Digital mapping — after your walk
If you, like me, relish the planning stage of a day out in the hills, then you will certainly enjoy the after-trip
experience with Anquet. In fact, I find reviewing my walk makes me eager to embark on the next one!
An electronic Hansel & Gretel trail
If you have taken a GPS unit or Pocket Anquet out with you, your first step is to load your tracklog into the Anquet software on your PC. A tracklog
is like Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumb trail — an electronic record of exactly where you have been.
Examining a tracklog is fascinating. You can display it at the same time as the route you originally planned and compare them to see where the two
difer. Using Anquet’s Sync Screens, you can view them on both an Ordnance Survey map and on aerial photography at the same time. Using this
technique, you will often find that, where your tracklog differed from the planned route, the path on the ground as viewed on the aerial photography
differs from that of the OS map, meaning there was a very good reason for your deviation! The tracklog will tell you the time you started and ended your
walk and even at which points on the route you were moving quickly or slowly, or had stopped altogether for a well-deserved lunch.
Ready? Set? Go!
When you return from a walk, it’s a great opportunity to fine-tune the Anquet software to better help you in the future. To estimate your trip time, Anquet
uses Naismith’s Formula, which takes into account ascent, descent and distance. If the estimate is not very accurate for you, you can alter the settings
to achieve better estimates for future trips. You can also name and save profiles for the different activities you undertake, such as ‘Walking’, ‘Cycling’
and ‘Walking with grandchildren’.
Joined-up thinking
You can link any file or folder on your PC to a waypoint within Anquet, allowing you to cross-refer photos with points of interest to maintain a detailed
record of your days out. Some walkers with special interests find Anquet’s facility to link multiple files particularly useful — ornithologists, for example,
link viewing notes, fishermen their catch logs and geography departments all sorts of data capture, from water-flow rates to angles of scree slopes.
Note to self
Within Anquet, it is possible to add text to any waypoint along your route. You can use this facility to record notes you may later find useful, such as
navigational tips, or comments about the scenery. This information is really helpful to other Anquet users if you are intending to share your route.
Share and share alike
Anquet’s new route-sharing system is proving invaluable. The database is generated by other users and searching is easy — just enter a place
name. You can also filter results by distance and ascent to help you adapt the search to your needs. Once you have selected a route, simply download
it to your Anquet software and use it just as if you had plotted it yourself.
You can also upload your own routes for the
benefit of other walkers, and we really encourage you to do so. It is through this method that Anquet’s route-sharing system is gaining popular,
quality walks every day — at the time of writing, it contains more than 1,200 to choose from! Take a look at www.anquet.co.uk — best of all,
they are completely free!
Graham Hughes, Managing Director,
Anquet Technology