documenting directions with google pedometer?

[morewind]

Does anyone see value in documenting directions to sailing sites using Google Pedometer?

Here's directions from Victoria to Gordons. Zoom in to see more road detail.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=735480

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com

thoughts?

[WindePendanT]

I think it's cool.
Definatly good for new ppl, or visitors.
Good idea Morewind.

[downwind dave]

so, if i understand this correctly i walk the 43.6001km to gordos i will burn 3387.73 calories..what about if i carry all my gear? with 40lbs of misc. stuff added i will burn 4516 calories. now say theres a westerly headwind the whole way and i want to sail 4.2 for 3 hrs .. how many big macs and slurpees is that?

[KUS]

hmmm, Mike I couldn't get it to plot a route on record...why's yours go back and then into the ocean by 4 k, due to rough plotting or?
Isn't there a way to pick your starting point, then your destination, then request directions and also get the total Km on this program? Why plot it in 1 km increments? I'm obviously missing something. Guess I'm not Google-inclined

[morewind]

Kus: yeah, the documentation sort of sucks. someone at work showed me how to use it.

for making a new route, you'll need to press "start recording" then double-click to mark the starting point, then keeping double clicking to add each additional point. finally, press save, then you'll see a URL for your route. the route is saved somewhere in the Google mothership.

I'm not sure why you ended up 40km into the offshore for the gordos route - perhaps you double-clicked and added a new point?

[more force 4]

I think the Google Earth and Google Maps directions work just as well (actually, better) by themselves; just create a placemark at your start, right click and select "directions from here" and the same at the end "directions to here", Enter, and all the turns and road names and distances, estimated driving times are given. And Google Earth does a nice 3-D fly along your route so you can recognise landmarks when your actually on the ground (at least for high res areas). You don't get the calories burned if you walked it, though.

What would be good is to create placemarks for all the island sailing spots and bundle them in a 'google community' downloadable set. Once someone has found one, they'd get them all, and be able to do their own routing from their own start using the directions tool. We could probably post the kmz file here on this site for downloading too so you wouldn't have to search Google Earth for them. I can have a crack at this after March Madness is over.

[morewind]

some good ideas to try out mf4. if you can beat down the march madness try to post a couple of examples.

Do you think the Google maps oracle gives good directions? For fun I just tried Google maps for some directions from Victoria to JR. The google maps directions get you to Sooke Ok (sort of - they take you down Veterans pkwy which seems slow), but then take you on a scenic drive along Otter point road. I've never gone that way, but I think it would take a lot longer. Could be a surfer dood plot to slow down the windsurfers

I just tried another direction and it took me down Pandora the wrong way. Hmm...

[more force 4]

I haven't used it a great deal but its worked well when I have - it was flawless getting my wife to a few spots in rural Olympia last year, she was driving by herself and was anticipating having trouble even getting off I5 at the right spot, but she 'rehersed' it here first, and it was then easy. I would bet the US road system is better than the Canadian one. I've got to the right spot in Burnaby once with it too, it knew about some weird turns and underpasses to cross HWY 1. You'd think they'd know about Victoria one-way roads that have been that way for decades though!