GPS Navigation: Using CalTopo and Gaia GPS

This beginner-friendly class introduces the modern way to use both physical and digital/GPS-enabled maps—the core of wilderness navigation—in wilderness navigation. The class consists of two parts:

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1. A self-paced online presentation with exercises that you must complete at home (approximately 4-6 hours). This is a serious time commitment, and we encourage the students to start early!
2. A Zoom workshop (6:00 to 9:15 PM, optional introductions and social half-hour from 6:00 to 6:30 PM) that focuses on creating a customized home-printable physical map, and uploading this data to the Gaia GPS app on your cell phone. We will cover how to use the physical map in concert with the digital map (Gaia), a compass, and an altimeter (~2.5 hours).

Once you complete both parts, you will earn a Basic GPS Course badge.

Learning goals:

• Understand that maps—both physical and digital—are the core of wilderness navigation and represent two of the five necessary tools.
• Understand how to create physical maps to print at home specific to your planned trip, and how to upload these customizations in a GPX file for the basic operations of Gaia GPS.
• Understand digital maps: how GPS works, the differences between digital maps, and how to download appropriate maps to Gaia GPS.
• Understand what options are available for emergency communications:
• Receive an introduction to the critical topics of Trip Planning, Workflow, Situational Awareness, and the Ethic of Self-Reliance.