Raymond
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2003
- Messages
- 1,536
- Reaction score
- 59
I climbed North Twin on Saturday afternoon.
When I crossed the Little River (at the ‘‘third crossing’’ — I had taken the bypass path past the first two crossings), I checked my GPS. It read 1.99 mile. I knew it was supposed to be 1.8 mile at that point, but 1.99 was close enough, especially as I had had to park on the other side of the bridge.
As I grinded my way up the steep section, I checked the GPS and saw, to my dismay, a reading of about 2.6 miles. It sure felt like it had taken a long time for only two-thirds of a mile. When I recognized that I was nearing the summit plateau (a few raindrops had fallen, too), I checked again and saw that the mileage was 3.05 miles.
Yikes, I thought, it’s 4.3 miles to the summit, and I’m still more than a mile away? It didn’t seem possible.
I reached the cairn marking the viewpoint trail, went to the viewpoint cairn, checked out the two short herd paths to rocks in the krummholz which I suppose were made by hikers thinking they’d located the true summit, then returned to the rock back in the trees which is about midway between the two cairns (which to my eye appears to be the actual high point), out of the wind, and checked the GPS’s trip odometer: 3.51 miles.
But the signs and White Mountain Guide both state that the distance should be 4.3 miles.
I went back down, taking the actual trail this time across the river thrice, and checked the GPS when I reached my car: 7.69 miles. So that made it 4.18 miles for the descent, too big a difference, I think, to be explained by merely taking the bypass herd path during the ascent — and my distance for that route, remember, came out slightly longer than the book distance, anyway.
And then the saved track for the entire hike came out as 8.66 miles! — almost exactly twice 4.3.
So where did the mile go during the ascent? Was I just moving so slowly that the GPS didn’t realize I was moving?
The track looks normal on the Garmin National Parks East map in the computer; that is, the GPS didn’t turn itself off then back on again anywhere along the way (that’s happened before, for some reason — I get two active logs for one continuous walk). The moving time was about three-and-a-half hours, stopped time about one-and-a-half hours, so it definitely knew I wasn’t moving much at times, but I’ve never noticed distance vanishing like that before.
And an unrelated North Twin question: Were the trees on the summit plateau cut back from the trail since 2007? It seemed much tighter through the spruce last time.
Thanks.
When I crossed the Little River (at the ‘‘third crossing’’ — I had taken the bypass path past the first two crossings), I checked my GPS. It read 1.99 mile. I knew it was supposed to be 1.8 mile at that point, but 1.99 was close enough, especially as I had had to park on the other side of the bridge.
As I grinded my way up the steep section, I checked the GPS and saw, to my dismay, a reading of about 2.6 miles. It sure felt like it had taken a long time for only two-thirds of a mile. When I recognized that I was nearing the summit plateau (a few raindrops had fallen, too), I checked again and saw that the mileage was 3.05 miles.
Yikes, I thought, it’s 4.3 miles to the summit, and I’m still more than a mile away? It didn’t seem possible.
I reached the cairn marking the viewpoint trail, went to the viewpoint cairn, checked out the two short herd paths to rocks in the krummholz which I suppose were made by hikers thinking they’d located the true summit, then returned to the rock back in the trees which is about midway between the two cairns (which to my eye appears to be the actual high point), out of the wind, and checked the GPS’s trip odometer: 3.51 miles.
But the signs and White Mountain Guide both state that the distance should be 4.3 miles.
I went back down, taking the actual trail this time across the river thrice, and checked the GPS when I reached my car: 7.69 miles. So that made it 4.18 miles for the descent, too big a difference, I think, to be explained by merely taking the bypass herd path during the ascent — and my distance for that route, remember, came out slightly longer than the book distance, anyway.
And then the saved track for the entire hike came out as 8.66 miles! — almost exactly twice 4.3.
So where did the mile go during the ascent? Was I just moving so slowly that the GPS didn’t realize I was moving?
The track looks normal on the Garmin National Parks East map in the computer; that is, the GPS didn’t turn itself off then back on again anywhere along the way (that’s happened before, for some reason — I get two active logs for one continuous walk). The moving time was about three-and-a-half hours, stopped time about one-and-a-half hours, so it definitely knew I wasn’t moving much at times, but I’ve never noticed distance vanishing like that before.
And an unrelated North Twin question: Were the trees on the summit plateau cut back from the trail since 2007? It seemed much tighter through the spruce last time.
Thanks.
