Navigation land and water?

[steveca4]

Hello all
Betting there are Vandwellers out there that are wild food foragers, fishermen and maybe hunters too. These are things I want to do a lot of when I retire in a few years while I Van Dwell full time. 
Having done back country camping here in north central Canada I've already encountered challenges with smart phone GPS navigation.  

Ideally the device or combination of devices I want would provide real gps, with land and sea/water maps/charts for all of North America including Mexico. In my mind if I had the right handheld gps bluetoothed to my iPad that would be great and if I could somehow connect a depth finder I'd have it all, no matter where I travel on water, roads or trails in North America. 

I've already had a few situations where I depended on my iPhone for gps, going down trails but that didn't work so well when in high country. 

Open to hearing any and all suggestions. 

Cheers all 
Steve

 

[DLTooley]

I’ve got an iPhone 6s and the gps works fine at high altitude in Sw colorado. Satellite coverage in northern Canada may be the issue.

I’m considering an offline gps for privacy purposes. My criteria would be ease of managing, and annotating, points and tracks - and exporting same when desired.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have never seen a smart phone that could hold a candle to a dedicated GPS. once you loose cell coverage I have found the smart phones to be extremely slow, they eat battery power, and can be wildly inaccurate.

I have 2 Garmin handheld GPS units. they are older ones I use them mainly when I am running a sample program when prospecting.

I ALWAYS say that if you can't do backcountry navigation without electronic doo dads you shouldn't be there. learn how to use a paper map and a regular old compass. better yet learn to use the sun and stars, take note of geological landmarks, mountains, rivers even roads you know things that don't move. you should always be able to tell the direction you are traveling by the location of the sun or north star. I am always blown away by people that don't know which direction they are traveling.

insert rant here, about people getting lost because their smart phone battery died and some small rural county had to spend 100k to go find them.

highdesertranger

 

[bullfrog]

I always regret it when I use GPS on it's own, a good paper map even if large scale makes land marks easier for me to find while using GPS as a compass works best for me.

 

[MrNoodly]

I'm guessing the issue is cell signal in the boonies.

 

[IGBT]

I have had great luck with a android smart phone and apps like CustomMaps.

With those map apps, which work with the built in cell phone gps that doesn't need a cell tower I get 10 meter accuracy or better on trail maps that I can load into my phone for free. I have all of our snowmobile trail maps loaded into my phone and use them when we ride in the winter. Everything looks the same in 6 feet of snow and the phone with its gps has been a near lifesaver for finding the trails.

In the CustomMaps app, I just grab a image of a map and then use the app to onion skin it over google maps satellite view. The app then lets me pick 3 points on the image that I can identify on the google map and then locks the map into those coordinates.

So I could put an image of a town map from the early 1900s into my phone, use the app to map land marks that still exist onto a current google earth view of the town, and then have a map of the town as it was in the 1900s that I can navigate using my gps on the phone, even when out of range of cell towers. Pretty neat to use metal detecting or to find a old building or mine site or other stuff. Try that with a Garmin!

 

[RVTravel]

Website showing how to use phone as gps.

https://www.adventurealan.com/iphone-gps-map-backpacking/

 

[jacqueg]

I agree with HDR.

Don't get me wrong, I don't travel anywhere without my iPhone, but there are things you can do with a paper map that you can't do with a tiny electronic screen. I also think that depending on that tiny screen gets you out of the habit of paying attention to the larger landscape around you, including the sky, while using a paper map and compass forces you to stop, look around and evaluate all of your surroundings.

Another thing I don't like to be without in the back country is a handheld non-electronic altimeter. I have an old one from my forest service tech days, and wouldn't be without it. Not only does it help you pinpoint your position on a paper map, you can use it as a barometer to help you predict the weather.

Screens are seductive and electronic gadgets are marvels. But there is still a vital place for the older tried-and-true methods that don't depend on a gadget being functional.

