Waypoints - Arizona Trail

imported
#1

Does anyone know the total waypoints for the AZT? I just ordered a GPS from REI that holds 500 (Garmin etrex venture HC) is that too little? Should I get the etrex vista hcx which holds 1000? I just got fired yesterday so Have little money but lots of ambition and time. I have an altimeter/ compass watch lacrosse tech XG-55, so these extra features arent that important on the second 100buck more expensive model.

I also am seriously considering the Grand Enchantment trail which has nearly 1000 waypoints. Is it nescasary to input all of these, or are some just redundant and can be deleted from the memory to create space?

A 100 bucks is alot so I just basically want an affirmation that the cheaper model is going to be just fine for me.

Thanks, Guino

Guino

#2

Guino, you’d be better off loading tracks into your GPS, as most receivers can store many more waypoints this way - typically 10,000, as 20 tracks of 500 each. See recent discussion about how to condense the AZT track logs down to 10k points.

If you’re more interested in using GPS for occasional location confirmation vis a vis some known waypoint along the route, you could manually enter waypoints and do a “go to” at that time. To get waypoints onto a map, you could import the AZT GPS data into TOPO!, toggle waypoint coordinate display “on”, and print custom maps.

I wouldn’t choose one trail over another based on how GPS friendly it might be. Although the G.E.T. map CD has all of the waypoints you’d likely need, (no need to plug them into a GPS until a time of need), still that doesn’t make this trail any easier, or preferable, to any other.

blisterfree

#3

I hiked the AZT last Fall and used a GPS. I wouldn’t get too hung up on needing to import the whole track or a million waypoints. If you can fine, if not it’s not a big deal. My GPS only took 500 waypoints so I just imported them from the AZT’s site (i selected them at random trying to get a good spacing). This is about 1 waypoint per 1.25 miles which is more than enough. The AZT is generally easy to follow and when there was a question having a waypoint within a mile was more than enough help.

Brian

#4

Thanks for the advice Brian and Blisterfree. I talked to Garmin this morning and they said that I could indeed manually enter points from a map on trail. I didn’t realize this was possible, never having used a GPS before. I am definitly (probably) going to end up doing the GET. I’ve already down some sections of the AZT, and wouldnt mind finishing that some time this year, but the GET is looking fairly alluring to me. I like the positive feeling your GET website gives Blisterfree. Plus the availability of water seems better. Hopefully the GPS will be in on Thursday, then I can head toward AZ. I still have to figure that route out. Fly from Mammoth to LAX, bus to Campo, walk the fence to AZT tread to GET. That might be a little ambitious, but I am definitley looing forward to being in AZ again.:cheers

Guino

#5

Walk the fence to AZT from Campo - OK, now THIS I want to hear about, Guino!

blisterfree

#6

I want to know how many time you got stopped by the BP.
Trekker

Trekker

#7

There is some seriously dry country in there. Read Craig Childs, among others. Water will be a real issue.

Ginny

#8

Aside from the drug runners and the BP, that area is crazy dry. Nothing but rock and sand for long stretches east of Yuma, beautiful Sonoran desert through the reservation, nice oak woodlands east of Nogales. All dangerous ground. But the runners mean business. A lot of folks I worked with were shot at, harassed, and evacuated from work sites due to gunfire. Even the Mexican military was out there with guns at the ready, watching us. Politics aside, you’re taking your life in you hands on that stretch of fence my friend. Just be sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.

houli

#9

Andy Skurka originally planned to hug the border from AZ to the PCT at Campo during his Great Western Loop. I humbly offered up the alternative of Bill Williams River > Parker Dam > CA aqueduct corridor > Joshua Tree > San Gorgonio Pass, which I believe he did follow some variation of. Plenty of options would connect BWR back toward the AZ Trail in the Mazatzals, but it’d take a bunch of research to make it a palatable experience, I’d think.

blisterfree

#10

I’m not actually about to do that, it’s just a thought of what might be a good walk. I think water wouldn’t be a problem, since the Border Patrol always has a lot. Shade would pretty much always be availbale along the actual steel wall. Besides some stretches of mtns where an alternate to the fence road would have to be made, navigation would seem to be a breeze. Zero days could be spent in mexican border towns. This idea comes strongest to me after 4-5 white russians.

While hiking on the AZT, actually while lost south of it, I camped near a windmill and trough in a grasslands area where the grass was as high as my tent. Several times throughout the night I was awaken by ATV’s traveling north across the fields with no lights on and traveling fast. Sumgglers I figured. Scary stuff out there. All the Border Patrol that I talked to seemed a little on edge and talked to me with hands on gun in holster. Confirmed ATVs at night are smugglers, and said that I was lucky they didn’t see me, though as a civilian I might be ok. Yeah I understand that some weird stuff can happen to you down there. Though still probably better then living in Chicago or LA :wink:

GUino

#11

Well, but, you (or rather, anyone lured in by this thread) won’t find any BP or shady fence, for the most part.

blisterfree