforts, I'll press the "GOTO" button on my GPS. This brings up the waypoint list stored in memory. I select "CAMP," and my GPS calculates the bearing and distance from my present location. It also gives me "steer right" or "steer left" instructions to keep me on course. As long as I keep the indicator moving up the middle of the highway, I know I'm going in the right direction.

From where I'm standing, my GPS has calculated the correct compass bearing to camp to be 0270T and the distance as 7.99 kilometers. It also picked up on the fact that I'm actually walking on a bearing of 3360T and prompts me to turn right 510 to get back on course. It measures my speed as 2.9 kilometers per hour, which is not bad for some of the country around here.

Remember: A GPS course is "as the crow flies" and can't take obstacles or elevation changes into account.

When I've turned and started walking on the correct heading, the highway straightens up as my bearing and track come together. No correcting turn is indicated, letting me know camp lies straight ahead, 7.94 kilometers away.

I don't normally go running around the bush holding a GPS out in front of me. Instead, once I've determined the correct bearing back to camp, I'll set my compass, shown here dialed to 0280T (the declination has already been adjusted). Then I shut off the GPS to save batteries, take a compass bearing on an identifiable object in my path, and go for it. Later, If I want to check my campward progress, I can haul my GPS out of my pack.

If I really want to be sure, I'll orient my map to True North, measure where I am from the GPS coordinates and, using the compass, check the bearing to camp. If all three don't agree on where I am and where I want to go, then it's time to check my measurements and waypoints.

Garmin offers another helping hand in the form of a "distance and sun calculator." Bring up any two waypoints from memory and the calculator will determine the bearing from one to the other and the distance. It also gives the time for sunrise and sunset—very nice to know if you want to get back to camp before dark.