You look up the hill, pretend that there are some clear spots in the foliage you can get through, pretend that the hill isn’t that<\/strong> steep, and you head on up.<\/p>\n And, after you’ve crawled up this thing by hauling yourself up grabbing huckleberry bushes, little Doug Firs, Cedars, and Vine Maples – yes, you too can dangle from some precipice, swinging your feet around looking for a place to put ’em while smiling encouragingly at the two huckleberries you’ve got your death grip on – then you can notice that the sun’s dropping behind McClellan Butte and you’re not in good shape.<\/p>\n Now what?<\/p>\n GPS to the rescue!<\/p>\n Well, anyway, even if it’s not really needed, I thought it would be fun to push the technology, sorta.<\/p>\n Called kids one by one. Scott called back ‘tween calls.<\/p>\n Me, “You at a machine?”<\/p>\n Scott, “Ha, ha. No!”<\/p>\n Me, “Ah, foo. I’m up a hill and want someone to find a logging road nearby for me.”<\/p>\n Scott, “I’ll check with Mike.”<\/p>\n Ring. Mike. In Boulder, CO, it turns out.<\/p>\n Back and forth, story and such.<\/p>\n Google maps.<\/p>\n Problem one: Google maps is unaccountably picky about how they take lat\/lon. Order dependent. And they appear to take only a couple of exactly perfect formats. Takes a while to get straight. I’m kinda whacked so I don’t suggest a converter (as I know GM takes straight LA.decimal, LON.decimal. The GH615 shows DD.MM.thou format.). But, Mike figures it out.<\/p>\n Problem two: Mike says there’s a road north of me (where I came from) 400 yards. I’m thinking that’s a bit too near, but that 400 yards are horizontal yards, so maybe. Bothers me that at one time at the highest point I got to I can easily see 100 yards to the north. And that distance seems a small fraction of the horizontal distance I’ve covered.<\/p>\n Anyway, apparently, I must have either said the numbers wrong (by far the most likely possibility) or whatever format Mike found transformed ’em. Cause after I got back and generated this:<\/p>\n up_some_hill_to_east_of_mt_washington_01.kmz<\/a><\/p>\n which is too big for Google Maps, but shows this in Google Earth:<\/p>\n it was clear that something went amiss. On the way back down I checked with Mike a couple times to see if I was, according to Google Earth, headed for the road. (I went to the east to miss the rock climbing part of the up-trip.)<\/p>\n Mike: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is you’re really moving. The bad news is you already crossed the road.”<\/p>\n New tech in action, folks. It’ll work better next time. I’ll try it tomorrow. I gotta go back there to find my glasses which I hope are along the no-vehicle road.<\/p>\n Good part, though, is that the advice from BCCC (Bush Climbing Central Control) – in Boulder, no less – take that NORAD – was accurate. If I’d continued south on the ridge I was on, I’d have ended up in Oregon, not at a convenient logging road, navigable at night with the flashlight.<\/p>\n At home, Google Earth did find a logging road south of where I had been. Close examination showed it to be at the bottom of a vertical drop of some distance. Going back the way I came (well, sorta), was the thing to do.<\/p>\n All in all, a very satisfying day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bush climbing, not rock climbing. The latter’s never gonna happen, what with the volleyball knee and all. What’s “bush climbing?” Imagine a hill without a trail. A steep hill. With bushes. And little trees and such. Well, if you are … Continue reading ![\"Google](\"http:\/\/www.tranzoa.net\/~alex\/blog\/images\/up_some_hill_to_east_of_mt_washington_01_ge.jpg\")
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