Garmin Adventures

BaseCamp allows the creation of 'Adventures' based on tracks. Given that it's easy enough to convert a route to a track and / or import a track from a device, I wonder if anyone has played around in it yet?

Several people write good trip reports and use a Garmin device. Loads of people now have cameras that record the geographical location where the picture or film was taken. Lots of others ask for routes to get them from A to E (via B, C and D) along with things to see and do on the way. Having the reports and suggestions available in 'Adventures' would, I guess, bring the whole lot to life even more.

I'll accept that it would take time the first time around to create a big 'Adventure' but with just a little practice that should fall. My first proper route in BaseCamp took me a morning, made much harder as I had never used a Mac before; now I have it down to just a couple of minutes.

The real bonus would be that bods could actually use the miles of pictures and video footage they'd shot, rather than just leaving them to gather the digital version of dust inside their computers.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZoBVnhiJxhA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q63tB6nBU2w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Not having ever used this function of base camp i thought i would give it a try, its nice and easy to use (follow the instructions) and a good way of sharing information on routes and what there is to be seen on said route, providing the person who uploads the route has put a little work into it, like adding pictures or video or notes on POI's along the route. This of course will be the deciding factor of how interesting/usefull it (could or will be) the other thing is if you have basecamp already you can download these adventures and get a closer look at them to see if they take your fancy.

I still don't get it. I mean, what is the actual POINT of it? What is the "adventure" supposed to achieve? What functionality does it offer that imparts any additional material benefit to the user?

Simon, it's actually quite good when you see one that's been created and / or with a bit of imagination what might be possible, I guess.

Here's one just roughed out by way of an experiment by a subscriber to UKGSer:

http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/leedude03/a-run-up-the-port-de-la-bonaigua/#pois/img-9512

I am looking at it on an iPhone so cannot check that it's loaded correctly but it should have pictures and a video clip built into it. I stress that it was just created by Leedude03 as an experiment. It could be brushed up quite nicely and / or expanded on, I'm sure.

If you think of the number of appeals there are for routes, pictures, films, intimate details of seemingly every inch of a journey up to an including Google views, then Garmin Adventure may well be a way start to addressing some of bods' needs.

Cheers,

Richard

Simon W said:

I still don't get it. I mean, what is the actual POINT of it? What is the "adventure" supposed to achieve? What functionality does it offer that imparts any additional material benefit to the user?

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Simon i would think that the major plus of it was, its ability to share a route with included highlights (pictures, video, comments and the like) this way people would get an idea of what is along the route and also what the route is like.
I would stress that this would only be as good as the effort that was put into creating the adventure, the amount of info and pictures along the route and or video of sections of the route, this all takes time and effort and if this effort is not put into it, well you may as well leave it alone. the one wapping has linked to was as he has said just a quick play to see how easy it was to use and what the result would look like, it took me all of 10 mins, and if i was to do one that i would be pleased with, it would not take much longer. i would also say that to get the best out of it basecamp is needed.

this is the first effort with just pictures, download link for use in bascamp is at the bottom right of the window.

http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/leedude03/covadonga/#.WDQ2jn3QvDM

Ah. I see. Thank you chaps - you've cleared it up nicely for me! There is no benefit for the person creating it, past the satisfaction of creating it and the warm glow of helping others. As an alternative to just saying "here's the GPX" when someone asks for help, it may let you add deeper context. But it doesn't improve route sharing in anyway: just giving someone a GPX file is faster and easier. I suppose you could argue that creating adventures after each trip would perhaps help pin things down for people who struggle to remember where pics were taken when they come to review old trips after a passage of time. But it doesn't actually add any functionality to the planning process.

Indeed, it adds nothing to the planning of a bod's trip, that's something they'll have to work out for themselves or have someone else do it. The latter, RiDE's guides (amongst others) do a pretty good job of, of course.

What, if used fully, it would do is:

(a) Act as a nice memory bank of the bod's tour.

(b) Add some additional gloss (pictures, video clip, topographical map etc) for anyone the bod wanted to share the jaunt with, so that they could plan their own trip.

If you look at RiDE's own routes in the magazine and in the specials, they are full of near enough the same stuff - pictures and routes but minus the videos - but in a form that is limited, due to it being printed media or (in the case of the website where the gpx files are held) maybe time to do anything else. You can see on some of the tourist office websites where they try to include video clips and other graphics or details, sometimes quite successfully. All that 'Adventure' does is to try to do something similar but from within BaseCamp. I guess it's maybe also linked to Garmin's development of their VIRB camera and its ability to record GPS positions, film and data from which might build in quite nicely?

Anyway, it's there for anybody to use, abuse or ignore as they like. It's free and they can't touch you for it.