GPS on Android - Backcountry Navigator

I've never owned a GPS device. Heck, I've never even really used one, other than a couple times in various peoples' vehicles. But when I recently became the owner of a Samsung Galaxy S Captivate (from original iPhone), I couldn't help but wonder how I could use the GPS built into my phone for purposes other than finding my wife the nearest Starbucks.

With little fanfare, I installed the demo version of Backcountry Navigator. A quick rundown of the features told me it would do offline map caching, for use off of the data network (basically, all the time I would actually want it), allow me to mark waypoints, record tracks, and even download USGS aerials. Better yet, the demo version was completely free, and was full featured - allowing full use of the application for the demo period - 16 days. Its quite simply the best demo arrangement I've seen in the Android marketplace (or iOS App Store for that matter). No ads, no features removed, just 16 days to decide if you like it.

As a flyfisherman, I've always wanted to have some of these functions. There are several drainages, for example, which I have fished from different access points, of curiosity of course, is the space that has remained out of range between the two - having a GPS mapping solution takes out the guesswork of 'How close am I to where I fished up to last week?', or 'How far to the next tributary?'

So on to the app itself: The interface is simple, basic, and altogether a bit on the boring side (Read: All about function). I will take the liberty of assuming your use of the app will be similar to mine: Download maps of the general area you plan on hiking/fishing, then use on-stream for navigation. I'll start out with an overview of the basic functional flow. 

You'll first take a wide-zoom look at the area you want to capture maps, tap to open the "Select tool" and create a large box (figure larger than you need) to download the maps for this area.

 

Clicking the download button will allow you to select your map source (mytopo.com is default) and the detail level (15 is more detail, 6 is less - I have absolutely no idea what the numbers represent). Clicking start download will being the process of pulling those maps down from the servers - and that brings me to my first beef with this software (or all software that is pulling from these data sources) - the map servers are slow. This isn't something you want to do on the side of the highway while you put your waders on and prepare for a hike. This is something to do ahead of time, download huge swaths of map tiles for areas you fish, and never worry about download speed at the time you go to use the software. 

Once downloaded (or even technically on the data network if you're at home), the maps offer the same level of detail you've come to expect with Topo Maps from various sources (as i am quite certain they all pull the tiles from the same sources).

Tapping the menu key will allow you to select even more options, such as putting the app into "Saved Maps Only" mode, marking waypoints, recording tracks, or entering full screen mode which will hide your notification bar. 

As a whole, this app does, at least for a fly fisherman, exactly what I would expect it to do. The maps are stored forever (unless you delete from your phone's memory) and work very quickly and smoothly from local storage.

There are a couple other apps that do similar functions. I'll admit to having not used them much, largely because the Backcountry Navigator had the best demo period, and it did everything I asked of it.

Backpacker Magazine has an app called "Backpacker GPS Trails", though it doesn't offer a free trial that I can tell. There is also an app called "Gaia GPS", which is available for both Android and iOS. The demo version of these apps are both ad supported, and do restrict the amount of map downloads you can make.

Backcountry Navigator does have a few quirks that I would like to see improved, however. The ambiguity of some of the numbers is a bit bizarre, for example, when downloading the maps, it’s not made clear which is a finer detail, 6 or 15 (other map sources have different scales also). Additionally, when downloading the maps, the notification bar indicates a percentage complete of a number, but what that number represents is never mentioned (4% of 6032 downloaded). Numbers should have units of measure - whether that is KB, MB, or Tiles... I would like to know what that large number is that I am downloading. Finally, I would like to see a periodic check-in tracking option, instead of continuous tracking, purely from a battery standpoint, specifically, I would like to tell the app to Turn on GPS ever "XX" Minutes for "X Minutes" and record the track in a series of points or vectors, rather than a battery-draining continuous track.

But other than those minor qualms, I have little reason not to recommend this app to friends and family who have an Android, or who may be considering one.

Search for it in the Market, or use your barcode scanner to grab it on AppBrain.

