Route Building 101

[troy]

I did an all day white-water rafting trip on either the upper or lower Gauley--don't remember which. I just remember it was quite scary in many places but was also an experience in my top 3 most exciting and fun experiences of my life. The guide kept explaining different sections as we'd pass where people died and how and why. I don't remember much but I do remember one curve of the river where a huge rock juts out of the water at the bend at a 45 degree angle or so. It was called "The Meat Grinder" and had killed a few people.

[ajayhawkfan]

I use to do a lot of OC2 paddling until about 7 years ago. My bow partner and I would take off at a moments notice if there was a large downpour in either MO or AR. Swan and Beaver are 2 of my favorites in high water. We would also run the Saint at least once a year. I have even floated Brush and Indian Creek in flood stage when I could not get away. However, most of my whitewater paddling ended when my partner got married and had children. Now I'm lucky to get in one whitewater run a year and maybe an overnighter.

[safiri]

That sounded like a great trip. I have floated most of the Buffalo at one time or another but never so many days in a row. It is a great river.

I am thinking of a Kaw river float from Manhattan (K State) to Lawrence (KU) this summer. Would you have any interest?

I too had done most of the Buffalo in two or three day stretches. I used to do two or three single-day trips in a long weekend. Finally figured out that the shuttles ate up all of the time. That, and I found a couple of friends that were willing to camp on gravel bars and load canoes with gear and food and not take the kitchen sink as in car camping.

Our goal, as written in my report, was to do the entire Buffalo. Drought conditions kept us from doing from Ponca to Ozark (Pruitt) and almost kept us from doing anything above Buff Point.

However, putting on at Buff Pnt and taking 6 to 8 days to get to Buff City would leave a lot of time for:
- hiking. Lots of trals intersect the river and there are plenty of opportunities in the LBW (lower buff wilderness) to take side hikes, get to the tops of bluffs, hike us side streams, etc.
- fishing. The high water we hit murked up the water so fishing wasn't good at all. Of course we weren't on a fishing trip so we didn't mind. Three of us had poles and minimal gear just in case.

I have floated the Kaw from Lawrence to DeSoto. Somewhat slow. A buddy did the Kaw from above Perry to Lawrence. Really slow. I have driven across the Kaw btw Manhattan and Topeka and it always seems really shallow and slow. Perhaps late spring would be a better choice?

Locally, floating the Missouri from Leavenworth (just north of the highway - MO R bridge) to Parkville (riverfront park) to downtown KC (Wheeler landing??) are a couple of really nice day trips. Lvn to Pvl is around 21 river miles. First time it took me, solo in a 15' canoe, <3hrs with minimal effort. The second time it took 3 of us in a 18' canoe 5.5 hrs and we paddled as one guy was missing his kids baseball banquet. The water levels were quite different. Gravel bars aren't very frequent as most of what you see are mud bars. Pretty though. Just above Parkville, a few years back, you could see clearly on the west bank the path through the woods the tornado took that touched down just downstream from Parkville on the east bank.

On the ride last Monday we crossed the Platte R a couple of times. With all of the rain/snow we have had it looked very floatable. Not sure of barbed wire strung across and similar. At both crossings MoDeCons had access points for fishing or hunting.

Let me know if you are headed out for a day trip. I and/or a local buddy might be interested.

Oh yeah, years ago, when I was younger and dumber, a friend and I took a canoe across the JoCoWater District diversion dam just down from 435 on the Kaw. Water was high enough it was flowing over the dam, not just through to j channel on river right. We got thrashed and trashed, as did the canoe. We finally got to shore, swimming, about a mile downstream. Then we had to bushwhack / portage back to our car. Don't try this stunt. We consider ourselves lucky to have lived. If you see kayakers there, they put in below and paddle up to play in the tailwater exiting the j-channel. Supposedly the dam is to be modified and made kayak safe to travel the j-channel.

So much for Troy making a motorcycling forum.

[safiri]

I use to do a lot of OC2 paddling until about 7 years ago. My bow partner and I would take off at a moments notice if there was a large downpour in either MO or AR. Swan and Beaver are 2 of my favorites in high water. We would also run the Saint at least once a year. I have even floated Brush and Indian Creek in flood stage when I could not get away. However, most of my whitewater paddling ended when my partner got married and had children. Now I'm lucky to get in one whitewater run a year and maybe an overnighter.

