Timecachers (7 page)

“I’ve only owned this place for about five years, but I’ve been in the retail business all my life. I worked for my father in his store since I was a kid. He had a general store just outside town. When he passed, I sold the place and bought this one. I guess it’s in my blood. We Adairs’ have run businesses around here for generations. Apparently I had a great-grandfather that ran a trading post down near Calhoun back in the Indian days. A bit of a notorious character from what I’ve heard.”

“I guess most of us have a few of those in our lineage. This seems like a fantastic location for an outfitter shop. I’d guess that the rural location is a lot less hectic than it is in Atlanta.”

“We have a good business, but it’s not always so peaceful. The outfitter part of the business can be a lot of fun. I enjoy taking folks out on backpacking trips, but sometimes you get some real jerks that want to tell you how to do things. You have to wonder why they bothered to hire an outfitter if they already had all the answers!”

“Sounds like some of the managers I used to work for. Guess you have to take the good with the bad with anything. I’m looking forward to retirement when I only have to answer to myself.”

“Good luck with that. I figure with the way the economy is going these days, I might be able to retire at around age 120,” James chuckled.

“You could be right,” Adam agreed. “Tell you what, when we get to that age we’ll get together and see how far we can hike into the Chattahoochee with our walkers!”

“You’re on,” James laughed. “For now though I guess we both need to get back to work. It was great to meet you. Ya’ll stay safe, have a good time, and good luck with your project.”

“Thanks, I’m sure we will. We really appreciate all your help, James.”

“Glad to be of service, Adam. Stop in anytime!”

Chapter seven

T
he hotel offered a free sunrise breakfast, so they agreed to meet in the lounge at first light to get an early start to the national forest. First stop was the Blue Ridge ranger station, where they purchased the required backcountry permits and a fishing license for Adam. Adam sensed that the ranger was skeptical about issuing the backpacking permits to a group of software testers, especially since he was vague about the areas where they would be hiking. The area where they were planning to do most of the testing was near the Cohutta Wilderness Area, which is inside of the Chattahoochee National Park. They would also be close to the Tennessee border and the Cherokee National Park. Adam allayed the ranger’s concerns with some pleasant conversation about their previous backpacking trips.

The Cohutta district ranger was patient and willing to be flexible with the permits, persuaded that they were capable backpackers and would be testing out a new type of GPS receiver. She issued the permits, and stressed the importance of keeping her advised of their progress and of any change of plans. She was pleasant but firm when it came to issuing backcountry permits, understandably serious about verifying the hikers had proper experience and common sense before allowing them to spend a week hiking in the backcountry. Adam appreciated the concern for their safety, and understood that the ranger wanted to avoid mounting searches for lost hikers in her jurisdiction. Undoubtedly she had rescued plenty of folks claiming to be expert hikers who had underestimated the immensity of the forest or failed to take the simple precautions necessary to avoid an embarrassing disaster.

While the team was looking forward to backpacking, it was possible the permits would not be needed. In fact, they were not planning on an extended backpacking trip for the initial testing. Rather, they intended on camping at a few primitive tent sites, most of which could be driven to in the SUV. From these sites, they could day-hike or do a single night trip to the areas they had preselected. Once the standard testing scenarios were completed, they would begin following the anomaly beacons. For that part of the exercise, they planned to drive as close to the first beacon as they could get, then hike, carrying only what they needed and leaving the rest behind in the Suburban. Depending upon what they discovered when they reached the first beacon, they would return to the SUV and either retrieve their gear to continue following subsequent beacons, or conclude the testing.

For the first day of testing, they would be taking a relatively short trail, about an eleven mile round trip, known as the Mountaintown Creek trail. It was not a heavily used trail, but it was well marked, and they were able to download an accurate set of GPS coordinates for several points along the trail that had been posted by previous hikers. The downloaded waypoints would let them test the LANav against their regular GPS receivers.

