Author Topic: Route Planner  (Read 4224 times)

fernman

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #15 on: 11:46:05, 13/12/17 »
Another MemoryMap fan here, I have all of the UK in 1:25k and 1:50k, acquired in the good old days when you could find pirated torrents of such things. I make screencaps from it with PicPick and print them on one or two sheets of A4 for day walks, although I put the relevant OS 1:25k map in my rucksack just in case.

For planning my multiple-day walks I use an old Anquet Maps Snowdonia Natiional Park that is installed on my desktop pc. It is from a CD that I bought in 2005, and it covers a much larger area than the current Anquet version that you download after paying for it.
Because it is so old I was unable to use it again after a computer crash earlier this year, but an IT expert who uses this forum very generously helped me to get it running again, without which I would have binned it.
But it is only used for planning, because by the time I start my trip the route is firmly fixed in my head and all I need to do is follow it on the OS map which I carry.

medavidcook

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #16 on: 12:59:46, 13/12/17 »
So people who use memory maps, do you transfer to gps device or just have on mobile

ninthace

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #17 on: 13:33:28, 13/12/17 »
Very rarely bother faffing around with Basecamp and downloading files, life is just to short.


It's something to do in the evening when the tele programmes aren't up to much - which is most of the time.  I spend the time creating a  small library of files, classified by area, ready to go with a subset of the most likely next walks already on the SD card in the garmin so I can just grab and go.
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fernman

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #18 on: 14:21:51, 13/12/17 »
So people who use memory maps, do you transfer to gps device or just have on mobile

I don't know about the others, but I'm old school, I prefer to use a map and compass. My phone only gets used to get a grid ref on the odd occasions I'm not absolutely certain of my exact position (aka lost), and then I find it on the map. If I'm carrying printed screencaps from MM I have the two-digit grid line numbers pencilled on them to make this easier.

barewirewalker

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #19 on: 14:27:30, 13/12/17 »
So people who use memory maps, do you transfer to gps device or just have on mobile


I was a bit coy about my memory map but I got it from the same source as fernman;
Another MemoryMap fan here, I have all of the UK in 1:25k and 1:50k, acquired in the good old days when you could find pirated torrents of such things. I make screencaps from it with PicPick and print them on one or two sheets of A4 for day walks, although I put the relevant OS 1:25k map in my rucksack just in case.


 
My problem is I cannot use it to download gps or print off maps. This does not trouble me as I can save the tracks and convert them to a usable output using 'babel', I think it is called. Haven't used these outputs for abit since I seem to depend on printoff maps.

 
If you use a photo editing software, it is possible to measure distance off maps saved by using a measuring tool. This is usually in pixels and by getting the ratio of the width of a kilometer from the grid lines, distance can be calculated.  
BWW
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BuzyG

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #20 on: 16:36:08, 13/12/17 »
I must be the odd one out. I make the route up in my head then dig the paper map/maps out, I'll throw either my phone/viewranger or the Garmin in my rucksack and go.
Very rarely bother faffing around with Basecamp and downloading files, life is just to short. Navigating on the move is easier with the Garmin but you can do it with viewranger.
If I'm visiting a new area or country I study the paper maps first, you just can't get the overall picture with a screen.
Not that odd.  If I'm just off on my own, then it's often done on the fly.  Choose a car park make up a route in my head and go.  With map compass and phone in hand, just in case. 


 But if it's a group walk I'm leading then planning is essential, to ensure you have a escape route plan B etc.

fernman

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #21 on: 18:07:27, 13/12/17 »
Choose a car park make up a route in my head and go.

I couldn't do that, I like to have some sort of an idea beforehand of how far I'm going to walk.

Scenario: "If I take the footpath on the left here, I'll only have done 5 miles and I'll be back at my car too soon, but if I continue onwards I can't turn off till X and that'll make it 11 miles in total, which is more than I wanted to do today / more than I have time for."

How often have you set off on a walk and finished it sooner than you hoped, still carrying your lunchtime sandwiches? Or conversely found yourself plodding the last couple of miles in increasing darkness?

My solution is to have a number of pre-prepared routes that I sort through beforehand so I can choose one based on length, time available, hours of daylight, even how much petrol I have in my tank to get to and from the start.

Mel

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #22 on: 19:02:40, 13/12/17 »

How do you set routes off road?


Ahh, no.  I don't think you can "set routes" (not in the same way where you can save them and up/down(?)load them to a device).  To measure the distance of your planned walk:  Select the OS map option and zoom in to your preferred map scale.  Right click on your start point. Then left click on your next chosen point on the map (eg. following a PRoW line.  The cumulative distance "travelled" will show in the box on the left.  You can still toggle between the different layout choices (eg. Aerial, Road, etc.)


I just find it a quick, easy way of getting an idea of how long my walk will be when scheming and planning on dark, dreary evenings  :)

RogerA

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #23 on: 11:13:30, 14/12/17 »
I'm quite a fan of the komoot app - good maps, planning, directions & recording modes, able to publish & share planned & completed routes.
Theres probably better out there but it works for me

BuzyG

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #24 on: 16:09:44, 14/12/17 »
I couldn't do that, I like to have some sort of an idea beforehand of how far I'm going to walk.

