How To Use Tennessee Landforms Part Three

How To Use Tennessee Landforms --Part 3 

Dana Koogler 

Monday Sept. 3, 2018

Tennessee Landforms 

   I have covered a fair amount of ground in the previous two parts.  I will attempt to wrap things up

with this third and final tutorial. Perhaps I will expound on the series as I learn things I can pass along.   It is safe to say there are always more things to learn.   I have posted a link to Tennessee Landforms website above as with the other tutorials. I am not going to back track and explain in 

this blog entry what the site is for a third time.  

Entering GPS Coordinates

How do you enter GPS coordinates or way points into your GPS unit? 

I am going to explain here and provide a short Youtube tutorial that runs through the process.

I am explaining how to do this with the unit I own.  I have a Garmin GPSMAP 60Csx.
Turn the unit on by holding down the power button at the top of the unit. 
Once it is on it will display a page.  Push the MARK button.  Once you get the screen with the numbered tab. Push Enter and go up to the numbers.  Name your way point. I named mine Skull Ck Fls for an abbreviation for Skull Creek Falls.  Then using the directional arrows push them until the yellow highlighted area goes down to the Location box where the numbers for the waypoint get plugged in.  Once here push enter again. use the directional arrows to go across to where you need to start.  I had to start at 6.  I had 35.12345 displayed.  The waypoint was  36.381200,-84.635300
Using the up/down arrows move the highlighed portion around to the next number you want. Once you are over it push enter then continue to repeat that process until you have entered the waypoint.  Once you have it in click OK.   This should save it.  Go to FIND using the button on the front.   Scroll over to Recent Finds.  Click that using enter and it will show you your newly created waypoint if it saved it and it should be the first one on top!  

Using GPS Coordinates in a TomTom Device

  It is possible to use the GPS coordinates off Tennessee Landforms in a TomTom navigation device

such as you'd use in a vehicle.   A couple words of caution before you do this. 

1.  A TomTom is going to try to take you as close as you can get by way of roads to a feature. The device is not going to have the sense a human does to know that you cannot drive a car down some of the pig paths it may try to use.  It will throw up warnings about dirt roads, but it lacks the human judgement element.    It is best to use driving directions or some type of address or street intersection

as a way of getting you closer.  Once you have gotten closer then enter the GPS coordinates to get you closer.  This is if you are in a vehicle intended for use on regular roads.   IF you are in a RZR and using the device running on battery or plugged into the four wheeler's battery...  you can use them this way further out with greater accuracy.   

Just remember .. these devices were designed for travel in vehicles on roads. 

Remember they cannot decide if a route is practical or not.

   Always remember to cancel a planned route in the device prior to entering a new set of information for it to navigate to.    If you don't you will be taken in endless circles.    How do I know about these things? I have made both of the above mistakes multiple times. 😋

   Turn on the TomTom.  Let it go through its warm up, acquire satellites.  Sign any terms of use by clicking.  Once you get the home screen click on it and make sure there are no routes already planned. If it is ready to go it will say No Route Planned.   At the home screen click Navigate To.  Then you'll get a screen with options.. one is a blue arrow.  Click that. It will give you more options.  

Select Latitude/Longitude.  Once you click this it will ask you for the North coordinate first enter this and click OK. Remember to look at what you are using. If it is decimal it is easier, but you must enter them EXACTLY using degree symbols and ' marks precisely or it will not be correct.   Very case specific.  Once you have gotten the North coordinate in enter the WEST coordinate.

Once that is done you can click OK.  Then it will take you to a box and you click Done.  
It will begin trying to take you to that location.  

Changing the Format of GPS Coordinates in GPS Unit 

Changing the format of your GPS units way points from degrees decimal min. to decimal etc.
Turn the GPS unit on.  Press the Menu button twice.  It will give you a bunch of icons.  Scroll over to Setup and click on this.  Once in this view scroll down to UNITS and click this. It will give you a drop down menu of choices.  At the top box that is the one you click on to change it from decimal to degrees decimal minutes or degrees minutes seconds.  It will have other choices, but not likely anything you will need except the top three. 

Below is a video tutorial that goes over the steps

Using a GPS Coordinate Already Stored in the Unit

Once you already have GPS units stored in the device, but you need to use one of them.

Here is how to do that.  Turn the unit on.  Press FIND then when in that view select WAYPOINTS.

Click Enter again.  It will give you an alphabetized list.  Use the directional arrows to scroll over to the alphabet letter you want.  Let's say C for Court House Rock. Press C then scroll over and push OK.   Once in the C section of your list scroll down til you see Courthouse Rock.  Push enter.

Then when it brings up the page for Courthouse Rock scroll down to the bottom right and press GO TO.  It will say drawing route It will give you a display at the top that may read something like SE to Courthouse Rock. The page may look cluttered. You can push the two buttons on the sides to scroll the view in closer or out further to clear up the screen to more readable.  It will clear itself up automatically as you get closer if the unit is on.   You can also press MENU in this view and it will give you a drop down menu off choices. Scroll down to Turn On Declutter. Push Enter.  That may clear it up for you also. 

