Geocache with Team DeLorme!

July 13, 2009

We are going to be in Utah for the Outdoor Retailer trade show and we were wondering if anyone wanted to join Team DeLorme for a little geocaching! We’re going to be caching in Park City on Sunday, July 19th and Salt Lake City on Wednesday, July 22nd.

Sunday’s cache run will start at  Park City American Dragon at 7PM and run down to the Par-King cache. Round trip we’re looking at about a 6 mile walk. I’m hoping that we’ll find the 10 caches in the area and set a new record for finds in one day for Team DeLorme… I know it’s not that impressive for some of you but it’s a start for us!

Park City Geocaches

Wednesday’s cache run will start at the Salt Lake City Travel Bug Hotel at 6PM and go in the direction of the Temple Square cache. There seems to be a lot of puzzle caches in the area, something I’m not very good at, but we’ll see how we do. The walk is only half a mile from the Salt Palace to the Temple Square so plan on about an hour of geocaching. We’ll play it by ear from there.

Salt Lake City Geocaches

We will have Earthmate PN-40s available for people to try out. We’ll also be giving away Eartha 2D geocoins and trading Team DeLorme coins with anyone that would like to join us. Look for the guy wearing the blue SERIOUS TOOL t-shirt with the orange GPS around his neck and introduce yourself! Actually, since we’ll be doing a fair bit of travel each day, please send me an e-mail, chip.noble@delorme.com, if you are planning to join us. I’ll confirm all of these times and location to make sure that no one misses the excitement.

I hope you’ll be able to make it, we’re looking forward to spending some time geocaching in and around all the gear talk we’ll be doing at the trade show. Come by to check out the Earthmate, bring your own device, show off your cache statistics, tell us what features you like in a geocaching GPS and spend some time telling geocaching stories with Team DeLorme.

See you then!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme


Geocaching Podcast – Interview with DeLorme

July 13, 2009

Edit: The show was recorded and posted online. Visit geocachingpodcast.info for more information and to listen.

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Tomorrow evening at 9:30 I’ll be talking with the folks from Geocaching Podcast. We’ll be talking about the PN-Series devices and taking calls from listeners.

To listen to the podcast live, join the text chat, or to call in (via telephone or internet) to ask questions, visit geocachingpodcast.info. The phones and chat are open at 9:15 PM Eastern and the show begins at 9:30. The show is also recorded and is usually available for download the following day.

I might even have a few Eartha 2D geocoins to give out if anyone feels like calling in to chat. I hope you can make it!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme


Paddling the Songo River with the PN-40…

July 7, 2009

I spent last week camping at Sebago Lake State Park and decided to celebrate the 4th of July with a little moonlight paddle on the Songo River. I left from the Songo Lock (pic 1, pic 2) with three friends in two canoes at around 10:30 PM and enjoyed a peaceful trip to the sand bar on the group camping side of the state park where we were staying.

PICT0008  IMG_1881

IMG_1885  IMG_1886

Knowing that we would be paddling in the dark, I took the time to create a track in Topo USA that I would be able to follow with my PN-40. I was very pleased to see how useful the aerial imagery was in planning my route. The river has changed course in a few places since I was a boy so it was very helpful to see the shortcuts.

Topo USA 8.0

I was also very excited to see the Navionics Hot Maps lake chart data in action. The chart data for the Songo River was very helpful in showing us the deep sections of the river. Even though we were paddling canoes, it was still reassuring to know we were in the channel given the strong current and the fact that we were paddling at night! In a rare moment of clear thinking I passed on capturing screenshots while I was navigating the canoe but I have since gone back and captured shots showing some areas where the imagery and lake charts were most helpful.

Imagery overview  Navionics overview

Navionics mid detail  Navionics high detail

Navionics comparison  Imagery comparison

This next screenshot shows the high detail aerial imagery that is available from the Maine GIS site. I loaded this map on the PN using XMap… an upgrade to Topo USA that is available direct from DeLorme.

XMap comparison

The last picture shows my Earthmate PN-40 SE on the floor of the canoe. Keep in mind that because the Navionics SD card is locked all other maps need to be stored on the internal memory. This is why I use the SE model with 8 GB of internal memory for all of my maps and aerial imagery.

PICT0013

Remember to install the latest 2.6 Navionics firmware update on your Earthmate PN-40 if you are looking to use the Navionics lake or marine chart SD cards. If you haven’t purchased a PN-40 yet, give the SE model some consideration. These devices sold out when the PN-40 first released but have been brought back for a limited time with the Navionics release. Having the larger internal memory available will give you more flexibility when you have to swap your map SD card out for your Navionics card.

Let me know if you have any questions about how I set the device up with aerial imagery and Navionics Hot Maps for the Songo River and if you are ever staying at Sebago Lake State Park be sure to take a trip to the Songo Lock and paddle the Songo River, it’s a great adventure… day or night!

Chip Noble
DeLorme


Team DeLorme to Trek Across Maine…

June 18, 2009

2009 color Trek Logo_25th Anniversary

Team DeLorme Logo

I’m headed out for the Trek Across Maine in a few hours, and I just wanted to make a quick blog entry to show everyone the route and let you know that I bought a new gadget to go along with my Earthmate PN-40 GPS… I’ll be SPOT Casting my way from Sunday River in Bethel to Steamboat Landing in Belfast! The ride is a 3-day, 180 mile trek to raise money for the Maine Lung Association to help them with their fight against lung disease. This is our fifth year riding as a team. We’ve been making the Trek maps for much longer than that and are proud to be Gold Level sponsors of the event. We’ll be giving away two PN-40s with bike mounts along with all the data for the ride so that two people can join Team DeLorme in knowing exactly how far it is to the next rest stop! Learn more about the Trek and Team DeLorme.

Trek Across Maine 2009

I’ve created a few posts in the past with information about how our Earthmate PN-Series devices provide turn-by-turn directions, making them great navigation aids on long bike rides. I’ve also shared posts about the athletic data options in our Topo USA product. Here’s a screenshot from our Sunday River Training Ride that took place two weeks ago. You’ll see in the graph that my heart rate hit 196 while I was trying to stay ahead of one of the other riders… I’m submitting the profile to the Tour because I think this climb would be Beyond Category! It sure felt like it anyway…

Trek Training Ride Map

So keep your eye out for Team DeLorme if you live between Bethel and Belfast… if you’re further away than that you can see our trek play out on our SPOT Adventures page where I’ll be SPOT Casting my location throughout the weekend. There will be an update every 10 minutes… pretty cool stuff.

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme