skiper
Guest
Yes Yes - Wind Up and Go.. and if you are indecisive why not try a game board spinner velcrowed to the cockpit dash.. Spin and Go - and where you Stop - no one yet Knows ,, 
Where do you get your routes?
- Thread starter savantelite
- Start date
Skiper, that sounds like an "interesting" approach to routing!
I've always to try a "downwind" ride. That is ride whichever way the wind is blowing that day. That is an idea that was hatched while bicycle touring, but could be adapted to motorcycling too. And with a motorcycle you even have a motor to get home with if it is into the wind.
Jim that reminds me of four guys I met in Utah once. I was leading a mixed-age group of about 15 folks (ages 13-70) on a week-long supported bicycle camping tour for the church. These guys were on their annual week-long ride. They'd get up every morning and go downwind, wherever that took them. Then at the end of the week, they'd call their wives as they started riding on the last morning and the wives would go meet them, they'd all spend a day or two together and then ride home in the cars with their wives.
The day we met, we were facing about 60 miles into a pretty strong wind between St. George and Cedar City and their idea sounded a lot better than ours.
I too am blessed with this gift. From early on I have been able to navigate in new areas without difficulty. This became evident to me in Boy Scouts and then in the USMC. At first, I thought that everybody had this ability, but not so. I am grateful for it. I didn't know it had a name.
Mike
vzshadow
0
If I have a specific destination I'm most comfortable with a map, a piece of paper. I guess that comes from more than 40 years of looking at geologic maps.
I love map navigating and can also tell direction most of the time. I used to navigate for the helicopter pilots I rode with. Most of them were terrible at navigating. And I rarely used a compass (they weren't very useful on a 60ton tank ). I do love good topo maps. I wish I could afford them for all my routes. I have found that AAA maps are the better road maps. The "Recreation" maps are also pretty good. Standard Rand McNally are getting pretty bad.
I have been in a couple situations where all that has failed me. One was pea soup fog when riding in a tank. Could not even see the ground from the turret, nor even a brighter spot where the sun was. After an hour or so I finally figured out where north was, but, it didn't do much good as I could not tell where the dirt road was.
The second was a pitch black night. I could find north, but, not where I was on the map, even though I was in familiar territory. When you can't see something 5 feet in front of you it gets difficult
Roads will sometimes get me as a road that looks to go north will actually end up going east or west (or sometimes even south). Been caught on enough of those to be wary. The eastern part of the US is really bad about that.
And the way road signs are marked in some towns is wrong. They will some times have a highway follow their business section instead of where it should have gone in the first place.
I find the GPS most useful when I am in strange territory, map isn't detailed enough to see specific roads, and I need gas, or to find a specific address. I also like that it gives me accurate distance information without having to study the map while riding, as well as marking things like gas stations, rest areas and such.
When in unfamiliar territory I usually have a map in the case as well as the GPS.
It's all in how you use the tools you have.
). I do love good topo maps. I wish I could afford them for all my routes. I have found that AAA maps are the better road maps. The "Recreation" maps are also pretty good. Standard Rand McNally are getting pretty bad.I have been in a couple situations where all that has failed me. One was pea soup fog when riding in a tank. Could not even see the ground from the turret, nor even a brighter spot where the sun was. After an hour or so I finally figured out where north was, but, it didn't do much good as I could not tell where the dirt road was.
The second was a pitch black night. I could find north, but, not where I was on the map, even though I was in familiar territory. When you can't see something 5 feet in front of you it gets difficult
Roads will sometimes get me as a road that looks to go north will actually end up going east or west (or sometimes even south). Been caught on enough of those to be wary. The eastern part of the US is really bad about that.
And the way road signs are marked in some towns is wrong. They will some times have a highway follow their business section instead of where it should have gone in the first place.
I find the GPS most useful when I am in strange territory, map isn't detailed enough to see specific roads, and I need gas, or to find a specific address. I also like that it gives me accurate distance information without having to study the map while riding, as well as marking things like gas stations, rest areas and such.
When in unfamiliar territory I usually have a map in the case as well as the GPS.
It's all in how you use the tools you have.
If not in a real hurry there are tons of little county roads around that can offer great scenery and good roads.....BUT....it is a gamble as the roads can be pretty bad and towns non-existent. You can also run into unpaved roads, especially out here in the desert.
We frequently take a gamble on these and have had quite a bit of good luck, mostly when in CO and CA.
We frequently take a gamble on these and have had quite a bit of good luck, mostly when in CO and CA.
I've been "lost" twice in my life. The first time was in Temple, TX. We had been to supper with friends north of there and were on our way home. I'd noticed a street beside the Gibson store on I-35 that pointed straight at Scott-White Hospital on the SE side of Temple, where the road we wanted to take south towards Taylor, TX, left Temple. So rather than jog all over through downtown Temple to get to that highway, I headed off down that street beside Gibsons. It was an overcast night, so no stars. The street went down into a lower area and I couldn't see any of the familiar city lights when it entered a brand-new subdivision, with no homes, no street signs, no lights, and, worst of all, no straight streets. We ended up on the SE corner of the subdivision on a gravel road that turned into a dirt 2-track that ended up in front of a farm-house with a whole pack of howling hounds. I got out of there and back into the subdivision, and took another 15-20 minutes to get back out of it onto the street beside Gibsons.
