I’ve put together a Navigation Exercise in the Gate 5 area. It uses the Avenza Maps smart phone app to help you locate the checkpoints. You will need both the Chris Mountain and the Pagosa Springs maps loaded into Avenza. If you have the paid version of Avenza, there are instructions for loading the 37 maps for our area onto your iPhone or Android.
Here are detailed instructions for loading the Layer into Avenza that contains the checkpoints.
Note: the download is about 8 megabytes so might want to do this while connected to a WiFi Network.
At the end of this post are instruction on how to navigate to a checkpoint using Avenza.
Instructions:
Start Avenza and verify you have both the Chris Mountain and the Pagosa Springs maps loaded.
You may need to tap “My Maps” in lower left to see this screen
iPhone Android
OR
… the USJSAR set of 37 maps (which includes the Chris Mtn & Pagosa Springs maps)
Now tap “Layers” in the bottom of the screen and then (iPhone) the “+” sign in the upper right or (Android) the Menu iCon in lower rightIf you see a layer named “USJSAR Navigation Exercise you have already downloaded the layer. If you want to download a new version, right swipe on the layer and then select “Delete”.
Note: you might see some other ‘Layers’ already here (dropping a pin will create one). That is not a problem, just ignore them.
iPhone Android
(iPhone)Tap “>” to the right of “Import Layers” (Android) tap Import Layers iCon
Tap “Yes”
iPhone Android
Check either the USJSAR Maps OR the Chris Mountain and Pagosa Springs Maps, whichever you have loaded to your phone.
Then (iPhone) tap “Apply” or check mark in upper left on Android
iPhone Android
Fill in the URL of the layer:
usjsar.org/2020NavExercise.kmz
and tap (iPhone) “go” or (Android) “OK”
Alternatively you could click the
icon in the upper right and show your camera this QR code:
iPhone Android
The layer is about 8 megabytes so it will take a few seconds to download using WiFi, longer using Cellular Data.
iPhone Android
When the download of the layer is complete the screen will look like this.
Tap on “My Maps”
iPhone Android
Load the Pagosa Springs map and navigate to the lower left corner so you can see the Pins representing the checkpoints. The one in the upper right of the cluster marks the sign at Gate 5.
Tap the one just east of it.
iPhone Android
The name of the checkpoint will be displayed: “Cruz Gracie Geocache”.
Tap on the “i” to see the details of the location.
iPhone Android
You will see a picture of the checkpoint and it’s GPS Coordinates (and occasionally a description). If you wanted to use a GPS to navigate, you could transfer the coordinates to it.
When you are done, (iPhone) tap “Close” in upper left or (Android) back arrow
iPhone Android
How to navigate to a checkpoint:
You may need to tap on the map to get the GPS Coordinates and the iCons to display at the bottom. Tap “…” in lower right
Note: The GPS coordinates in this example are shown in UTM’s. Tap the coordinates to select a different coordinate system.
iPhone Android
Tap “Navigate to a Destination/Feature”
iPhone Android
Choose a Checkpoint. If you happen to be standing at the Gate 5 sign, “Cruz Gracie Geocache” is very close.
iPhone Android
Use the Avenza Compass to navigate to the Checkpoint.
Or.. you could take the bearing from Avenza and use a real compass to navigate to the checkpoint.
Note: when I did this screen grab I was not standing at the Gate 5 sign.
iPhone Android