Creating Elevation Profiles & Making Sense of Them

  I briefly touched on the elevation profile feature and reading GPS tracks on the first tutorial. 
I will attempt to flesh out the use of this tool a bit more.   It is always good when you are going hiking or bushwhacking to know what the climb or descent will be like.   It is important especially when trying to reach the base of waterfalls to know if the terrain is going to permit it.  Do I need to take rope because it will be nearly vertical?  Is it going to be impossible or just way too dangerous?
Is the climb up that mountain with no trail going to be more than I can handle physically?  

Let me use a waterfall we found as an example.  Mill Branch Falls in Bledsoe County.

Open the page to that and go to the google map.  I switch to satellite view first because that helps me
be sure I'm drawing the track where we actually walked.  We followed the power line out.
I left click starting my red mark and then continue to do so following out the most logical and likely path. Then go to the bottom left under the map and pick the lower of the two Track Elevation buttons.
Click that and it will display the elevation profile. Below is the results.


You can see the graph shows that we traveled about 0.7 miles and our elevation went from 2000 ft down to about 1890 ft then some more ups and downs toward the end... finally ending at about 1950 ft.   That is not too terrible. Nothing real extreme.   

What may help you more to understand what you're up against in steep descents and climbs is to make another track of the part that has the topo lines closest together. Like the climb up to the base of the falls at the end.  This is where you can use the slope of a line calculation to understand the percentage of grade.  To do so  you need to calculate Rise over Run.  

RISE

RUN

 Our last bit of climb was a distance of 0.10 mile (run) to climb the last 60 ft. 

That works out to be an 11% grade. Not too bad though without any trail it seemed like it

at the time. 

Here is a link to an app that you can use for this Grade Percent Incline Calculator

Broaden Your Search When Looking for an Approach 

  Now I'm going to throw in something more fun to ponder.   Sometimes when looking for an approach or a way to reach a land form I will do all the above. Go and try it in real time and still come up unsuccessful.    One thing I have recently figured out is that when you are not having any luck with finding a way into somewhere... broaden the scope and direction of your search.   Look out

further on maps and look in different directions.   Say we've been trying to get to a far flung cascade in a deep gorge with no visible way in or down to it.   I've tried from the east and the north. No luck. 

I zoom the map out and start looking west.  I find an old road leading over to that gorge and then down to the stream!   This happened to me for real this past year.   This will be meaningless to all but the nosiest and geekiest of my buddies.  Team Waterfall types.  The Brian Solomon's and Chuck Sutherland's of the world for example.  

Getting Your GPS Unit to Talk to Your Computer

  Today I finally got our GPS unit and our computer talking to one another.  I finally figured it out.

I will try to share what I learned while it is fresh in my mind. It will help me retain the knowledge if I try to write about it and pass it along to others.   

When you buy a GPS unit you will often have a CD that needs to be run with it.  This installs the drivers and associated software for the device.   It helps your computer link up with it.  You need the connecting cable for the unit. You need to run the disc that comes with it.  Then you need to download and install Garmin Basecamp. It is a free program.   

  If your unit is not new and you've had it awhile do this.  Make sure you remove all traces of the old programs from your PC or MAC.   Run the disc that came with it.  Download Garmin Basecamp.

Connect the device to the computer by the cord.   Turn the unit on.   Open Basecamp.  It will start searching for updated system requirements for your PC or MAC.  It will also look for updated drivers or software for your unit.   Once these things are done you should be able to notice your device communicate with your computer. The PC will recognize the device is connected.  It may transfer all the data from your unit to the PC and Basecamp.    Once this is happening you can save waypoints from Tennessee Landforms to your GPS unit.   I will explain how and post another how to tutorial video.   

  A couple important points about Tennessee Landforms.  She's getting to be an older lady now like me.   She has a few parts that don't work anymore.   One such is any links to G4 mapping no longer function because the dude who ran and hosted that mapping site took it down.   Another point is to note that any links to Garmin Communicator on there no longer work.  After 2014 most browsers won't respond if you click the link saying Send Waypoint to my Garmin.   You'll have to use a work around for that task.  

Downloading Waypoints to GPS Unit 

  Plug the connector cord into the GPS unit.  Plug the usb end of the connector cord into the PC. port on the front.   Turn the unit on.  Open Garmin Basecamp.  You will see a green line and the name of your GPS unit on there, and be able to tell the computer recognizes the unit.   It is communicating one to another.   Open Tennessee Landforms.  I wanted to save Bandy Creek Falls GPS coordinate.

I opened that page and on the bottom of it under the GPS section to the left.. click on the 

download just this waypoint  and it will download it to your computer.

Go to Garmin Basecamp and click FILE at the top left.  It will give you a drop down menu.  Click Import Into My Collection.  It will open another small window and allow you to search for the file which should be under downloads.   Left Click on the file highlighting it. Then click OPEN.  It will bring that file up at the bottom left of Garmin basecamp.  It will have numeric symbols and letters so go ahead and name it now by right clicking and finding RENAME in the drop down menu.
Once you've done that right click again and look for SEND TO in the drop down menu.  Go to this

and left click on it. It will open a dialog box and give you locations to send it to.  Use your mouse to scroll down to your GPS unit name and  left click that. It will download the waypoint to your device.

Go into your GPS unit under Recent Finds and the new waypoint should be at the very top.