GPS HIKES & MAPS: Trip Search Products Using GPS

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Stay Tuned

In but a few days, our first team will hit the trail at the CDT's southern terminus and hike roughly 50 miles north. We'll get the resulting data online ASAP, showcasing what we're really after as far as an end product goes.

In the meantime, the team will be posting daily updates, via podcasts, to the blog over the course of the week. They'll be able to do so by calling in with a Globalstar GPS 1600 satellite phone (pictured to the left). The phone gets a signal within a couple of minutes or so, and weighs in at a manageable 384 grams (0.85 lbs).

So to get a feel for what scouting the CDT is all about, check back here through the course of the week. It should make for a good listen.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Team Southern Traverse is online!The start is near, Jim is in the motor home making his way to Phoenix to pick up Andy, Jimmy and myself on Saturday. Dave and Judy will be departing soon to meet us in New Mexico Saturday evening. With us taking on this section of trail with a short preperation time due to high temps and lack of water along the route we agreed to act quickly and make this happen prior to it getting to hot. A lot of credit goes to Scott Gates and the rest of the team as it has been a very self sufficient process. With hiking as our hobby it is nothing out of the norm to just pack up and head out.

Our team will be at the Mexico,New Mexico border on Sunday. The members will be coming from California, Colorado and Montana.

With the distance to travel to the trail head and all of us having full time jobs it has been an action packed couple of weeks. For myself I am a Manager at Blackfoot Telecommunications Group www.blackfoot.com in Missoula Mt. I also own Riverbend Outfitters www.riverbendoutfitters.net so it has been buisy making preperations to head to New Mexico.

Gathering map data, working with the BLM for permits, making travel arrangements, coordinating shuttles and most importantly assessing the shortage of water. Since we are going to be trekking at a slower pace to ensure quality coverage for the map data we will be on the trail longer then if we were thru hiking. So a little extra planning for food and water rations.

When we all get together on Saturday we will definately be posting to the site to share our greetings to one another. We have some excellent talent on this team so be expecting great updates through out the week. Once again thank you to the staff at Backpacker for heading up this project.

Onward and upward
with Team Southern Traverse

Brian Daigle

HIWalkerPhoto said...

Good Luck Team Traverse! We look forward to updates.

Anonymous said...

I have sent an e-mail to those who had sent some to my River Bend address, please direct any and all comments/concerns to the CDT project to this site.

Now to answer your questions: What is the background of your team? I will let the other team members answer for themselves. As for Brian, i am pretty modest so this will be short. Growing up i was an adventurer. Proud US Navy service member, search and rescue, EMT. Then participated in the 1995 Eco-Challenge as Team Hisardut/Met-rx. Hisardut is an Israel form of martial arts/survival. Then participated in the British Columbia Eco-Challenge as Team Rolex USA. I have competed in various smaller adventure races. Part of expeditions in Belize searching for undiscovered Mayan ruins with professors and their students filming and documenting information for a Spanish Television station, Telemundo. Part of back country surveillance for various groups. Jim, Jimmy and myself have been associated since 1995 they are great friends and unbeleivable mentors. They have been very instrumental in my life.

The team name: Southern Terminus or Southern Traverse, when we get together in New Mexico it may change.

We greatly appreciate you contacting us, please keep in touch, we are the first team out so we would really like to see maximum participation from Backpacker customers and friends and family.

Anonymous said...

Brian--Good Luck!

Anonymous said...

Go Brian!

Anonymous said...

Are you taking tents or do you just sleep outside?

Anonymous said...

Two members are carrying a tent for themselves and the rest will have bivy sacks and one tent just in case of a weather change. It looks like thunderstorms are predicted on Tuesday evening, so the three of us will probably set up the tent that evening. Thank you for your question keep in touch.

Brian

andrewmatrnaga said...

andrew here, four members of team southern terminus are en route to lordsburg. in the vista winnebago driving through the crumbly, needle-capped mountains that ring the valley of the sun and watching dust devils spin among stands of saguaro cacti. we'll do water drops tomorrrow and hit the trail late in the day. check back for more....

Anonymous said...

Hey Jim. How you doin'. Make sure to take some pictures of the scenery. Shorty say "Hi". Good Luck. From Rocky