Scenario: "If I take the footpath on the left here, I'll only have done 5 miles and I'll be back at my car too soon, but if I continue onwards I can't turn off till X and that'll make it 11 miles in total, which is more than I wanted to do today / more than I have time for."

How often have you set off on a walk and finished it sooner than you hoped, still carrying your lunchtime sandwiches? Or conversely found yourself plodding the last couple of miles in increasing darkness?

My solution is to have a number of pre-prepared routes that I sort through beforehand so I can choose one based on length, time available, hours of daylight, even how much petrol I have in my tank to get to and from the start.


One the beauties of much of Dartmoor is, your not following any marked path unless you want too.  Just take a bearing and walk, you will soon pick up an animal trail going your way.  You do need to know where the safe river crossing points are this time of year though.

barewirewalker

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #25 on: 19:26:56, 14/12/17 »
Interesting looking through all the mapping and navigation aps that have been suggested.


I didn't realise that bing maps had a closure tool, which is a useful tool in memory map, which allows you to find the area a circular walk encompasses. I first realised how interesting this was, walking in the Cotswold's, although it was not hilly as someone from the Welsh borders might judge, I realised that I had walked the rim of a basin and wanted to know the area I had walked around and looked over. This realization made me appreciate how lucky I was, then in my 60's, that I could walk 10 miles plus. As the area contained din not contain any rights of way, those wishing to enjoy this area must take to the highway to experience a smaller proportion of the walk I had enjoyed.


Is this a cost of so called 'Private Land' and a symptom of a landowning class embedded in a selfish attitude of not wanting to share our countryside. This measurement tool is useful in making it possible to quantify this particular trait.

And thus exposing it.
BWW
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Mel

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #26 on: 19:29:17, 14/12/17 »
It's of absolutely no use to me whatsoever BWW  :D   I just walk and be damned  O0

Jac

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #27 on: 11:31:15, 15/12/17 »

Ahh, no.  I don't think you can "set routes" (not in the same way where you can save them and up/down(?)load them to a device).  To measure the distance of your planned walk:  Select the OS map option and zoom in to your preferred map scale.  Right click on your start point. Then left click on your next chosen point on the map (eg. following a PRoW line.  The cumulative distance "travelled" will show in the box on the left.  You can still toggle between the different layout choices (eg. Aerial, Road, etc.)

I just find it a quick, easy way of getting an idea of how long my walk will be when scheming and planning on dark, dreary evenings  :)

Fantastic!!!!! I didn't realise you could do this on Bing. Even better than my piece of string as it notes the mileage at each point you click and then prints out too!

Thank you

So many paths yet to walk, so little time left

barewirewalker

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #28 on: 12:07:07, 16/12/17 »
It's of absolutely no use to me whatsoever BWW  :D    I just walk and be damned  O0

A sentiment I have every sympathy with, though would, "I just walk and be blessed  O0 ", have a slightly more 'Christian' feeling. Being an ex farmer I suppose area does have more meaning to me, and the time/distance fixation that is sadly too prevalent with some, does not help in defining quality. I think I was fortunate to find the closure button in MM that gives a area value, because it has given me a good tool in adding quantifiable content in assessing a route.


The OP asks about apps and software and I hope I do not malign him, but I suspect it is primarily for navigation. Personally I have found online mapping and other resources invaluable for post-walk debriefing;
when scheming and planning on dark, dreary evenings  :)
  again a well worth while occupation.


If a few of those, who send routes to Country Walking Magazine and such like did this perhaps there might be more interesting commentary on the this past time we all love.


I recall, sitting in a little country pub, with a group of agricultural contractors at the bar, they were noisy and quite obviously getting up the nose of a rather school marmish women accompanied by a harried and subservient male, whose henpecked demeanor suggested that the matrimonial bond was his reason for being in her company. The notebooks and maps suggested compiling a route, which was confirmed when a month or so later a route in that sad before mentioned publication, appeared for that area authored by a female.


The sorry thing about this whole occasion, was that the conversation between the contractors at the bar though noisy, jocular and robust, had content in it, which certainly made me [censored] up my ears, it lead me to explore an area later that transformed my understanding of the terrain in that area.


The ladies route (if she can be called that for reducing one male to such a poor cringing specimen) was possible the plainest, bland circuit of that area that could have been chosen.


Here bing have put a tool in a piece of free software that might just help visitors to the countryside to understand the terrain that they are walking in, yes I use it to measure areas of so called privacy but the measurement aspect, shade, frost cover and whatever fresh new minds might bring to our understanding to walking may wake up more to the assets within our countryside.


P.S. For censored read a verb which tells what Snow White did to her finger, which rendered her unconscious only to recover, when she was being sexually harassed by some rich aristo.
« Last Edit: 12:11:47, 16/12/17 by barewirewalker »
BWW
Their Land is in Our Country.

maxmarengo

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Re: Route Planner
« Reply #29 on: 12:18:32, 16/12/17 »
I'm another Mapyx Quo user (only buy the tiles I need when I need them). I find it very easy for creating routes and then reviewing tracks when I get back. One of Quo's strengths is managing your data. I keep all my local tracks and can easily see when I last walked a particular path (I check paths as a volunteer) or places I haven't been for a couple of years - useful in designing walks.

I also use ViewRanger on the web a lot to publish walks for the society I volunteer with. I recommend it if you use VR for navigation - it is easy to learn and offers some nice enhancements over a simple GPX route.

 

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