I am using Red Pine Mapping's PaddleNav with a Garmin Montana. I added an overlay with the portage and campsite info from the Arch Harris website. Some of the portage tracks are not accurate and the tracks that are in the correct location are kind of sloppy and crude.

I am interested in getting tracks from anyone paddling in the Q and adding the portage tracks to a general portage track file that would be available to anyone who is interested. The portage tracks obtained from the GPS will trace an accurate path from lake to lake and have accurate elevation and length info.

I don't know much about GPS and I don't know if tracks from one type of GPS are similar to other types of GPS units. Is this possible? Can the portage tracks be uploaded/downloaded as a .gpx file? Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.

I've shared .gpx files from Garmin and Delorme, and their computer mapping programs including Google Earth, and MN Canoeing.com.
Lots of thing can be done with .gpx .loc .kml .kmz .gdb .tcx .jpg .jpeg files across platforms.

butthead

If there is any interest, I'll make a website where people can upload their .gpx track files and download an updated .gpx track file covering all Quetico portages.

I have tracks from several trips. They are of the whole trip rout paddled as well as portages. I would be willing to share them.

quote MagicPaddler: "I have tracks from several trips. They are of the whole trip rout paddled as well as portages. I would be willing to share them. "

Let's try it with your tracks as a first test. I don't know much about GPS but if you can save the track as a .gpx (or whatever) type of file and email it to me, I'll try pulling it into Garmin BaseCamp. When I used the portage file from Arch Harris, I loaded it into BaseCamp and then used the mouse to drag over and select all the waypoint/tracks that were not on my route and then deleted them. I hope it will be similar with your tracks, I should be able to delete everything except the portages. Then I can do the same thing with my tracks and see if I can combine the two sets of tracks.

I will need to convert the track files to .gpx but you can have the few I took PP, Kashipiwi, Kawnipi, Agnes,PP.

Remember each GPS/user will generate track differences, and seasonal/yearly portage changes occur regularly.

Red Pine Map with PCD portages overlaid.
Delorme Canadian 50k (portages marked black dashed line)
PCD portages (red dotted line), my PN40se track 2012 (yellow dot trail)


butthead

quote butthead: "I will need to convert the track files"

Do you need to convert the track files to .gpx or can I upload the file type that you have to BaseCamp?

Sent em to e-mail in profile.

butthead

Thanks butthead and MagicPaddler for sending in your GPS tracks. I added your portage tracks to mine and made a .gpx file with the combined portage tracks.

I created a website for Quetico paddlers to upload their GPS portage track files and download the latest .gpx file with the combined, verified, accurate portage tracks. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the website.
http://www.quetico.info/

I cant open (http://www.quetico.info/)

quote MagicPaddler: "I cant open (http://www.quetico.info/)"

What web browser are you using? I just realized that the site is not working in Internet Explorer, I had only checked it in Google Chrome browser. I'll make some fixes so that it works in IE and then hopefully it will work for you. Until then, try it without the www and see if that works.
http://quetico.info

Works on my desktop with Chrome, Firefox, and IE 11.

butthead

I have tried with and with out the WWW on google chrome and IE on my home computer and IE with WWW on my work computer.

I completely re-wrote the html code to make the website compatible with current and earlier browser versions.
MagicPaddler, thanks for your feedback. Please check the website when you have time and let me know if you can view it now.

I tried with and without the WWW on Chrome and IE. No luck. Any one get on RC”s sight?

quote MagicPaddler: "I tried with and without the WWW on Chrome and IE. No luck. Any one get on RC”s sight?"

MP -

I'll e-mail it to you.

dd

BUMP. Just discovered the quetico.info site. Works great using Firefox and Win 7. Too bad there are so few portages in it. Has info on this been fully distributed to the "general user public?" (I think not.) I was able to get some info on the eastern portage out of McAlpine that is available nowhere else as far as I know. --Goose

It's been around for awhile, and can be found on Red Pine PaddleNav and free GPS topo maps like Ibycus Topo 3.2.
I have info for Delorme Topo also,


butthead

What I meant to ask is if there has been an effort to "spread the word" and get MORE IMPUT -- more portages -- in the database. --Goose

Most of the portages are mapped. RC wanted to compare and display GPS tracked routes, something not many folks do. Also the differences between mapped and actual tracks will vary with seasonal changes, and park maintenance. So the tracks that I supplied will not be the same as someone else's, and likely changed from May to the same basic portage tracked in Oct.

Are you looking for any specific portages, or new as in bushwhacking or undocumented portages?

butthead

Mapped yes. GPSed, only a small portion. Would like to see ALL Quetico portgages GPSed with comments. This can be done by anyone using GPS and submitting the tracks to the "quetico.info" page. Maybe we're talking about two different things and not on the same page? --Goose

http://quetico.info/

Or maybe quetico.info's just for a small clique of GPSers and not the general public?

I just downloaded the latest database (7-19-2014) from that site and it only had 120 portages. I recall another site with over 550 Q portages in its database. But I don't think they were ones walked and submitted by individuals, rather plucked from previous lists or maps.

Thanks for the interest in the website. It's open to anyone. You don't need to upload portage tracks, you can also email them. I haven't promoted the site much lately because I've been trying to learn more about GPS maps, etc. I do have some portage tracks that were sent which I haven't added to the website yet. I plan to get whatever tracks I can on the website by early spring.

If anybody has any suggestions regarding portage tracks, whether it's with quetico.info or not, we can all learn from our shared experiences and data.

It's interesting what butthead mentioned, "the tracks that I supplied will not be the same as someone else's, and likely changed from May to the same basic portage tracked in Oct." I noticed that the more frequently a GPS pings the satellite, the more accurate the portage track will be, however, things like heavy tree cover will distort the satellite signal and affect how the track is recorded by the GPS. I noticed this when I walked a portage with heavy tree cover, it was in a narrow valley. I walked across the portage and then returned and the GPS recorded two distinct separate tracks for the exact same narrow trail.

RC, I take it that you have at least the 660+ portage tracks from the old Quetico portage database. If you do not I can email them to ya, it's a 734 KB .gpx file. Anyone else?

butthead

Thanks butthead, if you could email me that file, I will add all those portages to the website map.

quote butthead: "RC, I take it that you have at least the 660+ portage tracks from the old Quetico portage database. If you do not I can email them to ya, it's a 734 KB .gpx file. Anyone else?

butthead"

quote OldGreyGoose: "Mapped yes. GPSed, only a small portion. Would like to see ALL Quetico portgages GPSed with comments. This can be done by anyone using GPS and submitting the tracks to the "quetico.info"

I want to thank everybody who has contributed GPS portage tracks to the site. Some folks send their tracks after every trip.
I have received some portage tracks that I haven't added to the site yet because I'm holding off on the next update because I think I might get some new GPS tracks soon and I plan update them all at the same time.
I looked at other portage data available and even though adding those portage tracks to the site would increase the total number of portage tracks available, I decided to stick with only portages that someone has walked recently (verified and accurate).