From Blue Ridge, they looped around a few country roads to reach Old Route 2, where they could pick up a forest road to a parking spot at the trailhead. The trail was about a six mile hike along Mountaintown Creek, a small trout stream that ran through a mountain gorge. It would be an easy, pleasant hike for them to get started, and there were roads at both ends of the gorge.

Tom had studied the area using satellite maps, and noted the steep terrain on both sides of the creek could offer a challenge to GPS reception. James Adair, the outfitter, had hiked the trail often and confirmed there were many spots along the creek that were tough for the receivers to pick up a satellite signal. James also acknowledged that it was a beautiful spot for a hike in the spring; a noteworthy benefit in Adam’s opinion.

The big Suburban crunched to a stop at the tiny pull-off next to the trailhead. A small trail marker was clearly visible from the road, although later in the season, as the vegetation flourished, it would be much more difficult to see.

They had risen early, and with only a single cup of coffee, most of the ride was spent dozing or silently contemplating the testing scenario they would soon be executing. Sal made a few cracks about hearing banjo music and chiding Tom with some off-color remarks about hillbilly inbreeding, which Tom ignored. When Sal looked in Alice’s direction, one stabbing glance from her fierce azure eyes was all it took for him to reconsider whatever taunt he intended to cast her way.

They would be taking only daypacks, large enough to carry everything they needed for a single night camping. They brought along two small tents, but if the weather stayed as it was there would be little need for them; their mid-weight sleeping bags would keep them warm enough for a night under the stars. It was already late morning by the time they arrived, after making the stop at Blue Ridge and finding their way along the unfamiliar back roads to the trailhead.

With the vehicle securely off the road, the team disembarked the barge-sized SUV, grabbed their gear, and spent a few moments taking in the quiet majesty of the forest before setting off down the white blazed trail. Each person had their own handheld GPS receiver, and they all habitually punched in a waypoint, marking the location of the vehicle. Adam slipped the TSO LANav from the protective belt-clipped case he had fashioned. He switched it on, and keyed in the selection for TERRESTRIAL NAVIGATION MODE. A secondary screen displayed immediately, and he punched the STORE PRESENT LOCATION soft-key on the menu. The unit responded with a soft confirmation chirp and he slipped the device back into its case.

Adam worried that the magnificent surroundings would make it difficult to stick to business, and then a moment later remembered that one of his reasons for taking this project was to have a little fun while they worked. He got into his walking pace, relishing the familiar comfort of his sturdy hiking boots as he made his way along the trail’s uneven terrain. The damp, fragrant forest worked its magic, easing his mind into the serenity his feet had already found. The tranquility of the woodland trail enveloped the members of the team and each fell into their own meditative stride, a Zen-like nirvana which can only be reached by hikers traversing a glorious mountain trail.

They continued quietly along the trail for about a half-mile until they reached their first stream crossing. It was an easy spot to cross, with conveniently placed flat-topped rocks for stepping stones. At the other side of the stream, Tom checked his GPSr, comparing their current location with a list of waypoints he loaded in before they began the hike. They had been gently descending into the gorge as they walked, gradually curving around the higher mountain to their right.

“We are now at the first waypoint that I marked on the trail map,” said Tom, “where the stream crosses the trail for the first time. The mountain on our right is Rich Knob, which according to the topographical map is close to 3400 feet high. My GPS receiver indicates we are down to about 2700 feet now. We can begin our tests here, and bushwhack our way up the southern end of Rich Knob to the waypoints I set up in my receiver. As we continue south, we will descend back to the creek and pick up the trail again in about a half-mile.”

“Let’s get to it then,” said Adam. “If we complete this first series of testing on schedule, we will be at the end of the trail by early afternoon and can setup a camping spot for the evening. This stream feeds a pond further south, and our outfitter friend James said the creek has plenty of native trout. I packed a fold-up fishing rod. With a little luck we can dine on trout tonight instead of freeze-dried backpacking food.

