Cape Lookout Hike

This hike was in my to-do-list for a long while, but I was not able to find the time to go and get it done. Finally, today I was able to see it. The best part was that my 1-year old Meryem and 4.5 half year old Omer were with us as well. This was Omer's second and Meryem's first hike. Omer walked all the way by himself and Meryem enjoyed being carried by her mom and dad. As for the trail status, occasionally it was muddy. Except for the very steep cliff on the end of the trail, it is very family friendly and easy paced.

I did geotagging using the Sony GPS-CV3KA and the accuracy was overall satisfactory. I also had my Samsung Google Nexus S geotag using the Google "My Tracks" app. But it was having trouble in getting the GPS satellite connection. So, dedicated GPS machines still seem to perform more accurately than the smartphones (at least from my experience). Below are snapshots of our track overlayed onto Google Earth and maps.

 

Mount St. Helens Trip, Oregon

Mount St. Helens

The famous (or notorious) volcanic eruption of the Mt. St. Helens in 1980 had been on the headlines for a long time. After 31 years, we did a trip to see the landscape ourselves.

Rome-Milan-Zurich with Eurorail

Rome-Milan-Zurich with Eurorail

	On the way to Milan (outbound from Rome) the Eurorail has reached 272 km/h which is the record speed on the ground for myself. The coaches are comfortable enough that it is easy to forget that you are speeding that much.

Sony GPS-CS3 Geo-tagging Performance in Wilson River Trail, Oregon

Last week, I had the chance to go for a short hiking trip on the Tillamook region of Oregon. Specifically, we aimed for the Wilson River Trail. The track was rather narrow so while going back and forth we passed from the same route with a great probability. However, as can be seen in the above snapshots, the geotags for the round trip do not overlap to each other. We can easily see two distinct routes for forward and backward directions. This is kind of disappointing for the performance of the GPS as at some points 5 meters of deviations exist.

Geo-tagging two International Flights on April 24, 2010

Istanbul - Amsterdam flight

Amsterdam - Portland, Oregon flight

GPS Tracking of two consecutive international flights by Sony GPS-CS3. The first flight is from Istanbul to Amsterdam via KLM on April 24, 2010 and the second one is from Amsterdam to Portland, Oregon on the same day via Delta Airlines. As long as the GPS unit is close to the window, it is possible to receive sufficient GPS signals (mostly two bars). However, there are intermittent loss of GPS tracking without any apparent reasons. Also, battery life is a concern for long flights as changing batteries dramatically affects the re-connection to the GPS signals while on the move. I recommend to get connected to the GPS satellites before or during taxiing as well as utilizing a long-life battery.

For another posting on geo-logging, please check the following link:
Sony GPS-CS3KA Review (Geo-tagging) and Performance in the Airplane

Portland-Cannon Beach-Astoria-Columbia River Loop

Portland-Cannon Beach-Astoria Loop

A Day trip to Mount Hood and Columbia Gorge

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