 

[AnonymousDog]

I like having an aerial map of the area I'm going into on me as well as my phone gps and a topo. I tend to rely on the aerial more than anything. When I was in SAR we gave out aerial maps along with topos to searchers. It tended to help the searchers to stay in their search areas and not get off track.

I pull up Google Earth before going into an area and print an aerial of the area I'm going into. Just remember if you're printing maps with a desktop printer that it uses water-based ink and if the map gets wet (like with sweat) it's worthless. Keeping it in a ziploc bag is ideal.

 

[skyl4rk]

I have used the android app Osmand for navigation for years, in the van, on a bicycle and hiking. It works very well.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have a question,

what did y'all use before all of these doo dads were around? did you not venture out? don't y'all know how to navigate without these doo dads? I think you do and that should be your first answer, not android this or apple that. just my opinion. highdesertranger

 

[AnonymousDog]

Well I taught land navigation for SAR ops so I'm pretty good going old school.

 

[skyl4rk]

I used to build pyramids and giant rock monoliths aligned with the solstice sunrise. They are far more reliable than a map which can blow out of the window of your chariot and be gone with the wind. Since the BLM now frowns on the construction of monoliths, I now use the most advanced navigation techniques available today.

 

[B and C]

My breadcrumbs for back tracking was to pile three stones (two if scarce) on top of each other and one to the side pointing the way to go.

 

[bullfrog]

Since there are so many people out and about most times I just wait for someone to flag down and ask to see how their GPS works as I certainly would never be lost! LOL!!!

 

[LeeRevell]

I have several dedicated GPS gadgets. Used a little Magellan handheld during my motorcycle roadtrip days, on a self-buikt handlebar mount. It's map showed only highways and major roads/streets, but it kept me going the right direction and I could lay "bread crumbs" when on trails. Eventually it began failing. Couldn't sync on the sats. Trued a couple newer handhelds, but they were designed more for geocaching, not a thing I do. Screens were tiny and cluttered - useless.
For use in my van, I got a big Magellan unit and windshield mount. Generally worked well, but sometimes would send me the wrong way. Driving Mom up to Indiana from Florida for her 60th HS reunion, it routed us AWAY from the school. Mom's memory got us there. I also swutched to my Android phone's VZNavigator app, which works pretty good. It is constantly updated. But it doesn't do tracks and routes, can't set/store waypoints and POIs.
Health problems keeping me off the road now, but when I get back to driving, I'll get a good proper GPS.

 

[seak]

There are a slew of articles that describe how relying on turn-by-turn navigation instructions make it difficult to learn a new route and may actually harm spatial awareness and memory. Here's one for example:

https://www.esquire.com/uk/life/fit...g-google-maps-bad-sense-direction-technology/

I know that I find it difficult to learn a new route when relying on google maps' driving instructions and trying to figure out a route on my phone without google's input is hopeless. I like digital maps and the turn-by-turn driving instructions when needed. But, for exploring on my own, I prefer a paper map.

 

[Qxxx]

Too much reliance on tech gadgetry is bad for the soul. Everyone should know the basics of how to navigate using just their brains. If the sun is out, you can estimate north within 15-20 degrees just by looking at the angle of the sun. If the sun is not out, you can use a $2 magnetic compass. Get the kind without batteries. 

Map reading is trivial, once you learn to properly orient the map; ie, point the north end of the map to the north. Once I encountered a gal going the wrong direction in a city and she was holding her map right side up but facing the wrong direction, south instead of north.

If you're out in the desert hiking, use landmarks on the horizon to keep on track, and to get back to home base. Easy enough.

Always have a backup plan, in case your batteries die or cell service fades.

 

[bullfrog]

I'm world's worst at loosing my vehicle, some friends of mine finally bought me a little portable strobe light that runs off 2 AA batteries and can be see for miles. There is almost always a crowd of lost people standing around my car when I finally get back! LOL!!!

 

[AnonymousDog]

I told my wife that one of these days we're doing a trip the old fashion way like we did when I was a kid. Paper maps and guide books and whatever roadside attractions we find as we go.

It seems like when using a gps for directions we locked in on the route and miss to good stuff along the way.