The appliance of science

A few months back, I decided to purchase a Garmin Instinct 2 sports watch, in order to track rides. This I flung myself into with great abandon, setting up the ‘dreaded’ Strava account along the way. I know, AI has hit me, but I promise not to buy an Apple Watch just to read emails in the go! The Garmin suits me just fine, and navigation into the mountains is after all, a way to avoid emails, isn’t it!

After a couple of months of just tracking my rides, I finally worked out how to upload a GPX file and use said sports watch to NAVIGATE! (Yes, I know, I’m so behind the times!) This is where the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ reference in the title rears its head. If I do find a gingerbread cottage and I’m not seen again, then just read the book for clues.

Living where I do in the Czech Republic, 95% of the time I ride ‘from the door’. It’s always the best way to ride, and gives you a reason to live in beautiful places. On this particular occasion, the plan was to ride across into Slovakia and back round into Czech, stopping for the night at a friends house. A gravel ride that, according to my GPX file, was roughly 75 km and 1500m of vertical. The first 20km of the ride was of course local stomping ground, and thereafter it was all new territory where I was forced to start taking notice of the beeps coming from my navigation. Apart from the audible signals, other data I’m given is a countdown to upcoming changes in direction, a direction arrow and a rather vague ‘breadcrumb’ trail. On one hand, I was glad to have a rough idea of where to go, keeping the flow during rides is a really important factor to one’s overall enjoyment. On the other hand, grinding to a halt at junctions to check your position on your offline maps really does become tiresome.