CA - FYI GPS in the Desert

OFF THE WIRE

• By JANET ZIMMERMAN, Must credit the Press Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.

Here is a follow up story that appeared in our local paper yesterday regarding the reliance of GPS in the desert.
http://www.scrippsnews.net/content/relying-only-gps-desert-can-be-dangerous
They don't mention much about cell phones and now both Verizion and AT&T claim to have service out there, but trust me, I live close to there and go out there a few times a year and reception is VERY poor at best in the best of locations and non-existant in others.
Take LOTS of water.  I now even recommend some type of beacon light or flare signal just in case.  Remember also how hot that pavement gets on your tires out there and motorcycle repair shops out there ain't gonna happen.
Nick

A summer day trip to Death Valley National Park nearly turned deadly for retired farmer Donna Cooper and her companions, who meandered over unmarked, dirt roads at the behest of their navigation system before running out of gas and becoming stranded far from civilization.
The trio became lost on side roads and turned on their handheld GPS, trying to find their way home to Pahrump, Nev., in July last year.
"All the places it was saying take a right or a left, they weren't roads, they were paths. Some that were better than paths, we tried, but it went from bad to worse," Cooper, 63, said in an interview last week.
By that time, the group had eaten all the food they'd brought and were down to a few ounces of water. The temperature was well over 100 degrees.
Cooper's experience illustrates what can happen when people rely -- often without question -- on global positioning systems to get them where they want to go, mapping experts said.
In the desert, GPS map databases are less likely to be corrected, and therefore include roads that no longer exist. And in remote locations where summer temperatures soar, getting lost can cost a life.
"There is a tendency for people to rely a little too much on technology," said Joe Zarki, a ranger at Joshua Tree National Park in California.
Efforts are under way to update the maps but they're not foolproof, and desert travelers should be prepared with current paper maps, water and other necessities, park rangers said.
GPS uses a network of 31 satellites maintained by the federal government. The navigation system, originally used for military applications, was made available to civilians in the 1980s. The satellites can pinpoint a location, and mapping systems used by GPS receivers give directions.
The technology has revolutionized driving by giving turn-by-turn directions and has even helped locate lost hikers who had GPS on their phones. But news of tragedies involving GPS directions gone awry is widespread.
Two months ago, a woman following directions on her GPS from Las Vegas to Los Angeles took a wrong turn in the darkened Mojave Desert near Victorville and got stuck on railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train.
A San Bernardino County sheriff's helicopter responding to her call for help located the woman's car 50 yards off Interstate 15, and deputies who drove alongside the train with lights and sirens were able to prevent a collision
In Cooper's case, she took a side road to see a dry lakebed, but never found it. She eventually turned around but headed down the wrong road and was led in circles by her GPS. Every road looked the same, she said.
After sleeping overnight in their car, the group backtracked but ran out of gas near a clump of shade trees in Saline Valley, northwest of Death Valley. There they found a travel trailer on private property, running water and a couple of cans of chili and beans, packets of oatmeal and some pasta. Cooper used tea bags to brew sun tea and figured she could stretch the rations for two weeks.
By then her family had alerted authorities. After two days, a helicopter rescue crew located Cooper, her daughter, Gina, and her friend. They were 128 miles from their first destination and had traveled 400 miles.
Cooper said she bought a new GPS after that but doesn't use it in Death Valley, which covers an area nearly as large as Connecticut.
Most GPS manufacturers get their digital maps and data from commercial map makers or digital content suppliers like Navteq and Tele Atlas, said Anthony Russo, director of the federal government's National Coordination Office for Space Based Position, Navigation and Timing.
Information on some devices may be based on older maps prepared before the era of GPS precision. Maps require constant updates to stay accurate because of road construction and temporary detours.
The public reports errors on mapmakers' websites, but it can take weeks, months or even years for corrections to be made, Russo said.
Representatives of the mapping companies and GPS manufacturers did not return a reporters's telephone calls or emails.
Besides a GPS, travelers heading to the hinterlands should have more than one version of a current paper map, a compass and enough water for two to three days, park rangers said.
When Joshua Tree National Park archaeologist Caitlyn Marrs heads into the field to survey for sites where Native Americans or early miners lived, she takes a topographical map and a compass with her GPS.
It is important to be familiar with the coordinate systems of the GPS unit and be aware that tall boulder piles and trees can confound readings, she said. Even if there is a misread or glitch, experienced users can troubleshoot in the field, she said.
"Technology is amazingly powerful, but it isn't infallible. GPS units are useful tools but one should never blindly rely or follow them without staying aware of their surroundings," she said. "Good outdoor practices and proper preparedness fill in the gaps where technology fails us."
(Email reporter Janet Zimmerman at jzimmerman(at)pe.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)