I have a Dagger Ocoee, outfitted, hanging from my rafters. Bought it, used, 5 years ago thinking about taking up OC1. Haven't done much with it.

My main whitewater boat is a WaveSport Diesel kayak. Good all around boat.

For Ozarks I have a 15' Wenonah Saranac. And yes, I can pack 8 days worth of food and gear and two people in a 15' canoe and still have four inches of freeboard. I am always keeping an eye out for a good 17' boat though. 3 or 4 days is really easy to pack into a 15', 5 or more gets creative. Of course it keeps what you pack to a minimum.

Did you paddle with the KCWC? That is where I learned ww kayaking, on the St Francis. I go with them on the July 4 trip each year to CO.

[ajayhawkfan]

I never paddled with the KCWC. I learned most of my WW paddling from the owners of a paddle shop in Springfield, MO. It was called River Madness but it closed. The first 2 times I ran the Saint was during Missouri Whitewater Associations' annual clinic. After that we did it on our own.

For pleasure canoeing I paddle a Mad River Duck Hunter ( the Explorer but in hunters green with slotted gunwales).

For WW I paddle a fully outfitted Mad River Freedom. I think Freedom is the duel sport boat of canoes. It very capable in WW but you can take the floatation out and it does a vary good job for river paddling.

When I started WW paddling I had a Mad River ME. It was a squirrely sucker. I had it rigged so it could be used for both as an OC1 or 2. I did not miss it when I got rid of it and went to the Freedom.

[safiri]

So y'all wonder about the battery drain on a 60CS?

Well ... seems I put away my KTM last Monday afternoon and left the GPS mounted and turned on. Today the headlight would barely light. No way the bike would turn over.

Of course the GPS shutdown automatically when it sensed that external power was lost ... not sure what voltage that occurs at. Thus the internal AA batteries are still fully charged.

So, what we know:
A mc battery will not power a GPS for 5 days.

What we don't know:
The intelligence of the guy who left the GPS turned on. <100 is my guess.
The number of days that the GPS was powered.

What we don't know that we don't know:
You answer this one.

[katbeanz]

Troy, I believe you said you got the RAM mount. Have you found the belt clip button to be sufficient to hold it in the cradle?
It seems to pop in fairly snug, just wondering if anyone uses any extra precautions to hold it in place. Thanks, Dean

[safiri]

Troy, I believe you said you got the RAM mount. Have you found the belt clip button to be sufficient to hold it in the cradle?
It seems to pop in fairly snug, just wondering if anyone uses any extra precautions to hold it in place. Thanks, Dean

I have the same mount, and the TT over-engineered-German mount ($100). I wish I had saved my $100. The TT mount automatically plugs in the VDC, but other than that, they do the same job to the same degree.

The GPS is difficult to get out of the RAM mount. To me, that is a good thing.

[ajayhawkfan]

Troy, I believe you said you got the RAM mount. Have you found the belt clip button to be sufficient to hold it in the cradle?
It seems to pop in fairly snug, just wondering if anyone uses any extra precautions to hold it in place. Thanks, Dean

I'm a noobie to riding and don't have the experience the others have on this board however I do take additional precautions. I use the wrist band and loop it around something solid in case the GPSr comes out of the cradle. It never had come out but I do it just in case.

[katbeanz]

Thanks Guys!

[troy]

Troy, I believe you said you got the RAM mount. Have you found the belt clip button to be sufficient to hold it in the cradle?
It seems to pop in fairly snug, just wondering if anyone uses any extra precautions to hold it in place. Thanks, Dean

I find it to be VERY secure. When people say they ride "hard-core" trails, it's always a relative thing. For some people, there are roads in Kansas they'd consider "hard-core". But I can assure you I have bounced my bike hard and thrown it down hard on some rough trails in Arkansas MANY times during 2006. I've not ONCE had an issue with the GPS unit and the mount. At least with mine, the only way that thing is coming out of there is if the bike lands in such a way that pressure is applied to the top of the mount pushing it backwards--which is what you do to remove and insert the unit. If the bike lands in such a way, maybe I'd prefer the GPS come out---may protect it from being smashed.

