The National Park Service will host a GPS seminar on Saturday. Instructor Burt Elliott will discuss and demonstrate how Global Positioning System units can make a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains safer and more interesting.
By Stephen Dorman/Special to The Malibu Times
Getting lost is rarely a rewarding experience. Thankfully, technological advances such as Global Positioning System units have helped ease the burden of directionless drivers around the globe for several years. But drivers aren’t the only ones now reaping the rewards of GPS, hikers are too.
On Saturday, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area will host a free GPS seminar beginning at 10 a.m. at the Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa site, located off the Ventura Freeway in Newbury Park. The event will be hosted by longtime National Park Service volunteer, Burt Elliott, and will feature a basic introduction of the functions of GPS and a trip into the mountains for practical applications of the system as well.
“It’s really a very simpleminded lecture and field demonstration of the GPS for hikers,” Elliott said. “A lot of people are put off by the technology. The idea is to present what kind of advantages there are for an average hiker to use GPS. We’ll basically review how it works, what kind of capabilities there are and the kinds of price rages available for the consumer.”
The GPS is a satellite-based navigation system made up of a network of 24 satellites placed into orbit by the U.S. Department of Defense. GPS was originally intended for military applications, but in the 1980s the government made the system available for civilian use. GPS works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day. There are no subscription fees or setup charges to use GPS. As technology has gotten better, so has the accuracy of handheld GPS units, which on average can pinpoint a location on earth to within 15 meters, according to Garmin International, a worldwide GPS distributor.
Park Ranger Sheila Braden said the seminar would demonstrate a variety of GPS units so attendees could find the best possible system that fits their hiking needs. With a backbone trail in the Santa Monica Mountains that spans approximately 60 miles from Point Mugu to Topanga Canyon, she said owning a GPS unit could be an advantage for just about any regular hiker.
“For a lot of folks, hiking the backbone trail can be a difficult thing to do,” Braden said. “But if you have a GPS unit it’s a real advantage. We’ve got the different trail coordinates for hiking the backbone trail, but unless people have a GPS system it’s not something that would occur to them.”
Another relatively new recreational hiking activity that will be discussed at the GPS seminar will be geocaching-a hide-and-seek type game for GPS users. The basic idea for geocaching is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world, post the coordinates online, typically on the Web site www.geocaching.com, and then let treasure hunters track down what has been stashed.
Neal Oren, manager for the Adventure 16 store in Tarzana, said geocaching has slowly developed into a popular outdoors activity over the last several years. He estimates that one in 10 hikers currently own a GPS unit, which range in price from $100 for low-end models to more than $700 for units that come as small as a watch or with built-in communication features.
“It’s a great way for families to get their kids outdoors and interested in hiking,” Oren said of geocaching. “People seem to really like the treasure hunting aspect of it.”
However, Elliott warns that there are certain wildlife areas that are not to be utilized by geocachers because they sometimes fall under protected status. Because a typical geocache can involve digging up ground to burying some form of treasure, Elliott said he would discuss the proper areas, situations and techniques for locating a geocaching spot that would prevent adverse environmental effects.
For more information on Saturday’s seminar or for a schedule of future presentations, visit the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area’s Web site at www.nps.gov/samo/.