RonnieAdventure #0003 - Brownstone Canyon, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Clark Co., Nevada

Okay! Time to try out my new GPS skills! Back to Red Rock Canyon NCA, but this time it is a trip to a remote canyon (Brownstone Canyon) that requires a 4-wheed drive vehicle with high ground clearance. Fortunately, I happen to have one of those. Arriving at the trail head I reset my trip computer and we are ready to go.

This area is filled with unusual rock formations and remains from Native American Inhabitants, making it great one-day trip. As we hike up the canyon we stop often to take pictures of the beautiful scenery.

"Rock Fins"

Small Arch

"Brain Rock"

When we come to the Native America petroglyphs, I set a waypoint! Hiking farther up the canyon we come to an Agave Roasting Pit used by early Native Americans. The pictographs and paintings are beautiful in this ara are in very good condition for their age, which is probably because they are protected by an overhanging rock formation. The painting are very unusual because instead of being the typical Southwest red color, these paintings use a combination of white, black, yellow and red pigments. I set another waypoint! After about another mile we come to the last man-made dam in the canyon and set another waypoint. Now I think I’ve got it!

Petroglyph

Pictograph

Rock Painting

 Arriving back home, when I plug in my GPS unit the computer screen looks worse than it did before. Apparently I didn’t follow the correct steps to clear my trip computer and delete the Colorado Waypoint. Time to head back to REI! Fortunately, I find my favorite Sales Associate and I show him the mess I have on my GPS screen. The first thing he asked me was if I had been out of State with the unit. I admitted that I had taken the GPS unit with me on a trip and put in a Waypoint so that I could find my way back to the hotel. I detected that he was having a hard time keeping a straight face when he announced: “I know what your problem is! You have never stopped making new tracks. This unit is smart enough to make new tracks even when the unit is turned off. Therefore, everywhere that you have traveled to has been recorded as a new Track.” It turns out that every time you want to stop making new tracks, you have to manually push the Track Log button and select Do Not Record in order to keep the unit from making new Tracks. Then he suggested that I take the REI GPS class.

 The first thing I learned in class was that there are some major omissions in the instruction manual and you could probably never figure out the correct way to use the GPS unit without someone to show you the key functions and correct sequence of steps that must be taken to get accurate results. The instructor was very patient, and since most of the people in the class were senior citizens (I felt pretty tech savvy because some of the people in the class didn’t know which was the top of the unit.), the instructional pace went at a very slow pace. However, it bothered me when the instructor started the class by saying that using a GPS unit was as easy as programming your new HD digital TV. I’ve never figured out how to program my HD digital TV either! We learned about declination and the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) grid and learned that we live in a flat, two-dimensional world, as least as far as the UTM grid system is concerned. We also found out that unless you calibrate your UPS unit at the trail head, you probably are not going to get good results. (They forgot to tell me that one in the instruction manual.) They also gave out a lot of other good information, so I would recommend that if you purchase a new hands-held GPS unit, you take the class before spending a lot of time with the instruction manual. After the class, I went home and typed up a list of instructional steps that must be followed to get the unit to work correctly and taped the instructions to the back of my GPS unit. Okay! Time to start over! So, I went into Base Camp and deleted all of the existing GPS data on my computer and the data that was stored in the GPS unit itself. Now let’s see what happens on the next Ronnie Adventure!

Here are the steps to follow if you purchase a new handheld GPS unit

At Home

·         Clear your GPS Unit Memory

At Start of Hike
·         Calibrate Compass
·         Reset Trip Computer
·         Start Tracks

At End of Hike

·         Stop Tracks

Good Luck!