[katbeanz]

Troy, a guy at work was asking me about your jet skis today, he has a friend that lives down at lake of the ozarks. I printed a flyer but my color cartridge is kaput so the pics are just black and white, your pics on your site are much better anyway.

Another GPS question for anyone, I got the hardwire kit from cycoactive, HD blade fuse holder, another inline fuse, and the cable with the garmin plug.
There are four wires in the cable, red and black I'm fairly certain I know what to do with them. White and purple or brown maybe, are the two I don't know about. They may be for features I don't have or need.
Thanks, Dean

[troy]

Troy, a guy at work was asking me about your jet skis today, he has a friend that lives down at lake of the ozarks. I printed a flyer but my color cartridge is kaput so the pics are just black and white, your pics on your site are much better anyway.

I sold them. Thanks, though. I sold them a few weeks ago and deleted the topic in the forum.

Safiri will be better to answer your wiring question, but I know I'm only using your 2 standard wires to connect my 60CS to my battery. Mike and I hard-wired to the battery (no switch) with an inline fuse of course. We like the ability to leave the GPS powered on with the bike shutoff. This also allows you to connect a battery charger or tender through the wire without having to remove your battery cover. Of course Mike learned last week that this can cause problems if you leave your GPS on for days!

[safiri]

Another GPS question for anyone, I got the hardwire kit from cycoactive, HD blade fuse holder, another inline fuse, and the cable with the garmin plug.
There are four wires in the cable, red and black I'm fairly certain I know what to do with them. White and purple or brown maybe, are the two I don't know about. They may be for features I don't have or need.
Thanks, Dean

I am pretty sure the red is (+) and black is (-). The Garmin site was hard to find info from. The other two pins / wires are for serial data transfer.

Here is some info I found:
http://pfranc.com/projects/g45contr/assemb.htm

BTW, the page above shows how to build a cable the allows two GPS units to share info (without a computer in between them ...).

[katbeanz]

Thanks Mike, I figured out the belt clip button ram mount from cycoactive's site. This one had me stumped, I hope you didn't put yourself to too much trouble. Dean

[safiri]

Colorado County maps, downloaded and zipped into one folder for easy download:

http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/Motorc ... teplan.htm

(File may not be uploaded to my server until noonish today ...)

[The Harm]

[Something that I do for fun---not actually part of my route building--is load the GPX file in Google Earth. http://www.google.com/earth/ (You need the Plus or Pro account to do this...Plus is $20/year.) It can be fun to view the route in Google Earth and "fly" through the route.

I hope this discussion and the experiences shared are helpful to some of you. [/quote]


You can fly the route with the free Google Earth through mapsource. Go to View and scoll down to open in google earth. While in google earth you can choose to "fly" the route and it will fly from way point to way point automatically.

[The Harm]

When building a route for the gypsum hills ride I've noticed on Mapsource that there are severl dotted line that are classified as trails. Has anyone tried to build a route using these roads or have any experiance with them???

Since the sat photos on google earth and still blurry on some less populated places I've actually been using the weather map on http://www.weather.com to look at the more clear satellite photos. Just a personal tip if you're trying to veiw an area that has poor resolution on google map/earth

[safiri]

When building a route for the gypsum hills ride I've noticed on Mapsource that there are severl dotted line that are classified as trails. Has anyone tried to build a route using these roads or have any experiance with them???

Since the sat photos on google earth and still blurry on some less populated places I've actually been using the weather map on http://www.weather.com to look at the more clear satellite photos. Just a personal tip if you're trying to veiw an area that has poor resolution on google map/earth

I have run into Garmin "Trails" all over the state ... not a single one has ever existed when I got there. Not really sure what they refer to.

[troy]

I concur what safiri says. When I ride the Arkansas Ozarks, those dotted trail lines sometimes are actually trails. Sometimes they are no longer a trail, but I can see that something used to be there. However, not once has one of those dotted lines in Kansas turned out to be a real trail. Considering that virtually all land in Kansas is private, the chance of finding a legitmate off-road trail is about zero.