Ride leaders will be available to lead groups from Pinckney to Jim and Ruth's in Williamston following breakfast this Sunday, May 18. However, if you'd like to self-navigate this ride, instead of joining a group, you'll find below links to download everything you need to navigate yourself. Included are route maps, turn-by-turn route instructions, and for the GPS-savvy amongst you, GPS route files which you can download to your PC, then download into your GPS. This might be a good exercise for those of you who are also planning to use your GPS to navigate on Greg Crago's SE Ohio Odyssey ride coming up at the end of May.
This year's ride route has only one short stretch of gravel, a little less than a mile. This short length of gravel road occurs as the ride route drops south just west of Chelsea. Shouldn't be a big deal for anyone - it's a straight segment with no curves/turns on loose surface to navigate.
I generated the maps and route using Garmin's MapSource version 6.13.7 mapping software and Garmin's North American City Select version 4.01 maps product (the maps product shipped with Garmin GPS V units). Route will work fine, guaranteed, on Garmin GPS V unit. Probably will work on other Garmin models as well, but I don't have any experience using this work with other Garmin devices. I saved off the route in .GDB, .MPS and .GPX (GPS Exchange) formats. The .GDB format is a more recent route file format supported in more recent versions of MapSource (version 6.1 and forward), and the .MPS format is the original route file format supported from the first versions of MapSource. The .GPX format is a XML-based \ GPS data interchange format that is recognized by most GPS mapping programs, so even if you're not using the Garmin MapSource software, the mapping software you are using may still be able to read up the route from the .GPX format file.
Incidentally, if you don't already know, you can download and update to the newest version of the MapSource software for free. Visit the Garmin MapSource download page to download the update. Dial-up Internet users beware - it's a big file (48 MB). And the update, while a full install, will only work if the MapSource program has already been installed on your system from the software CD shipped with your Gamin GPS device.
I've also provided .PDF files of the route in five segements. If for some reason you have problems using my provided route files, you can create the route yourself in your copy of MapSource, for the map product used by your Garmin GPS device, by referring to the maps in the .PDF files.
Finally, I've provided a .PDF file with detailed, turn-by-turn route instructions for the ride. You can use the route instructions to navigate the route by odometer, either instead of, or in addition to, using a GPS.
- If you know that your speedometer and odometer are accurate, you can just use the 'Total Miles' mileages to navigate the route. Zero your trip odometer as you exit the Masonic Hall driveway. From then on each turn instruction should occur pretty closely to the 'Total Miles' mileage for that instruction. So, for example, you will turn left off from Territorial Rd on to Unadilla Rd about the time your trip odometer displays 8.5 miles. Note that even pretty accurate odometers still are usually off by some amount, so the total miles mileages will become somewhat less accurate as you progress through the ride.
- If your speedometer and odometer aren't very accurate, then the total mileage becomes increasingly inaccurate as you progress through the ride. You can still use your trip odometer, however, by using the 'Leg Miles' instead of the 'Total Miles', since the odometer error will be less on each short leg of the route. In this case, zero your trip odometer every time you execute an instruction. The 'Leg Miles' for the next instruction informs you what mileage your trip odometer will display when it's time to execute the next route instruction. Example: as you execute instruction 5, 'Left (S) onto Undadilla Rd', hit your trip odometer button to reset the trip odometer to zero. Then look at the 'Leg Miles' for your next instruction, number 6, 'Stay on pavement in Undadilla – jog left (W) onto Kaiser, then 1st right (S) onto Hadley Rd' - 1.2 miles. So after turning left onto Unadilla Rd and zeroing your trip odometer, when your trip odometer reads around 1.2 miles you should be coming up on or at Kaiser Rd, where you'll execute your left turn. Remember for this to work for you, you need to reset the trip odometer as you execute each route instruction.
Click here to download the route file in Garmin .GDB format.
Click here to download the route file in Garmin .MPS format.
NOTE! If you just left-click the 'here' link above to download the "CampDemo08.mps" file in Internet Exploder, it (IE) may think that the '.MPS' file name extension means that it's a media file, and IE might try to launch some media player applet to play it. Bah! You can easily get around this by RIGHT-clicking the 'here' link above, then choosing 'Save Target As ...' from the resulting pop-up menu and saving the file off to some location of your choice on your system.Click here to download the route file in the GPX Exchnage .GPX format.
NOTE! The CampDemo08.gpx file is in XML data format. If you left-click the link for it in the Microsoft Internet Exploder web browser, it will display the XML directly in the browser window. Whoops - not what you want. Instead, right-click the link and choose 'Save Target As...'. But wait! Even this is obnoxious. If you're using Internet Exploder version 7, it 'sees' this file as an XML file, and it then insists on saving the file off as named 'CampDemo08.xml' instead of 'CampDemo08.gpx'. Bah! Fix is after completing the download, navigate to where you saved the file and rename it from 'CampDemo08.xml to 'CampDemo.gpx. After renaming the file you should be able to open it in MapSource (or whatever mapping program you're using).Click here to download the .PDF file of the map and route for segment 1 of the ride.
Click here to download the .PDF file of the map and route for segment 2 of the ride.
Click here to download the .PDF file of the map and route for segment 3 of the ride.
Click here to download the .PDF file of the map and route for segment 4 of the ride.
Click here to download the .PDF file of the map and route for segment 5 of the ride.
Click here to download the .PDF file of the detailed, turn-by-turn route instructions for the ride.
NOTE! In Internet Exploder if the Acrobat Reader plug-in is installed left-clicking the link for a .PDF file will bring up the document in an IE browser window. You can save the file from there by clicking the diskette icon on the toolbar. Or, alternatively, right-click the link and then choose 'Save Target As...' to download the file directly instead.
Notes on using GPS route files: The GPS route files I've provided with work will with Garmin GPS V/City Select Maps map data as is, guaranteed. These route files will almost surely work with other GPSes and map data sets, but I recommend the following procedure to ensure that the route you load into your GPS matches the route I planned (or not - perhaps you can lead your own ride variation!).
- Download your choice of GPS route file (.MPS, .GBD or .GPX). .MPS and .GDB are best choices for Garmin GPSes and mapping software; .GPX is best candidate for non-Garmin products.
- Launch your mapping program (e.g., MapSource for Garmin) and open the downloaded GPS route file.
- Following steps apply for Garmin MapSource program; other mapping programs may offer similar capabilities, but it will be up to you to figure out how to access them.
- In the MapSource program go to menu selection Edit->Preferences... In the Preferences dialog box click on the 'Routing' tab. On the Routing tab panel click the radio button for Calculation Style labeled 'Shorter Distance'. You'll probably want to set this back to 'Faster Time' when you're done here.
- Display at least some portion of the route within the program map view window.
- Using the Selection Tool (the arrow pointer), position the mouse pointer tip over the route somewhere and click to select the route - the route will change color to yellow.
- Again, with the mouse pointer tip positioned over the the route somewhere, right-click with your mouse. Choose 'Recalculate Route' from the pop-up menu. The MapSource program will recalculate the loaded route.
- Compare the recalculated route with the route as depicted by the maps. If they match, you're set.
If the route displayed in MapSource doesn't match the route as depecited on the maps, you can either a) ride your very own personalized ride route variation, or b) use the Selection Tool to click on the route and drag to force the addition of a waypoint to force the route to go where you want it to.
- Proceed to download the route to your GPS.
- If you want your default routing preference for faster time (and you probably do), then now's the time, before you exit the MapSource program, to go back to the Edit-> Preferences... dialog, Routing tab and click the radio button for Calculation Style labeled 'Faster Time'.
Thursday, May 15 10:03 PM