Having floated still further down the Yampa River in beautiful Dinosaur National Monument, Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek spent Monday night ensconced at yet another site on the north side of the river. You and I can vicariously visit the place in map or satellite mode at this site, thanks to the SPOT GPS gizmo Kurt’s toting along with him.
The brief e-mail message that went along with the SPOT data said that Kurt was OK. (Actually, what he said was “Another fine day on the Yampa, wish you were here.”) Had he needed assistance, the SPOT signal he sent would have provided the SAR folks with vital information, including the unique ESN (Electronic Serial Number) of his mobile device and the geographic coordinates of his location.
If you are interested in the situational aspects of this trip (a “relative location” consideration) as well as the site aspects (absolute locations of various overnight stops along the way), you should consult the excellent large scale map of Dinosaur National monument map that’s posted at this site. As you can see from this map, the Colorado portion of the park is elongated in the east-west direction to include the Yampa and a big swath of land on either side of the river corridor. The Yampa flows from east to west, joining the Green River (a tributary of the Colorado) at Echo Park.
Aside to Kurt: Old buddy, your "wish you were here" message started out lame and gets less interesting by the minute. Traveler readers want to hear something more gripping -- something on the order of "Sunburned, ankle-sprained, snakebit, vultures circling, but it's great to be outdoors on a day like this." Just a suggestion.
Comments
Looks like you camped about 3 times further inland than you did last night.
Maybe you could send a note when you are actually on the river.
Semper Fi
Omar
Omar -
Thanks for your comment.
Just wanted to clarify that except for his ability to send some brief, outgoing messages via his SPOT, Kurt is otherwise "unplugged" for the duration of his trip on the Yampa. He can't receive any of our communications via the Traveler until his return at the end of this week. We'll look forward to more details about his jaunt when he's back "on the job."
Omar: If you zoom in on the Google map site and switch to the terrain display, you will see, that the message was sent from a spot high in the mountains over the river. So Kurt did not send it from camp but from a hike.
great!it's wonderful to experience to see.
MRC.... I have known kurt for over 50 years. when he tells me "Anyway, my plan is to each evening once camp has been set up send out an "Ok" message." I beleive thats where his message was sent from. Now last nights message apears to be very close to the River. I realize that he is not able to receive any correspondence through "SPOT", but he obviously heard me.
Semper Fi
Omar