WHERE AM I?
CLUES:
Waypoint: "Ski"
Waypoint: "Lift"
ANSWER: I must be on Sugarloaf!
Two dozen CVOA members -- from the somewhat savvy to the befuddled and bemused -- pointed and plotted their way through a 4-hour GPS course, June 13, hoping to answer the question: Where I am?
Braving fierce black flies and a steady rain, the intrepid navigators wandered around Sugarloaf's beginner terrain, eyes locked on their Garmin 72s, charting a course from lower Boardwalk to the Skidway lift shack over to the Superquad past the shuttle stop and back.
The wanderers knew they were "home" when the elephant icon chosen as the starting point flashed on the GPS screen with the welcoming words "arriving at your destination."
"Fun," said Nelson Camp, who organized the course for CVOA members.
Nelson took a GPS course in Farmington last year sponsored by the State Department of Conservation, Maine Forest Service. He was so impressed, he asked District Forester Patty Cormier if she'd be willing to conduct a course for CVOA members. Patty, who grew up skiing Sugarloaf, said she couldn't miss a chance to come back to the valley.
Patty brought GPS units --- and lots of patience --- for the 24 CVOAers taking the course, most of them rank amateurs in the art of geo-positioning satellites.
Asked why they were taking the course, "students" mentioned boating navigation, hiking, hunting and "curiosity" as their reasons.
By the time the course was over, everyone knew a lot more about the military-run satellite system in our skies that helps everyone from the Army to the census takers to foresters to hunters to hikers to lost travelers.
"I learned a lot," said JJ Clements, who has a GPS navigator on her cell phone but had never used one "in the woods."
After explaining the concept, Patty helped her "students" set-up their GPS devices inside the Sugarloaf Hotel before venturing outside to plot courses. Participants learned about trilateration, waystations, routes, tracks, mapping software, easing into the lingo with phrases like MOB (man overboard, which, roughly translated, means "show me how to get back to I was!
"A great course. I really enjoyed it," said Bonnie Stagers.
"The best GPS course I have ever taken," said Neil Trask
Enthusiasm was so high that Patty agreed to come back this fall and teach another beginner GPS course as well as a new course on Compass and Mapping for CVOA.
Any CVOA member interested in taking these CVOA fall courses should contact Nelson at: nacamp@redingtoneast.com
CVOA President Pete and Judy Weston hosted a cookout for the
class Saturday night at "Judy's Place," featuring the usual array of fabulous
CVOA food.
The CVOA June course was full to capacity but other GPS courses are being offered in Farmington (June 2 and Aug. 11) and Rangeley (July 18). Contact the Franklin County Soil & Water Conservation District for details at 778-4279.
Thanks Patty, Nelson, Pete and Judy!!!!!!
To see photos of Saturday's GPS course, check out the CVOA web page at: www.cvoutdoors.com.