I’m also very pleased to report that the PN-60w & SPOT Communicator systems that were used on the climb performed perfectly, allowing us to track our progress and send messages along the way. This was my first extended trip into an area with no cell phone coverage so I want to compliment the project teams from DeLorme and SPOT on a job well done. The messages appearing on the Shared SPOT Page are a confirmation of a lot of hard work that has gone into this project. A three day climb in the High Sierras with editors from Backpacker Magazine doing their own evaluations of our progress really was quite a test! You can imagine how exciting it was to hear all the messages I sent being downloaded to my phone as I was showering up at the Mt Whitney Hostel in Lone Pine.

I’ve attached a couple of photos from the summit. I’ll be posting pictures along with some great video from the trip onto the Summit For Someone SPOT Adventures Page when I get a chance. Take a close look at the USGS Benchmark and notice that the auto calibration feature on the PN-60w had our elevation at 14,025 feet as compared to the surveyed 14,042, not too shabby when you consider I’ve gotten so used to the auto feature I don’t calibrate on my own anymore! I can handle a difference of 17 feet after flying from Maine to California and climbing to 14,000 feet…

Take a look at the messages on the SPOT Adventures Page to see some of the details we sent back. Use the arrows at the bottom of the message list on the left to scroll through all of the Check-in and Track Progress messages, there were quite a few sent over the three days! My summit message appears on the second page. They cover a wide range of topics from curious marmots to icy alpine swimming to geocoins dropped off above 14,000 feet. I’m sure you’ll find them entertaining. My favorite part of the trip was being able to say goodnight to my daughter and check-in with the rest of my family back in Maine. It was rewarding to see the Backpacker crew doing the same thing before turning in each night… Peace of Mind Wherever You Go. Verified on the slopes of Mount Langley in the Sierra Mountains!

Take care,
Chip Noble
DeLorme

This picture was taken when we got our first view of Mt Langley’s summit. Check out the PN-60w on my hip and the SPOT Communicator on my shoulder!

This picture was taken at the summit of Mt Langley. You can see Mt Whitney in the background, the tallest peak to the left of the range and the highest summit in the United States lower 48! At 14,494 feet it is 452 feet taller than Mt Langley.

There is a USGS survey marker on the summit of Mt Langley. I was very impressed to see the PN-60w reporting 14,025 feet and the benchmark reporting 14,042 feet. Not bad having traveled from Maine to California without any calibrating!

The group took a break to rest at the top. I shot this picture from my perch on the edge of the mountain. Keep this photo in mind when you look at the aerial imagery on the SPOT Shared Page. The approach we took to the summit was gradual but you can clearly see the point in the imagery where the summit drops to a shear wall facing North. I took a photo looking down from here but can’t post it because it will scare my mother!

Okay, okay… I’ll get back to the tech talk now because I know that’s what you’re here to read about. As all of you know, we started taking orders for our Earthmate PN-60w SE & SPOT Communicator last Friday. I’m very excited by the response that we’ve received already. To give everyone a little glimpse into what the SPOT Communicator is all about, I’ve brought along GPS devices and satellite messengers for the people from Backpacker to test out. You will all be able to follow along in real-time on DeLorme’s Shared SPOT Page as we hike from the trail head to our base camp tomorrow, make our summit attempt on Wednesday, and descend back to the trail head on Thursday. We’ll be using the PN-60w & SPOT’s satellite communicator to track our progress, as well as send messages as we go. The live map will show our location, updated every 10 minutes, along with the messages we send. Please note that right now it shows my less exciting final test run along the highway from Maine to Connecticut… I’ll be clearing that out just before we start climbing tomorrow. When I return to civilization I’ll upload photos and video to the Backpacker Magazine’s Summit for Someone SPOT Adventures page so that you can experience a little bit of Mt. Langley, California’s southern most 14er in the Sierra Range!

To hold you over until tomorrow… here’s a screenshot from Topo North America 9.0. It took me a long time to finish setting up the GPS devices because I kept getting distracted by the amazing 3-D view with Digital Globe imagery draped over the mountain. I can’t wait to see this in person…

Take care,

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

I’ll be giving a talk on DeLorme’s new GPS device and our partnership with SPOT, showing off the new geocaching features in Topo North America 9.0 and on the PN-60w’s SPOT Communicator Page, and answering any questions that current and potential DeLorme customers might have.

Here’s a sneak peek at our new Geocaching feature for Topo North America 9.0—the ability to synchronize all of your Pocket Queries with the Topo software and the GPS device, all with a single click of the Sync button! I  have the Auto Sync option enabled so all I have to do is plug the GPS device in and wait for the progress bar to let me know the sync is complete.

If you look closely at the image above, you’ll see the GeoWoodstock VIII PQ, the GeoWoodstock Meet and Greet PQ, and the Groundspeak Lost and Found PQ. Team DeLorme will have a booth at all three events and will be looking for members of Team Serious and the general public to stop by to talk shop! Pay no attention to the Easy Caches Near GeoWoodstock VIII PQ, I have no idea where that search came from…

It might be worth your while to follow our Twitter account too, since that is the way we will announce the geocache location of each new release of our second generation Eartha 3-D geocoin!

We’ve created a new feature allowing users to log their Geocache Find message directly to the GC.com cache page with their SPOT Communicator.