“We all know the scenarios, but just to refresh—this first set of tests will confirm basic usability and the accuracy of the LANav by comparing it to the GPS receivers. The LANav has all the features of a standard GPSr, so we will begin with some simple exercises. Usability is one of the major concerns to TSO, and the scenarios today will put the unit through its paces as if it were a regular GPS receiver. Geocaching makes use of a few basic GPS functions, so we’ll make today’s testing interesting by playing a sort of makeshift geocaching game, only we’re going to use flags instead of ammo cans.”

“Dang, dude! No searching for swag to trade?” Sal joked. “You mean I carried all these Happy Meal toys Nutso gave me for nothing?” Swag was a term geocachers used to refer to the trade items they placed in ammo cans, which in urban caches was mostly junk, such as small toys and other useless baubles.

Adam ignored him and continued. “Tom, you have the Trimble® reference series GPS receiver and Sal is probably the fastest walker, so you two go ahead and mark out a few waypoints and place the flags. Radio me the coordinates as you place the flags, and Alice and I will follow from a different direction and check accuracy. Pick some spots that have a weak satellite signal so we can see if the TSO LANav has any difficulty at those places.”

After a quick radio check, Tom and Sal left the trail and climbed up the slope of the mountain, while Alice and Adam headed a little further down the trail to begin bushwhacking up to the peak. It was still early spring and the foliage had not yet become overgrown enough to make off-trail hiking difficult. They picked a spot to ascend about an eighth of a mile south of where they left Tom and Sal. Within a few minutes Tom radioed the coordinates of the first flag, and Adam entered them into the LANav using the touch screen and activated the GOTO function. The device immediately displayed a topographic map indicating the area where he had set waypoints, their present position, and a dotted line indicating the path they had taken. Alongside the map, there were several soft keys for zooming and repositioning the map’s viewpoint. One key was labeled SAT-MAP. When Adam pressed it, the view changed from a topographical map to a satellite image of the area.

“It has unbelievable resolution on these satellite maps,” Adam said, showing the screen to Alice. “I can zoom in close enough that I can almost see individual trees. Wow! I can see our SUV! I thought real-time imaging was restricted to military use only.”

“Cool!” said Alice, “can you zoom in to my house and make sure I remembered to close all the windows?”

“You can check that out later,” he replied. “Just don’t let Sal see you or he’ll be trying to zoom in on all kinds of things he shouldn’t.”

They followed the LANav to each point that Tom and Sal set, which guided them to within a foot of every flag. A few of the flags were placed in positions that would not allow them to take a direct path, requiring them to navigate around impassable areas of brush or boulders. By switching back and forth between the topo and satellite map views Adam was able to determine the most obstruction-free way to reach each flag. As they continued up the mountain, Alice took meticulous notes on the testing results, but for the most part the LANav functioned flawlessly, never seeming to lose a signal even though their GPS receivers had done so several times. After the first three flags, Alice took over the testing to contribute her feedback on usability. She found that the device was capable of displaying a hybrid map that combined the satellite view with the topographic map, so they no longer had to switch back and forth between display modes. Alice also discovered a PLOT BEST ROUTE function, which automatically calculated an optimum route for them to take to reach a waypoint, avoiding obstacles in their path without taking detours or backtracking. She found that when this function was enabled, a blinking arrow appeared on the LCD map guiding her along the calculated route. If she deviated from the suggested path, the unit would beep, letting her know she was off course, and offer to recalculate her route.

“I don’t know yet how well the LANav will perform in space, but it’s a hiker’s dream come true, and geocachers would love it—no thinking required, just follow the arrow!” said Alice.

“I never asked Dr. Odan what the retail price on the unit was going to be, but I’d guess it to be beyond the pocketbook of the average geocacher,” said Adam. “They might have to wait a while for a consumer version. Maybe they’ll just license out the technology to other manufacturers.”