A feature of New.SpotWalla.com is the ability to hide from display many of the track markers of a "Trip." This, of course, leads to lots of creative "Connect the Dots" fun.
SpotWalla.com is a useful and fun tool in the Long-Distance riding community. Creating a "Trip" that tracks, in near real-time, the ride progress is great for family and friends to follow. A SpotWalla trip graphically displays on a Google Map where the rider is and has been. It also allows the rider to mark specific points along the way by pressing various buttons on their device. Using a GPS tracking device; Spot, Bubbler GPS, SWConnect or Garmin InReach, can be used to produce a trip display in SpotWalla.com.
This his how I created the Lone Star using SpotWalla.
- Used a paper star template to lay over a paper map of Texas to establish the locations of each star point.
- Used Garmin BaseCamp to plot waypoints at each of the points of the star.
- Using the BaseCamp "Measure" (little ruler) tool to draw the star, validating the shape, moving the waypoints if necessary.
- This was the draw order I used.
- Southeast
- North
- Southwest
- East
- West
- Southeast
- Export the GPX file to the GPS, in my case a Garmin zumoXT.
On Sunday, October 10, I rode to the SW point near Yoakum for the start. I wasn't on the clock so I just rode at my normal LD pace. When I stopped for the night near the Southwest point I noticed the tread of the rear tire on my GSA was getting thin. I had 11,872 miles on the tire since being installed the end of June. I stopped at RideNow in Austin, which was on my way, for a new Anakee 3. They were very accommodating and got me back on the road in an hour.
I finished riding to all 5 points and back to Yoakum by 2 pm Tuesday for a total of 1,924 miles.
I used only the "OK" button on Bubbler at each of the star points. I like Bubbler GPS Pro because it gives great APP feedback when marking a location. That lets me know SpotWalla will receive the marker.
To convert the SpotWalla trip track into the shape of the Lone Star is simple. Under the Trip, select Update, on the Security tab you will find where to highlight the SpotWalla map features to hide from display. Select "Tracking" to draw a straight line between the "OK" markers I plotted while riding. It was important to ride to the Lone Star points in the specific order to draw the desired shape.
This was a fun trip, full of the usual ups and downs that characterize Hard Riding Adventures. I leaned something new creating this trip. Thank you Jason Jonas for all your help and for the great new.SpotWalla.com!
