Tracking My Trip

I mentioned in an earlier post that I will be using a Spot GPS unit to track the places I visit during my long trip commencing day after tomorrow.  The Spot periodically sends satellite signals to record my locations, assuming I have the Spot turned on.  I plan to turn in on whenever I arrive at a significant new location while driving, or when I'm actively fishing in an area that involves significant movement on a river or on any other body of water, either on a boat or when hiking.  If I operate it correctly (big IF), I will create a precise record of all my locations throughout the four months of the trip.  The locations I've visited, including my current or very recent location if the Spot is turned on, are visible on Google Maps.  If you've used Google's mapping application (if you haven't, don't admit it to anyone under the age of 50), you know that you can use it to view maps in a traditional format - i.e., showing towns, roads, parks and other man-made features - or in a satellite view, which visually depicts the natural elements of the land, such as trees and rivers, as well as the man-made structures.  That feature makes it possible to see not only exactly where I was at specific times, but also to see what the environments I was in looked like from an aerial perspective.

You can find a link to Don's Spot Location Tracker at the bottom of my blog page.  Just click on that link and your browser will navigate to a Spot-sponsored shared page.  You'll need a password to enter the site - make a note of it!  The password is OAFF - an acronym for Once and Future Flyfisherman as well as an apt description of me - easy to remember!  Once you're in the site you can plot my locations on a Google map and see a list of the dates and times I was at each location.  So if you read one of my future posts and you're interested to see what (where) I am reporting on, this is the way to do it.   Please note - if you subscribe to my blog and receive new blog posts via e-mail, you'll need to enter the actual blog site (which you can do my clicking on the blog title in the e-mail) to see the Spot link at the bottom of the page.

If you go to my Spot shared page today, you won't see much.  I was driving in an area near our home when I first experimented with the Spot location tracker feature today - that's what you'll see.  Starting this Friday there will be much more to see.  Hope you enjoy it.