Route preparation

Getting familiar with the route and the location of resupply resources is one further key for crossing the finish line at the end. At the turn of the year many issues of the Tour Divide project were just construction area. But my conception how a decent navigation has to looks like was quite clear. Navigation just with the cue sheets, speedometer and the official ACA maps was not an option for me. One requirement was leaving the bulky maps at home and put all the cue sheets information on the GPS. I scanned all the maps and put it on a smart phone.

Getting all the text from the cue sheets into the GPS was a big achievement. It costs me more than hundred hours at the desk at least and produced a big Excel sheet with all the information I need. Elevation profiles, distances between different kinds of facilities like campgrounds, motels, grocery stores, restaurants, supermarkets, towns, bike shops, Starbucks, gas stations and a lot of more. The Excel sheet also moved on a smart phone. For every section in the cue sheets that is marked with the star symbol I created a POI (Point Of Interest). So it's possible to move the text of the section to the comment of the POI. I used the Excel sheet after some filter steps to create the corresponding gpi-files for the GPS. Getting the coordinates for the POI’s and the Excel sheet means scanning every inch of the route with Google Earth. The first time I got a very good impression of the whole route and a steady increasing respect with every further mile I virtually headed on southward. To add the POI’s for the towns I used Street View (if available) for the location of the different resources. In bigger towns I don’t wanna searching for a special facility as long as absolutely necessary. Arrival and relax is the slogan.