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Skipjack Joe
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Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Exploring baja's backcountry with google earth and no internet connectivity
Perhaps some of you know of this but for those who don't.
You can navigate to any part of baja if with a pc with google earth and a gps system. The only catch is that you have to know where you plan to go
before you leave home.
Here's how:
1. At home navigate from the start of journey and to a reasonable section of land area until google earth shows all of the land area crystal clear.
2. Log out from google earth server and copy the files -
a. dbCache.dat
b. dbCache.dat.index
from the location that your google earth stores them. In my case:
Documents and Settings>idoncov>Local Settings>Application Data>Google>GoogleEarth
to a saved directory. Rename them with something meaningful.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have your whole itenerary mapped out and it's contents saved.
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Later in Baja when you have reached the starting point of your journey.
1. Copy the saved files 1 by 1 back to their original google earth directory location.
2. Start google earth.
3. It will say that there is no connectivity and ask you if you wish to work from cache. You say yes.
4. Navigate to your location. It will be sharp. As you navigate out of cache locations it will get blurry.
As you drive explore baja use your gps and google earth to confirm that you are where you think you are and going to where you think you're going. You
should see the google earth landmarks around you.
The greater the elevation the more territory is saved but you lose detail as you zoom in. The files should be saved at the highest elevation that
still gives you the greatest detail you seek.
[Edited on 12-11-2011 by Skipjack Joe]
[Edited on 12-12-2011 by Skipjack Joe]
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Natalie Ann
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Location: Berkeley
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Sounds like someone is planning their vacation.
nena
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
.....Oscar Wilde
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Santiago
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Good one. Way better than simply marking a few waypoints and then checking your GPS as Baja maps are no bueno.
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wessongroup
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Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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Google Earth is some free app... just saying ... one can spend hours on the Earth... and if ya get bored ... there is always outer space... like the
universe ... interesting stuff ... thanks...
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64855
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thank Igor... I don't have a lap top (yet), but great info!
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
Registered: 7-12-2004
Location: Bahia Asuncion
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Santiago
Way better than simply marking a few waypoints and then checking your GPS as Baja maps are no bueno. |
Oh absolutely. You can take a gps reading off your truck, enter it into google earth, and see where you are in relation to your planned route.
And what about all of those forks we encounter virtually everywhere we go. Get a reading, enter it into computer, and make the decision. Sometimes a
compass gives you a feeling about it. But, as you know, some forks go parallel for quite a while and then veer off in other directions. So it wasn't
apparent at the 'intersection'.
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Hook
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Location: Sonora
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So, as you move through the cached GE maps, your GPS will update your location IN REAL TIME as you are driving?
[Edited on 12-11-2011 by Hook]
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
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Location: Bahia Asuncion
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Hook
So, as you move through the cached GE maps, your GPS will update your location IN REAL TIME as you are driving?
[Edited on 12-11-2011 by Hook] |
No. Each file is 2GB and contains the features and gps coordinates of what's stored in them. Once you leave the area you get a blurry image of the
adjoining area. To get it sharp you have to replace the file that google is using with one that has it the features sharp.
When you move your cursor around an area or zoom in the features are blurry for a bit and then become sharp. Google has moved information from it's
server to your laptop's cache and it's sharp once that is done. All we're doing is saving that information so that when there is no connectivity we
get at it.
This is free of charge. I'm sure you can purchase navigation systems that will do it automatically, Hook. Their own maps and a gps system all built
in.
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MMc
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There are so many things wrong with this. Ask yourself, does tech make me happy, or does it keep me busy? What makes me happy? I prefer to live in
the world not watch it or download it. I have never put a GPS spot or going to a web site on my "to do and see list." Just saying. MMc
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64855
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Some of us here love exploring... and Baja is the last frontier to most of us!
If we can see a dirt road on Google Earth going to an interesting place, the GPS will show us which road or which fork to take. This reduces
unnecessary driving, wasted gas, road wear, and allows more time to enjoy the hike or photo op at the end of the road.
Good maps are great, but often still don't have all the roads on them. Even the newest (2009) Baja Almanac still doesn't show roads that are not only
there since 2001, but don't even need 4WD... But, on Google Earth you can see them plain as day.
We who seek some adventure or love exploring new sites (to us), no matter who else has been there before, is what makes Baja so special and why we go
through what we do to get there.
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MMc
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How many days do you have in Baja this year? Adventure is for that go and do, not surf the web and wish. MMc
(do I smell popcorn?)
