Riding with a GPS and the reasons I like to ride with one were expressed in an article I wrote last July. I ride with a Garmin Montana 600. It is outdated, but it does everything I need it to do.

To list those reasons, here is a quick review:

Recording a track

I like to keep a record of the trails I ride. It makes it possible to ride a trail again. That being said, trying to ride a trail again, if it has been a long time since I first rode it, is risky.

Back in April I wrote an article entitled “Leaving Babylon on an ATV to find Toquerville Falls.” It had been six years since I had taken that recorded track. I was excited to lead members of the NUATV club on that fun trail.

Property had been purchased and the track we were trying to ride was blocked with fences. A pass we were trying to ride over was so badly washed out it was totally impassable. However, those are exceptions and riding an old track can be a lot of fun.

Finding points of interest

I can stop at a point on any trail I am riding and look for points of interest. I was on a ride out of Salina on the Paiute ATV Trail System one year when I checked my GPS and found a cabin that was only about a mile away.

We followed my GPS directions and came to the site where the cabin once stood. It wasn’t there anymore, but it was fun to look out at the country they would have seen from their front door. I never would have known that it existed without my GPS.

Making travel in the backcountry safer

One of the most valuable features of a GPS is being able to ride out into the backcountry any given distance and then to find my way back. A GPS makes a track that is easy to follow back to where I came from. I have read too many stories about people getting lost in unfamiliar country with no way of finding their way back.

One of the problems I have run into while riding with a GPS is pinpointing my location. Sometimes I lose my orientation with the map I am trying to follow.

A GPS allows you to adjust your point of view from several miles high down to 300 feet. You are viewing your track at a point above your head.

I like to ride with a view of my track at 500 feet overhead. Sometimes I will zoom out to see where a track is taking me, but normally, I will ride at a setting of 500 feet.

From that viewpoint, I am too close to the ground to be able to pick out landmarks along the trail. If I zoom out to take a look, the background detail clutters the view.

It is not until I get home and upload the track to my computer that I can sort out the trail. I view my tracks on a Garmin app called Base Camp.

Actually, it is not until I get home and upload my tracks that I am able to orient the track to landmarks. Then I can say that I was riding up Rattlesnake Canyon when I came out on Bugaboo Plateau. The names have been changed to protect my ignorance.

So I came across a new idea when I was riding with my friends, Cory and Keaton Gerrard, on the Paiute ATV Trail last summer. We were on a narrow track out of Beaver that came to a “T” onto a wider road.

From my GPS, I could not tell which way to turn. Keaton was riding with an app on his cellphone called the Avenza app. He had downloaded the National Geographic Paiute Trail System Map and could see exactly where we were on his map and the decision was easy.

You might wonder why not just use the Avenza app. Well, you might be able to. I do better saving tracks on my GPS.

I am planning on using both my GPS and the Avenza app on my cellphone to be able to better navigate Utah’s trail systems. When you go take plenty of water, keep the rubber side down, and try using these two trail tools to enhance your riding experience.