July 23, 2009
Last night Team DeLorme met up with a group of geocachers for a cache run in Salt Lake City.
We started out at the Salt Lake City Travel Bug where we met the cache owner, Lefty624. He was very helpful and allowed us to hold a little meet and greet at his location. We were joined by cachers from the Utah Association of Geocachers as well as some cachers who were attending the Outdoor Retailer Show. We found five caches in all with most of them being pretty challenging micro and nano caches. Geooogle, a local cacher, showed of some exceptional geosense and helped with several of the difficult micros. Thanks to Firennice for sharing his local knowledge of Utah geocaching as well as helping to keep us out of the hot sun! Thanks also goes to Cache Advance for sharing more about using Textmarks for geocaching, check out her post for a cool way to share that you’ve found the cache. Congratulations to Cach-U-Nuts for winning the Eartha 3D geocoin!
Here are some photos from the event. Thank you to all that attended, it was a lot of fun to get out and geocache while visiting Utah!
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme
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Fun Stuff, GPS In Use | Tagged: DeLorme, Earthmate, Geocaching, Outdoor Retailer, PN-40 | 
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Posted by Chip Noble - Design
July 22, 2009
John Huston visited the DeLorme booth today to share stories, pictures, and waypoints from the historic trip that he and Tyler Fish completed during their Victorinox North Pole ‘09expedition. The two polar explorers became the first Americans to ski unsupported to the North Pole on April 25th of 2009… and they did it with the help of their DeLorme Earthmate PN-40 GPS devices! You can check out their blog to read more about the trip. Here are two of my favorite entries… the first covers a very scary event where John fell through the ice and spent some time in arctic waters.
http://www.forwardexpeditions.com/226-day-47-an-eventful-day-4-17.html
The second is titled “The Long Road Home” and shows a photo of the PN-40 on Tyler’s journal with an entry that simply states “The North Pole. Tired, proud… smart, safe. Here… we are here now.”
http://www.forwardexpeditions.com/263-the-long-road-home-5-21.html
John brought his PN-40 with him to the booth and we were able to download the waypoints and take a couple of pictures. Check out the DeLorme patch on John’s expedition fleece, very exciting!
The Topo USA map below doesn’t show much detail for the North Pole but John was very happy with the device, especially when they started tracking their rate of drift at the end of the trip. The current was moving the ice so quickly they ended up deciding to ski without breaks for the end of the trip just to make sure they made it to the pole in time for their return shuttle!
We really appreciate John taking the time out of his busy schedule to stop by the DeLorme booth and share their experience with the Earthmate GPS. Check out their site for lots of great details about the trip.
Keep an eye out for the August edition of Backpacker magazine where DeLorme has a two page ad on the inside cover congratulating John and Tyler on their amazing accomplishment. I was lucky enough to get John to sign my copy. We have a few other signed magazines at the DeLorme booth at Outdoor Retailer if you stop by…
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme
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GPS In Use, PN-40 News | Tagged: DeLorme, Earthmate PN-40, John Huston, North Pole '09, Tyler Fish | 
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Posted by Chip Noble - Design
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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GPS In Use | Tagged: Canoeing, DeLorme, Earthmate PN-40, GPS, Navionics, Songo River | 
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Posted by Chip Noble - Design
May 4, 2009
John Huston and Tyler Fish, who recently completed a historic expedition to the North Pole—navigating with Earthmate PN-40s—will be on NBC’s morning show, Today, on Tuesday, May 5, to discuss their adventure. DeLorme was the official GPS sponsor for the expedition, officially called Victorinox North Pole 09.
This was a historic expedition with John and Tyler being the first Americans to ski to the North Pole without a support team. That means they had to carry everything they needed with them on sleds, which they towed behind them while skiing.
More information can be found here.
In other expedition news, climber Ed Viesturs is using a PN-40 as he begins his ascent on Mt. Everest. Currently in base camp, he and his team hope to reach the summit by May 12.
Chip Noble
Team DeLorme
Leave a Comment » | GPS In Use | Tagged: DeLorme, Earthmate, GPS, John Huston, North Pole '09 Expedition, PN-40, Tyler Fish | Permalink
Posted by Chip Noble - Design
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