"Never teach a pig to sing it frustrates you and annoys the pig" - W.C.Fields
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
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Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Don't know if you're referring to me. We're leaving in 5 days.
This thread is for those who do 'go and do'. Why would anyone download maps and not use them?
Whatever.
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
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Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
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Mood: Everchangin'
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have fun and leave some clams and spotties for me in january....
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BajaRat
Super Nomad
Posts: 1303
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Location: SW Four Corners / Bahia Asuncion BCS
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Mood: Ready for some salt water with my Tecate
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| Quote: | Originally posted by MMc
There are so many things wrong with this. Ask yourself, does tech make me happy, or does it keep me busy? What makes me happy? I prefer to live in
the world not watch it or download it. I have never put a GPS spot or going to a web site on my "to do and see list." Just saying. MMc
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I asked myself and....................No I'm totally cool with it.
Thanks Joe, I've been printing maps but never tried this.
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BajaRat
Super Nomad
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Location: SW Four Corners / Bahia Asuncion BCS
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Mood: Ready for some salt water with my Tecate
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| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
Some of us here love exploring... and Baja is the last frontier to most of us!
If we can see a dirt road on Google Earth going to an interesting place, the GPS will show us which road or which fork to take. This reduces
unnecessary driving, wasted gas, road wear, and allows more time to enjoy the hike or photo op at the end of the road.
Good maps are great, but often still don't have all the roads on them. Even the newest (2009) Baja Almanac still doesn't show roads that are not only
there since 2001, but don't even need 4WD... But, on Google Earth you can see them plain as day.
We who seek some adventure or love exploring new sites (to us), no matter who else has been there before, is what makes Baja so special and why we go
through what we do to get there. |
Well said.
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Fernweh
Nomad
Posts: 444
Registered: 2-24-2011
Location: Centenario, BCS
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Right on Joe.
may I expand a little bit on that.
I have been using a similar set-up for years now.
My adventurewagen has a small GPS receiver (picture) added under the right plastic headlight cover. Its battery is recharged whenever I turn on the
lights.
This GPS receiver transmits the satellite data via bluetooth to my laptop in the car. It logs on automatically when I turn on the computer, works like
a charm and I have never (almost) lost the satellite reception.
Using a program to capture the GE cache file - called "GPS for Google Earth", it will use the current cache file or a save one, and displays the GE
satellite image as needed.
You need to scan the area with GE when still online, especially if you like to see the close to the ground images later.
As Joe already mentioned, the cache file can hold 2G of data, GE will add new data and erases the old one when the cache is full.
When on location (Baja) you can then use the GPS for GE program to track your movements in realtime, and it also lets you replay your movements, which
in turn is saved to a different file.
My route south from El Barrill along the coast to the Hwy 1 past San Ignacio was found, driven and tracked with this great setup.
Karl
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Skipjack Joe
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8084
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Location: Bahia Asuncion
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Well I'll be damned! Thanks. Here is what I was about to post as you were posting:
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Last summer we met a family at San Francisquito that was having it's springs welded by Beto (a good man, by the way).
It seems they had made that wrong turn to the right and ended up at El Barril. Realizing their mistake they backtracked to the turnoff. But by then
they were running out of daylight. So they picked up speed and drove hard over the washboard road. The small boat trailer just wasn't built to handle
that kind of stress. That turnoff, however, is marked on the almanac.
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This past summer I had decided to explore some cave paintings in still another area. They were supposed to be on a butte rising over a plain. But when
we got there we saw several buttes in the area. Which one was it? We found them using the above technique. It still took a lot of climbing to find
them.
Those cholla needles are so annoying after they work their way in.
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Fernweh
Nomad
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Sounds familiar as well......
Found some paintings last year the same way. Tracked to them using GE, camped out for the night and searched for them next morning with my buddy
River, the GSP.
Maybe it was the same butte......
Karl
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Mexitron
Ultra Nomad
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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Nice technique Skipjack. My favorite is still the full size topos but the two working together could help in some of the nether regions of the
outback---especially where the Yucca harvesters have carved in all kinds of networks of confusing roads...
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64855
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Mexitron
Nice technique Skipjack. My favorite is still the full size topos but the two working together could help in some of the nether regions of the
outback---especially where the Yucca harvesters have carved in all kinds of networks of confusing roads... |
How long does it take to grow back a yucca tree?
At the ditched El Arenoso runway (Sauzalito/San Juan de Dioas jcn. at Hwy. 1)
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