Garmin Etrex Vista Cx

Tried my almost new but nearly obsolete Garmin Etrex Vista Cx on a flight to PHX today.

The Vista Cx is being replaced by a more sensitive model with poorer battery life by Garmin.
(See May 31st 2007 press release titled Garmin Adds High Sensitivity GPS Receiver to eTrex® Series here.)

I can confirm it cannot pick up satellites inside the aircraft (A-320) unless it's placed right next to the window, as shown above. The window shade and the rubberized case cooperate nicely. Then it happily tracks the flight. I wonder how much better the model with the newer chipset performs.

[I turned on the GPS somewhere before the plane got near Chicago and turned it off shortly before landing at Phoenix.]

Since the Vista Cx also has a barometer, it is fooled by the cabin pressure to report (incorrectly) merely a mile-high altitude. However, the location seems correct, as the map features seem to match up perfectly with what I saw outside the window.

Run #2: Hong Kong

[See previous Run #1] Run #2 is the climb to the Peak on Hong Kong island. (Run #1 is on the Kowloon side.) Unlike run #1, this one is very demanding. Steep. Short. Sweet. Best done in the cool hours of early morning. However, to compensate there are wonderful views of course at the top, and it's quiet, car-free and tree-lined after the initial section. And you have the satisfaction of not taking the Peak Tramway that carries 4 million tourists each year.

At a bit less than 1.5 miles, it climbs from around 200ft if you start from where I start to nearly 1400ft. Think of it like a demanding short trail run in the mountains except it's on concrete.

My GPS tracklog from the Magellan eXplorist 600 using Google Earth (with 3-D buildings turned on):

It's amusingly sparse. Compare the above with a photo I took:

Details?

1. I begin at the Botannical Gardens in front of the memorial to the Chinese who died in the two world wars. Jog through the gardens, to the Panther enclosure, and out the back. Cross the road at the light onto Old Peak Rd.
2. Road is very steep and lined with high-rise condos.
3. Switchbacks are over 20% grade.
4. The road becomes a one lane road here. Cars and motorcycles are prohibited.
   This is where the nice part begins but are you still running?
5. Toilets if you need them.
6. The grade even lets up in places to maybe 5%.
7. Near the top now. Did you last?
8. The top of the tramway is in view. Up the stairs.
9. Turning around, the view back down.

Last, I want to revisit the tracklog on Google Earth again. Here, it's plotted from above:

As you can see, the Magellan struggles here to maintain 3-D coverage. Multipath off the tall buildings? Tree cover?

Mt Lemmon: climb to Ski Valley

Sometimes I forget, but there is a world-class road climb right on the edge of town. It's called Catalina Highway and it climbs Mt Lemmon.

Stats? Start at the intersection of Tanque Verde and Catalina Highway (alt: 2550 ft, 778m). It tops out in Ski Valley (alt: 8350 ft, 2546m). A bit over 30 miles long. A (5800 ft, 1768m) climb. Looking to go under the 3 hour mark with moderate fitness, under 2:30 if in real shape.

See the GPS route plotted on Google Earth:

{Click here for a larger image.]

See the GPS waypoints plotted on National Geographic Topo!:

{Click here for a larger image.]

In summer, the temperature in Tucson regularly reaches 40C (over 100F). Climbing Mt Lemmon can make sense in this heat. Start early in the morning, say 7:30am when the temperature is in the 20s (70sF). When the temperature reaches 40C, you will be at the top of the mountain where the temperature is likely to be 23C.

Unfortunately, this year travel and catch-up when home have taken their toll on bike fitness no matter how much I swim and run. But with a major event coming soon in June, I need to see where I am on the fitness curve. So today, I climbed to Ski Valley and had a late breakfast at the Iron Door restaurant.

Here are some of the checkpoints and baseline fitness marks I use. I carried 60oz of water, just enough to not need refilling.

Named Section	(Approx) Mile marker	Notes
Warm-up	4.5 miles (up to mile marker 0)	Straight and relatively flat before entering the Coronado National Forest.
Windy Point Vista	mile marker 14	Almost halfway. About 6000ft up. Baseline Timecheck: 1:50 (hr:mins). Turn back here if fitness has deserted you.
Summerhaven	mile marker 25	Turn right to keep climbing to Ski Valley. Baseline Timecheck: 2:50 (hr:mins)
Ski Valley	mile marker 27	Steepest section of the road to the top. Irondoor restaurant at Ski Valley. Ski lift can take you to 9157ft (2791m). Baseline Timecheck: 3:00 (hr:mins)

Tech:

I used a small Magellan eXplorist 600 GPS receiver mounted on the handlebar stem. The eXplorist has a USB interface which allows the device to appear like a hard drive to the computer. Files can be simply copied off the device for processing. It records a tracklog, each line of which looks something like:

$PMGNTRK,3215.545,N,11047.879,W,00778,M,142226.79,A,,130507*61

The Magellan file format has to be converted into KML (Keyhole Markup Language) for Google Earth. GPSBabel+ is free software that can do this automatically.

For National Geographic Topo!, I reformat the lat/long fields slightly (as shown below) and import directly via the Wizard.

$PMGNTRK,32.15545,N,110.47879,W,00778,M,142226.79,A,,130507*61