GPS used for pre-season scouting

[Siskiyou]

Not knowing what the summer might bring I took advantage of a trip the other day to do some early pre-season scouting.  I had been in an all day meeting so I did not get started hiking until a little after 1800 hrs.  I setup my Garmin Legend up to create a TRACK which I could later download to my computer.  Before I started hiking I checked the local sunset time on the gps and it was 2000 hrs.  Doing the scout I created three ways points at locations I found large deer tracks.

I also made note of two springs.(It is clear the drought and early spring snowmelt is affecting springs in the area which have lower flow levels in May of this year verus October 2002.)  I created waypoints for spring one and spring two.  

I also created a waypoint for the buck I shot in 2002, and a waypoint for the location I fired my shot.  

On returning home I download the info from the Legend to my computer.  I then created two maps.  One using the Garmin MapSource Topo software, and the other using National Geographic Topographic software.  

While I have a good general knowledge of the area I had not been in this drainage until the day in 2002 when I took a buck out of there.  Between work and the drawing for a tag the oppertunity to learn it in depth has not been there.  I gained a lot of knowledge in that 2.39 mile hike.  Now I can go in before daylight and be ready when legal shooting hours starts.

The real trick is drawing a tag for the area.

Siskiyou

[daddywpb]

My wife is buying me a Legend for my birthday/fathers day. I'm planning on using it for scouting over the summer also. Is downloading info from the Mapsource software helpful for scouting, and do you have the Metroguide CD? I'm trying to talk my way into getting the mapping software too. We've got a lot of ground to cover during the next few months.

[Siskiyou]

The mapsource Topo software is good because you can load maps on Legend which you can very at different levels on your gps screen.  Having spent a career in the woods I like this.  But I also have the National Geographic USGS Topographic Maps for my State on CD.  I can download my waypoints and tracks to the software and print detailed maps from it.  These maps will not upload to the Legend like the MapSource Maps will.

The scale of the USGS maps allow more detail.

I also have the DeLorme Topo software.  I find I hardley use this software because I have the other software.  The DeLorme software provide good detail.  I need to work with it more.

I have microsoft Streets and Trips loaded on my laptop.  I connect the Legend to it with the included pc cord.  I can track myself using the pc screen.

I do not have the Metroguide software.  I think there would be some real advantages to it.  I do find that the Topo software has many of the streets in older communities.  A while back I travelled to one of the San Francisco Bay area communites.  Before hand I had viewed the topo software loaded in the Garmin and checked the street I was going to in the Bay Area.  I then created a waypoint ahead of time to my target address.  I arrived withing a few feet.  This would not have worked if I was looking for an address in a new subdivision.  The building boom turn pastures into shopping centers.

Last summer I made a trip on short notice to Montana.  I did not have time to load the MapSource Topo maps on the Legend.  BUT the built-in North American Map was very useful.  It already contains the highways and the towns big and small.  It does not have the detailed street maps built-in.  I Missoula I was given an assignment in a small town some miles away.  I plugged in the name of the little cowtown and it pop-up.  Clearly a helpfull tool.