Keeping it close to Home

The sun has not yet crested over the walls of this steep canyon. Seeking out adventure close to home is never easy. The temptation is always there to take the known quantities, to visit the old friends, and chase the big ones that got away last time. But sometimes that's not enough; sometimes the rewards are off the beaten path - not in terms of numbers of fish, glorious pools, or big trout so gullible you catch them twice in the same day. We all know the creeks near home that hold the largest fish, or the highest numbers of fish, or the particular species we're after - but so does everyone else.

Sometimes, there is great reward in fishing places the other fishermen never hike far enough to see, the places oft-passed by en route to the known quantities, the creek we drive over, or even through - these places hold a special charm, because sometimes, I want to fish somewhere that even my buddies don't know exists. And that's exactly what I've dedicated my last several outings to.

This story starts on an airplane, coming home from Seattle (a business trip). It was an Alaska Airlines flight, and owing to the copious amounts of travel I was doing at the time, it was a free first class upgrade. Not one to let a first class ticket go to waste, I imbibed in some fine Alaskan Amber, along with a few other cocktails. One thing led to another and I ended up scribbling out a list, on the inside back cover of Robert Behnke's "Native Trout of Western North America" (A scholarly text from the early 90s). And on that list I wrote out a list of creek names. Creeks, all within about an hour drive from my doorstep, which I had ogled on a map at one time or another, and suspected of holding fish. The list totaled over 15 creeks, and the 4 of which I’ve yet had an opportunity to study, all have panned out with wild and willing trout – well, the truth is I’ve only caught fish from 3 of the 4. A rattlesnake encounter cut short one of the excursions, as my brother in law screamed while running as fast as he could in flip flops.

Majestic when standing, arduous when fallen - the diameter of some of these trunks was approaching five feet - the wilderness of Southern California continues to impress me.

Trails are nowhere to be found, just dig the side of your boots into the slope and hope for the best. Falling is best done while keeping head pointed uphill. Tom Chandler would call this bluelining. And I could label myself a blueliner and stop there, but that would be giving myself far too much credit as an explorer, and far too little credit as an over-obsessed map nerd. The simple fact is, there is about a million blue lines on a topo map of any mountain range. Picking one and tying on the hiking boots is one way to go at it, but our feast-famine cycle of rainfall means a great majority of blue lines on a map are blue lines, only a few weeks of the year.

For a creek to support trout, of course, it needs to be a creek all year long - a creek under about 70 degrees all year long at that - and this is where the map geekery comes in. Now, while there are no hard and fast rules to this, there are some general guidelines. A shaded topo map is the perfect tool, Google Terrain is as good as any I've found, and I use it to visually trace the outlines of drainages. Generally, I'm, looking for creeks which have large high elevation drainages.

Any tributary drainage that empties into a larger, known fishery is a good bet, even if the confluence is nowhere to be found. I know of at least one tributary stream, which has a population of fish, yet completely vanishes underground before ever connecting to the more major drainage. To an extent, a steeper gradient is also a benefit on these small tributary streams - flatter basins are more prone to fanning out and percolating into the water table. Similarly, steeper canyon walls seem to indicate more favorable conditions - shade to keep the water from overheating on our scorching summer days, though the steep walls often make an upstream or downstream hike the only way in, rather than dropping in from the sides.

Some would suggest its a lot of work for a few small trout. So that covers finding water, but what about fish? As long as there is water, just let mother human nature take care of the rest. Chances are, if there is water, someone, at some point put fish in it. And if that water persisted year after year, the chances are good that the fish persisted as well - and multiplied. Its interesting to note that a great number of these remote, rugged drainages hold brown trout, so we know for a fact someone put them here a long time ago (if only we knew who to address the thank you card to). 

The devil is in the details.

The latest of these adventures started with great promise and hopes of glory... and by the time we retired, the sights had been lowered considerably: Survive, preferably without any major injuries. And so it was, and if you ask me where we went, well, we went upstream.

Adipose Fin Shot.