The 2nd time I was on my first solo cross-country flight. I was going from Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, CA, to the Williams VOR (Very-high-frequency Omnidirectional Radio, a navigational aid in the central Valley, NNW of Sacramento) to Red Bluff, CA, and back to Santa Rosa. I had plotted checkpoints every 10-12 minutes along the way and my instructor had checked my flight-planning. My first checkpoint was Mt. St. Helena, a 5,000 peak clearly visible from Santa Rosa and directly on my course line. The second checkpoint was Mysterious Valley Airport, another 12 miles along my track. I flew over Mt. St Helena at my cruising altitude of 5500' and started looking for an airport in front of me. The Cessna 152 I was flying cruised at about 110mph, so I figured I'd see the airport in 2-3 minutes after passing St Helena. But 5 minutes went by and no airport was in sight. I had a moment of panic, thinking, "Oh, no! Here I am all by myself in an airplane and I'm lost!" Then I realized I wasn't lost, even if the airport I was looking for was. I looked out behind me and my rudder was bisecting Mt St Helena. I looked out to my left and saw the two 2500' Loran navigational antennae that I drove past when I drove from Santa Rosa to Williams. So, I pretty much knew exactly where I was, even if I never saw Mysterious Valley. I flew to the Williams VOR, which I was able to pick up on the planes navigation radio about five minutes later, on to Red Bluff, where I landed and refueled and then back to Santa Rosa.
When I walked into the building, my instructor was sitting there and asked me how it had gone. "Fine," I said. "No problems?" he asked. "Nope," says I. He sat there for a minute and finally couldn't stand it. "Did you find all your checkpoints?" I said, "Well, all of them but Mysterious Valley, but I'll bet you know that."
Turned out nobody ever saw Mysterious Valley. It was a camouflaged sky-diver's airport and they didn't want other planes landing. About four months later, I was flying to Fallon, NV, when I saw a DC-3 disgorge about 15 sky-divers and watched them land at Mysterious Valley. The DC-3 touched down, rolled a couple hundred yards and disappeared. Turned out they had a net stretched over the buildings and ramp of the airport and changed it with the seasons.
There have been another couple of times when I didn't exactly know where I was, but I knew how to get where I was going. When I rode in Europe, I used American AAA maps and they were pretty large scale. I took a lot of roads that weren't on my maps, but they always had signs pointing to places that were on my maps and that worked just fine.
I have a lot of the Rand McNalley laminated state maps that I use when I'm traveling. They don't have anywhere near all the small roads, but they fit in my tankbag's map case and, combined with the GPS, give me the big picture that's really all I need.
The 2nd time I was on my first solo cross-country flight. I was going from Sonoma County Airport in Santa Rosa, CA, to the Williams VOR (Very-high-frequency Omnidirectional Radio, a navigational aid in the central Valley, NNW of Sacramento) to Red Bluff, CA, and back to Santa Rosa. I had plotted checkpoints every 10-12 minutes along the way and my instructor had checked my flight-planning. My first checkpoint was Mt. St. Helena, a 5,000 peak clearly visible from Santa Rosa and directly on my course line. The second checkpoint was Mysterious Valley Airport, another 12 miles along my track. I flew over Mt. St Helena at my cruising altitude of 5500' and started looking for an airport in front of me. The Cessna 152 I was flying cruised at about 110mph, so I figured I'd see the airport in 2-3 minutes after passing St Helena. But 5 minutes went by and no airport was in sight. I had a moment of panic, thinking, "Oh, no! Here I am all by myself in an airplane and I'm lost!" Then I realized I wasn't lost, even if the airport I was looking for was. I looked out behind me and my rudder was bisecting Mt St Helena. I looked out to my left and saw the two 2500' Loran navigational antennae that I drove past when I drove from Santa Rosa to Williams. So, I pretty much knew exactly where I was, even if I never saw Mysterious Valley. I flew to the Williams VOR, which I was able to pick up on the planes navigation radio about five minutes later, on to Red Bluff, where I landed and refueled and then back to Santa Rosa.
When I walked into the building, my instructor was sitting there and asked me how it had gone. "Fine," I said. "No problems?" he asked. "Nope," says I. He sat there for a minute and finally couldn't stand it. "Did you find all your checkpoints?" I said, "Well, all of them but Mysterious Valley, but I'll bet you know that."
Turned out nobody ever saw Mysterious Valley. It was a camouflaged sky-diver's airport and they didn't want other planes landing. About four months later, I was flying to Fallon, NV, when I saw a DC-3 disgorge about 15 sky-divers and watched them land at Mysterious Valley. The DC-3 touched down, rolled a couple hundred yards and disappeared. Turned out they had a net stretched over the buildings and ramp of the airport and changed it with the seasons.
There have been another couple of times when I didn't exactly know where I was, but I knew how to get where I was going. When I rode in Europe, I used American AAA maps and they were pretty large scale. I took a lot of roads that weren't on my maps, but they always had signs pointing to places that were on my maps and that worked just fine.
I have a lot of the Rand McNalley laminated state maps that I use when I'm traveling. They don't have anywhere near all the small roads, but they fit in my tankbag's map case and, combined with the GPS, give me the big picture that's really all I need.