This can be done anywhere, regardless of cell phone coverage! We’re very excited to start dropping of geocoins and sending satellite messages to help people find them. Watch the Twitter account though, we’re not mentioning the coins in our geocache logs since we want to give everyone a level playing field for getting release news. We don’t want to give any unfair advantages to cache owners…

I should also mention that there’s going to be a 2-D version of the Eartha coin available at GeoWoodstock and the Geocaching.com event, just ask about it at the DeLorme booth. If you’re a coin trader we’ve got a very limited number of the Team DeLorme coins too… trade and have your coin put on display in the Team DeLorme geocoin collection at DeLorme Headquarters!

Stop by and visit if you’re in the area, we hope to see you all there!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

I will be testing the limits of my GPS knowledge, my cycling skill, and my marriage… you see, I bought a tandem bicycle for our sixth run from Sunday River to the sea. My wife, who patiently waits for me to run all of my GPS tests, will now be trapped on the same bicycle with me! We’ve added to the excitement by picking up our new ride just yesterday so neither of us have actually ridden a tandem before… not even our dog Beezy, although she had some suggestions.

Fortunately we’ll have our Earthmate PN-60w & SPOT Communicator with us to make sure we don’t get lost.

Although I’m not sure I want to see the new profile information as we approach the big hill in the middle of day one in Weld!

I’ll have full trip statistics with me so that I can keep track of how far it is to the finish!

For those of you looking to follow along, you’ll be able to track our progress on this three day ride… complete with Type & Send messages giving updates on how things are going… Note that there are no messages on the site yet since we don’t start riding until tomorrow morning.

Team DeLorme – Trek Across Maine Shared Page (Sorry – the Trek is over so there is no content on the live site, I’m working on a SPOT Adventures Page with all of our messages.)

Keep an eye out here and on our Twitter account for reports from the field. Now I have to run and finish packing the car!

Ride safe,

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

You can follow all of the DeLorme and SPOT activity by going to our Teva Mountain Games Shared SPOT Page below… you can see all of the Check-in messages and Tracks being created by media, athletes, and people checking out the new release!

Sorry, Teva SPOT messages have expired, the shared page is no longer available.

Check back for more news from DeLorme, SPOT, and the Teva Mountain Games!

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

The following screenshots and descriptions are part of my results for a Beta Challenge that requires the use of all the hardware and software we are releasing to Plan, Explore, and Share the results of an adventure. While not a major summit here in Maine, our Pleasant Mountain hike was my daughter’s first ascent so we were pretty excited to be able to send a message to her grandparents from the top!

Here are the steps we followed to put the trip together:

Planning

The Planning screenshot shows two waypoints—one for the parking lot and another for the summit of Pleasant Mountain. We actually used the DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer descriptions to select the mountain because it is the closest one to our house that had over 1,000 feet of elevation gain. I created a route from the parking lot to the summit and then created a track based on that route so that I could profile the hike on the PN-60w. I used the Geocaching features in Topo North America to create a Pocket Query in case there were any caches on the mountain. The last thing I did was download the aerial imagery for the mountain so that I could see detailed information about the terrain.

Exploring

When we arrived at the parking lot, I picked the Pleasant Mountain Route and started navigating. I also opened the Pleasant Mountain Track so that I could view the Profile Page. During the hike, we created a few waypoints and took a lot of pictures (did I mention it was our daughter’s first hike?). We sent a few messages with the SPOT Communicator and recorded our track the whole way. When we got to the summit, I changed waypoint layers to view the geocache pocket query. Unfortunately I was not able to find “Pleasant Surprise” so I had to log a “Didn’t Find It.” We did locate the USGS Benchmark on the summit and were able to mark a waypoint to compare later.

Sharing

After we got home, I used Earthmate GPS Sync in Topo North America to download the new track and update the waypoint file in my Pleasant Mountain Hike project. I also copied the pictures from our camera and used GeoTagger in Topo North America to map them. I went to my online SPOT account and viewed the messages that I sent and verified that they all went out to the right contacts. I created a Map Share so that you can see the results, and I’ve also included the Topo North America project file in case any of you are interested in climbing Pleasant Mountain here in Maine!

MapShare Link

Hopefully this “round trip” example gives you a little taste of how the Earthmate PN-60w, SPOT Communicator, and Topo North America can be used to plan your adventure, explore with all the maps and GPS info you need, and share your trip with friends and family from the trail or from home once you return safely.

We took a second hike this past weekend and found ourselves battling the black flies on the way to the Bald Mountain summit. Please forgive the single take video on YouTube but we were getting chomped and I didn’t have time for edits! My daughter was calling for the loons to swim toward us in case you can’t understand the yelling two-year old in the background. The video shows an Earthmate PN-60w with aerial imagery, contours, and track information. I go quickly through sending a Check-in/OK message to the Team Serious beta testers that are working with the PN-60w and SPOT Communicator. The screenshot below from SPOT’s website shows the “Wish you were here!” message as it was received along with other messages sent while using Track Progress to let family and friends follow our hike. We also sent a message from the west side of the lake when we found our first geocache with the new GPS and satellite communicator!

Keep an eye out for more information about the Earthmate PN-60w and SPOT Communicator as we head into the summer. DeLorme and SPOT are attending lots of events so there will be opportunities to check things out here or in person if we are in your neighborhood.

Chip Noble
Team DeLorme

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

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

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

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