I suspect that most outdoorsmen have traveled a maze of back roads, and logging spurs to get to a jump-off point. In this scenario the outdoorsman must travel about 30 miles on poorly signed dirt roads. The signs have been there in the past but have a short life span because of vandalism. At times vandals turn the signs around to misdirect travelers. Once the traveler is on foot he must travel around a steep peak, but stay at the head of numerous small drainages that finger out from the peak. The traveler can easily miss the ridge he wants to follow to the bottom of the mountain and meet his ride. The route is designed to miss fenced private land. The private land blocks the easiest route.
The slopes are steep, there is a lot of lose rock and shale, and the vegetation is thick. A forest fire burned in the area fifty years ago. A large number of old fire kill trees are jack-strawed on the ground. Once one gets around the North Face of the peak one can see a tall distant peak and take a bearing on it with a compass. But the peak disappears once one drops down the ridge, but the bearing on the compass is still good.
Today I have a Garmin 76C or 76Cx Mapping Gps. Most of the following is valid with my old Garmin Legend. In addition I will have my GMRS/FRS radio with me. The foot trip off the mountain is close to four miles, with a drop of over 2000 feet in elevation. I will have two or three quarts of water in my Day Pack along with food and other equipment. Once one starts down this mountain climbing back up to your vehicle is not the best option. Either one pre-positions a vehicle at the base of the mountain or they meet somebody at the bottom. That is where the radio comes in handy.
When my brothers and I were young Dad would drop us off at the top of a mountain and hours later we would find him at the bottom. I know a few times we were exhausted and had sore feet at the bottom. It would have been nice to call him on a radio and let him know our position.
I prefer to use USGS State Series Maps for detailed maps. Maps from this software cannot be loaded on you gps unit. But you can transfer waypoints, routes, and tracks to and from the unit. I have been lax and have not update my older version of the State series and I ordered the update so that I can use the USB cord. So I will use the USGS States Series for the best detail. I will then print the map(s) so that I can have them with me, a copy to my pickup person, and a copy with my wife in case we do not show up. This country has old mine and air shafts dating back to the gold rush in it besides the other hazards of hiking in steep country.
The finished Route then can be loaded from my computer to my gps unit(s). In my case I would load this into both my units so the person picking me up would know my planned route. Should a hiking companion have a Garmin Mapping Gps I can also load the Route on to their unit from my laptop.
I opened MapSource US Topo to the general area I was interested in. The MapSource Tool bar offers a number of options. The Key options used in this project was the Zoom to move in and out on the map, the Hand to move the map around, the Waypoint tool to create need waypoints, and the Route tool. When I made a mistake I would go back to edit>undo and select the item I want to change. The learning curve is rather short.
I created a Waypoint at my starting point. This was at a junction with the State Highway and the road going into the backcountry. I then created Waypoints at main road junctions. At 0300 all these dirt road junctions look the same in the headlights. After four road junctions I came to the dirt road that would take me closer to my jump-off point. I created a Waypoint at that location. I then created a feel good Waypoint a few miles up the road. Again when traveling in the dark of night you are only seeing what your headlights are showing you. On my map I used the Red Flag as my Waypoint symbol.
At the road junction with the narrow track I need to travel I created another Waypoint. When analyzing the USGS map I found a spring not far from this track. I created a Waypoint and showed a dripping faucet as the symbol.
Again I closely reviewed the USGS map for the best route around a steep peak, but at the top of the gullies that come off the peak. A wrong turn and I would drop into a drainage taking me miles out of the way. This is roadless country, putting me on my own. I generated three Waypoints spaced about a mile apart. The objective was to get me around the shoulder of the peak and down the correct ridge. About a mile up from the pickup point I needed to take a narrow steep ridge down to the road. I created a Waypoint at this location using the hiking man symbol. The reason for this detour was that I want to avoid fence private property at the bottom.
I then took the Routing tool and followed the road between my waypoints. This created a highlighted route with additional points. These points do not show-up in the Waypoint list. There not showing is good.
Important: I downloaded to my computer existing waypoints so that they would not be lost. The newly create waypoints became additions to my current waypoints on the computer. When you load data from a computer to a Garmin gps it will remove the existing data. You protect that data by saving it first.
I then loaded the new Route and the Waypoint list on to my 76Cx. I reviewed it and was happy with the outcome. As a check, I then successfully loaded the data on to my 76C. Again success.
What might I do different? When using the Routing Tool I could have created more Points. By Left clicking on the mouse you can create a number of points. I did this on some switchbacks but not on others. A little more patience on a mountain road my pay off. If you are very detail person you can click away. I know I will click a little more in the future.
Another feature of the Garmin 60C/Cx/CSx and 76C/Cx/CSx series gps units is the ability to create Proximity Waypoints. This allows you to establish alarm circles around a limited number of Waypoints. Should I decided to follow this route next year, one of the first things I am going to do is make the Waypoints at key intersections Proximity Waypoints. Depending on the features of the intersection I may set the Proximity circle at quarter to a tenth of a mile. When my GPS crosses the circle boundary an alarm tone is sounded by the unit. The alarm is sounded again when the unit leaves the circle. There is a limit on the number of Proximity Waypoints the unit can hold. I choose to manage how I use them.
Because these old logging roads are not well maintained there maybe hazardous locations that will cause me to create a Proximity Waypoint, use the skull and cross bones symbol to identify the area.
While out hunting I turn the tones off in my gps. I do not want to alert game.
To take a step in review, there are better Topo software programs then MapSource for producing maps. But US Topo is designed to work in a Garmin Mapping GPS. It does a good job on a small gps screen. And the built in feature such as Points of Interest make it a value.
