Walking with Shepherds Walks

GPS in the Hills - Rothbury 08

Walk Date - 20/01/08

After what can only be described as a shocking week on the weather front it was with some trepidation I pulled the curtains back on the Saturday morning and yes, they had got the forecast correct - it was dry and the sun was shining.

When planning the guided walk programme for the year it was a true gamble to do this course in January but someone must have been watching over me.

The river next to the car park was high, when I pulled up. After seeing the river bursting its banks just a few weeks ago I was grateful that the car park was not under water.

We had a great bunch of people lined up, with three having their own GPS units and three doing it for the first time. After loading up all the GPS units with the waypoints and routes it was time for the off.

Up ‘Jacobs Ladder’, past ‘Sharp’s Folly’, the GPS was leading the way, running through waypoints as we followed a pre-loaded route.

Then it was time to run through the ‘goto’ command as we navigated across the field to a stile. The weather was still dry, but turning a little cooler as we climbed up to Lordenshaws Iron Age Hillfort.

Wow!  One of my favourite places in Northumberland, the cup and ring marks on the rock with Simonside standing tall behind and what better landscape to brush up on your GPS skills. 

After reaching the road by utilising the capabilities that TOPO mapping provided we moved on to the picnic area along the road, so we could frequent one of the few picnic benches in Northumberland and even better it was sheltered from what was turning into a cold wind.

After lunch we dropped back down to the river Coquet and back into Rothbury.

A brilliant day, even if I say so myself. Great company and people who really grasped what they were shown.

More groups like this please!

You can view more pictures from the GPS in the Hills course by clicking here.

• We have our next GPS in the Hills Course in May 08. Click here for more info.

GPS in the Hills - Rothbury

Walk Date - 11/08/07

Over the past year or so it has been amazing how many more people have been turning up to the Shepherds Walks guided walks with GPS units. So I thought why not do a walk where they can put their skills to the test. So ‘GPS in the Hills’ was created.

On the plus side I had managed to get eight Garmin GPSmap 60Cx  complete with TOPO mapping for those who wanted to use them and with the wonderful countryside just above Rothbury for us to put our skills to good use it was going to be a good day.

The group soon grasped the concept of how the units worked and before long we were following a ‘route’ up out of Rothbury and past Sharp’s Folly.

After a couple of exercises with the use of an Ordnance Survey map, they had completely grasped how to manually put waypoints into their GPS units. After this they could really see how using a GPS unit could help them when out walking.

Due to popular demand we had a slight detour up to Dove Crag, in the Simonside Hills and then it was a case of navigating back using their TOPO mapping that was on each of their GPS units.

It had been a long day and a few miles navigated; with us all arriving back into Rothbury after 4.30.

It will certainly be happening again and a good social day was had by all. I had intended it to be a day when like minded people would get together and in a fun way learn how to use, or improve their GPS skills. I think that was achieved and I certainly enjoyed it.

You can view more pictures from this day by clicking here.

• We are running another GPS in the Hills day in January 2008. For more info click here.